My 9 and 12 year old got some birthday money and want Technic sets. I made the mistake of buying the Crane set last year and it was... tedious. Like, 3 hours of repetitive building. They got bored halfway through. Looking at the Car Designer set or the Excavator. Has anyone built these? Are they mo...
**Apps we've had genuine success with:** - Duolingo (10yo loves it, actually retained Spanish vocabulary) - Khan Academy (saved my butt when he needed to catch up on fractions) - Scratch (started learning actual coding logic, not just games) - Prodigy Math (he'll play this voluntarily which is insan...
We did sledding last weekend but the kids want to do other stuff. Ice skating seems like a nightmare (no one has skates), and I'm not interested in driving 45 minutes to a ski resort every other weekend. What are you guys doing that's actually fun and doesn't require a ton of gear or money? Currentl...
Been struggling lately. My 7 year old spilled juice all over my work laptop and I completely lost it. Yelled at him, made him cry. Felt convicted immediately but the damage was done. How do you all manage to stay calm when stuff like this happens? I know I'm supposed to model Christ but man it's har...
It took me literally 8 months to get through it because I could only read like 5 pages at a time before someone needed something. But I FINISHED IT. And I actually remembered what happened. Granted it was a dad humor book so maybe not the most challenging read lol but still feeling pretty accomplish...
Been working on this since last year. This morning he just... did it. Both shoes. Didn't ask me once. I literally teared up a little bit. He's been refusing to wear velcro shoes specifically so he could learn the "adult way." Worth every frustrated moment.
So I decided to make a raised garden bed this weekend with my son. Watched a YouTube video, seemed simple enough. Grabbed some 2x6 boards from Home Depot, got a drill, thought we'd be done in like an hour. Two hours later, my kid has a 'splinter crisis' every 30 seconds, I've drilled like 6 pilot h...
Took me 6 weekends but we got it done. The first afternoon after we finished, my 8yo and 10yo basically lived back there. They're out there right now building some kind of obstacle course with the leftover materials. Worth every blister and back pain. Might be the best dad project investment I've ma...
Planning a long weekend trip this summer with the fam (kids are 5, 8, and 10). Looking for something that's not gonna cost me a kidney but also has basic amenities - like actual bathrooms, not just a hole in the ground lol. We've done Echo Lake before but want to try somewhere new. Any recommendatio...
My 7-year-old won't stop watching these weird animated toilet videos and now he's drawing toilets everywhere. Like, I get that kids like silly stuff, but this is next level bizarre. His teacher asked why he's sketching bathroom fixtures during math time. I'm not even sure what's happening in these v...
Quick question - my 10yo spent like $8 of his birthday money on one of those 'free' online games and now keeps asking for more. I thought I had purchase restrictions on but apparently I didn't set it right. He's not understanding that the game isn't actually free. How do you even explain predatory m...
I didn't even ask for it. Just woke up Saturday morning and she was like "we're taking them to her mom's for the day, you're staying home." I honestly didn't know what to do with myself at first. Ended up sleeping in until 9 (which felt insane), made a big breakfast without anyone yelling at me, pla...
Built one with PVC pipes, old tires, and pool noodles last month. Cost me maybe $35 in materials I didn't have. The kids have been running it constantly. Pro tip: make it adjustable so different ages can do it without modifications. My 4yo can do the "toddler" version and my 9yo does the harder rout...
Switched companies in October and I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. But it's been 3 months and people actually... log off? My Slack doesn't blow up at 9pm? Took a small pay cut (maybe 8%) but having actual evenings with the kids has been worth it already. The guilt I felt before was insan...
After we had the talk about not talking to strangers online, he literally asked if "bad guys live in the internet." Now he's nervous about watching videos. I was trying to protect him but maybe I scared him too much? How do you balance teaching them to be safe without making them paranoid?