Robotics For Non Tech Parents

I still remember the Tuesday evening my 8-year-old daughter dumped a robotics kit on the kitchen table. Forty-seven pieces of plastic and a manual that looked like it was written in code. She looked at me with those excited eyes and said, 'Can you help me build it, Mum.' I smiled and said, 'Sure, sweetie,' while internally screaming, 'I CANNOT DO THIS.' I have never coded anything in my life. I once broke the TV remote trying to change the batteries. And now I am supposed to build a ROBOT.

My Journey Begins

The first time she asked me, 'What does this wire do,' I froze. My brain went completely blank. I looked at the wire. I looked at the manual. I looked back at her hopeful face. I had absolutely no idea. I thought, 'This is it. She is going to realize I am useless. She is going to ask her dad instead. I will become the parent who cannot help with homework.' But then I took a deep breath and said, 'Let me read that instruction out loud.' We read it together, and slowly, we started to understand.

Overcoming Fears

There were many moments when I felt like giving up. Like the time we were trying to attach the motor to the battery pack, and nothing happened when we pressed the power button. She looked at me, and I looked at the manual. I almost said, 'I do not know, sweetie, maybe we should ask your dad.' But instead, I said, 'Hmm, it is not working. What do you think we should check first.' She stared at it for about ten seconds, then said, 'Mum, is it on.' I looked closer, and there was a tiny switch on the battery pack that we had missed completely. She flicked it, and the motor whirred to life. She screamed with joy and did a victory dance around the kitchen. I learned something that day. Not about motors, but about not knowing. It is okay to not know. It is the start, not the end.

Week-By-Week Plan

Here is how our journey went:

1. Week 1: We opened the box and counted the pieces. We did not build anything, but we looked at the instructions and felt like we accomplished something.
2. Week 2: We tried to build the base, but the instructions were confusing. We looked at the picture and tried to figure it out together. It took us a few attempts, but we finally got it right.
3. Week 3: We programmed the robot for the first time. The app said, 'Drag blocks to make the robot move forward.' I had no idea what that meant, but my daughter dragged a green block that said, 'Forward 5 seconds.' She pressed Go, and the robot shot across the table and fell off the edge onto the floor. We both screamed, then laughed so hard we cried.
4. Week 4: We made the robot turn. My daughter had been trying to make it turn left for ten minutes, but it would spin in circles instead. I asked her, 'What have you tried so far.' She showed me the blocks, and I saw that she had put in too many turns. I said, 'What do you think is making it spin instead of turn.' She looked at it, then said, 'Maybe too many turns.' She deleted five of them, tried it, and the robot turned smoothly and drove away.

There were many times when my daughter got frustrated or stuck. Like the time she said, 'This is too hard.' I said, 'I know it is hard, but we can try to break it down into smaller steps.' We took a break, then came back to it later. She was able to figure it out, and I was proud of her for not giving up.

As we worked on the robot, I noticed my daughter developing new skills. She started to think critically and solve problems on her own. She would stare at the robot, then try something different. She even started to help her little brother with his Lego builds, using the same language I used with her. 'What do you think goes here. Let us look at the picture together.' I was amazed at how much she had learned and how confident she had become.

I found some great resources online that helped us with our robotics journey. There is a YouTube channel called Crash Course Kids that has a video called, 'How Do Robots Work.' It explains sensors in a way that is easy to understand, using cartoons and sound effects. I also joined a forum for parents who are learning robotics with their kids. It was great to connect with others who were going through the same thing and to get tips and advice from them.

What You Do Not Need

I thought I needed to understand how circuits work and what voltage means, but I did not. I just needed to be able to read instruction diagrams and match pictures. I thought I needed hours of free time, but we did it in fifteen to twenty minutes most evenings. I thought I needed to never get frustrated, but I got frustrated a lot. I said out loud, 'This is really hard,' when it was really hard. My daughter saw that adults struggle too, and that was valuable.