What's New?

EEME September 2023 Update: Intro Learning Curriculum fully published

EEME makes hands-on learning kits + online lessons to teach kids electronics and Python coding.

This post is the September 2023 update to what's going on with EEME and our new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit.

In this post, we'll cover:

  • The "intro" Learning Curricula Package is published - what your family will learn
  • What's next?


Recap: the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit + "intro" Learning Curricula Package

EEME's new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit teaches kids electronics and Python coding thru the making and programming of various circuit projects.

This "Learning Kit" includes an "intro" Learning Curricula Package to build and program an automatic night light and display panel circuit. More importantly, the "intro" Learning Curricula Package also teaches the students the electrical engineering and Python programming concepts applied in the projects - 12 hours of building and learning in total.



The "intro" Learning Package Curricula is published

After about 6 months of work, we have finally published the entirety of the "intro" Learning Package Curricula. Specifically, we published the final Part 2 of DIY Display where students will write Python code to control the segment LED component of project.

What's a segment LED? It's an old-school type of display, before the days of LED/LCD screens, used to display letters and numbers. A segment LED, aka SLED, is simple, efficient, and cheap to manufacture. Multiple SLED's can be grouped together to form words or multi-digit numbers.

Segment LED

During DIY Display Part 2, as with all EEME's Learning Curricula, the students will watch video lessons that guide them on how to build the circuits and write the Python code to complete various experiments and projects. More importantly, our curricula also teaches the students how the circuit and code they write works.

The learning and coding is done directly from our browser-based application so no external software downloads or setups are needed.


What is included in the "intro" Learning Curricula Package?

The "intro" Learning Curricula Package is the interactive "textbook", that is included with the purchase of the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit.

In its entirety, the "intro" Learning Curricula Package is broken down into 6 curricula:

  1. Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit: Intro & Set Up
  2. Genius Light - Part 1 of 3: Build a Simple LED Circuit with only Electronics Components
  3. Genius Light - Part 2 of 3: Simple LED Circuit with Python Coding
  4. Genius Light - Part 3 of 3: Build the Final Night Light LED Circuit
  5. DIY Display - Part 1 of 2: Build an Electronics-Only Segment LED Circuit
  6. DIY Display - Part 2 of 2: Control the Segment LED Circuit with Python Code

Each curriculum is further broken down into 12 - 20 lessons allowing students to stop and pause however their schedule (and attention span) dictates.


What do the students learn with the "intro" Learning Curricula Package?

Upon completing the "intro" Learning Curricula, the students would have learned about:

  • Microcontroller concepts
    • Firmware
    • GPIOs
  • Electronics components - breadboards, LEDs, resistors, photoresistors, segment LEDs, switch panels
  • Basic electronics concepts - electric current, voltage, resistance
  • Intermediate electronics concepts
    • Current sourcing versus sinking
    • Voltage as relative differences in "electric potential" between two points
    • What is "ground"?
    • Voltage dividing
    • Relationship between current and resistance
    • Anode versus cathode
  • Python coding concepts
    • Conditionals - if/else
    • Loops - for and while
    • Lists

In all, the "intro" Learning Curricula is about 12 hours of building and learning.



Next up - focus on improving EEME's browser-based learning application and learning experience

As students have started to learn with our "intro" curricula and Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit, we've come across ideas for improving the experience with using own browser-based learning application. That includes major categories of improvements such as:

  1. Making it easier for students to find the projects they want to work on, especially those new to EEME.
  2. More obvious help sections, with bigger images.
  3. Auxiliary lessons to clarify concepts learned - especially the coding concepts.

The last point is the elephant in the room. While putting together the "intro" Learning Curricula Package, we learned that it is difficult to completely teach coding concepts while limiting the learning experience to a 1.5-2 hour time duration. For example, you can spend 30-60 minutes alone on completely teaching the nuances of just a Python while loop. In our "intro" curriculam we opted to teach the students the general details of various coding concepts. The plan is to add auxiliary lessons (for students to work on afterwards) to learn and fine tune the details of those coding concepts.



Misc - ongoing Monthly "office hours"

We continue to host monthly "office hours" on Facebook. Despite being very uneventful, we will continue to host these office hours to allow you, the EEME community, to come and ask questions, offer suggestions, etc. in a real-time like manner.

The next Facebook "Office Hour" will be held on October 12, 2023 at 11:30am Pacific Time. You can RSVP, set a reminder with this Facebook Event.



Conclusion

So this concludes the updates for September.

The goals for October are:

  1. To make improvements to the EEME browser-based learning application

  2. We will hold monthly office hours on EEME's Facebook Page on October 12th at 11:30am PT.



As usual if you have any additional questions, suggestions, feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out!!

Thanks so much and happy building (and coding)!!
Jack "EEME Dad"


PS - EEME's a small shop with a tiny marketing budget. So please help us spread the word by sharing EEME with others. Thx!

EEME August 2023 Update: Segment LED and Switch Panel Learning Curriculum - DIY Display Part 1 Published

EEME makes hands-on learning kits + online lessons to teach kids electronics and Python coding.

This post is the August 2023 update to what's going on with EEME and our new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit.

In this post, we'll cover:

  • The final DIY Display project - part 1 (of 2) published
  • Behind-the-scenes of DIY Display part 1
  • What's after the "Intro" Learning Curricula Package
  • Parenting thoughts - LinkedIn for kids??


Recap: the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit + "intro" Learning Curricula Package

EEME's new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit teaches kids electronics and Python coding thru the making and programming of various circuit projects.

This "Learning Kit" includes an "intro" Learning Curricula Package to build and program an automatic night light and display panel circuit. More importantly, the "intro" Learning Curricula Package also teaches the students the electrical engineering and Python programming concepts applied in the projects - 12 hours of building and learning in total.

Refer to this past post to understand the difference between a "Learning Kit" and "Learning Curricula Package".



DIY Display part 1 Learning Curriculum published

For those new to EEME, the "intro" Learning Curricula Package is still a work-in-progress. This month (Aug 2023), we published the 5th curriculum - project DIY Display part 1. There will be 6 curricula in total for the enture "intro" Learning Curricula Package - so we are very close to publishing the entire "intro" Package (more on that later).

As with the previous project Genius Light:

  1. We first have the students build circuits using only electronics-components - no Python coding. Along the way, we teach them the electronics concepts needed to understand how that electronics-only circuit works.

  2. Then in a subsequent curriculum(s), we have the students build the same circuits using Python code they write - also teaching them the coding and electronics concepts needed to understand how their Python code works and interacts with the circuit.

The DIY Display part 1 curriculum is the electronics-only portion of the project. No Python coding is involved in DIY Display part 1.

The students will circuits to experiment and learn about:

  • Segment LEDs
  • Relationship between resistance and electric current
    • A gentle introduction to Ohm's Law (usually taught in high school)
  • Switch panels
  • Cathode versus anode

... about 2 hours of learning and building.

If we include the previous 4 curricula in the "intro" Package, we have 10 hours of learning and building total.


Any "behind-the-scenes" footage from the production of DIY Display Part 1?

A curriculum is composed of a number of lessons - 20 lessons for DIY Display Part 1.

DIY Display Part 1 - Lesson List

One of the lessons in DIY Display was totally scripted incorrectly. While it would have been funny to publish behind-the-scenes footage, unfortunately, the audio remarks would not be rated PG.

It took a good portion of one week to create and inject new audio and video footage to fix the mistakes. We (ie I, EEME Dad) tried really hard to match the audio "timbre" of the patched portions to the rest of the original footage.

Something fun to do - as your family works on DIY Display part 1, note the timestamp and lesson where you find the injected "patch fixes". Email those to me. If you correctly find them, we'll send you an EEME promo code for your attnentiveness!


What about DIY Display part 2? What's in the part 2 curriculum?

DIY Display part 2 will have students modify their segment LED circuit so that they can write Python code to control the segment LED. We'll revisit from of the previous concepts learned in part 1, as well as have the students implement and learn about Python functions.

All the Python code written, will be done with EEME's online browser-based coding environment.

We plan to have DIY Display part 2 published by next month - September 30th, 2023.

DIY Display part 2 will be the final part of project DIY Display. Part 2 will also be the final curriculum for the "intro" Learning Curricula Package that is included with the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit. When DIY Display part 2 is published, we would have fully published the "intro" Learning Curricula Package.



Follow-on Learning Curricula Packages in the future

The "intro" Learning Curricula Package is bundled with your purchase of the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit. But your Learning Kit purchase actually has tons of parts and components which are unused by the "intro" Learning Curricula Package.

For the remainder of 2023 and most of 2024, we have plans to publish and sell follow-on Learning Curricula Packages that use / re-use parts and components from your initial Learning Kit purchase. We have plans for the following projects:

  • Alarm circuits
  • Fading light circuits
  • Countdown timer circuits
  • Infrared light detector circuits
  • Tone generator circuits
  • Touch-sensitive circuits

As with all EEME projects, the students will build electronics-only circuits and then build circuits to be controlled by Python code they write within EEME's browser-based coding environment. Along the way, they'll learn the electronics and Python coding concepts used by the circuit.

That's the plan. But as each month passes, we do continuously update our plans (especially the schedules) and inform you of changes.



Parenting thoughts - LinkedIn for kids?

It's inevitable that our kids will have a very publicly visible online presence. I've been trying to coach my 11 and 7 year old about the importance of managing that online presence responsibly. Silly things they post (or their friends post) will be hard to remove online.

Instead, I am trying to coach them to be shameless and confident about publicly posting about things they are proud of - things they learned, things they make, problems they solved / wish to solve, accomplishments they achieved. This can include EEME projects as well as Khan Academy lessons they undertook, 3D printed objects they designed and created, author and publish educational content for other kids, perhaps even adults.

But where can my kids post about these to garner community feedback? Where can they (safely) check out what other kids / peers are up to and provide their constructive feedback to them?

I do all of this myself - mostly through LinkedIn. I'm not sure how much of the EEME parent community uses LinkedIn, but whatever ends up posted on LinkedIn is mostly thoughtful and professional. It's exactly how I would want my kids to treat their online presence.

Unfortunately LinkedIn does not allow anyone younger than 16 years old from having an account. Does anyone know of another site like LinkedIn for kids? Please share with me your thoughts on this - dad@eeme.co.



Misc - ongoing Monthly "office hours"

For those new to EEME, we host monthly "office hours" on Facebook. These monthly office hour sessions allow you, the EEME community, to come and ask questions, offer suggestions, etc. in a real-time like manner.

The next Facebook "Office Hour" will be held on September 14, 2023 at 11:30am Pacific Time. You can RSVP, set a reminder with this Facebook Event.



Conclusion

So this concludes the updates for August.

The goals for September are:

  1. To publish "DIY Display - Part 2 of 2" for the "intro" Learning Curricula Package.

    In the meantime, check out / purchase EEME's new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit. The "early-adopter" pricing has increased slightly from the previous month due to the recent publishing of DIY Display - Part 1 of 2.

    Upon the publishing of "DIY Display - Part 2 of 2" in September, the price will increase to the full launch price. So get the "early-adopter" price before the increase!!

  2. We will hold monthly office hours on EEME's Facebook Page on September 14th at 11:30am PT.



As usual if you have any additional questions, suggestions, feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out!!

Thanks so much and happy building (and coding)!!
Jack "EEME Dad"


PS - EEME's a small shop with a tiny marketing budget. So please help us spread the word by sharing EEME with others. Thx!

EEME July 2023 Update: "Intro" Learning Curricula Package - Genius Light Part 3 Published

EEME makes hands-on learning kits + online lessons to teach kids electronics and Python coding.

This post is the July 2023 update to what's going on with EEME and our new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit.

In this post, we'll cover:

  • "Intro" Learning Curricula Package progress
  • Being late to my own EEME office hour!?
  • Parenting thoughts - what is lasting fun?


Recap: the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit + "intro" Learning Curricula Package

EEME's new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit teaches kids electronics and Python coding thru the making and programming of various circuit projects.

This "Learning Kit" includes an "intro" Learning Curricula Package to build and program an automatic night light and display panel circuit. More importantly, this "intro" Learning Curricula Package also teaches the students the electrical engineering and Python programming concepts applied in the projects - 12 hours of building and learning in total.

In a past monthly update, we talked about the difference between a "Learning Kit" and "Learning Curricula Package". Feel free to refer to that update post for more details.



"Intro" Learning Curricula Package progress - the final Genius Light Part 3 published!

As you may be aware of, our "intro" Learning Curricula Package is only 67% published.

The Genius Light project within the "intro" Learning Curricula Package - an automatic night light project - is a 3 part project.

In the first 2 parts of Genius Light, the students build a simple LED circuit using just electronics components, and then built the same LED circuit using Python code they write. They learn electrical engineering concepts such as about LEDs, resistors, breadboards, resistance, electric current, etc, as well as Python programming concepts - loops, functions, modules, variables, and much more.

In July, we published the final Part 3 for Genius Light, where the student built the final automatic night light circuit with just electronics components and then with Python code they write. In Part 3, they learn electrical engineering concepts such as about photoresistors, voltage dividing, etc, as well as Python programming concepts such as conditionals, and much more.

With Part 3, we now have 8 of the 12 hours (67%) of material published for the "intro" Learning Curricula Package that's included with the purchase of the new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit.

Because we don't have the full 12 hours published, the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit is currently being offered at an "early adopter" reduced price - proportional to what we have published and will eventually increase to full price as we publish the entire 12 hours.


What's after the Genius Light Part 3 curricula?

To help pace the student's learning progress, a single project, such as the Genius Light, is usually broken up into multiple curricula parts - each curriculum is about 1-2 hours of learning and building. Recall, Genius Light is broken up into 3 curricula parts.

Each curriculum consists of a number of lessons, predominantly video-based. Each lesson is 2-5 minutes in length (~15 lessons per curriculum).

Learning Kit vs Learning Curricula Package

Again, refer to our past update post for more details about curricula vs lessons vs projects.

We are currently working on the scripting and audio/video production for the lessons for part 1 of a 2 part project called DIY Display - a project to build and program, with Python, a display panel circuit.

This 2 part DIY Display project will teach the students a ton of new, as well as revisit past electrical engineering and programming concepts - such as about segment LEDs, resistance, voltage drops, functions, conditionals.

The publishing of the 2 part project DIY Display will complete the final 12 hours of the "intro" Learning Curricula Package included with the purchase of our new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit.


What's after the DIY Display curricula?

For students that complete the "intro" Learning Curricula Package, we will have follow-on Learning Curricula Packages available for purchase in late 2023 thru 2024. These follow-on packages will include projects to build alarm circuits, fading light, countdown timers, etc.. and teach about transistors, capacitors, pulse-width modulation, more advanced programming concepts such as classes and object oriented programming.

These follow-on Learning Curricula Packages will use, re-use the physical electronics components from the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit that the students have already purchased. Therefore, the price of these follow-on Learning Curricula Packages will be cheaper than the Python Coding and Learning Kit in terms of dollars per hours of learning.

This is currently the plan - as each month passes, we'll update if our intentions change.



Parenting thoughts - what is lasting fun?

As an avid mountaing biker and rock climber, I have been coaching, encouraging both my 11 year old son and 7 year old daughter to mountain bike and rock climb since they could walk. As my son matures older, he has grown quite capable in both activities.

On a recent family mountain biking vacation, my son exclaimed about how much fun he is having biking, which made me think about the definition of fun and what it means as a parent to help your kids nurture "fun".

I reflected upon my own perspectives of what's fun and I realized that while I find it "fun" to hang out with friends, relax in front of a TV show (or Netflix these days), my most "lasting" fun has to do with activites where I invest time to achieve some sort of mastery - be it robotics, biking, climbing, and/or playing music (I played guitar since I was 10 years old). As I continue to sharpen my skills in those activities, the more fun I have. This fun is independent of external factors - it's sourced internally. I think my son has started to develop this same type of "lasting" fun as he sharpens his skills, walking the path towards getting better at biking and climbing.

As a parent, perhaps I be more deliberate in helping my kids focus and grit through the hills and valleys of progress and mastery of skills they wish to attain - to help them invest early and develop a good toolbox of "lasting" fun to source from internally - especially in a future of digital distractions which over-weigh external social influences.

On a related note - the most "fun" part of working on EEME is the opportunity to exchange parenting thoughts with other parents and educators. If you have thoughts and suggestions, please feel free to reach out and share them!!



Misc - ongoing Monthly "office hours"

The July "office hour" session on EEME's Facebook page started off rocky - I was 30 minutes late having totally lost track of time while fixing an EEME project issue!?

But better late than never. Thanks to all who participated!

This month's Facebook "Office Hour" will be held on August 10, 2023 at 11:30am Pacific Time. You can RSVP, set a reminder with this Facebook Event. These monthly office hour sessions allow you, the EEME community, to come and ask questions, offer suggestions, etc. in a real-time like manner.



Conclusion

So this concludes the updates for July.

The goals for August are:

  1. To publish "DIY Display - Part 1 of 2" for the "intro" Learning Curricula Package.

    In the meantime, check out / purchase EEME's new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit. The "early-adopter" pricing has increased slightly from the previous month due to the recent publishing of Genius Light - Part 3 of 3.

    Upon the publishing of "DIY Display - Part 1 of 2", the price will increase again accordingly.

  2. We will hold monthly office hours on EEME's Facebook Page on August 10th at 11:30am PT.



As usual if you have any additional questions, suggestions, feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out!!

Thanks so much and happy building (and coding)!!
Jack "EEME Dad"


PS - EEME's a small shop with a tiny marketing budget. So please help us spread the word by sharing EEME with others. Thx!

EEME June 2023 Update: First Learning Curricula Package

EEME makes hands-on learning kits + online lessons to teach kids electronics and Python coding.

As we started to ship the new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kits, June ended up a lot busier than anticipated!

This post is the June 2023 update to what's going on with EEME. In this post, we'll cover:

  • Learning Kits -versus- Learning Curricula Packages
  • How are Learning Curricula designed and published
  • Current Learning Curricula progress and future roadmap for the new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit
  • Non-EEME Parenting-Educator story - nurturing presentation skills


What is the difference between an EEME Learning Kit versus a Learning Curricula Package?

A Learning Kit is a box of components.

A Learning Curricula Package is a bundle of online lessons to learn and build using the components from a Learning Kit.

When you purchase our new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit, it also includes an "intro" Learning Curricula Package. This "intro"" Learning Curricula Package teaches and guides the students to build a number of "intro" projects (more on that in the sections below).

While it may initially seem like we are over-coplicating things with terminology, we hope this update post will help you understand why we distinguish between a Learning Kit and a Learning Curricula Package.



How is an EEME Learning Curriculum designed and published?

Before we mention our current progress, we hope to talk a bit about how our "Learning Curriculum" is developed.

Once there is a final project idea in place (ie let's build and teach how a night-light circuit works), there are a number steps we undertake towards the creation and publishing of the 12 or so lessons that comprise of a single Learning Curriculum.

  1. Brainstorm sub-topics & sub-projects the students can learn about and build along the way towards the understanding of the final project.
  2. Prototyping the sub-projects' and final project's circuits and the associated Python program code.
  3. Create an outline of lessons - together, these lessons comprise of the content for the Curriculum.
  4. For the majority of our lessons which are video based, we script each lesson.
  5. Record the A/V for the lessons which usually involves multiple takes.
  6. Produce the A/V using video editing software.
  7. Upload the final video lessons to our video hosting platform (currently, we use YouTube).
  8. Publish all the lessons on EEME's website. This includes the video, coding, and occasional text-based lessons, Q/A summary quizzes, and helper material - all of which makes up a single Learning Curricula.

While we ideally strive to take these steps in a linear fashion, but realistically, we iterate back and forth amongst the steps due to mistakes, content corrections, inconsistencies in lesson materials, etc.. What goes wrong, usually can go wrong!!

Additionally, upon brainstorming and outlining, a project idea may end having an extremely large scope. This will require us to break it up into multiple curricula - as was the case with the night-light Genius Light project, which we had to break up into 3 curricula parts (see below).



What curricula are included in the "intro" Learning Curricula Package?

For the "intro" Learning Curricula Package included with the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit purchase, we currently have the following three (3) curricula published:

  1. Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit: Intro & Set Up
  2. Genius Light - Part 1 of 3: Build a Simple LED Circuit with only Electronics Components
  3. Genius Light - Part 2 of 3: Simple LED Circuit with Python Coding

Each curriculum consists of 12 to 15 lessons. The majority of the lessons are video-based. Each lesson is designed to take about 8 minutes to complete on average, allowing the students to easily stop at various points for a "snack-break", etc..



When will "Genius Light - Part 3 of 3" be published? Why the delay?

We had initially estimated "Genius Light - Part 3 of 3: Build the Final Night Light LED Circuit" to be published by June 30th. Clearly that did not happen. June ended up more hectic than anticipated. A number of factors caused this delay.

As we shipped out the early-launch purchases of the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kits, we inevitably encountered logistics, software, and lesson issues ("bugs" in engineering speak). The 5 or so issues ended up swallowing a couple of weeks of time.

I, EEME Dad, also had a non-EEME commitment to fulfill (more on that later) which swallowed up another 2 weeks.

But despite these factors, we (ahem, "I") have most of Part 3 scripted.

The next couple of weeks in July should be distraction free so we hope to publish Part 3 by July 15th.

Since we didn't publish new curricula, we did not increase the discounted early-adopter pricing for the Python Coding and Electronics Learn Kit.



What other curricula will come after "Genius Light - Part 3 of 3"?

The "intro" Learning Curricula Package (included with the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit) will include at least 6 curricula (of which we've already published 3 of them - see above) - totaling to be at least 12 hours of building, coding, and learning.

In addition to "Genius Light - Part 3 of 3", we plan to publish 2 more curricula for a display-panel project.

The 6 curricula from the "intro" Learning Curricula Package will consist of about 12 hours of learning and building.



What are the plans after the final publishing of the "intro" Learning Curricula Package?

Moving forward, we will create and offer follow-on Learning Curricula Packages that advance in concepts taught.

Similar to the "intro" Learning Curricula Package that is bundled with the Learning Kit purchase, each new follow-on Learning Curricula Package will consist of multiple projects, with at least 10 hours of learning and building.

For the next 6 to 12 months, any follow-on Learning Curricula Packages offered will re-use the components from the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit, hence will be priced cheaper than the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit.

In the far future, we may create Learning Curricula Packages that uses new add-on Learning Kits (ahem, robotics projects in the future??).



What were the non-EEME commitments that led to the delay in publishing Part 3?

Since 2018, I have been invited to present a STEM workshop at a conference for families of gifted children. My 1.5 hour workshop usually leverages material from EEME, and is given to a children from ages 7+.

This year's workshop was about Mobile Robots. Part of this workshop involved the design and 3D printing of a custom bracket for the robot.

My son turned 11 years old this year and developed an interest for 3D modeling and 3D printing. So I tasked him to design the bracket (with lots of guidance from myself).

Additionally I also enlisted him as a co-presenter for the workshop, to describe and showcase the 3D design, modeling, and printing process he used for the custom bracket.

In addition to this being an opportunity for my son to learn the art of communication and presentation, I also thought it important to have other kids see kids present and teach, perhaps inspiring them to not shy away, and seek out opportunities to present themselves.

The preparation for this dual-presenter workshop took a lot longer than I had anticipated. If you are curious about details of what the preparation entailed, feel free to reach out. Happy to discuss as a fellow parent / parent-educator.

But in summary, while students should definitely master STEM subjects, I also strongly believe that Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids should get comfortable with public presentation. Both are necessary tools (among many others) to help them prep for the opportunities that await them.



Misc - ongoing Monthly "office hours"

As mentioned in the last update, each month, we will host an "office hour" session on EEME's Facebook page allowing you, the EEME community, to come and ask questions, offer suggestions, etc..

Our last June office hour was very very uneventful (no one showed up!).

  • Is this because Facebook is the wrong platform to host Office Hours? If so, any suggestions on alternatives?
  • Did people forget? Maybe there was conflict in schedule? How can we better remind the community?
  • Or people just don't have questions. Maybe our blog updates answer everything?! 99.99% unlikely!?

This month's Facebook "Office Hour" will be help on July 13, 2023 at 11:00am Pacific Time. You can mark your calendars with this Facebook Event.



Conclusion

So hopefully that updates the EEME community about what has happened in June. Here's a summary diagram for the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit and "intro" Learning Curricula Package to further clarify differences.

Learning Kit vs Learning Curricula Package

The goals for July are:

  1. To publish "Genius Light - Part 3 of 3: Build the Final Night Light LED Circuit" and begin work on the final 2 curricula for the "intro" Learning Curricula Package.

    In the meantime, check out / purchase EEME's new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit which is still offered at May's early adopter discount pricing. Your family can start learning ASAP with the 3 curricula that are already published.

    Upon the publishing of "Genius Light - Part 3 of 3", the price will increase accordingly.

  2. As mentioned before, we will hold monthly office hours on EEME's Facebook Page on July 13th at 11am PT, where we'll answer questions and share ideas.



As usual if you have any additional questions, suggestions, feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out!!

Thanks so much and happy building (and coding)!!
Jack "EEME Dad"


PS - EEME's a small shop with a tiny marketing budget. So please help us spread the word by sharing EEME with others. Thx!

EEME May 2023 Update: New Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit

EEME makes hands-on learning kits + online lessons to teach kids electronics and Python coding.

As a parent, I love hearing my kids excitedly tell me about all the amazing things they're learning, which is why, as the creator of EEME, I make sure EEME products and curricula prioritize teaching and learning.

This post is the May 2023 update to what's going on with EEME. In this post, we'll cover:

  • Our NEW and improved Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit - why we created it? how your kid will learn with it?
  • Discounted early-launch pricing for the new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit.
  • How we will continue to update the EEME community with progress and developments.


How to teach Python coding?

Historically, EEME's learning kits + online lessons taught kids electronics - teaching them about LEDs, transistors, resistors, capacitors, breadboards, electric current, etc - while building real-world light circuits, alarm circuits, display panel circuits, motor driver circuits, temperature sensor circuits, and much more.

Since the world has become much more about "software", we wanted to add coding in EEME's curriculum.

In the past months, we've been trialing a "test-version" hands-on learning kit to teach kids Python coding and electronics. The kids were tasked to wire up an LED circuit, then use Python to code the ability to turn the LED off and on. While seemingly simple, this functionality is fundamental to everything around us - cars, appliances, mobile devices, computers, etc..

What worked well during our tests:

  • Our bite-sized 1-5 minute lesson steps - helps pace the 1.5 hour curricula.
  • Our web browser-based coding application - no external software install needed.
  • A hands-on building experience with physical parts - versus a pure virtual experience.

What didn't work so well:

  • Too much text-based lessons - kids prefer video-based lessons.
  • A mess of parts upon project completion - what parent likes a messs?


Introducing the new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit

From what we learned during the trials with our "test-version" kit, we finalized and created a new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit.


1. What does your kid learn with the new Learning Kit?

The Learning Kit + online curricula package will teach your kid core electronics concepts AND Python coding concepts:

  • Learn about LEDs, resistors, transistors, capacitors, electric current, etc, as well as
  • Learn coding concepts - about functions, class objects, variables, loops, conditionals, etc..

2. How will your kid learn?

The new Learning Kit also comes with a curricula package - hours of 2-5 minute video-lessons that will teach and guide through the building various circuit projects in 2 ways/methods:

  1. Build with just electronics components, without coding
  2. And then, build the same circuit functionality, but with Python coding

At the heart of method (2) is a small microcontroller computer board which your kid programs using Python to control the physical circuit they built in some pragmatic manner.


3. Example of a Learning Kit project

As an example, the 1st project is a night light. Via method (1), your kid will build the circuit using only electronics components (much like how a $3 night light from Walmart would work).

Then via method (2), your kid re-creates the same night light functionality but with Python code that runs on the microcontroller board (akin to how a modern car's internal computer system turns its auto-headlights on and off).

Most importantly, in both methods (1) and (2), our video-lessons will teach your kid how the electronics components, code, and circuits works.


4. Why build and learn in this manner?

After building and learning through (1) and (2), we also teach your kid the pro's and con's of building the project in either manner - nurturing their evaluative skills to become better problem solving engineers.


5. What comes with the Learning Kit?

In addition to the online curricula package, the Learning Kit comes with all the components your kid needs to learn and build - over 500 electronics components, including the microcontroller computer board, USB cable, prototyping platforms, etc..

And extra storage baggies (!) - as parents, we want to avoid "parts exploding everywhere in every corner of the house". Our online lessons walks your kid through a system of how to keep their parts organized using the extra storage baggies we provide. During the entire learning experience, we regularly emphasize the need to keep things tidy. We also ship with minimal packaging material for ecological and household-box-explosion reasons.


6. What other projects will my kid build with the Learning Kit?

In addition to the night light project, your kid will also build a display panel final project and buzzer alarm final project, as well as tons of sub-projects and coding exercises that become the building-blocks towards the final project.

There will be a total of 12 hours of learning and building, broken up into 90+ bite-sized lessons that take 2 to 10 minutes to complete.


7. What happens after my kid completes the Learning Kit curricula package?

We plan to continuously launch additional "Learning Curricula Packages" that will teach concepts increasing in complexity. These future Curricula Packages will also consist of hours of lessons, re-using the components from this Learning Kit to build new projects to reinforce past-taught, and learn new coding and electronics concepts.

The pricing of these future Learning Curricula Packages will depend on the scope of the Curricula, and if the new Package requires any additional "add-on" electronics components (ie, perhaps a robot project).

Therefore, the Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit you purchase will become the foundation for future lessons as your kid matures and grows. We designed the Learning Kit to be an investment, not something that clutters up the house after it's one-and-done.



Early-launch discounted pricing

As of May 2023, we published 6 of the 12 hours of online lessons published for the Python Coding and Learning Kit.

This 6 hours already teaches your kid about microcontrollers, firmware, breadboards, LEDs, electric current, resistors, Python coding concepts such as program modules, class objects, variables, strings, assignment, loops, and much more. So if you purchase a Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit today, your kid can immediately start learning tons of stuff.

But you are definitely still an early-adopter, trusting us to fully deliver on the entire 12 hour lesson promise. And in appreciation of this trust, the current price of the Learning Kit is discounted accordingly.

Anyone who's put together learning materials for a class understands the monumental task and time it takes to create quality video curriculum - weeks to prototype, script, record, edit, produce and publish a couple of hours of video-lessons.

But as we progress towards a full release of all 12 hours, the price will also increase proportionally. So being an early-adopter has financial benefits!!



Monthly "office hours" and blog updates

As an engineer, I, EEME Dad, naturally default to just heads down doing, at the expense of keeping the EEME community apprised of what's going on. I sincerely apologize for this radio silence.

In an effort to improve EEME's availability for questions and sharing thoughts, we will hold monthly office hours on EEME's Facebook Page starting on June 8, 2023. We hope to use this "office hour" opportunity as a way for the community to ask questions and get answers in real-time. As we approach June 8th, we'll update our Facebook page with details as to time and format.

For those who can't make "office hours", we will be updating our community continuously through monthly blog updates on this site. Our hope is to be as transparent as possible with all the good, bad, and uglies of creating EEME Learning Kits and Learning Curricula Packages.

Through regular interactions, we hope to exchange ideas, answer questions, and inspire each other to become better educators for our kids.



Conclusion

We've verbosely described what we've been up to in the last couple of months. The goals for the next month are:

  1. To launch another 2-4 hours of curricula lessons for the Python Coding and Electronics Kit by mid-June.

    In the meantime, check out / purchase EEME's new Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit as an early adopter at a discount to start learning ASAP.

  2. To update our EEME community on our progress, on a monthly basis via a blog post and email newsletter.

  3. As mentioned before, we will hold monthly office hours on EEME's Facebook Page starting on June 8th, where we'll answer questions and share ideas.

    So go "Like" EEME's Facebook page, configure your "Follow settings" to be notified when we update the community on "office hour" details.



As usual if you have any additional questions, suggestions, feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out!!

Thanks so much and happy building (and coding)!!
Jack "EEME Dad"


PS - EEME's a small shop with a tiny marketing budget. So please help us spread the word by sharing EEME with others. Thx!

(Trial) Teaching Kids Python Coding

EEME makes hands-on project kits and online lessons to teach kids electronics... and now Python coding!


I have yet to find a good resource for my 10 year old kid to learn Python coding.

So as a parent as well as an entrepreneur, engineer, and educator, I am excited to announce EEME's new Python Coding Base Kit!!

(UPDATE May, 2023 - we learned a ton from this test trial Python Coding Base Kit, but inevitably found some issues with the learning experience using this kit. This led us to revise and launch a much improved Python Coding and Electronics Learning Kit. More details explained in the recent blog posts.)

Five Whys

The Python Coding Base Kit includes a mini-computer board among other components. It re-uses the electronics components from our electronics kits to teach your family Python coding!

All the Python lesson curriculum will be accessible via your EEME dashboard.

In the upcoming future, we'll be focused on 3 goals:

  1. Once a month (if not sooner), launch new Python Coding projects and lesson curricula, that builds on past electronics project kits.

  2. Improve on the learning and coding experience (we'd love your feedback!)

  3. Polish up other 'operational' details such as the dashboard, shopping page, etc..

Find a detailed FAQ below with answers to relevant questions you may have.

But as usual if you have any additional questions, suggestions, feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out!

Thanks so much and happy building (and coding)!!
Jack "EEME Dad"


FAQ

How is this Python Coding Base Kit different from your electronics project kits?

With our electronics project kits, your family builds various night-light, buzzer alarm, motor driver circuits using only electronics components such as LEDs, resistors, capacitors, transistors. The functionality is controlled purely by the physics of the components and electicity (ie electric current).

With the new Python Coding Base Kit, your family will build similar circuits but the functionality is created with Python code you write. Having already established a core understanding of how the electronics components work (from our electronics kits + lessons), with the new Python coding lessons, we shift the focus on teaching your family Python programming concepts and how your code controls the components.

So with this said, we do require your family to have built a couple of projects from our electronics project suite before working on our Python curricula.


Why is it important for kids to learn both electronics and coding?

In a future of self-driving cars, ever smarter wearable devices such as watches, glasses, augmented / virtual reality, robotics - any aspiring engineer will need to learn both electronics and coding. Emerging engineering disciplines will inevitably combine noth electrical and computer engineering.


What do I need to purchase, how do I get started?

If you are/were an EEME electronics kits subscriber, or have a 9-project set, simply purchase the Python Coding Base Kit. With the components from the electronics project kits + the Python Coding Base Kit, you are ready to tackle any of the Python lesson curricula we have published.

If you don't have an EEME electronics kit, then we suggest you purchase the Python Coding Base Kit plus subscribe to the monthly electronics kit subscription or buy a 9-project electronics project set. Build 2-3 electronics projects. Then your family should be ready to learn with our Python lesson curricula in parallel to building the other electronics projects. Don't stop building the electronics projects since we will continue to leverage concepts from later electronics projects! And keep the components since the Python curricula will re-use them!


Why did you choose the Python programming language?

As a computer engineer, my go-to programming language is Python. For those unfamiliar with Python, it is arguably one of the most versatile and powerful programming languages - with applications ranging from artifical intelligence, to data science, to desktop applications, to web applications. As a matter of fact, EEME's blog and website both make heavy use of Python. Python also has the added benenfit of being easy to read and learn!


How does EEME teach Python differently from other online resources?

As with all our projects, we pair learning with hands-on building. Mostly all other resources teach Python coding strictly online, in a digital manner on your computer.

Instead, your family will physically build circuits which can be controlled by the Python code you write, through a small mini-computer board (ie microcontroller) in our kit. By physically building (versus a pure screen-based learning experience), we maximize our kids' engagement and curiosity.

Our online lessons will teach your family how the projects work, how the Python code works, how the Python code interacts with the physical hands-on circuit you built!!


What kind of software do I need, setup for your kit?

All you need is the latest Google Chrome browser running on any Windows 10/11, Mac OS, Linux computer and/or laptop. Our online lesson suite and coding application, kit setup application runs entirely in the web browser.

Simply plug in our mini-compouter board into your computer/laptop's USB and follow the instructions on our website.


Do you have a sample curriculum to share?

Absolutely! With your free EEME account, check out our Python Coding project lesson - that's part of the curriculum to re-build a portion of our Project Genius Light night light circuit.

NOTE: you will need to be using the latest Google Chrome browser!

This new project will enable control of the night light functionality through Python code your family writes.


Is it a requirement to have first built the hands-on electonics kits?

Yes. All our lessons build on each other in terms of complexity. In order for your family to make sense of the concepts in our Python Coding curriculum, you will need to have built at least 3 projects from our electronics kits - either thru a monthly eletronics kit subscription or 9-project set.

In the Python curricula, we leverage your family's knowledge of breadboards, LEDs, resistors, electric current, voltage, transistors, etc. which you gained from building those electronics circuits.


We don't have the components from your electronics project kits anymore!?

As mentioned before, our Python curricula will also use the old components from past electronics project kits (the LEDs, resistors, wires, photoresistors, etc.).

If you don't have the electronics components anymore, simply email us and we'll work with you to get replacement parts.


My budget's limited. Will future lessons / curricula require buying more stuff?

No. Our intention is to create a rich suite of curricula that uses the Python Coding Base Kit and the electronics components from your electronics project kits.

In the far future, we may add new sensors and other complex electronics components. But with just the Python Coding Base Kit, your family should be able to build tons of projects and learn tons of Python coding concepts thru curricula we launched or plan to launch.


PS - EEME's a small shop with a tiny marketing budget. So please help us spread the word by sharing EEME with others. Thx!

Homeschool Electronics 101 - What is voltage?

EEME makes monthly hands-on project kits and online lessons to teach kids electronics.

Due to COVID-19, my 3rd grade son continues to do distance learning. I have been sharing what I've learned as a newbie home-edu facilitator, such as having my son manage his workload by using a timer, playing mad-lib to improve his writing, coaching him on being confident to say "I don't know", among others I've been publishing on this EEME blog.


Fanning our kid's sparked interests

My kids learn more effectively when I, as a parent, understand some of the basics of what they are looking to learn. For instance, my son has recently grown an interest in battleships. So I researched a bit about World War 2 battleships and trickled fun facts to him which helped further progress his interest beyond battleships and into WW2 history.

For parents with kids who have strong interests in electronics (or colloquially referred to as "electricity"), researching about "electricity" can be extremely daunting. A web search immediately results in scary equations and descriptions ladden with nomenclature.

So I decided to dedicate a couple of posts to talk about the basics of "electricity" in the most intuitive and friendly manner possible.

This way, during dinner, you can impress your kids (and spouse) with the new found knowledge!!


What is voltage?

There are 3 main elements of "electricity" - voltage, current, and resistance. The most common element would arguably be voltage. You see it on batteries. Some of you may know 120 volts are supplied through our United States wall outlets.

You often hear that high voltage can kill you, which is not the complete story. It's high voltage combined with high electric current (which we'll talk about in a follow-on post) that can kill you, not just high voltage. You get zapped with high voltage every day. It's called static. Static main be painful, but it is not fatal. So next time you see a "high voltage" warning sign, know that it should actually read "high voltage + high current".

What is voltage? People sometimes refers to voltage as "power" - ie how much power does that battery have, 3 volts, 9 volts? Voltage contributes to power but on it's own, voltage is more accurately represented as "pressure".

Five Whys

Intuitively speaking, voltage is the pressure to push electrons through a medium such as wire. The higher the voltage, the more pressure there is to push the electrons through.

This "pressure" interplays with the other 2 elements - current and resistance - to power our fridge, light up our lightbulbs, run our smartphones. Without enough voltage, there wouldn't be enough "pressure" to push the electrons through a lightbulb filament to light it up.


What is ground?

When talking about voltage, it is inevitable to also hear the word "ground". Ground is often thought of as where voltage is zero. But that is also not the complete picture.

To intuitively understand "electric ground", let's think a bit about a physical ground. If you hold a ball 5 feet above the ground, you can say the ball is at an elevation of 5 feet. But that's relative to the ground you are standing on. What if your ground was in Denver Colorado, about 5000 feet above sea level? To someone standing at sea level in New York City, the ball is actually 5005 feet above their ground.

Five Whys

Voltage and "electric ground" acts similarly. Similar to height/elevation, voltage "pressure" is always relative to some "ground" voltage. For example, you often stack 2 AA batteries together in an electronic device. Each AA battery is 1.5 volts - relative to each battery's individual ground (ie bottom of that specific battery).

Stacked together, 2 AA batteries can provide 3 volts but only relative to the ground of the bottom battery. If you measure the voltage relative to the ground of each individual battery, even though the batteries are stacked, the "electric pressure" is still only 1.5 volts for each individual battery. The positive end of the top battery is the ball held up in Denver and the ground negative end of the bottom battery is the ground at New York City.


Conclusion

Hopefully now you have an intuition of what voltage (and ground) is. Go tell your kids what you learned during dinner and have them ask you questions you cannot answer!

I welcome you to post those "hard" questions back to me - via email dad AT eeme DOT co, via our EEME Facebook page, or @projecteeme Instagram page. I look forward to answering them, help contribute to your family's adventures in learning electronics.


If you are looking for hands-on electronics kits for your 7-12 year old kid, we are still shipping during this COVID-19 fiasco. Each kit is paired with its own online curriculum to teach your family how to build the circuit as well as how the circuit works.

You can learn with EEME in three ways:

  1. Sign up for FREE, to learn with our free online lessons

  2. Subscribe to our monthly kits - each month we send you a new project.

  3. Make a one-time purchase of our 9 project set - which is effectively the first 9 month's of projects.

Thanks so much, stay safe, and happy building!!
Jack "EEME Dad"


PS - EEME's a small shop with a tiny marketing budget. So please help us spread the word by sharing EEME with others. Thx!

Coach a kid's reading comprehension with the 5 why's

EEME makes monthly hands-on project kits and online lessons to teach kids electronics.

Due to COVID-19, my 3rd grade son will continue distance learning. As I watch over his day-to-day education, I am learning a lot on how to be a more effective home educator.

As a break from writing about electronics, STEM, and EEME, I thought I'd share some of the learning tactics I'm employing while working with my son (and 4 year old daughter too!).


I am a lucky parent. My son loves to read. Over the summer break, he read over twenty Magic Tree House books among many others. While I am impressed with the quantity, I started to ponder about quality of his reading. Does he comprehend what he reads? Does he extract insight? If there's room for improvement (and there's always room for improvement), how can I better coach him on quality reading comprehension?

Five Whys

How to coach quality reading comprehension?


What is quality?

Before I coach quality reading comprehension, I should first define what I mean by quality reading comprehension.

When I read, I often believe that I actually understand what I read. However, when I force myself to pause and elaborate on the last couple of paragraphs or chapter, I am stuck after recalling the broad generalities. I have forgotten the details or insights that help me elaborate on those generalities.

For example, I am currently reading A Guide to Effective Studying and Learning (A great book btw! I will have a review of the book soon!). Upon completing the chapter on self-testing, I am able to recall the general gist of self-testing's benefits to learning. I can list a couple of methods to self-test. But when I force myself to elaborate on why self-testing improves learning, I stall and have to re-read the chapter again to unearth the reasons.

By pausing to elaborate, I increase the likelihood that I remember and comprehend the important insights supporting the general gist. For me, achieving quality reading comprehension means you can elaborate on what you just read.


Elaborate. Huh?

So reading comprehension requires one to be able to elaborate on what they read. After my son's next Magic Tree House reading session, I asked him what he's read. As expected, my son initially tells me the gist of what happens - Jack and Annie went looking for some sword. When I asked him to elaborate, he stalled. "Dad, what does elaborate mean?"

"It means tell me more about what happened."

He responds, "well I already told you what happened. What more can I say?"

Hmmm, my son's not wrong. I am not asking him in the right way. What do I mean when I ask him to "elaborate"?


Asking why

When I ask myself to elaborate, what do I actually do? For the majority of my own personal elaboration exercises, I start with a "what". What happened? What was said or stated? What is the hypothesis?

Upon stating the "what", I continue to elaborate on the "why". Why did it happen? Why was it stated? Why is it important? I can continue to deepen my understanding as I continue to ask myself "why" against the last answer I gave.

With this new realization, I returned back to my son. Instead of asking him to elaborate, I asked him to first tell me what happened. Then I follow it up with a series of "why did that happen", "why is that important" type of questions.

Along the way, I can see my son digging deeper into his memory trying to recall insights and details to what he's read. Occassionally, he flips back to various sections of the book to review his answer. The reading slows down a bit, more this is the right way to read. Quality over quantity!


Conclusion

When I can, I will now stop my son's reading to work on this "why" exercise together. I try to encourage him to do it himself but realistically, I doubt he is!? He is only 8 years old after all.

This "why" exercise is actually not a EEME Dad invention. The Five Whys is an established technique to explore cause and effect. Inspired by this problem solving technique, I decided to aim for 5 why's too.

Often times, a series of 5 "why's" winds up to be a lot. At around the 3rd why, he truly runs out of reasons. In that case, I occassionally ask him to hypothesize a reason which seems like a good way to juggle his ability reason cause-and-effect. Perhaps it also sharpens his attention to look for evidence backing his hypothesis as he returns back to reading.

Have I measured my son's improvement in reading comprehension? Honestly, no. I have not tried to run a test to evaluate progress. My gut as a parent and educator suggests that this is a good exercise. Maybe there's a behaviorial psychologist among the EEME community who can help craft a sound scientific experiment to measure the effects from this 5 why's game!

In any case, I welcome you to give the 5 why's exercise a try. I'd love to hear how it works out for your family!


If you found this post insightful, pause and ask yourself the 5 why's. Just kidding!!

But please help share this post with other parents/families who will enjoy reading about my distance learning educator / parenting adventures.

If you have any strategies or tactics of your own, please reach out and share them by visiting EEME's Facebook or EEME's Instagram page or emailing me directly - dad AT eeme DOT co (not com!).

If you are looking for hands-on electronics kits for your 7-12 year old kid, we are still shipping during this COVID-19 fiasco. Each kit is paired with its own online curriculum to teach your family how to build the circuit as well as how the circuit works.

You can learn with EEME in three ways:

  1. Sign up for FREE, to learn with our free online lessons

  2. Subscribe to our monthly kits - each month we send you a new project.

  3. Make a one-time purchase of our 9 project set - which is effectively the first 9 month's of projects.

Thanks so much, stay safe, and happy building!!
Jack "EEME Dad"


PS - EEME's a small shop with a tiny marketing budget. So please help us spread the word by sharing EEME with others. Thx!

Number writing worksheets for preschoolers

EEME makes monthly hands-on project kits and online lessons to teach kids electronics.

Due to COVID-19, my 3rd grade son will continue distance learning. In the spirit of social distancing, we will continue to keep our 4 year old daughter out of preschool. Both have been sheltered at home since March. I have predominantly taken the role of watching over their day-to-day education and am learning a lot on how to be a more effective home educator.

As a break from writing about electronics, STEM, and EEME, I thought I'd share some of the learning tactics I'm employing while working with my son and daughter.


Get ready, get set, kindergarten!

For the last couple of months, I've written mostly about my experience with home educating my soon-to-be 3rd grade son. I wrote about how we've worked together on creating checklists, improving his writing, learning how to ask for clarification, and using a timer to pace his day and not lose track of time.

During this period, I've also been trying to maintain some learning structure for my daughter, who is now 4 and a half years old. I usually try to dedicate a 30 minute chunk of the morning to either read to her, have her draw, or have her thoughtfully create some sort of wood block and/or LEGO DUPLO structure for her stuffies.

As this summer break ends, I have also started thinking about how to prep her for kindergarten in the fall of 2021. I do not aim to have her enter and leave kindergarten at the head of her class. My goal is to have her adequately prepared to minimize any sort of academic frustration.

From what I remember during my son's tenure, kindergarten involved learning numbers, letters, and eventually words - not just how to recognize and read them, but also how to mechanically write them out on paper.

So as a first step, I decided to have my daughter practice writing out numbers! How hard can that be? Just write it over and over again - practice makes perfect right? Well, it turned out not to be that obviously simple!

In the end, I created a couple of worksheets to help my daughter practice her number writing. Below is a write-up about my journey.

Preschool number writing worksheets

Preschool number writing worksheets

Fundamental to learning how to write

As mentioned before, my daughter draws regularly. I generally don't expect da Vinci-like realism. So when she hands me her post-modern abstract art pieces, I don't think much about how she mechanically draws. Turns out she holds a crayon like a kitchen utensil. This method of drawing creates fantastic art that would make Picasso jealous, but doesn't work so well when you need more precision pencil control for writing numbers and letters.

So I showed her to hold her crayon as if she would write - pinchy pinchy, with the crayon resting in between her thumb, pointer, and middle finger. For the next couple of weeks, she would draw by holding the crayon as if she was going to write. Her art pieces still bordered on post-modern abstract, but there was noticeable improvement in her crayon, drawing control as a result.


Are we writing or drawing amoebas?

After a couple of weeks of holding the crayon the "right" way, I felt she was ready to actually practice writing. We swapped the crayon for a pencil. I took a blank piece of paper, wrote the number 2 on it. On another blank piece of paper, I instructed her to try to copy and write the number 2 herself. Good effort but the result looked more like an amoeba than the number 2!?!

I made a couple of observations from her initial effort that resulted in an amoeba:

  1. She was "drawing" the number 2 - meaning she kept "sketching" back and forth "drawing" out segments of the number 2 rather than "writing" out the number in one continuous stroke.
  2. She would look up at my number 2 while writing out her number 2 which led to pencil drift.

In her next writing session, instead of having her copy my number 2, I wrote out the number 2 ten times on a piece of paper. Then I simply had her trace over my number 2 with the constraint of not letting her lift up her pencil. This seemed to work better.

Before each number writing session, I'd spend 15 minutes carefully writing out the various numbers on blank pieces of paper for her to "trace". Her confidence in her writing ability increased with each session.


Incrementally increase the difficulty, then crank back

My goal is to have my daughter be able to write the numbers herself, not trace them. So I started modifying how I created the worksheets. Rather than write out the number ten times for her to trace, after the 3rd or so iteration, I would make the exercise slightly more difficult by omitting segments of the number. This forced my daughter to have to actually write "pieces" of the number herself rather than trace the entire time.

Additionally I started meticulously drawing arrows to indicate the stroke direction. What started out as a 15 minute preparation for my daughter's writing session turned in a 30 to 40 minute exercise for me!

To save myself time, I decided to invest a chunk of my morning and digitally create a number of worksheets.

Below is an example of the incremental omission that I mentioned above. To help with progress, you'll also notice that after a couple of numbers missing segments, I'll add back the entire number again. This "easing" of the practice difficulty ensures correct form and helps create a frame of reference during her practice.

Worksheet Example

Example of increasing, decreasing difficulty

The result is a handful of worksheets for the numbers 2 to 9. We work on one number at a time, a couple of times per week. Before the practice session, I'd simply print out the worksheet and we're ready to go!


Conclusion - sharing is caring

The process of incrementally making a practice session increasingly more difficult, then easier, then more difficult, is a meta-learning process that I use myself to practice my guitar playing (speeding up, slowing down, breaking up complex riffs into smaller pieces, then reintegrating it back into the main riff, then breaking it up again, etc).

Rather than have other parents like me suffer through the tedious task of making these worksheets, I'd thought to just share the ones I made.

Here are the links to the PDF worksheets which you can print out yourself:

As each week passes, my daughter's number writing and pencil control improves. I'll be working on some worksheets for letters as well so stay tuned for those!


If you found these worksheets helpful, feel free to share this post with other parents/families.

If you have any strategies or tactics of your own, please reach out and share them by visiting EEME's Facebook or EEME's Instagram page or emailing me directly - dad AT eeme DOT co (not com!).

If you are looking for hands-on electronics kits for your 7-12 year old kid, we are still shipping during this COVID-19 fiasco. Each kit is paired with its own online curriculum to teach your family how to build the circuit as well as how the circuit works.

You can learn with EEME in three ways:

  1. Sign up for FREE, to learn with our free online lessons

  2. Subscribe to our monthly kits - each month we send you a new project.

  3. Make a one-time purchase of our 9 project set - which is effectively the first 9 month's of projects.

Thanks so much, stay safe, and happy building!!
Jack "EEME Dad"


PS - EEME's a small shop with a tiny marketing budget. So please help us spread the word by sharing EEME with others. Thx!

The most precious resource we should teach our kids to not lose track of

EEME makes monthly hands-on project kits and online lessons to teach kids electronics.

Due to COVID-19, my 2nd grade son has started remote schooling-at-home, now referred to as distance learning. I have predominantly taken the role of watching over his day-to-day education and am learning a lot on how to be a more effective home educator.

As a break from writing about electronics, STEM, and EEME, I thought I'd share some of the learning tactics I'm employing while working with my son.


Summer break has started

Second grade ended for my 8 year old son. Usually, we enroll him in various camps for the summer. But because of COVID, my wife and I have decided to keep both him and his 4 year old sister at home.

When school was in still in session, it was straight forward to keep my son's day pretty structured. He had his distance learning assignments. With my additional lessons on how to use checklists, my son paced his school day relatively effectively.

For the summer of 2020, I am still trying to maintain some structure in my kids' day. For my 4 year old daughter, we have a daily session of some combination of drawing, letter / number writing, and read-along. For my son, we have some combination of reading physical books, math on Khan Academy, programming on Khan Academy, and Mad-Lib writing practice.

About 30% of their day is pretty structured around learning. However, the remainder of the day is still quite chaotic. It generally revolves around free-form playing, goofing around, etc.. Kids will be kids and it is summer break after all.

So don't get me wrong, playing is essential for a kid (and even adults)! But as with anything, when you do it in an unbounded manner, you reach the point of diminishing returns, and end up consuming the entire day. For my kids, if the free-form playing occurs before the structured learning, we fight an uphill battle to even to the structured learning. For instance, my son will plan to have a reading session, but he wants to start his day playing. 8 hours later, near dinner time, I'd ask him if he's done his reading and the answer would be no. He got too involved in racing his toy cars and forgot. Argh!!


Life's most previous resource - time

How I use the kitchen timer to help my son manage time

Life's most precious resource - time

This led me to a thought - we are taught not to waste food, not to waste water, not to waste money. But what about time?

Now, it is harsh to criticize a child's playing as a "waste of time". But how come we don't teach our kids to keep better track of time and to be more thoughtful in how they decide to spend it?

So rather than go down the path of being that nagging parent that constantly asks their kid if they've done XYZ, I bought my son a couple of kitchen timers. He wants to play, goof off, do whatever, no problem. I'd ask him, "how much time do you think you should spend on doing what you just said you'll do"? "What will you do afterwards"? Then I'd tell him to go set the timer! When the timer goes off, we created an understanding that he should autonomously transition to do that next thing he said he was going to do.

Sometimes he plans a learning sessions first, then a playing session next. No problem. Go set the timer and do it! Sometimes it's reverse. No problem again. Go set the timer and do it! My blood pressure has dropped 10-15% thanks to a kitchen timer.

The timer idea also had some secondary benefits. For some learning activities, he has a hard time getting started - such as Mad-Lib writing. With a timer, he's now become more autonomous about doing it. He knows the exercise is bounded. It doesn't feel so overwhelming to understake. So he has become more willing to do them and does it more effectively.


Conclusion

Even as adults, we've felt overwhelmed at certain tasks (ahem... doing taxes). The timer habit has helped me as well. As a mattter of fact, the timer idea is basically the Pomodoro Technique. But rather than 20 minute chunks, my son has the ability to choose the amount of time to spend on a task. I believe this makes him feel empowered. Additionally, if he chooses 1 minute to read or 8 hours to play, then it's an opportunity for us to reason together about why that may not be the best idea. "If you really want to swim with and study sharks when you get older, you have to learn to read well". For the most part, he gets it.

Unfortunately, my 4 year old daughter is still too young. Stay tuned, I'll write an update 4 years from now. But her older brother does set the timer for her and has started coaching her on time management as well. Oh yeah!! =)

The timer exercise has inspired our family to add the value of time into our set of family values. At the end of the day, time is the universal resource that is guarateed to run out for everyone. Let's make sure our kids understand the value of time, and then trust their judgement to know how to use it wisely as they mature.


If you found this post helpful, please give the timer idea a try with your kids. I'd love to hear how it works for your family.

If you have any strategies or tactics of your own, please reach out and share them by visiting EEME's Facebook or EEME's Instagram page or emailing me directly - dad AT eeme DOT co (not com!).

If you are looking for hands-on electronics kits for your 7-12 year old kid, we are still shipping during this COVID-19 fiasco. Each kit is paired with its own online curriculum to teach your family how to build the circuit as well as how the circuit works.

You can learn with EEME in three ways:

  1. Sign up for FREE, to learn with our free online lessons

  2. Subscribe to our monthly kits - each month we send you a new project.

  3. Make a one-time purchase of our 9 project set - which is effectively the first 9 month's of projects.

Thanks so much, stay safe, and happy building!!
Jack "EEME Dad"


PS - EEME's a small shop with a tiny marketing budget. So please help us spread the word by sharing EEME with others. Thx!

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