At Home with Kim Vallee

Farewell….

Kim — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 15:54:53 +0000

January 2026 Update: If you are interested in what I am writing these days, head to KimVallee.com, where I explore how cities shape everyday life. And what becomes possible when cities are designed for people, are designed for making life easier. At Home with Kim Vallee is officially closed. I won’t publish here anymore. I’m touched by all the support you gave me during all these years. I met wonderful bloggers and readers both online and offline. I will forever cherish these fond memories. Take care. XOXO

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I now blog at Bidouilleurs

Kim — Sun, 17 Sep 2017 16:20:30 +0000

This is my last post at At Home with Kim Vallee. I launched Bidouilleurs, a blog in French to support what I do in STEAM education with children aged 5 to 12. Bidouilleurs is my new brand. Thank you for your support over the years.

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Why I chose Kano screen + computer kits to build my son’s first computer

Kim — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 16:01:28 +0000

Kid-friendly computers for a 6 or 7-year-old usually come in two forms. Young children either inherit an inexpensive, used laptop, or they could get a DIY computer kit. Since I’m raising a maker, I chose the latter. Although computer kits may sometimes be more complicated to operate, computer kits deliver a richer learning environment. A look at my son’s face before and after we assembled his computer and screen kits proved that I made the right choice. That night, my son proudly told his dad that I read him the story of his computer while he assembled it. Why Kano? The Kano kits won me over with their story, their design and their fun educational approach. Kano does a good job at demystify coding and at showing how computers are built in terms that kids understand. What you get is not just a built-it-yourself computer kit for kids ages 6 and up. You get tutorials, project ideas, challenges, and kid-friendly apps. You get a system designed to teach coding, hardware and technology to kids. This is where the true value of Kano is, if you ask me. Making the computer nourished the kid’s attachment to his computer but it’s just the first step. Assembling the computer and the screen took my son less than 30 […]

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How to motorize a LEGO conveyor belt with littleBits

Kim — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 21:24:08 +0000

For the Illumination challenge, my son and I used a DC motor bit to power a LEGO conveyor belt. We made a short video to show you how to do it. It’s simple to make if you know a few tricks. You’ll save time if you first slide the motorMate onto the “D” shaft of the motor, and then, slide the cross axle. If you don’t secure the tethered DC motor, the motor part will rotate onto itself a few times before it starts moving the conveyor belt. For these reason, we press the motor onto a littleBits mounting board. Get more mounting board tips & tricks here. Supplies you’ll need: 1 LEGO conveyor belt 2 LEGO cross axles 3M 1 LEGO Round Plate 2 x 2 with cross axle hole 1 LEGO Round Brick 2 x 2 with cross axle hole 1 LEGO bush for cross axle 1 littleBits DC Motor bit 1 littleBits motorMate 1 littleBits mounting board I hope this inspires you to make your own inventions. Start making!

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Who Built That? teaches children more than modern architecture and engineering

Kim — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 19:45:25 +0000

By reading Who Built That?, children learned more than architecture and engineering principles. They learn that to turn a project into reality requires vision, passion, creativity, problem-solving skills, and determination. As I wrote before, I felt in love with modern architecture at 6 years old. I’m glad that I can share this interest with my son. We have been reading about skyscrapers this week. Our latest bedtime story is Who Built That? Skyscrapers: An Introduction to Skyscrapers and Their Architects by Didier Cornille. The book explains the technological breakthroughs, design elements, and engineering concepts of eight tall buildings. It’s written in terms that children can understand. But the most important thing, in my view, is that Cornille described the motivations and the challenges that the creators had to face to make their project a reality. We keep a copy of All the Buildings in New York nearby to get another view of the iconic buildings we saw in Cornille’s book. I used James Gulliver Hancock’s book to refer to the buildings we saw when we traveled to New York a few years ago. This makes the entire learning experience more real. Finally, I used this time together to further discuss ways that my son could incorporate what he learned or saw into his own constructions and drawings. […]

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Science camps: We need to go beyond the experiments

Kim — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 18:17:30 +0000

It’s that time of the year when parents start to register kids for summer camps. I sought innovative and fun science day camps for my 6 year old son. I made my short list of contenders and already registered him to two weekly camps that seem awesome. I’m writing this because my STEM camp search also raised a few flags. Frankly, I expected a lot more varieties and more availability. It’s a given that most science camps are located in big cities. The best ones are often associated with universities and museums. With all the sources of information that you found online to inspire the design of these camps, I was surprised that we can’t get more science camps in suburbia. This brings me to my biggest deception: the lack of imagination of the activities provided to the kids. Some programs seem to repeat the same themes or the same old experiments over and over. My neighbour made the same comment the other day when we discussed the after-school programs offered at a local school. Her comment says a lot because they aren’t geeks like my husband and I. As an innovative mom, I would like to see a move away from the one-hour cookie-cutter experiment. I would like kids to do their own projects. […]

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Galaxy Zack shows early readers what it’s like to live on another planet

Kim — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 18:28:36 +0000

I searched for another sci-fi book series for my five year-old son while we wait for the 6th volume of the DATA Set series due in March. I found it with Galaxy Zack. Author Ray O’Ryan centered this fun-to-read series on Zack Nelson, an eight-year old boy from Earth who moved with his family to a planet called Nebulon. Interplanetary space travel and having extraterrestrial friends are common in the year 2120. Zack lived many aventures in a “grape” futuristic universe. Along the way, he meets a few old and new friends. Each time they read a sci-fi book, parents and children have a chance to explore new ideas, to discuss emotions and social conventions, and to fuel children’s imagination. This is exactly what happens when my son and I read Galaxy Zack. Take last night for instance. I asked my son what else we could use other than my iPhone, my Apple watch or the hyperphone used on planet Nebulon. My son described his idea and we pretend played his concept. Then, we got back to reading The Annoying Crush, book #9. Galaxy Zack is more than stories about visiting planets, robot assistants and technological gadgets. Most stories portrayed social situations that are relevant to the life of kids aged 5 to 8. Through the books and by discussing with their parents, children learn how to […]

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Don’t rush it: what ScratchJr and simple block-based programming languages teach children

Kim — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 18:34:19 +0000

I wrote this post because I heard a few parents of kids aged 5 or 6 who did a few simple ScratchJr projects mentioning that they wanted to go to the next step. With the end of Hour of Code week, it’s easy for young coders (or their parents) to succumb to the lure of a more advanced programming language. After all, these programs offer more options. You might feel that you know everything there is to know about the simple block-based language you used so far. In many cases, that would be a huge, huge mistake! Let me explain why I think this way. There’s more to coding than to write lines of code. You need to grow a computational mindset. You need to figure out how to structure your code, how to test it, how to debug it. You need a methodology to start and execute your coding projects. You need first-hand experiences in design thinking and problem-solving. Using a simpler coding language enables the coder to hone these basic computational thinking skills, to grow their coding logic, to experiment different approaches to complete a coding project. My guess is that, too often, simple block-based languages bore grown ups or grown ups failed to imagine more difficult challenges for their […]

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Innovation in school requires a mindset shift more than technology

Kim — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 19:43:13 +0000

The biggest problem with the current school system is how kids learn in school. According to Sir Ken Robinson and Dr. Peter Senge, standardized testing and the way a typical class is taught created many of the learning and behavioural problems we see today. A lot of innovation in school could be done simply by recognizing that : learning is a personal process, a social process and a collaborative process; teachers are professionals and should be allowed to experiment and adjust how to teach their classroom based on the results they got; we already know a lot about how people (kids and adults) best learn. Let’s use that knowledge to rethink how school-age kids learn in school; you can innovate within the system and the existing curriculum if we open our mind to the fact that the way schools operate is often the result of habits, not limitations imposed by the government to the system. Peter Senge showed that it’s possible to innovate within the public school system when he shared the story of Ron, an algebra teacher. Ron’s algebra class is a great example of the way kids could develop 21st century skills in any class. This teacher does it without the use of technology. Instead of teaching a magistral teaching algebra, Ron […]

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The DATA Set, perfect for young sci-fi readers

Kim — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 14:26:54 +0000

If you are looking for a way to introduce a child aged 5 to 8 to the science-fiction genre, look no further than the DATA set chapter books. The filled with danger, action, trouble and adventure stories are fun, easy to read and beautifully illustrated. Illustrations are important at this age. The storylines grab my son’s attention. He looks forward to the next chapter. Like in any science-fiction story, the imaginary mixes with elements from real life world. The main characters are members of the DATA set, a private science club formed by three friends: Gabe, Laura and Cesar. In book #4, they welcome a new member, Olive. Her family moved and Olive just transferred to their school. Social interactions and life situations meaningful to K-2 students are integrated into the stories. What I enjoy the most, as a parent, is that these sci-fi books are action-packed with science-related adventures. Congratulations to Ada Hopper for writing the DATA set. We need more sci-fi books for young readers. Sam Ricks is the illustrator. Five books are published so far — all in 2016, which is why many haven’t heard about these books. Frankly, they deserve more press coverage. The next book is scheduled for March 2016. I pre-ordered ours already. It says it all.

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