Probably, like most parents in India, you have experienced the predicament of juggling between screen time and more productive learning. That is where I was one Saturday afternoon, watching my kid flip back and forth between YouTube videos. Frustrated and partly desperate, I proposed an experiment: a straight-forward challenge about robotics for kids online. I did not have great expectations. However, the experience that occurred in that weekend changed my perception of the learning capacity of my child completely.
Why Online Robotics is Not Sufficient on its own?
Undoubtedly, online robotics has opened unbelievable possibilities and this is particularly true about those families that do not have access to real classes or expensive kits. Nevertheless, even the most competently built screen-based learning can at times be not enough to occupy the hands and minds of a child equally. During this weekend, I discovered something incredible, as when my child was actually playing with parts, touching wires, and observing actual results, the spark was actually lit.
Online documentaries and teachings are a marvelous way to introduce a concept, but they hardly imitate the actual feelings of achievement after crafting something with one own hands. In our case, the turning around was not by observing, but by action. This is when robotics ceased to exist in the realm of theory and became an experience.
The Project Which Changed Everything
We did not set out on any big idea. I challenged my 10-year-old to design a machine that can make a plant receive water when the soil was dry. It was not a defined lesson, it was only a challenge. We rummaged through a drawer of old wire, motors and busted toy parts. Using simple online tutorials and much trial and error we were able to get a simple system working with a moisture sensor, a motor, and a bottle made of plastic.
It was not pretentious. More than it poured it sputtered. However, to my child it was pure magic. The robotics became real when I watched that little motor buzz into life as a result of dry soil. What he expressed on his face was the pride and amazement not in grades or performance. It was concerning the ability to make something real by his hands.
Letting go of Perfect Projects
This is one of the most valuable lessons that I got in the process, because it is quite important: it is necessary not only to allow projects to be messy, it is also necessary to allow imperfection. We as Indian parents have tendency to compare success with neatness and correctness. The circuit-breakers and unsuccessful trials are the place of learning in robotics.
When cables were not plugged in correctly or motors were supposed to turn, I wanted to rush in to the rescue. Rather I recoiled. I did observe how my kid tried to connect again, changed the code and solved minor issues step by step. It was not merely the moments of constructing machines, it was the moment of constructing his confidence.
This is the core of the robotics for kids online children when taken to the real world. It is not about creating robots that would operate without mistakes. It is more of having a mentality that will make failure seem a step taken in the right direction rather than setting back.
Hobby to Habit
Something changed as weeks went on. Robotics was not a hobby that only happened on Saturdays. It was a component of the way my child thought and played. It was either trying to make a toy car learn to follow light or learning how to make an alarm with a simple sensor, the enthusiasm was becoming bigger and bigger.
Interestingly, this hands-on experience did not drive away the robotics for kids online, it complemented it. Rather than consuming the content, my child developed the attitude towards the online lessons of a builder rather than a viewer.
Conclusion
That weekend prototype was not a cheat to acquire skills relating to robotics. It opened an entrance into a new thinking. It echoed to me that children do not necessarily need to be provided with perfectly planned lessons and highly organized environment to succeed. They do not always require intervention, a push and a free pass to fail on their own terms.
Do not wait until your child is ready (or it seems they are ready): once sparked, even a small interest in robotics will sustain itself. Start small. Start messy. Allow them to be in the frontline. You might be surprised at the pleasure they can find in the construction not merely of machine, but of ideal.
