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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.

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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.

Minecraft Jack o Lantern Pumpkin with Pixel Art



Our real-world Minecraft corner needed a Jack o Lantern Pumpkin for Halloween. We considered making a cardboard one, but decided we wanted the real thing.

At the supermarket we hunted through all the pumpkins to find the squarest one of the lot. There were a few options to choose from so it doesn't look like cube-shaped pumpkins are too rare! We pulled the pumpkin back up the hill in my shopping trolley.

Then we needed a template. My 8 year old loves pixel art and we've recently discovered the awesome Piskel editor. We set it up with a 16 x 16 canvas and my son designed the template. We exported it as a scaled up png file.

You could just print out the template on paper and poke holes through it to create the outline, but we cut it out from card on my Silhouette craft cutter. I imported the png into Silhouette Studio and traced the outline of the eyes and mouth to create a path for the cutter. Then we cut the template from card.




I scored a square shape for the top of the pumpkin and my son cut it out of the pumpkin using a pumpkin cutter tool (much safer than a knife). We scooped out the centre as normal.



We stuck the template onto the pumpkin with tape and scored the outline of the eyes and mouth using the pumpkin tool again. Of course, the pumpkin was slightly rounded so we couldn't get a perfect fit. We found it easier to mark the eyes first and then the mouth separately.



My older son came and joined in at this point and they cut out the eyes and mouth together.


They did a great job:



Our real-world Minecraft area is made from cardboard storage boxes so we decided that a real flame would be a bad idea!

We've been using a Circuit Playground Arduino board for a lot of our quick projects so we quickly programmed it up with some Halloween colours and flashing effects and popped it into a plastic bag to protect it from getting damp. The chips on the Circuit Playground can get warm so a proper enclosure would be better. We used cable ties to attach the bag to the lid of the pumpkin with the battery box inside the bag but accessible from the back of the pumpkin to turn it on (it can't be seen from the front.)



A nice balanced activity, a bit of exercise (fetching the pumpkin), digital literacy skills (creating Pixel Art), practical hands on making (pumpkin cutting) and a bit of coding and electronics (Circuit Playground.)



24 days of Scratch coding book cover and cute penguin
Name

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Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children: Minecraft Jack o Lantern Pumpkin with Pixel Art
Minecraft Jack o Lantern Pumpkin with Pixel Art
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Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children
https://www.techagekids.com/2016/10/minecraft-jack-o-lantern-pumpkin-with.html
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