How to explore ideas with your child

Good morning, Alana. How are you?

I'm good. How are you?

I'm well. Cool glasses. Are those sunglasses?

No, my mom bought these for whenever I'm looking at, like, electronics because they're blue light glasses, so they protect my eyes from some rays.

Really smart. Really interesting. Um, I hear from your dad that you have started to take coding classes.

Yes, I have.

So tell me about those. Tell me what you're doing in those.

So I'm starting in Scratch and we're doing all these like fun projects like making the hippo move and then if it touches the strawberry it eats it and then the strawberry goes to a random place and you get more points the more it disappears. And, um, Bouncy Ball Room, there's You have like, so you code keys for the ball to move. Like you press a key and then it moves. And another version of that is when you press a key, it moves, but it drags a line, like a colorful line. Then if it goes on the edge, it bounces off and it makes like a drawing.

Excellent. And so when they say coding, what part is code? Or what is it? What is it? Why do they call it coding?

I'm like, they're coding it, like code, like you're putting pieces together like code to do, to make this do that or this do that.

Um, and are they like sentences? Is it like a language? Is it, oh, what is it exactly? Is it like a machine?

So right now I'm starting in Scratch. It's like little puzzles. Like you put, you get a piece and it says something like if on edge bounce or move 10 steps or turn 15 degrees. You just put that up and maybe it's, it says forever. That means you do this forever if you put it inside.

So it sounds like it is sort of like a language. Is that fair to say it's a language?

Yeah, it's kind of like a language.

And is it hard or is it easy or sometimes hard, sometimes easy?

Now I'm kind of starting to get the hang of it, so I only really need help like changing the backgrounds. And when I just— and when it tells me to create a key to press to make that move, it's kind of easy.

And do you think that you're going to be able to do more and more complicated projects?

I think so.

Okay, and do you know anybody who is a coder? Any grown-ups who are coders for a living or teenagers who code?

My dad's, so he has an app called Taken and to do that, a person named Reza had to code it, had to code it. Um, and I think that's really cool, and so I know a coder.

Good, and do you know what's similar to what you're learning and to what those kind of coders do, or do you know if it's the same thing, or— I'm trying to figure out.

Um, kind of, um, it's kind of the same thing because I'm really just on beginner level, like I'm not like on like zeros and ones yet.

So, have you seen the code of like complicated programs?

No, I haven't.

Do you know this? Is it Reza? Is that his or her name?

Yeah.

Um, and could you ask to see the code just so you could see what it looks like?

Actually, I could do that.

I think it's interesting. I always think it's interesting, you know, if you're in archery, it's interesting to see what a great archery person, how a great archery person does it. If you're You're in jiu-jitsu. Do you ever watch like really expert jiu-jitsu masters?

Sometimes when we're on YouTube, sometimes we search up maybe Marcelo Garcia or yes, stuff like that.

Do you like looking at people who are real experts?

Yeah, because I can watch them do what they're doing and maybe learn some new moves that they're doing maybe, or just try, or maybe when I'm going against someone right now my dad or Logan, I could try that move.

So would you say you can learn from experts?

I could.

Okay.

Even though it's like, even though, like, it's not teaching you, like, it's not, it's not like this, "Alana, do this," or "Next step, you do that." You just watch.

How about archery experts? Have you ever watched really great archery experts?

Actually, not really.

Mm-hmm. Might be interesting just to see. Maybe there's nothing to watch. Maybe it's not that different, but it might be interesting to watch. Trying to think of what other things you're learning to do. Well, let's see. Spanish. You know, some people are fluent in Spanish, and you're, you're still learning Spanish, right?

Yes.

Do you hear people who are fluent very often?

For my Spanish lessons, my teacher is, I think, fluent.

Do you hear—

and I think the last— go.

Do you hear your teacher talking ordinary Spanish conversation with other people?

No, it's usually like English.

Have you ever tried to watch Spanish TV?

Yeah, yeah, I've done that.

Can you understand it?

Yeah.

Completely?

Or at least just, or at least just, or most of it. I can understand most of it.

Wow.

Like I used to watch Cat in the Hat in Spanish.

Fabuloso. I'm impressed. So with their martial arts experts, their archery experts, there are people who are fluent in Spanish. How about writing? Do you know anybody who's a really good writer?

Jaco Willink. There's—

So Jaco's written books, right? He's written several books?

Yep.

And have you tried to read his books?

I've read all of them.

Oh, you have? Have you tried to write a book yet yourself?

So today I want to write a comic, and I already have the idea. It's probably gonna be really funny or fun.

Cool, and you're gonna do the drawings as well?

Yeah.

Excellent. And so do you think that you have learned about how to write things by reading other writers?

Yeah, like maybe how— maybe they put like exclamation points or periods or spaces. Yes.

Got it. And then with cartoons, do you think you— when you write a— do a cartoon, you've learned from reading good cartoons?

Yeah, like, like maybe Smurfs graphic novels or stuff like that.

Do you think some of them are well done and some are not so well done?

Um, the ones that I've read are all very good.

Okay. Um, so I'm very interested in how we learn from experts or, or people, you know, in the case of Fluent in Spanish, they just you know, they know how to, how to talk, you know, they speak in Spanish all the time. Are there any other ways in which you think you might be learning from experts?

Um, maybe at the archery range, maybe I could watch some people do that.

How often are you going to do archery these days?

Um, I, um, I think my dad said more lately, Marley Field is closed down.

Of course, of course. So that kind of stopped the archery for a while. Um, but maybe after things open up again, then maybe you can go back at some point. Okay. Well, what are you going to do today?

Um, as I said, I'm going to make some comics and I don't really know what else.

Totally good. Well, congrats on the comics. Congrats on the coding. And, uh, you maybe have your dad send me the comic when it's done so I can look at it, okay?

Okay.

Okay. Bye-bye, Lana.

Bye.