A few weeks ago while attending BSidesDC I found out that BSidesDE was planning a kids event this year. The moment my kids heard the word minecraft all bets went out of the window and they just HAD to be there.
Day One
Upon arrival the kids were given a raspberry pi kit. You would have thought it was Christmas morning watching my kids unbox everything. Once everyone had caught up with the assembly they were talked thought the installation of the software. My kids had a race to see which would hit 100% first.
Then there was minecraft. This took up the rest of the morning while they each ran around in the PI version and created weird things and fly around the sky.
In the afternoon they went over the basics of Scratch and then were set loose to make little creations spin around the screen.
Off and on durning the day they would take a break to play with a table full of snap circuit kits. There must have been about 15 kids open around the table for kids to play with.
The whole ride home (about an hour) was filled with stuff they got to do and what they wanted to do the next day.
Day Two
Day two was filled with much of the same as the previous day. Snapcircuits everywhere, minecraft everywhere! Early in the morning they brought up a wireless network and a server for minecraft so that all the kids could play together. This was a huge hit, which took up almost the whole day.
The Review: Parent Version
I really enjoyed the fact that the kids were not separated from everyone else in their own room. I was able to socialize and still keep an eye on my children at the same time. Letting the kids take home their PIs was awesome!
Some improvements I would love to see next year:
- A walkthrough of some of the snapcircuit projects
- A project to complete with scratch
- The ability to register your children with an adult ticket
The Review: Spawn Version
Warning, this was written by my oldest child (7) and will only be edited for spelling.
I loved the spawncamp. I loved how they made a server and everybody got to play minecraft. I also loved how they had this thing called snapcircuits. I didn’t like how everybody could destroy things that someone made in minecraft and how you could not take away permissions in minecraft. I loved how everybody made friends with someone else. I think nothing should change.