Top Brands: Sphero - Wonder Workshop - Makeblock - Amazon Kids
BLACK FRIDAY: Amazon Fire Kids Pro 10"
BLACK FRIDAY: Amazon Fire Kids Pro 10"
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.
My 9 year old son loves mythology, LEGO and electronics so when he saw JK Brickworks LEGO Sisyphus Kinetic Sculpture he was so inspired that he just had to make it!
I was a bit daunted by the idea, it's an amazing mechanism but looked very complicated! I didn't think we had that many LEGO Technic as my kids aren't keen on vehicles and pretty much all the Technic sets are vehicles. This model shows that that really doesn't have to be the case!
The Original Sculpture
Here's the video of the original Sisyphus Kinetic Sculpture by JK Brickworks. It's based on the Greek myth where Sisyphus gets condemned to repeatedly push a boulder up a hill.
It's absolutely amazing! The main mechanism is separated from the surrounding pedestal. My son decided to just focus on the movement mechanism first. (He definitely wants to build the pedestal too though!)
My Son's Sisyphus Remake
My son's remake of the Sisyphus Kinetic Sculpture |
The Sisyphus Kinetic Sculpture building instructions and parts list are available for the main mechanism so we started looking for the pieces. We decided to build as we went along and make a note of missing parts to order.
I wasn't expecting to have everything we needed, but we were surprised to find that we had most of the parts. We had to raid our LEGO Contraptions set, Ninjago sets and old Bionicle sets, but we found that we even had the necessary gears. (If your kids like this kind of build then the Crazy Action Contraption Kit is fantastic.)
My job was to find parts while my 9 year old build the model from the excellent instructions.
We had to be flexible about the colours in order to have enough pieces. We also had to make some small adjustments where we didn't have quite the right pieces but there were others that would do just as well. My son's extensive knowledge of LEGO parts was really useful here!
My son knew from the beginning that he didn't have the track pieces that are an essential part of the mechanism. But once we realised we had pretty much everything else he decided to come up with an alternative. There was no way we were going to get so close to being finished and then have to wait for an order to arrive!
Instead of the track and gears he used pulley wheels and a regular elastic band. This actually worked really well.
We also didn't have the narrow connector pieces that go between Sisyphus's legs so we had to make his shorts one block wider to accommodate the pieces we did have. This also worked well.
My son made a couple of small (but critical) mistakes which he needed help fixing but he did the whole build himself. He showed brilliant perseverance (as did I :-) It took us most of a day to complete.
The model can be driven by hand by turning a crank so we did this first and worked out the issues with the model.
We have a LEGO Power Functions set so he was able to add the motor to automate the model. The model design includes instructions for adding the motor so once the model was working this was straightforward.
Adding a motor made the model even more fun. We can't resist turning it on! The design means that it's easy to remove the motor if we want to use it in another project and then pop it back.
Verdict
If your family has an extensive LEGO collection then we'd definitely recommend this activity. The model is really impressive when build and the instructions are really clear. There's a parts list and also a video that explains how the mechanism works.
I don't think we're going to want to take this model apart in a hurry, we're going to have to invest in some more Technic LEGO as most of our went into this model!
I don't think we're going to want to take this model apart in a hurry, we're going to have to invest in some more Technic LEGO as most of our went into this model!
I wish there were more LEGO kits like this for kids to build. JK Brickworks do have other models which we'll be trying. The really good news is that another model from JK Brickworks has just been turned into an official LEGO kit.
You can now buy the LEGO Ideas Maze kit (US) (UK) from the LEGO Store.
/fa-fire/ MONTH TRENDING$type=list
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- lego chain reactions
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- lego power functions
- lego technic
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- let's start coding
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- little kids
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- logic
- logical thinking
- loom
- machines
- magnetic
- make it
- makeblock
- makedo
- maker
- makey makey
- making
- mardles
- mars
- mars rover
- marty
- math
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- mbot
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- me arm
- meccano
- meccanoid
- meccanoid 2.0
- merge vr
- mews
- michael faraday
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- microbit
- microcontroller
- microscope
- microsoft
- middle school
- miles kelly
- mindstorms
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- mover kit
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- my first robot
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- photography
- photon
- physics
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- picks
- pimoroni
- pinoccio
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- playstation 4
- plezmo
- pocket code
- pocket money
- pokemon
- pokemon go
- poll
- pre order
- pre-teens
- prehistory
- preschoolers
- primary
- printable
- products
- professor einstein
- programming
- project
- projects
- puzzles
- python
- racing
- raspberry pi
- reading
- reivew
- remote control
- research
- resource
- resources
- retro
- review
- rights
- robot
- robot dog
- robot fish
- robot wars
- ROBOTERRA
- roboticals
- robotics
- robots
- role models
- role play
- romo
- romotive
- root
- rover
- safety
- sam labs
- samuel morse
- sandbox
- schools
- science
- scratch
- scratchjr
- screen time
- screenless
- screens
- sensors
- servos
- simbrix
- skills
- skylanders
- skylanders superchargers
- skylanders swap force
- smart pens
- smartphone
- smartwatch
- snap circuits
- social media
- solar power
- soldering
- sonic pi
- sony koov
- sound
- space
- sparki
- speaker
- speech sythesis
- sphero
- sphero mini
- spider
- star wars
- stars
- STEAM
- stem
- stikbot
- stop motion
- stop motion studio
- storage
- story
- strawbees
- students
- subscription
- subscriptions
- sugru
- summer
- swift
- tablet
- tablets
- tangible coding
- tech
- tech age
- tech craft
- tech is bad
- tech is good
- tech toys
- tech will save us
- technology
- technology will save us
- teens
- teknikio
- tekno
- teksta
- tenka labs
- tesla
- textiles
- thames & kosmos
- the extraordinaires
- tim berners lee
- tinkercad
- tinybop
- toddlers
- toot-toot
- top pick
- touch
- toy
- toys
- travelling
- TTS
- TV
- tween
- tweens
- tynker
- typing
- ux
- vehicles
- videos
- view-master
- views
- virtual reality
- voice assistants
- voice recognition
- vr
- vtech
- web
- websites
- wifi
- wii
- wii u
- windows 8
- wonder workshop
- wowwee
- writing
- writing. education
- xbox one
- xyzprinting