Hour of Code, and Other Weekend Activities

Kai finished up the school week with no further major incidents at school.

We had a busy weekend, having company on Friday evening and visiting Kai’s aunt and uncle on Saturday evening. We also had all of our usual weekend activities including the weekly trip to the library, his boxing class, fitness group, and movie night.

We also went sledding, though there was only a small sliver of snow left as most of it was melted. Still, it was enough to make several runs down the hill, though we had to wait our turn each time with such limited space to accommodate all of us with sleds.

I also had him do some step aerobics, using a step and tape that Mom recently got to work herself back into shape.

Yesterday, after doing his online math work, I showed him the Hour of Code website. Hour of Code teaches kids how to code through simple and very visual approaches. I got Kai hooked by showing him a tutorial that utilized the Angry Birds game. He eagerly went through all 20 steps, getting the bird to defeat the pig at each step, and in the process learned a lot of basics of computer programming. The steps were very easy for beginners as they can drag and drop blocks of code and do not require any typing of the code itself.

He went on to do another tutorial that put him through the steps to create a Flappy game.

Later, after his fitness group, he wanted to get back on the computer to build an iPhone app that resembled a Pokemon game. This one was a bit more challenging than the other tutorials as it required him to read instructions and then type in the proper code. But with my help, he was able to do it and remained eager to do more as his day ended.

Today he is off of school for the Martin Luther King holiday. It is also the day that he can finally get back on the iPad after his longest punishment of not using it for a week.

Before yesterday’s fitness group, he told me that he was going to ask the mom of one of his schoolmates what the iPad rules were at their house. He seemed to think that they weren’t so strict about iPad usage. I told him that if that boy destroyed his clothing, he would probably lose use of the iPad as well, but regardless, they can make whatever rules for their house and Mom and I would make the rules for our house. He still went ahead and asked the mom and later told me about the rules at their house - no use of the iPad until homework is completed.

Let’s see if he can keep his iPad privileges when he returns to school tomorrow.