Just wanted to say what a wonderfully uplifting comment thread here in HN all launched by a heartwarming article. Such a pleasure to read of the kids delight, people's travels and fun as kids and with their own children.
+ a billion!!
My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar
171–180 of 257 posts
Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar
#172Funny, I just re-watched the Gener8 DD pitch yesterday coincidentally and checked out where you guys were at since then.
Great write up! Just need to upgrade my iPad OS to give it a spin
Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
And if you're in the D.C. area, Gravely Point is the place for this. Feels like you can count the rivets for planes on either departure or landing.
For Logan airport in Boston, Revere Beach is one place with a pretty good view of airliners, and is short walk from the Blue Line. You can also see a bunch of other places on a map that line up with runways: South Boston (including Castle Island), East Boston, and a bit further from Logan is the harborwalk around Long Wharf and the aquarium. (The aquarium might also be interesting to kids. There's some free viewing w…
Going to Pearson airport in Toronto with my dad is one of my few early childhood memories. I don’t know exactly where we were but it was a popular enough spot that someone had set up a hotdog stand. In my mind it very clearly registers as a scene from the 80s. The aircraft everyone was hoping for was the 747. I still remember the roar of that thing coming in.
Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar
#174So many people say: "Don't take young kids abroad, they won't really remember those travels." BS. I took my son to Brazil, it was great, we got on a $1 cab ride, got on a pirate ship, endless alpine slide after the aerial tram, and went to the Botanical Garden in Rio. (He did say: "that day was totally boring, we didn't do anything!", but I know it was the greatest day of his life, and I can point out all those thing…
Even if my kids forget them all, I won't. The first time we traveled internationally with our kids (a 5-year-old and nearly-2-year-old twins), my wife and I assumed the kids wouldn't really care, but we'd go anyway because we didn't want to give up international travel for a few decades just because we have kids. They absolutely loved it. Now the 5-year-old is 15, they've been joined by a couple more siblings, and (C…
"uss against the world" is great way to put it, and it's especially great to see the kids adopt that as they explore something new. Three brothers could be fighting, annoying, etc. right up to the point when they realize that there is safety in numbers. I still remember them exploring a square in Cartagena when the oldest one was 10 and the youngest 5. They would see something interesting little bit further away from us (parents) and would look at each other and decide whether to engage. They ended-up making new (temporary) friends, getting seeds to feed birds and more as they built their confidence while looking after each other.
For the coming summer I've promised to get the two oldest (now 18 and 15) plane tickets to Madrid, Interail (Eurorail) passes, and flight back to US from Helsinki 3 or 4 week later. They'll figure it out, have fun and hopefully don't do too much dumb stuff. Way to bond before the oldest one leaves to college. The middle one gets to do similar trip again in 3 years when he graduates with his younger brother; who in turn will have his trip one year later (hopefully his oldest brother will be available to join him so that everyone will end up with 2 trips with each of their brothers).
Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar
#175So many people say: "Don't take young kids abroad, they won't really remember those travels." BS. I took my son to Brazil, it was great, we got on a $1 cab ride, got on a pirate ship, endless alpine slide after the aerial tram, and went to the Botanical Garden in Rio. (He did say: "that day was totally boring, we didn't do anything!", but I know it was the greatest day of his life, and I can point out all those thing…
Depends on the age. I took my 4 and 3 year old to Disney World and they don't remember anything. On the other hand, since Age 6 and onwards, they remember most of the stuff. So you cannot make a blanket statement and need to take Age into account.
I like to remember that we are formed by many things that we don't consciously remember.
Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar
#176Advice for a wholesome activity with your daughter: Bring her to the closest road/parking lot/park at the inbound end of your closest international airport runway (Typically this changes based on wind direction). Park and watch the planes come in and land. She can use her "radar" to see which planes are coming in (we used flightradar24). My kids were FLOORED how close the planes get to the ground on approach - especi…
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Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar
#177So many people say: "Don't take young kids abroad, they won't really remember those travels." BS. I took my son to Brazil, it was great, we got on a $1 cab ride, got on a pirate ship, endless alpine slide after the aerial tram, and went to the Botanical Garden in Rio. (He did say: "that day was totally boring, we didn't do anything!", but I know it was the greatest day of his life, and I can point out all those thing…
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Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar
#178Now you get to explain to her in a few years how different ADS-B-based web data (or locally received ADS-B, even) is from genuine RAdio-Detection-And-Ranging (either the old school rotating type or modern fancy PESA/AESA ones). And she'll forever remind you how your app [name] is a lie.
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Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar
#179This is great. On my « one day » build list. In a similar vein, my 5yr old son has a flight log book - I started it for him as a baby. Every flight he gives asks one of the crew if the captain wouldn’t mind completing it. It logs route, aircraft and any events that happened. The crew _love_ this kind of thing - we’ve toured cockpits and crew rests and the messages are always gracious. He’s always beaming to get it ba…
My father started a logbook for me when I was a toddler which I still keep updated to this day (I'm in my 30s). Every flight I've ever taken is in it. It's a really neat idea.
Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar
#180This is brilliant - thanks for sharing the story. This is one of those ideas that, on the surface, looks really hard to build but your breakdown made it look super easy. Very inspiring :)