NEWS$show=/search/label/news

Here's where you'll find all the latest news about technology for children. We love to follow cool new inventions on Kickstarter and we hunt out all the latest announcements about tech toys and gadgets for the coming Christmas holidays. You'll also get our take on children's technology stories in the media.

REVIEWS$show=/search/label/review

Our kids technology product reviews are intended to help you work out whether a toy, gadget or kit is a good fit for your child or family. There's lots of cool stuff available, but is it the right choice for the child or teenager that you are buying for? We'll help you make the right choices and get the best value for money.

GIFT GUIDES$show=/search/label/gift%20guide

Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends assemble. We create gift lists to help you make good choices for kids technology which helps them develop the right skills for the future. We research the best in Coding Toys and Games, Making / Craft Tools and Kits, STEM/STEAM related gifts, Programmable Robots, Electronics Kits and Gadgets for Tech Age Kids and Teens.

PROJECTS$show=/search/label/project

Get crafty with technology. Here we'll post all our ideas and projects using technology to get creative and making with kids. You'll find anything from making a lemon battery to a glow-in-the-dark Minecraft sword. Our projects are tried and tested on our own kids or at events we run, so we are sure you can have a go at home with your kids. Some of our projects use specific tech gadgets which we provide links for you to purchase.

STEM$show=/search/label/stem

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In recent years there is an increased focus in these areas of study. We like to include Art and Design too, so we often talk about STEAM (A stands for Art). At Tech Age Kids we believe Coding is a new literacy and children need to understand how technology works, practice making skills and grow in their curiosity to make a better future for us all.

CODING$show=/search/label/coding

Coding is increasingly being recognised as an important skill for children to learn. Some will learn to code at school or at a coding club, but it's brilliant if they get support at home too.

ELECTRONICS$show=/search/label/electronics

We think it's really important for kids to get hands-on with electronics and learn how to make circuits and write code to control hardware. Younger kids can start with conductive playdough. For kids who like to combine craft and tech, littleBits are fab. And we love SAM Labs wireless electronics components for making it easy for kids to make Internet of Things inventions. Lots of electronics kits for kids have support for the Arduino microprocessor environment. The DuinoKit Jr is one of our favourites. Arduino is a fab skill for older kids and teens to develop.

ROBOTICS$show=/search/label/robotics

We love robots at Tech Age Kids, especially programmable ones. We've got lots of them and write reviews and projects that use them. Our programmable robots for kids buying guide is a good place to start if you're not sure what's available. Roby the mBot Meccano robot dog is one of our popular projects and has been with us to lots of events. Our Ozobot LEGO trailer is fab for kids who love LEGO and robots.

MAKING AND CRAFT$show=/search/label/making

We're advocates of the creative use of technology, but this needs to be balanced with developing physical skills such as papercraft, woodwork, clay modelling, technical drawing and soldering. If children don't develop these skills as they grow up then physical making projects can become frustrating rather than fun. The Maker Community uses the term 'making' as a broad term to include all sorts of artisan skills or craft activities. Being able to make things can lead to life-long hobbies or even careers. It's a great feeling to be able to take a project from an idea in your head to a real object that does something. We're particularly interested to explore products that combine maker skills with tech skills such as electronics but others focus purely on the physical making skills that are still important to modern making.

Grace Hopper: Computer pioneer

I think about Grace Hopper every time I introduce the term 'debugging' to pupils. The story goes that Grace Hopper had a problem with her computer program and found that the culprit was a Moth or 'bug' in the workings of the computer. It's a great anecdote to tell children. It helps them make sense of the term debugging and it introduces them to a great character from the history of computing.

Grace Murray Hopper was in the US Navy and eventually became a Rear Admiral. She worked on the Harvard Mark I, a very early US computer. She was a real character and made major contributions to the field of computer science.

'Amazing Grace' was born on December 9th, 1906 so we're publishing this article on her birthday.


Hopper believed that it should be easier to program computers. She was instrumental in the development of COBOL a computer programming language that read like English. Instead of making humans write code in a way that is convenient for computers, COBOL was a step towards making computers understand a language that is convenient for humans.

This is a useful video to share with children to give an overview of Hopper's life and contribution to computer science:



Hopper had a knack for explaining technical concepts. She's famous for her use of  'nanoseconds' - pieces of wire that showed the distance light or electricity could travel in a nanosecond. She used these to explain why computing took so long and why it was important for programmers to be efficient and not waste nanoseconds.

If you want to see Hopper in action, this video is fantastic. It really conveys her humour and determination. Watch it first before sharing with children as there is a little salty language! (Well she was in the Navy.)



"It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission."
Hopper is also credited with coming up with what I've found to be a most useful maxim on many occasions: "It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission." It's not certain that Hopper was the first to use the phrase but she certainly popularised it. 

Children's Books about Grace Hopper

I think we're due a new book about Grace Hopper for children, hopefully someone is working on it.

But there are some books that tell her story:

Girls Think of Everything by Catherine Thimmesh is a fab book that includes profiles of lots of interesting female inventors.

Grace Murray Hopper is one of the women included in the book. Kids should definitely be exposed to stories like this to make women's contributions more visible. 
There are also some older out of print books for a younger audience such as Grace Hopper: The First Woman to Program the First Computer in the United States by Christy Marx.

There are used copies of this book around so it's worth looking out for if you want to share Hopper's story with your kids.


For older teenagers and parents there's Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Invention Age, a biography by Kurt W Beyer.

This books gets beyond the anecdotes and public persona of Hopper's later years and takes a detailed look at her life and contribution.


Image credit: Public domain / Wikipedia

24 days of Scratch coding book cover and cute penguin
Name

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Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children: Grace Hopper: Computer pioneer
Grace Hopper: Computer pioneer
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