Ask HN: Help assembling hacker Xmas presents for kids?

Hi there,

I imagine I'm not the only one here who has been facing difficult times financially. I wish everyone well during the holidays.

I have three very smart kids who are creative and like building things. Well, isn't that all kids?

I had been subscribing to Mark Rober's Crunchlabs boxes. My kids enjoy them, but I canceled those to save money.

I imagine there are cool tech projects that could make great Xmas presents, projects where I could source the components myself for much cheaper than something like a crunchlabs box. Am I wrong?

I would like to hear of any projects where I can put in the time to order inexpensive components and print out instructions on my own printer. There must be lots of people making these kinds of things here on HN?

Good luck everyone!

5 points | by xrd 14 hours ago

3 comments

  • xrd 14 hours ago
    I made one thing that I can contribute. If your kids are interested in Japanese, this is a project where you print out hiragana sheets. They can practice writing hiragana and learn the basics of Japanese. And, no screens involved! My kids used this to learn words like sushi or neko (cat). It was really cool as parent to see them gain confidence in something totally foreign to them.

    https://kana.public.do/

  • learningmore 13 hours ago
    I’m very interested in this. Kiwico and Mark Rober’s boxes do something that isn’t very available right now- producing projects that have the right balance of being easy to understand, satisfaction and learning something new.

    Most of the “STEM” projects that are offered online seem to be very basic (toothbrush robots with a vibrating motor).

  • Vet242 10 hours ago
    да ладео давай хак не нет дарк позитиф _ака_ shad vet242 но дарк тime