It's all worth it - Build A Duck

I was a chaperone for Greg's class trip to COSI. Seeing as I work there, my little group of three kids got a very detailed visit, as I seem to know all the cool things that six year olds like to do.

Right near the end of the trip, I took them into the Innovation Showcase. This area highlights Ohio people and companies that use science, technology and creativity to make the world a better place. One of the interactives I worked on was a Flash based computer game in which guests try to innovate upon the standard rubber duck. The game is called, "Build A Duck." By talking with your career team, you can make decisions on what different items you can add to the base duck. After you design the duck, it goes into production and a sales report is generated about how well you did. (Spoiler: if a guest designs a truly horrible duck, they can actually blow up the factory.)

The project team tested the game out on the Friends of COSI and during limited openings of the exhibit. We think we did a pretty good job.

Greg and his friends stopped at the build a duck and I gave them an overview of how to play. They spent the next twenty minutes trying out different duck combinations and were very excited when their duck did well. I was very pleased to see them having fun and repeating the program that our team developed.

I was even happier to learn that it had a lasting impression on him as you can see in his drawing from kindergarten.



This makes it all worth it.

PS The cave/man/purple dots drawing is the "Black Hole" which is located in the Space exhibit. The kids ran through that about 18 times.

Parental Myths That No Parent Will Tell You About

Here are a few items that every parent, pre-parent or misguided parent should know. Sorry Mom and Dad.

Parents love their children equally
Bottom line, one kid is always going to be better than the others for some unknown, visceral reason. Either because they were the first or have more personality or they are smarter than the others. Parents also seem to like the child that physically resembles them the most. I’m not saying there is a whole lot of difference in the amount of love, but that deep in the back of their minds, parents all ready have their “Sophie’s Choice” choice made up. If you are an only child, congrats. If you are adopted with natural brothers and sisters, you are screwed.

Parents check in to see how their child is sleeping
Parents “check in” on their kids every so often during nap or night time. As an outsider, you may think that it is simply to see if the child is awake. In actuality, it is to see if the kid is dead or not breathing. The relief gained from having a not-dead child is priceless.

Having two kids is twice as hard as having one kid
Sadly that's wrong. Here is the math:
-Having one child is like having one child
-Having two children is like having four children
-Having three kids is like having five kids
-Having four kids is like having two kids.
The complexity going from one kid to two is that you, as a parental team, have shared the responsibility of taking care of one kid. Once you have two, that whole little unwritten sharing contract is out the door. You now must put out four times the effort to manage the two kids. Once you have three kids, the ratio starts to go down. Four kids might as well be none because you can split them into two teams and pit them against each other. If you have five kids, obviously the other wives can help to take care of all the little darlings.

Scientific studies say that sugar actually does not make your child hyper
Wrong. Sugar does make your kid hyper and I don’t care what scientific studies say as I have seen the effects. Not only does it make them hyper during and after consumption, it makes them pre-hyper. If kids know about the existence of candy within a five mile radius, which they do, they will desire it. Because kids only know how to eat and how to crap, that candy will fill 90% of their reality. And their reality will be jumping up and down and screaming. They want it and that’s it. Once you give it to them, they want more. If you deny them, they will kid bitch and kid bitching sucks.

My child is advanced
Every parent believes that their kid is somehow smarter than other kids and they will share this information with you. Wrong. Your child is just as not-smart as the rest. They may be advanced in some area, but that's the only area the parent will focus on that one ability. Kids are only as smart as you let them be. I suggest a daily dose of brow beatings to drop of heavy load of self doubt on your kid. Self doubters work harder and make more money to take care of you later in life. Unless your little Einstein is reading and writing at age three, go sit down. If they are reading and writing at age three, my kid with low self esteem is going to beat them up.

Having kids ruins your sex life
Ok, you’ve got me on this one.