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The Geek Dad's Guide To Weekend Fun: Cool Hacks, Cutting-Edge Games, And More Awesome Projects For The Whole Family (2011)

by Ken Denmead(Favorite Author)

3.74 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1592406440 (ISBN13: 9781592406449)

languge

English

genre

Middle Grade & Children's

publisher

Gotham

review 1: A pretty great collection of short, geeky activities that can be done over a few hours. Range from the simple (making a supperhero cape, making medieval weapons) to the more complicated (making a zip-line with a camera attachment). The author provides estimates on time required, difficulty, cost, and even a shopping list so you're not wandering around RadioShack aimlessly. There's pretty detailed instructions, and some ideas for extending the project.I can't say I'm going to try all of them, but there's probably 8 to 10 that I'll attempt over the next year or so.
review 2: What I loved about this book is that geeky moms like me will have just as much fun with these projects (and the pop culture references) as the dads.Projects vary in scope, with ideas for j... moreust about every age level. While most of the projects are the hands-on building type, there are also some inventive activities for little tots, like geeky variations on “This Little Piggy” (Lord of the Rings themed for example). The majority of the projects though are for grade school kids, but could be adapted either way for younger or older kids.The ideas that appealed to me the most were those that fit two criteria: I had to easily understand the instructions. They had to appeal to kids in my boys’ age group (6-9)Fortunately this book is filled with ideas that I’m sure they would love. Those that I think would be fun to try are: the Nerf dart blowgun, Lego trebuchet, skitterbot, and Pokemon bingo.As far as the instructions are concerned, I found them to be easily readable and could understand most of them. The only ones I had difficulty with were those that had to do with electronic circuitry (in the skitterbot and the electronic music projects). That had more to do with my ignorance of electronics than anything else though, and I’m sure I could figure them out if I put some effort into it.I do think that this is an excellent activity book for dads and kids to use together. It’s a wonderful way to unite the interests of dads and kids so that both can spend time together working on something they love. The parents get to have the fun of building and teaching their kids a new skill, and the kids probably won’t even notice that it’s a learning experience because they’ll be having so much fun launching some of their favorite toys across the room, or incorporating them into a robot, etc.Even if you don’t consider yourself a geek there is a lot of good information and fun ideas here. If you do consider yourself a geek though (in other words, if you thrive on cultural references to Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, and Doctor Who), then you’re sure to have fun with all of the humorous cultural references in the text. less

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