Lego Stop Motion Movie

Date:  Oct 4, 2015

My home become the playroom for these playdates kids.

This week, we shall make Lego movies.  The three kids suppose to come up with one movie.  

Ashlyn is the director, she directs.  Means, she tell people what to do.  It is very important for her to make sure, no legs no hands in the camera.  It is also important to make sure things are moving every where in the scene.  Means, while getting people into the park, the turning wheels keep turning, not stopping, people keep walking, etc.  You know those kinds of details.

Riandy is casting director.  He decided who goes into the scene and what props go into the scene.  

Jay Jay is the mover.  He move the props and characters as per Ashlyn.

Hahahaha, no need to sent them to those courses offer making of Stop Motion video.  I have it here at my home.  hahahaha

I bought this software a long long time ago.  Wow, they are now $9.99.  I think last time when I bought it it is still $1.99 or 99c.  And I load it up onto all the iPhones and iPads.  So that the young kids can play too.

 Here is the production.  They have not learn how to import the movie into iMovie to add sound, voice, music, and text… That is next few times later.

It is crude, but I am sure it is lots of fun.  And the name the video “The Sheep Demolisher”.

And too many hands and legs in there.

And the base props keeps moving.  hahahaha

Meanwhile… a young small kid, Kay Kay sitting in the other side of the room, while Colette and Gwen is playing the Barbie Dolls… he sit there quietly and generate a few hundred frames of movie.  Kay Kay has not done this people, he has not learned before.  So, whatever he did, it is on his own after I gave him a tutorial how to press take photo. 

Look at the thought of the young kid.  

It’s imagination.

A roll of Lego fingerings wearing the sound proof headset.  Not any how take the characters from the box. (at 0:13 second)

The reason why Jedi Master yoda is there because, he was flying his Phantom and saw the accident and wish to offer help.  hahaha

Well done!  Not bad Kay Kay!

Lego Robotics - Bricks Grabber

Date:  Sep 26, 2015

The key objective of today’s project is to build a robotic car that can grab as many bricks out of the black square.

A simple task, but needs the kid to come up with their imaginations.

This is what Mr. Jay comes up with.  His robots come with a square arm that can embrace almost entire brick stocks in the square box.

And he will keep improving the arm grabbing mechanism.

I am glad that he has come until this stage where he can design his own bots, and make the bots solve problem.

Good thinking Jay!  

Here is his robot in action.  The arm is not strong enough to hold.  but it is good enough.

Here is another run.

No wonder there are a lot of Lego books in the Toilet.

He told me that he got an idea from the Lego books.

This kid is geared for engineering path.

And I think it is a very useful course for him, so to add the “thinking skill” and “design skill” into his skill sets.

The Art of Speed from Playeum

Date:  Sep 24, 2015

Today is a holiday.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t do any outdoor activities because of the very unhealthy haze condition.

So, early in the morning, I read upon this new place or exhibition at the Gillman Barracks.  So, I shouted to the kids and say “Let’s go, I bring you guys to a mysterious fun place."

(Of course they do not know what is in for them later)

This is the address.  The are about 14 lots of car park space here.  it is about 100 meter before the actual place.

There is a big pink elephant outside.  So, it is easy to identify.

There is also some coffee places, and some restaurant near by.  The food so so only.

It is for all ages (kids age from 1 to 12).

$20 per kid.

You can do handy crafts. 

You can play with the Lego.

You can draw on the wall.

There is also a dark room for you to play with lights and shadow.

We were there 10am sharp.  Already a lot of people line up to get it.

By 10:30am, they actually stop people from going in because the whole place is full house.

Jay’s friend who come late, has to wait for at least 1 hour on the waiting list.

How cool can it be?

Well it is always cool when you have Lego around.

You get to build cars with Legos and wheels.

And the better you design the car, the faster it goes.

Oh yeah!  You get to roll the car down from this ramp.  

It will jump over a separations and then landed on the other ramp.  That is cool!

The 1-3 years old can play at the corner straight ahead.

The 3-6 years old can play on the right with lots of tracks.

The dark room is that room in the middle.  Later tell you want it is.

Rolls something with wheels down the track.

Or you can roll your car down on the transparent canvas into a turning wheel.  That’s cool too.

Now, we need to build some cars.

Car #1 does not work.  Flat base with 12 wheels.  

At the center, it will change the direction.  Bad design.

It was actually designed by me.  hahahahaha

Jay’s one works better.

Let’s check it out.

It is fast.  But not so stable.

Let’s increase it to three rows of wheels.

It was fun to do a trial and error.  Keep testing and rebuild it to a better one.

Actually, the original idea came from Kay Kay.  And Kay Kay explained, he learned from the Bad Piggy games on iPad.  

And I recalled.  hahahahahaha ya, they really build very weird car.  But as long as it works.

And Jay Jay adopt the same design.

And keep improving it.

Let’s check it out.

Ouch.

Let’s try again.  And please use Slo Mo to take the video.  

It is really fun!

Look at how high it jump.  And when it landed, all the top wheels got loosen.

Let’s try again!

Again and again.

He improved it at a level that it is jumping very high up in the sky.  

But the landing part still need to improve.

Every one was amaze with what Jay has build.

This is the last run.  After may be 50+ runs?

And we gave the wheels to the kid who stick his head out from the left.

Well done!  Well done!

These two girls are creative.  They can pull the car back.

Of course, this is not only for building Lego cars.

How about rolling these marbles into the speed tunnels?

Yup, you have to build the correct tunnels with transfer of energy from Potential to Kinetic.

Its all about Science.

You can build a lot of arts here too.

There are many recycle materials for the kids to build.  Some kid build a light sabre.  Very cool.

This is what I build.

Kay Kay asked if he can bring this home.

Of course I say no.  I want my art piece to be displayed here.

Kay build a rocket satellite.

Jay build his cat toy.

Don’t forget to check out the dark room.

There are a lot of fun thing you can do here.

With just the photo frame and hands. you can create all sort of lights effects.

Well done Jay!

Fun level is very high for both of them.

They enjoyed very much until want to skip lunch.

Of course we say no.

Kay Kay’s lightsaber.

Lego Stairs Climber

Date:  Sep 19, 2015

It is Saturday again.  Jay attends Robotics class every Saturday with his friend Riyandi.

This class teaches them how to use Lego Mindstorms to solve problem.

Let’s check it out how is their progress of learning robotics.

Wow!  They are treating it like their home.  Lying on the floor to program.  (no sleeping ya)

This week project is to climb the stairs.  And the stairs is these few stairs as shown below.

Sounds simple right?  

Well, this is a two weeks project.  Last week they failed.  Hahahaha  

This week, they seems to come up with a new design.

Last week, they build a robotic car that is powerful enough to climb one stairs and get stucked there.

So, teacher Enzo only flashed them with a video to prove that it can be done.  Perhaps a video of what they can do, and they have to build the robotic cars themselves without instructions.  I LIKE!

Think… Master Builder.

After they build the car, they will need to figure out how to program it.  Also modify and improve it.

See how much fun they have.  And how many times they have failed.  And they keep on learning to improve it.

Jay Jay slowly understand what is the problem he is facing.

OK.  Let’s see some actions.

This week, they added the climber wheels.  The figured that they need that climber wheels to pull the robot car up the stairs.

So, they need to figure out what to do, once they got on to one stair.

Riyandi one has a shorter climber wheels.  And why it got stuck?

So, that is the problem the kids have to fix.

 Jay’s one has a longer climber wheels but more unstable due to length. And notice that just below the EV3 module, there are two pieces of lego sticking out and that is obstructing the movement.  So, he has to redesign that so to make it smooth.

Almost there.  But keep repeating the actions as it failed to move up stairs #2.

By this time, there is only Jay Jay left in the class.  All the rest  have to go off because they have other activity.  So, Jay Jay gets all the attention from teacher Enzo.

But still he could not make it to the top stairs.  But his bot almost did it.

The reason is because the parts that holding the climber wheels are not strong enough.  So, that is why you see that it always bend a little, and that does not create the strength to pull the bot up.

So, Enzo passed him and let him go.  And he is so excited and explain to me what happen, etc etc.

The country wanted all the kids to learn programming and be a smart nation.

So, I guess Jay Jay should be fully prepare for it. 

This coming School holidays, I will teach him how to program an App.  :)