From analogue to digital: some interesting designers and how to apply them in education
“Here will grow up, and we will be with it Arduino and Mindstorms to collect”, - probably, many dream. The problem is that the conditional iPad child will master faster.
We collected a few recipes, how at an early age to divert a child from the screen (and then return to the monitor, but consciously) and instill an interest in design in order to develop the right skills . For convenience, we tried to highlight age categories. And where they could, they found analogues: after all, all designers are different in taste and color.
The basis of the post formed the experience of the team and users of our designer.
Prehistory It all started with an unsuccessful attempt to assemble a motorcycle from the designer “ala Soviet metal” - now there are many of them with different names:
It should have turned out somehow, but the little one got distracted and ran off riding a bike on the street. Not bad either, but then we thought - is it possible to somehow “catch up” with its designer in outdoor games?
Experience. If you search, and whether there is something street and full-sized on the subject of design and transport, there is a solution - the Moov kit from Berg Toys.
Such a constructor is made by the Dutch
. We only look closely at him. First, we decide which one to take from the sets: maybe we’ll confine ourselves to where there are three basic models for $ 200 (there is also a large set with 10 models for $ 500) excluding delivery.
In the main, we are afraid how such a thing is adapted to our off-road. In the video, everything bends easily:
What to replace. Surely, many in their childhood they tried to assemble “their own car” from scrap materials and wheels that had fallen off large ones.
So you can always try to cut out your version of the full-size transport constructor from any suitable material yourself.
Prehistory We wondered how to instill in the child an interest in working with different materials, fixing something and helping dad. I wanted "to be at home, without dirt and danger of injury." So in the family appeared pseudo-wooden designer.
Experience. In this constructor, the wood is replaced with a non-sawdust and splinter EVA polymer. And there are safe plastic tools: saws, a hammer with nails, screwdrivers with screws and even a hand mill. That is, the child can be given without fear.
Part of the models can be assembled according to the instructions enclosed in the box, but usually the child is interested in - and saws something of his own. Either he chooses beautiful models from the package, for which there is no instruction for him, and as a result he also collects the models to his own taste. With such a thing, a child can easily “stick” for two hours, and then he will still teach you to screw in screws and hammer in nails.
Self assembly "robot".
Plus the fact that the details can be given any length, which is not achieved in the "plastic constructors with a screwdriver." The downside is that the pieces spent on one model are more difficult to reuse - they are easily detached, but you cannot get away from plastic nails and screws. They produce such sets “Junior Master” under the control of our compatriots (S + S Toys) in China.
What to replace.There are a lot of wooden constructors with similar parts - plates, bars and rounds. It is inconvenient that some interesting sets go without connections.
As an example, the big designer of the Novosibirsk production “Pelsi”: birch, without connections. True, in smaller sets you can find pins.
Here either reconcile, or as the Austrian inventor Johan Corbuly - take a drill and invent your mount. According to the legend, his constructor Matador was born - he reamed the cubes and put them on pins so that the younger son did not scatter the buildings of the older ones. Here is his method:
And this is what comes out of such sets:
Prehistory By the age of one and a half, the son was already with the tablet “on you” and sat down on the toy, where the boy runs from the train on the tracks. At the same time, he showed us how the fremium model works in applications. To divert, they decided to buy him a “real” railway: for a start, wooden, with minimal detail.
Experience. Besides the fact that it was not so painful to step on a wooden road as on a metal road, the purchase turned out to be a real creative designer. Because parts can be put together “wrong”. Here is the simplest example:
From such “wrong” connections we get: a space rocket (entering the bridge + straight track, repeat twice), fortifications, houses, and so on. However, sometimes for better compatibility, linear fixings have to be rounded off with sandpaper. The original road was taken at Ikea (20 items cost only six hundred rubles), then the elements for it were purchased at various online stores.
The only negative is that the set of basic elements is limited. But they can be supplemented, for example, with details from the game "Genga".
Prehistory Sometimes it happens that you are visiting your grandmother, and your favorite details are not at hand. What to replace?
Experience: 1) Domino knuckles. To build a house on a carpet from dominoesk is a non-trivial task. In addition to spatial thinking, it develops patience on a reasonable scale.
What to replace. If you get carried away with the concept of flattened blocks, like in dominoes, there are more sustainable solutions. For example, Magna Tiles (left) and Magformers (right).
The details in them are connected by magnets. In such sets more colors, plus the child studies physics a little.
2) “Hereditary constructors”. For example, the parents of our support manager dug out such a copy for their grandson:
This is the designer Mottik, which in the 1990s was sold almost by weight.
His son really likes it, including because “daddy was playing”. So it develops family traditions. Surely many, if you dig, there are remnants of the old children's designers. Feel free to let them in the case.
Prehistory Selling it came up with a man with an inverted consciousness - Australian. We stumbled upon a project on “Kickstarter”, where a man collected pre-orders (from $ 200 to 700, depending on the complexity of the set). Judging by the updates, with the production of Squishy Forts and so far went wrong.
Experience. Of course, we did not even think about leaving a pre-order. A designer of furniture and interior items is a great thing that a priori is in any home. Firstly, there are no problems with the compatibility of parts - everything can be used: pillows, blankets, chairs, a sofa. Secondly, the rebuild speed is off scale.
Third, you can conduct electricity:
Finally, it works great to distract the child if you have restricted his access to the digital world. And it helps to teach to clean up after themselves. Which is also important.
What to replace: it is priceless.
But if you ruin the sofas is still not an option, on the Internet, TikeStix comes across - “a large-size designer for the construction of houses, shelters and other handicrafts in the kid’s height”.
Prehistory “Gears, Gears, Gears” is a bunch of separate worlds, as in “Lego”, only the idea is not built on cubes, but on gears and platforms for them. We saw it on Amazon, we decided that we would show our son how simple mechanisms work. And at the same time let's introduce the first interest in assembling moving platforms - we hope that after some time we will move on to programmable ones.
Experience. Such a thing as in the picture is going to us now. The manufacturer has a set with a motor, from which the machine, a helicopter and a bike are obtained. All wealth is worth 35 bucks.
The most important thing is that the gears are not only for beauty here:
And after the assembly, we will begin to return the child to the digital world - now there are just a lot of logic games about gears.
Prehistory The current generation of children has gone even deeper into the virtual worlds, and we need to compensate for this by applying games with benefits.
Experience. It is in our childhood minecraft sessions started on the May holidays with the landing of potatoes. Today in the world of minecraft you can come straight from “Lego” - they release themed sets. Why, Minecraft even has an origami version:
Well, the original game itself is a wonderful digital designer, capable of giving birth to the very interest with which many began in the profession: “Make your own game.”
It’s not in vain that Minecraft is used in children's programming courses. The phrase “programming fighting robots-turtles” sounds great, even if you are not 6-8 years old.
Prehistory “Make your site” is probably the equally popular answer to the question “how did your interest in technology start,” as the idea to make your game. We did not think that someone would use our designer to create personal websites or child samples of the pen: yes, there are templates with cars and for starting it is enough to move blocks, ... but officially we are talking about a small business.
Experience. Nevertheless, during the next monitoring of new sites created on the platform, Finn looked at us from one of the pages:
At first we thought someone was kidding. But the fact is that for English-speaking users there is only a paid version - and the money for the site was written off monthly from someone's card. We became interested and contacted. It turned out that the parents decided to keep their son's school assignment to mind: “Make a web page”.
The task itself was in another section of the site. It was a page about Tim Berners-Lee:
Everything is easier in Russian localization - there is a free version. There, too, quickly found examples. Here is the site of nine-year-old Gregory, a young Lego fan who shoots his cartoons with the characters of the designer:
He was addicted to designers since childhood (which was not over yet), in the digital world Minecraft is most respected. The teenage Internet vogue mod (video blogging) touched him too, but Grisha decided not to show any shit, but pulled out his “Lego”, began to master photo and video editors - and now he has cool video notes on how to make the lego-figure move and jump in the frame.
The site started, because the whole project proudly calls a “studio”. And the studio should have a website. And for some reason we think that the guy is going well.
PS How do you maintain a balance between digital and offline activities in your family? What designers use "for education"?
We collected a few recipes, how at an early age to divert a child from the screen (and then return to the monitor, but consciously) and instill an interest in design in order to develop the right skills . For convenience, we tried to highlight age categories. And where they could, they found analogues: after all, all designers are different in taste and color.
The basis of the post formed the experience of the team and users of our designer.
(6+) Transport Constructor
Prehistory It all started with an unsuccessful attempt to assemble a motorcycle from the designer “ala Soviet metal” - now there are many of them with different names:
It should have turned out somehow, but the little one got distracted and ran off riding a bike on the street. Not bad either, but then we thought - is it possible to somehow “catch up” with its designer in outdoor games?
Experience. If you search, and whether there is something street and full-sized on the subject of design and transport, there is a solution - the Moov kit from Berg Toys.
Such a constructor is made by the Dutch
. We only look closely at him. First, we decide which one to take from the sets: maybe we’ll confine ourselves to where there are three basic models for $ 200 (there is also a large set with 10 models for $ 500) excluding delivery.
In the main, we are afraid how such a thing is adapted to our off-road. In the video, everything bends easily:
In general, the Dutch have a lot of funny and rather expensive ideas:
На картинке Ratata — псевдоконструктор оружия за 185 евро.
На картинке Ratata — псевдоконструктор оружия за 185 евро.
What to replace. Surely, many in their childhood they tried to assemble “their own car” from scrap materials and wheels that had fallen off large ones.
So you can always try to cut out your version of the full-size transport constructor from any suitable material yourself.
(4+) Pseudo-Wooden Designer
Prehistory We wondered how to instill in the child an interest in working with different materials, fixing something and helping dad. I wanted "to be at home, without dirt and danger of injury." So in the family appeared pseudo-wooden designer.
Experience. In this constructor, the wood is replaced with a non-sawdust and splinter EVA polymer. And there are safe plastic tools: saws, a hammer with nails, screwdrivers with screws and even a hand mill. That is, the child can be given without fear.
Part of the models can be assembled according to the instructions enclosed in the box, but usually the child is interested in - and saws something of his own. Either he chooses beautiful models from the package, for which there is no instruction for him, and as a result he also collects the models to his own taste. With such a thing, a child can easily “stick” for two hours, and then he will still teach you to screw in screws and hammer in nails.
Self assembly "robot".
Plus the fact that the details can be given any length, which is not achieved in the "plastic constructors with a screwdriver." The downside is that the pieces spent on one model are more difficult to reuse - they are easily detached, but you cannot get away from plastic nails and screws. They produce such sets “Junior Master” under the control of our compatriots (S + S Toys) in China.
What to replace.There are a lot of wooden constructors with similar parts - plates, bars and rounds. It is inconvenient that some interesting sets go without connections.
As an example, the big designer of the Novosibirsk production “Pelsi”: birch, without connections. True, in smaller sets you can find pins.
Here either reconcile, or as the Austrian inventor Johan Corbuly - take a drill and invent your mount. According to the legend, his constructor Matador was born - he reamed the cubes and put them on pins so that the younger son did not scatter the buildings of the older ones. Here is his method:
And this is what comes out of such sets:
(2+) Railway
Prehistory By the age of one and a half, the son was already with the tablet “on you” and sat down on the toy, where the boy runs from the train on the tracks. At the same time, he showed us how the fremium model works in applications. To divert, they decided to buy him a “real” railway: for a start, wooden, with minimal detail.
Experience. Besides the fact that it was not so painful to step on a wooden road as on a metal road, the purchase turned out to be a real creative designer. Because parts can be put together “wrong”. Here is the simplest example:
From such “wrong” connections we get: a space rocket (entering the bridge + straight track, repeat twice), fortifications, houses, and so on. However, sometimes for better compatibility, linear fixings have to be rounded off with sandpaper. The original road was taken at Ikea (20 items cost only six hundred rubles), then the elements for it were purchased at various online stores.
The only negative is that the set of basic elements is limited. But they can be supplemented, for example, with details from the game "Genga".
(3+) Life hacking: if there is no Lego on hand ...
Prehistory Sometimes it happens that you are visiting your grandmother, and your favorite details are not at hand. What to replace?
Experience: 1) Domino knuckles. To build a house on a carpet from dominoesk is a non-trivial task. In addition to spatial thinking, it develops patience on a reasonable scale.
What to replace. If you get carried away with the concept of flattened blocks, like in dominoes, there are more sustainable solutions. For example, Magna Tiles (left) and Magformers (right).
The details in them are connected by magnets. In such sets more colors, plus the child studies physics a little.
2) “Hereditary constructors”. For example, the parents of our support manager dug out such a copy for their grandson:
This is the designer Mottik, which in the 1990s was sold almost by weight.
His son really likes it, including because “daddy was playing”. So it develops family traditions. Surely many, if you dig, there are remnants of the old children's designers. Feel free to let them in the case.
(2+) Designer pillows
Prehistory Selling it came up with a man with an inverted consciousness - Australian. We stumbled upon a project on “Kickstarter”, where a man collected pre-orders (from $ 200 to 700, depending on the complexity of the set). Judging by the updates, with the production of Squishy Forts and so far went wrong.
Experience. Of course, we did not even think about leaving a pre-order. A designer of furniture and interior items is a great thing that a priori is in any home. Firstly, there are no problems with the compatibility of parts - everything can be used: pillows, blankets, chairs, a sofa. Secondly, the rebuild speed is off scale.
Third, you can conduct electricity:
Finally, it works great to distract the child if you have restricted his access to the digital world. And it helps to teach to clean up after themselves. Which is also important.
What to replace: it is priceless.
But if you ruin the sofas is still not an option, on the Internet, TikeStix comes across - “a large-size designer for the construction of houses, shelters and other handicrafts in the kid’s height”.
(4+) Designer Gears
Prehistory “Gears, Gears, Gears” is a bunch of separate worlds, as in “Lego”, only the idea is not built on cubes, but on gears and platforms for them. We saw it on Amazon, we decided that we would show our son how simple mechanisms work. And at the same time let's introduce the first interest in assembling moving platforms - we hope that after some time we will move on to programmable ones.
Experience. Such a thing as in the picture is going to us now. The manufacturer has a set with a motor, from which the machine, a helicopter and a bike are obtained. All wealth is worth 35 bucks.
The most important thing is that the gears are not only for beauty here:
And after the assembly, we will begin to return the child to the digital world - now there are just a lot of logic games about gears.
(6-8 +) Minecraft
Prehistory The current generation of children has gone even deeper into the virtual worlds, and we need to compensate for this by applying games with benefits.
Experience. It is in our childhood minecraft sessions started on the May holidays with the landing of potatoes. Today in the world of minecraft you can come straight from “Lego” - they release themed sets. Why, Minecraft even has an origami version:
Well, the original game itself is a wonderful digital designer, capable of giving birth to the very interest with which many began in the profession: “Make your own game.”
It’s not in vain that Minecraft is used in children's programming courses. The phrase “programming fighting robots-turtles” sounds great, even if you are not 6-8 years old.
(9+) Website Builder
Prehistory “Make your site” is probably the equally popular answer to the question “how did your interest in technology start,” as the idea to make your game. We did not think that someone would use our designer to create personal websites or child samples of the pen: yes, there are templates with cars and for starting it is enough to move blocks, ... but officially we are talking about a small business.
Experience. Nevertheless, during the next monitoring of new sites created on the platform, Finn looked at us from one of the pages:
At first we thought someone was kidding. But the fact is that for English-speaking users there is only a paid version - and the money for the site was written off monthly from someone's card. We became interested and contacted. It turned out that the parents decided to keep their son's school assignment to mind: “Make a web page”.
The task itself was in another section of the site. It was a page about Tim Berners-Lee:
Everything is easier in Russian localization - there is a free version. There, too, quickly found examples. Here is the site of nine-year-old Gregory, a young Lego fan who shoots his cartoons with the characters of the designer:
He was addicted to designers since childhood (which was not over yet), in the digital world Minecraft is most respected. The teenage Internet vogue mod (video blogging) touched him too, but Grisha decided not to show any shit, but pulled out his “Lego”, began to master photo and video editors - and now he has cool video notes on how to make the lego-figure move and jump in the frame.
The site started, because the whole project proudly calls a “studio”. And the studio should have a website. And for some reason we think that the guy is going well.
PS How do you maintain a balance between digital and offline activities in your family? What designers use "for education"?