Sweet Little Penny
pamelamyers | October 30, 2016
Penny was feeling super snuggly for some reason and I guess Sam and I looked like a good place to take a nap. You can imagine how happy this made Samantha!
My brilliant little scientist
pamelamyers | October 30, 2016
Mark and Samantha have really been into doing the electronics projects recently. I am glad, because it’s more educational than just sitting around playing with her toys or watching TV, and she does really enjoy it. Better she learn something while having fun than not, right? Anyway, Mark was looking for some interesting projects for them to do that were above and beyond what they had been doing with the bredboard. He likes showing her how to make things light, etc. but he thought she would start to lose interest if they didn’t ramp it up. He wanted to find things she could actually “have” when they were done experimenting.
There is a computer store near us called MicroCenter that it turns out has a really nice DIY section full of electronics supplies and other things. Mark found a ton of stuff on their website so we took at trip to the actual store to find the things he needed. Sam wasn’t too sure about going until Mark told her they were going to the “Mad Scientist” store. Then she wall all for it! (One of the brand names of some of the gadgets is Mad Scientist and Mark thought Sam would like that).
One of the first projects they tried was a little alien figure whose eyes would glow. Sam was very excited about getting started, as you can see!
This particular project involved some soldering. Mark wouldn’t let Sam do the actual soldering, but she did watch and learned how it was done.
Success! The little alien’s eyes light up! Very brightly, I might add. In person, it’s almost blinding!
Mark let Sam pick out some things herself and of course she went right for the multitude of colored LED bulbs. They only had a few boring ones and Sam found lots of colors and two different sizes. Can you tell she likes these projects?
She really is learning a lot about voltage and how things work. When parts come off she can even usually put things back together all on her own. I don’t even know how to do that!
Sam likes to draw schematics of what they do. Here is one showing the multiple LEDs, complete with the bulbs, resisters, and the battery pack.
One of Sam’s last projects was making an illustrated manual about how she and Mark made the alien. Too cute!
