Seems this time of year pretty much everyone starts getting cabin fever from lack of anything interesting to do and if you are like me I hate seening a kid waste hours in front of a video game day after day. So, how about something cheap that you can do with them and (gasp) is even educational? Heck, it may even open the door to a carreer for them if you aren't careful.
I am talking about a little known computer known as the Raspberry Pi. No it is NOT a PC, but it can be made to act like one. It is NOT a dedicated controler, but again it can be made into one. Imagine a credit card sized computer that costs a whopping $35 and dozens of web sites with examples of "projects" you and your kids can do and even lots of code to go with it. That's what you get with the Pi.
Lots of kids shrug their shoulders at new software applications or even apps on small devices (seen it all before) but when you get them into how it actually all works the majority take to it like a duck takes to water and the first time they make it do something they want the rewards and results have to be seen to be believed.
Heck, for $35 if they mess with it for a week and decided they don't care for it you haven't lost much and if you want you can use it yourself to play movies on the jumbo tron in the living room.
Forum rules won't allow me to post web sites but a simple search on Google for "Raspberry Pi" should get you all the information you could want.
I am talking about a little known computer known as the Raspberry Pi. No it is NOT a PC, but it can be made to act like one. It is NOT a dedicated controler, but again it can be made into one. Imagine a credit card sized computer that costs a whopping $35 and dozens of web sites with examples of "projects" you and your kids can do and even lots of code to go with it. That's what you get with the Pi.
Lots of kids shrug their shoulders at new software applications or even apps on small devices (seen it all before) but when you get them into how it actually all works the majority take to it like a duck takes to water and the first time they make it do something they want the rewards and results have to be seen to be believed.
Heck, for $35 if they mess with it for a week and decided they don't care for it you haven't lost much and if you want you can use it yourself to play movies on the jumbo tron in the living room.
Forum rules won't allow me to post web sites but a simple search on Google for "Raspberry Pi" should get you all the information you could want.