ML Interest Tag: speaker

Just Opened!: Tech-y Toy Store littleBits Now in NYC!

by alina adams

Calling themselves “Legos for the iPad Generation,” littleBits, which offers budding inventors ages 5 and up kits of easy-to-use electronic building blocks, recently opened the doors to its first ever New York City pop-up store in Manhattan’s SoHo district. A formal grand opening is planned for August 13, but we dropped in early for a sneak peek. Here’s the scoop on the STEAM-y store your little engineers will be begging to hit up again and again!

The Maker Space

Over half of the impressive 2,200-square-foot store is devoted to various work stations, where kids (and adults) can try their hand at connecting customized littleBits components to form electronic circuits. (This is the basic concept of the toys; the components can then be used to create pretty much anything a user imagines.)

At one table, snapping your Bits together, connecting the result to a USB cable and wrapping it in a strip of colored paper creates an individual, colorful light. String an entire series via wires and you have a blinking design or your name literally spelled out in lights (this is New York City after all, where every kid is a star.)

At another table, you can construct a machine that doodles for you. (Remember that Spirograph you had as a kid? This automates the process!). For more advanced builders — typically age 8 and up— there’s the chance to unleash your inner rock star. Select a cut-out of a guitar off the wall, then stick on your personalized, hand-built circuit that can blink, make noise and vibrate. The keyboard, oscillator, synth speaker and battery are all provided so you can take your show on the road! For tiny engineers especially interested in things that “go”, littleBits has a station where you can add wheels to… pretty much anything. Inventors can then test their creations on a track.

photo: Alina Adams

Can your kid really make something?

Yes! The beginner projects are set up to take about 10 minutes apiece, with the more advanced ones estimated to require 15-20 minutes of work. However, it’s not uncommon for some projects to take longer, with some trial and error to get things just right and working smoothly. In these days of instant gratification, it’s refreshing to see kids struggle at a task, experiment, and try, try again, before ultimately succeeding. The store also makes every aspect engineering and building of process accessible to young minds and tiny fingers.

 

Playing and Paying at littleBits

Perhaps the best part about the littleBits store is that you are welcome to come in and play for free. You can stay as long as you like, work in as many stations as you like, make as many projects as you like. Visitors to the littleBits store are expected to work on their own, but if they get stuck, they can push a handy button right there on the table, and an associate will come running.

If, in the end, you wish to keep what you’ve constructed, you may purchase the entire kit. Prices for projects mentioned above range from $29.95 for the light kit to $74.95 for the “keytar”, with further add-ons available for an extra fee.

Builders are also welcome to leave inventions at the store for other people to remix, but if your little creator wants to preserve the memory before say good-bye, pop into the photo booth for quick picture. (These left-behind items are dubbed “Inventions to Stay”, littleBits’ version of open-source collaboration.)

photo: Alina Adams

Go Before It’s Gone!

The littleBits Store is open now and will be in this SoHo spot through the end of 2015. Things will be busy while it’s here, with events like weekend workshops and guest speakers. The owners see it as a learning lab, not only for the customers who’ll come in and build things they never dreamed of, but for them, too, as there are plans for establishing a more permanent NYC space down the line.

So run, don’t walk to SoHo: This mecca of family tech creativity and fun will only be open for a littleBit!

LittleBits Store
355 West Broadway
SoHo
917-924-2302 (ext. 102)
Open: M-F: 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.; Sat & Sun: 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Online: littleBits.cc/store

Does your kid love littleBits? Share in the comments below!

—Alina Adams

Advertisement

Related reads

Advertisement

What You Need to Know About Nest & How They’re Making Parenting Easier

by Erin Lem
Partner Content

Swaddle master. Band-aid supplier. Bear hug pro. Keeping your kids safe and happy is your number one priority and you wouldn’t have it any other way. Good news: Nest shares your vision. Their three state-of-the-art products–Nest Learning Thermostat, Nest Protect and Nest Cam–are all about making your family’s home a safe and enjoyable place. Read on to get the scoop on Nest and how their devices are making parenting easier.

Nest Cam

You cherish quality time with your family, but as a busy parent, it’s impossible to be with them 24/7. When you’re away from home and wonder “Did I remember to put the leftovers away?”, “Is the baby awake?”, “What’s the dog getting into?”. Nest Cam is the reliable and easy way to know what’s happening at home, no matter where you are.

How It Works
Once you’ve installed the Nest Cam, download the Nest app and you’ll be able to see a live video on your phone within minutes. The live video feed is always in high-definition with the ability to zoom in and a 130 degree angle of whichever room your Cam is located in. Since you won’t always be looking at your video feed, Nest Cam listens for sound and detects motion and can send you alerts on your phone when something happens. But, Nest Cam just doesn’t stop at high-def visuals; the device also features a mic and speaker, meaning you can hear what’s going on and talk back using the Nest app.

Parent Perks
The Nest Cam is much more than a way to check out what's going on at home when you're away. Its Nest Aware subscription service allows you to continuously record up to 30 days of video and save clips to share with your friends and family. So if you’re away on a business trip or get held up at a parent-teacher conference, you’ll still be able to relish and share in those special family moments. The Nest Aware and Video History service subscriptions start at just $10/month for 10 days of history.

New & Noteworthy
The new Nest Cam stand is easy to mount and is versatile enough to allow you to place the camera in places previously inaccessible. The Cam also includes a night vision LED sensors so you’ll be able to see the room in pitch black darkness.

Available at Nest.com for $199

Are you a Nest user? Tell us about your experience! If you’re not, which device best suits your family? 

Advertisement

Related reads

Advertisement

The Ginormous Indoor Play Area You Have to See to Believe

by Ayren Jackson-Cannady

With chilly temps at peak performance, you’re probably spending much of your free time trying to keep your kids’ stir-craziness at bay. Luckily, there are plenty of drop-in play areas around the D.C. metro, but—believe us—you haven’t seen anything this big. Play N’ Learn: The Playground Super Store, with locations in Chantilly, Va. and Columbia, Md., boasts a whopping 14,000 square feet of combined showroom space filled to the brim with play pads, trampolines, and air hockey tables (to name a few). Of course, the play equipment is all for sale, but the stores’ main draw is their free and open play sessions that give kids warehouse-size space to run, jump and climb (without having to jokey for a five-second turn on the tire swing). Cabin fever, bring it!

Test Ride
Don’t judge a book (er, a swing set) by its cover. Even though this backyard superstore has been around for years, its free and open play still remains somewhat of a secret. On cold or rainy days, gather rowdy kids and head out to the Chantilly, Va. location for free play or the Columbia, Md. spot for $6 per kid open play (make reservations here). Surrounded by slides, ladders, basketball goals, and the like, your little one could probably spend a 12-hour day bopping from monkey bar to monkey bar. But, with a two-hour time limit, you can get in, get around and get out…hopefully sans a public meltdown. Bonus: both locations have changing tables, water fountains, and patio furniture for parents to kick back on while kids play.

Party Hop
Looking for a cool place to host a party for your little mover and shaker? Amazing birthday shindigs are offered in 2-hour blocks at the Columbia, Md. location. In addition to all of the playground doodads and wahoos that the birthday kid gets to run wild on, tablecloths, plates, napkins, cups, and plastic ware are included in the price of the party ($219 on weekdays to $269 on weekends). If party planning isn’t your jam, no worries–you get your own dedicated party coordinator to help set up, clean up, make sure you can hook your iPod up to the speaker system, or whatever else you may need.  Bring in Junior’s favorite food to share, or have something delivered. Insider secret: Book your party here sooner than later; they typically fill up about a month in advance.

Take the Fun and Go!
The store’s hottest piece of equipment at the moment is the Springfree Trampoline (which is like a giant bouncy playpen), but don’t worry about getting accosted by a salesperson to buy the backyard beauty right there, on the spot. They know that seeing the cheese-grin on her face as she bounces joyously is the best sales pitch there is.

Have you been to this HUGE play space? Tell us about your visit in the comments section below.

–Ayren Jackson-Cannady

Photos courtesy of Play n’ Learn: The Playground Superstore

Advertisement

Related reads

Advertisement

Speaking Swine: A Pig Latin Primer

by Erin Feher

There’s something undeniably cool about communicating via secret code. And the long-beloved language of kiddie spies, sleuths and language lovers is Pig Latin. The nonsense-sounding words are actually simple to speak and understand once you know the basics. So practice with this Pig Latin primer and you may just be able to boast that your kiddo is “bilingual” on their kindergarten application!

Words that Start With Consonants

For words that begin with a consonant (like hello) or a consonant cluster (like friend), simply move the consonant or consonant cluster from the start of the word to the end of the word. Then add the suffix “-ay” to the end of the word.

For example: The word “hello” would become ello-hay, the word “lunch” would become unch-lay and the term “Pig Latin” would become ig-pay Atin-lay.

Words beginning with consonant clusters would change like this:”Friend” would become iend-fray, the word “brother” would become other-bray and “smart” would become art-smay.

Words that Start With Vowels

For words that begin with vowels, all you need to do is add “-yay” (some Pig-Latin speakers may add “-way”) to the end of the word. It’s a little bit of a brain break, as you don’t need to change any letters around, just say the word as normal then add “-yay” to the end.

For example: The word “it” becomes it-yay, the word “olive” becomes olive-yay and the word “under” becomes under-yay.

This also holds true for the personal pronoun “I”, which becomes i-yay.

Extra Tips: 

Compound Words
Longer words that contain two distinct words are usually broken up into two parts, then the speaker follows the rules above for each of those words. It makes them harder to understand for those not fluent in Pig Latin (and isn’t that the whole point?)

For example: The word “bedroom” becomes ed-bay oom-ray and understand becomes “under-ay and-staay.”

That Tricky Letter Y
For words that contain the letter Y, you will have to ask the age-old question: Is that Y behaving like a vowel or a consonant? If it is the first letter in the word, chances are its in consonant mode and you should then follow the “Words that Start with a Consonant” rule above.

For example: The word “Yellow” becomes ellow-yay and “young” become oung-yay.

If Y is the last letter in a two or three letter word, such as “my” or “cry” the normal rules apply.

For example: “My” would become y-may. “Cry” would become “y-cray”

However, if the letter “Y” comes at the end of a consonant cluster, like in the word “rhythm”, it is treated like a vowel and does not move to the end of the word. For example, “rhythm” becomes ythm-rhay.

Got it? Good!

Now it’s time to practice. Here are ten common phrases that you can use to get your brain and tongue working like a native Pig Latin speaker. Ood-gay uck-lay!

What’s up?  At’s-whay up-way?

How are you? Ow-hay are-way ou-yay?

What are you doing later? At-whay are-way ou-yay oing-day ater-lay?

I love you. I-way ove-lay ou-yay.

I have a secret  I-way ave-hay a-way ecret-say.

I want a cookie too. I-yay ant-way a-yay ookie-cay oo-tay.

I like bananas. Bananas are good. I-yay ike-lay anana-bays. Anana-bays are-yay ood-gay.

Can you speak Pig Latin? It’s really not that hard. You should try it. An-cay ou-yay eak-spay Ig-pay Atin-lay? It’s-way eally-ray ot-nay at-thay ard-hay. Ou-yay ould-shay y-tray it-way.

Can you speak Pig Latin? Then leave your comment below in it! 

–Erin Feher

photo: Jolie Loeb

Advertisement

Related reads

Advertisement

4 Entrepreneur Moms Inspire Crowds at Speaker Series

by Tuba Ugurulu

Super Moms are coming together!

You’ve always dreamed of running your own business, right? Who hasn’t? These amazing, dynamic woman have actually gone and turn their budding ideas into successful businesses. Their stories will have you dancing in your seat and digging out your old (new?) business plan on October 12 at the Marin speaker event, “Innovation and Balance: Inspiring Tales from Entrepreneur Moms” (part of a five-part series hosted by Speak to Me).

Speaker Line-Up

Jessica Herrin: Jessica used her drive and vision to pay her way through Stanford, where her friends will tell you she once retook a class in Econometrics after getting a B+. Which she explains simply as trying to make up for poor marks in underwater basket weaving. After joining two successful tech startups out of college, she attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business, from which she co-founded the venture-backed and now world’s leading wedding site, WeddingChannel.com—at age 24.
She’s been recognized for her business savvy on Oprah, and in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Forbes. She describes herself as a “mom working,” putting her role as Charlie (5) and Tatum’s (2) mom first. www.stelladot.com

Kristin Groos Richmond: Kristin is the co-founder and CEO of Revolution Foods, a company focused on transforming school lunch by providing healthy, fresh, delicious meals and nutrition education to all students. Revolution Foods is improving the health profiles of school communities who serve students with the least amount of access to healthy choices, where oftentimes school breakfast, lunch and snack are the only reliable meals of the day. Prior to founding Revolution Foods, Kristin’s career spanned from education reform to corporate finance.  She began her career on Wall Street as an investment banker at Citigroup. After spending four years in corporate finance, Kristin moved to Nairobi to co-found the Kenya Community Center for Learning (KCCL), one of the first special education schools in East Africa. Kristin is an Aspen Institute Entrepreneurial Leaders In Public Education Fellow and an Education Pioneers Fellow. She has a BS from Boston College and an MBA from UC Berkeley where she serves on the Board of the Global Social Venture Competition. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband Steve and two sons, Watts and Caleb. www.revfoods.com

Lisa Quinn: Lisa is an Emmy award-winning TV host, set dresser, author and busy mom of Scarlett Elizabeth and Silas Cash. She is a contributor to Better Homes and Gardens, Redbook, Life and PARADE magazines; has appeared on Good Morning America, The CBS Early Show, HGTV and Oprah; designed sets for the National Geographic Society and the Discovery Channel; and starred in her own one-hour special for the Fine Living Network. A Memphis, TN native, Lisa launched her first residential consultation business from her home in West Palm Beach, Florida. The business grew, and in 1997 Lisa Quinn, Inc. relocated to San Francisco and evolved into a Design Entertainment firm specializing in residential and commercial staging, set design for television and film, and television production.
She can be seen in the Bay Area on ABC-7’s The View from the Bay.Home with Lisa Quinn is nationally syndicated on the Live Well HD Network. Lisa’s latest book is “Life’s Too Short to Fold Fitted Sheets”(Chronicle Books). Lisa lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children. www.lisaquinninc.com

Lizzie Bermudez: Lizzie brings more than 18 years of experience in broadcast journalism to the 7Live team. As our resident expert in Pop Culture, she applies her Emmy award winning skills to every subject that viewers are curious about. Lizzie is the creator of the buzzworthy LizzieBtv.com, a video blog that shares tips and insight about juggling parenthood for today’s modern mom. Lizzie got her start reporting at a public access station (a la’ “Wayne’s World”) in Bishop, California. After a number of stints at TV stations across the country, Lizzie arrived back in the Bay Area as ABC7’s Morning News Anchor.
Lizzie graduated from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo with a degree in Political Science. When not surfing the web, she enjoys the beach, sneaking in some shopping, and savoring some delicious bites. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two daughters. Although her girls would disagree, Lizzie claims to be just a real mom — not a super mom. www.LizzieBtv.com

Insiders tip

  • The event is being held in Mill Valley Community Center. Get Directions Maps
  • Parking is free in the Community Center
  • Have a light dinner before the event, leave some room for the food and wine tasting.
  • Doors open at 6:30, presentation starts at 7pm and food & wine tasting starts at 8pm.
  • Ticket prices are $75 per ticket. Tickets are available for purchase at the  Speak To Me website. Save when you buy a season ticket for all 5 events.
Advertisement

Related reads

Advertisement