Sam meets Engibear

Have you ever met Engibear?

Engibear is a bear engineer who gets things done with the help of his robot assistant, Bearbot.
There are two Engibear books, and I understand they are among the best selling books in the Engineers Australia bookstore.

My work friend Paul introduced me to the real Engibear. The real Engibear wrote the Engibear books with the help of an architect (Ben Johnston) and input from his children.

Sam loves reading about how Engibear went about building the bridge and his robot. There are lots of things to see on each page. The books are really well illustrated and very detailed - exactly the sort of thing I would have loved as a child.

I had the privilege of visiting Engibear in his cave with Sam the other day. I don't know who had more fun, me or Sam! I am visiting Engibear to work out how I can work with him to help kids get their teeth into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

Let me show you a new way of telling a story. I found it this past week. See the link below. I need not many more words.

Read this story on Steller

Let me know how you find Steller. I love it because I can whip up a story slideshow including video (that looks good!) in less than 5 min, from my phone!

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WHY?
In my early ramblings you might have seen how Sir Ken Robinson's talk shaped my view of education. I really think that in Australia we have a real opportunity and necessity to be world leaders in education.

1. We have some huge hurdles to overcome - climate change, water scarcity just to name two. It's affecting our country now, not in 5, 10 years time. 
2. We can't keep digging or pumping resources out of the ground
3. Innovation and entrepreneurial work is harder to offshore.
4. Australia cannot and should not compete in the same way as other OECD countries in mass producing education, and sacrifice innovation in the process.
5. We can't keep blaming the politicians because we (actively or passively) put them there!
6. We need a more informed electorate, how do we do that?
7. In the coming years, we need not only well informed leaders but followers and leaders with the right values framework, otherwise you'll have very gifted people with little empathy or concern for those around them.

So, how do we keep the twinkle in our kids' eyes as they go through school?

As my children grow through the school systems,  I want to play a part in helping teachers and parents cultivate this next generation.
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The Glory of a Fire

There's something glorious about a fire. 

People gather around it to shelter from the cold.

I took Sam to Gatton, my old stomping ground to join the international students from UQ overnight 

at Rex and Marg's place. It was a chance for international students to experience the aussie country culture and have their questions about their faith answered. 

St Lucia Bible Church and the Gatton Baptist Church got right behind this because quite a few were checking out Jesus. 

And we had a ball (a hot one too).

I had been there many times before and seen a big bon fire (taller than the average person) and kerosene soaked fireballs (below).

I had reservations though.

1. I had the work breakup party the following night. 
2. And then our 7th year Wedding Anniversary the day after that. 
3. It was freezing cold outside (I knew it was colder in Gatton, esp outside!)

But I still went, for these reasons:

1. Sam had seen the milky way but never in the country. I wanted to keep him excited about space
2. Rex and Marg and the whole family including Joel have helped me so much. They helped me find my way in guitar, electronics and my faith in Jesus, which has shaped so much of my life
3. I really wanted to support the international ministry.
4. International students are just great fun to be around.

SO how did it go?

I could tell you about it all, but you've got to see the video I made first.

Earthmoving experience with Jimmy

A few of you have asked me, why do I not often include Jimmy in my blogs?

It was more that he was not the one pushing the boundaries of development.
No excuses now.

Jimmy's speech has been growing at such exponential rate that we're flabbergusted all the time at what he can articulate. More on that later.

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Today I had to do some chores.

1. pick up parcel at Auspost
2. pick up some turkish bread
3. pick up groceries

Normally I would take Sam but this time I realised that I'd have lots of one on one time with Sam at the bonfire/camp event coming up. So I took Jimmy.

Next to the post office we heard the sound of machinery.  Diggers!

I was amazed at the depth of the excavations. From the other side the passers by would not have expected such a multi-story excavation. There were four machines. 

Jimmy was fixated for a good 20min until I realised how loud the noise was bouncing off the concrete walls. 

Then at the shops Jimmy had a great time sampling the fruit at the fruit and veg shop. 

Definitely a happy core memory for me. And Jimmy. 

The power of a question

I read today a great Quora question.

How can one make the most of one's youth?
A response by Rizwan Aseem caught my eye.




In short, Rizwan says you should get in the habit of taking care of:

• Your body
• Your mind
• Your relationships
• Your finances
• Your communication

He gave some very practical examples. Simple right?

What struck me was his acknowledgement of habits. Habits are these things that take a long time to cultivate, but you reap the benefits of habits many years late. Habits have made a world of difference in his life.

I turn 31 this year. 

In the last 12 months, I've just begun to realise the power of habits.

Taking out the rubbish. 

Making the bed. 

Learning something new on the way to work.

With habits these do not seem like chores. But on their own, at the start, they are so hard to get going.

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For other electrical and computer systems engineers, it would be like discovering the embedded system in your brain. Once you have configured it right, debugged it, it keeps running and running in the background.

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Still, there is an assumed "good life" behind the above question.

What is the good life you refer to Rizwan? 

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Selective hearing at age 4

I thought Sam at a very tender age had mastered selective hearing.

Sometimes he would ignore us completely. 

Sometimes we'd say something, and he'd say "Huh?"

Did I model that to him? 

And then recently we discovered he could not really hear. Thankfully there was nothing wrong with the ear drum or the stirrups etc. 

It turns out the eustachian tube linking the ear and the back of the throat can get blocked up.

For children this is more common because the tube is less steep, and drains not so well, compared to the adult. 

So for the time being I've been given the lesson of patience. How great it is for character building.

I've been quite short with Sam, thinking he's just been blatantly non-compliant.

Sorry Sam.

A most dangerous place at the park

Went to the most dangerous park in a while today.

Frew park. 

You could fall, get hit, roll down. 

In the hour and a half I was there with Sam and Jimmy, Sam got hit. He got pushed over. But I pulled him up before he fell down. Yes, I chickened out.

He bouldered up some steps and was about to walk across a ledge, 2.5m high. 

I hesitated. Do I let him or don't I?

To let him would be good for his guts, build some confidence, but then the risk of him falling and say fracturing his vertebrae would be suboptimal. 

I decided I didn't know enough about his coordination, and I could not look out for Jimmy. So I called him back, and said "I'm not sure I want you to go across yet Sam." I tell myself I'll do it if I can catch him if he falls, until he gets old enough and I'm sure enough of his step.

Seriously, this park is extreme. Take a look at the slides. Kids can fall a long way. I'm glad they still make parks like this - is this a wave against the bubble wrapped childhood?

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So I bumped into a neighbour at the park. There with his family, including all his 5 kids. 

He mentioned that this was a regular thing. How so, I enquired.

Turns out one of the dads decided to make it a thing to cook new things, and invite others to bring stuff too. And they do this once every few weeks. 

Imagine if more dads did that.

What a dangerous idea.

The weight of gravity

Today my son just learnt about buoyancy and gravity. My heart sings!

So I was packing up and putting some old clothes downstairs in the storage room. 

I came across an old book of mine, it was a tiny thin book on "Space". 

So I brought it up. When we moved in two years ago I thought I would not pull that out until Sam was about 6. Close enough.

When he came past me he went straight for the book.

By the third page, we talked about gravity, and how Isaac Newton discovered it.

We talked about buoyancy. I brought out a little pot. We floated and sank toys and talked about why balloons didn't fall down like apples if we dropped them.

We talked about the escape velocity for Earth. I tried to work out how to describe to Sam how fast 11.2km per second is. 

Can you think of a place far from here?
S: China.  

*Quick math scribble*

S: Do you know that at that speed we can get to China in 12 min?
Wow. That's fast. 

Yes it is.

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It's amazing how kids are good at pattern recognition.

Sam found some pictures of space shuttles. He remembered seeing these in another book.

And then some pictures of the lunar module.

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I had to go to do some yard work. Sam had loads more questions for me. 

It seems a shame to have to leave the hungry child.