What if my kid wants to start STEM activities? What should I do?

Hi parent maker,

Welcome back for a new article on STEM for your children.

After the past articles explaining what is STEM and see if your child was interested. Today we will see more if our child seems to be interested into STEM.

1°) Spying on your kid

If you read the last article, it was mentionned spying. Yeah I know, It looks like a movie but this is it. One of the way to know what your kid want is to spy him.

Why do I bring that up, it's because it can narrow the field of possibilities and help you have a better idea of what they want

2°) Discussion time

You spied, talk, give them activities to do. And there we are. You have a better idea of what they want. It's time to discuss with them on what you have found. Ask them these questions:

• I saw you are doing this: Would like to do this as after-school activities?

• Do you want to join a group with people doing this, this and this (depending of what they like?

3°) Find their a close match to their interest

Your child may be interested in one or more actvities. And now depending of your budget and time. You have to first understand what they really want to do. STEM activities are really large (electronics, sewing, coding, 3d printing, hands-on activities, etc).

4°) Research time

Once done, it's time to make some research. That part may take some time.

The first think to do is to start in your research with Google on the internet:

• At your neiborghood library

• At neiborghood co-op

• Home-school co-op

• Park and recreation centers

Depending of your budget, you may think about finding STEM online classes.

5°) STEM kits

As I said, it also depends of your budget and what your child want to do. It may be wise to start with STEM kits. It is not as interactive as a after-school program with other kids but it allows you to see how the kid reacts to the kit.

You have kit in the following fields:

• Robotics

• Lego robotics

• hands-on activity

• Build a robot

• coding for kids (easier to find on internet such as Scratch)

• electronics for beginner: usually starts at 7 years old

6°) Short on budget and outdoor activities are possible

If you really want our kid to interact with other kids while learning new activities and that you are short on budget. You can do the following:

Gather a bunch of friends, colleagues living close enough. Set the idea to gather 6 kids or more at your place or wherever you can find a room. Find a STEM professor who is willing to come and make the classes. It may be a good idea to cut and share cost.

7°) Another option

One other option is to come join me during this summer if you live in Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia. Raspberry pi event on robotics in DC, veteran plaza in Silver Spring Maryland and more places and activities (robotics, coding, electronics, how to build a robot and more) this summer. Subscribe to the newsletter (at the bottom of the website: www.makersgeneration.net) and to the youtube channel for more events, tutorials on STEM.

8°) Comments and feedbacks

I will appreciate your feedbacks right in the comments at the end of the article. Share it with your friends and family who want to step-in the STEM maker world.

If you have any questions, I can be reached at the following email adress: contact@makersgeneration.net

See you at the events or for another article. ;-)