If there are more than one color-matched blocks, then where the player move to? Just random?
The Xylophone Maze: Screen-free coding for children
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Re: The Xylophone Maze: Screen-free coding for children
#52My daughter and I play "dadbot" where I'm the robot and she has to give me clear instructions on what I should do. It started after I showed her https://lightbot.com/ but we like the "screen-free" nature of dadbot better. Eventually she jumps on my back and the game doesn't last much longer because dadbot gets tired.
Sounds like it could devolve similarly to what's being done here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDA3_5982h8
I sometimes try with my children. Having one on my shoulder and pulling either the left or the right ear to tell me where to go. The way home from kindergarten can then take a while, depending on how attentive they are. Of course, parent stumbling into hedges makes for a good laugh, so that may also sometimes be intentional.
Re: The Xylophone Maze: Screen-free coding for children
#53I played Robot Turtles [1] with my kids, a boardgame with a similar idea: The kid can lay out cards that define what the turtle should do, and the adult moves the turtle exactly as instructed. Slightly different because, like in the original Logo, you can say "turn left" or "turn right," and it can be hard for the kids to remember that left and right are from the perspective of the turtle, whichever way they are curr…
It was one of the first successful boardgames on kickstarter, that really started the trend of boardgames being published by crowdfunding. Found this 2014 article claiming it was "the most backed board game in Kickstarter history": https://coolmomtech.com/2014/06/robot-turtles-game-from-thin...
There is a competitive mode for it, still available on the official site: http://www.robotturtles.com/galapagos/ I have thought of trying that some day. The original game has not been played much since my kids were younger, but they are also not yet all old enough to play RoboRally. On the other hand we also have Colt Express that I think is a very fun lighter almost-RoboRally kind of game (if you squint a bit), that might appeal more to kids too old to still want to play Robot Turtles.
Re: The Xylophone Maze: Screen-free coding for children
#54I played Robot Turtles [1] with my kids, a boardgame with a similar idea: The kid can lay out cards that define what the turtle should do, and the adult moves the turtle exactly as instructed. Slightly different because, like in the original Logo, you can say "turn left" or "turn right," and it can be hard for the kids to remember that left and right are from the perspective of the turtle, whichever way they are curr…
One silly, maybe extreme, direction to move to try to explore building functions together is Alligator Eggs: https://worrydream.com/AlligatorEggs/
Thank you for sharing! I tried it out with my 7yo, who was interested. Unfortunately we had some issues with the toddler interfering so our session got interrupted.
I did find an online version here, for anyone who wants to try it without cutting out a bunch of alligators: https://tibordp.github.io/gator-calculus/
I am also on the search for more puzzles/challenges to do with it.
Re: The Xylophone Maze: Screen-free coding for children
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
One silly, maybe extreme, direction to move to try to explore building functions together is Alligator Eggs: https://worrydream.com/AlligatorEggs/
Thank you for sharing! I tried it out with my 7yo, who was interested. Unfortunately we had some issues with the toddler interfering so our session got interrupted. I did find an online version here, for anyone who wants to try it without cutting out a bunch of alligators: https://tibordp.github.io/gator-calculus/ I am also on the search for more puzzles/challenges to do with it.
This blog post [0] has a few more examples, and I like how the author's alligator calculator [1] translates from traditional notation into alligators.
[0]https://propella.blogspot.com/2011/09/yet-another-alligator-...
Re: The Xylophone Maze: Screen-free coding for children
#56I don’t have any kids, but this is a great idea for a D&D puzzle!
Re: The Xylophone Maze: Screen-free coding for children
#57This is an excellent activity in that it has multiple modalities for tacit learning. Keep in mind that when you are playing with young children, it is the time you are spending together that is most important, so if they want to not follow the rules, make up new games, or just bang away on that xylophone, let them, and enjoy the time you have.
My first thought as well... it's so unlikely my kid would respect the rules at all.
Re: The Xylophone Maze: Screen-free coding for children
#58In my mind, all of programming can be reduced to the following 4 concepts. - variables - conditions - loops - functions If there was a way to teach those concepts screen-free, even to adults, I would really love to know it. ThinkFun has a game CodeMaster that teaches loops and conditionals, but my kids found it way to tedious to play. It is better than nothing. Maybe some HN'er has an idea how to create some game for…
>> (And, if there is any other core concept I am missing, I would love to hear that too.)
When you get into parallel programming, I think you'll need more than just those 4. But I'm not sure what the reduction is. Something akin to forking and joining.
Re: The Xylophone Maze: Screen-free coding for children
#59In my mind, all of programming can be reduced to the following 4 concepts. - variables - conditions - loops - functions If there was a way to teach those concepts screen-free, even to adults, I would really love to know it. ThinkFun has a game CodeMaster that teaches loops and conditionals, but my kids found it way to tedious to play. It is better than nothing. Maybe some HN'er has an idea how to create some game for…
>> (And, if there is any other core concept I am missing, I would love to hear that too.) When you get into parallel programming, I think you'll need more than just those 4. But I'm not sure what the reduction is. Something akin to forking and joining .
Of course! There is another one that is really difficult enough to earn it's own pace on the list:
- naming variables.
Re: The Xylophone Maze: Screen-free coding for children
#60My daughter and I play "dadbot" where I'm the robot and she has to give me clear instructions on what I should do. It started after I showed her https://lightbot.com/ but we like the "screen-free" nature of dadbot better. Eventually she jumps on my back and the game doesn't last much longer because dadbot gets tired.
Sounds great. I was playing a lot of Exapunks[1] when my son was little and we started playing a game in real life where I would use the Exapunks commands to tell him what to do. Like
LINK HALLWAY GRAB BALL LINK BEDROOM DROP BALL
etc... Then he would tell me what to do. It was fun.