Maker's Faire

Bohdin had fine arts camp this week which consisted of an hour of dance, an hour of music, and an hour of art for five days.  On Friday the family was invited to a showcase of all they learned.  There were two short dances, a musical performance with boom whackers, and an exhibit of paper mache masks.  Bohdin chose to make a bunny mask for Nyla.  She loved it. 

Nyla spent Monday and Tuesday at kite making camp.  She came home on Tuesday with a large kite she make and a smaller premade kite.  She and Buddy flew the smaller kite on Saturday with some success.  They also both finished swim lessons.  Nyla passed her level and has aged out of any more levels until she is six.  Bohdin didn't pass his level which was expected.  Most kids need to repeat a level more than once but he also didn't have a good class this time since his teacher was focused on the kid that couldn't swim well enough to be in that level.  The parents refused to put him in the correct level.  We'll probably skip the next session of swim. 

Nyla has been keeping busy this week playing with our new five year old neighbor, Ch-.  Three's a crowd and there has been some fighting between Nyla and C- over Ch-.  The new girl seems really nice.  So far this week she's been at our house for over 12 hours.  It looks like it will be a good friendship.  Nyla had some issues with C- and M- because she wanted to play less mature things than they did.  Ch- just turned five and enjoys playing the same pretend games that Nyla does. 

Bohdin and Buddy played golf on Saturday while the girls and I went to the garden.  Buddy played the previous weekend also and is beginning to enjoy golf.  Bohdin went along more for the experience than actual playing.  I think he hit a few balls but he didn't play the course. 

Today I took Bohdin and Nyla to Maker's Faire in Kansas City.  We arrived later than I wanted because I had to turn around and take a whiny Cora back home.  I'm glad I took the hour to do that because it paid off while we were there.  It's not the best space for a toddler.  This was the first time I attended a Maker's Faire and I was impressed.  There was so much to do.  Kansas City has one of the larger events in the country which is why I really wanted to attend.  Next year we'll be near a smaller one.


Here the kids are tapping vegetables to make music.  They are hooked up to a computer somehow and each vegetable is assigned a different sound.  It was pretty neat.  We also saw a metal stick sort of instrument hooked up to an amp.  It made different noises when it was hit.  Both kids had an opportunity to try that one


There were a lot of 3D printers at the Faire and I enjoyed seeing one in person.  I had a hard time envisioning how it would work.  It's actually a lot like like a regular printer.  Every run it added one layer to the top of the object. 



The kids pounded designs into a leather bracelet.  They both chose eagles for some reason.  Nyla's also has a horse. 







There was a magician there and Bohdin was involved in one of the tricks.  He wandered off to see the bubble machine before the magician was finished with all of his tricks.  That surprised me because Bohdin really enjoys magic.  He's been watching a lot of shows on tv recently about the science behind magic. 



There were several homemade video games there.  In this game one had to shoot the light to send it back to the other person's side.  If you miss the light goes off your edge and you lose the point.  As the lights volley back and forth they speed up making it harder to shoot it just right.  There was also an adaptation of PacMan which the creators called a cross between PacMan and chess.  It was a three player game with every person deciding their move simultaneously.  Bohdin was a ghost and was eaten almost immediately.   When he came back in the game after five turns he ate PacMan. 


One of my favorite areas was the soldering area.  I bought each child a kit for $1 and they made a robot with flashing LED lights.  Bohdin did all of his soldering himself but I helped Nyla.  I held the soldering iron while she held the piece of metal.  She did the other assembly herself. 



There was more to see than we had time for.  While Nyla sat and did sand art Bohdin drove a robot twice.  There were a lot of robots there that did lots and lots of different things. 


We caught the tail end of a science presentation involving air.  At this point the guy was blowing the cups off the heads using an air cannon.  Bohdin went up to him after the show and told him the Hindenburg used hydrogen and not hot air as he had said during the presentation.  I don't like when science volunteers give imprecise information to kids.  He had told the kids that the Hindenburg used hot air to float.  He also made some other errors but the Hindenburg one was the only one that Bohdin caught. 

The last thing we did was wait an incredibly long time for balloon animals.  We spent more time in that line than at any other thing we did that day.  Nyla really wanted a pink balloon bunny so we did it for her.  Second place for long wait times was watching some kids make a plastic model of their fingers.  They only let a few people do that so we could only watch.  It was a really cool process and the kids want me to buy the chemicals so we can do it at home.  They also wanted me to buy a rubber band shotgun that they tried out but I passed.