Power Summer with Power Mac!

The Power Mac Workshop Series.  I'd like to call this summer choice one of my gossamer parenting wins.  Uh-huh.
It's not the usual pre-planned, month-long summer camp.  Power Mac gives you piece meal workshops.  And you know what, that's just right.  Each session didn't drag.  There was instant gratification.  Ergo, it made kids instantly happy.  Cool logic when you think about it.

Each workshop features a Mac/iOS/iPAD application to learn.  You get to choose, and then progress as you wish.  It's like building your specialty box.
For starters, Miro chose Video Game Development via the Game Salad program.

In as short as 2 and a half hours, he realized Professionalism.
None of those cutesy, 'preschool' set-ups.  This is an adult office set-up.  We mean business!  And my boy liked it.

Empowerment.
Each kid got his own MacBook Pro, and almost a guide each.  There were 3 teachers to 4 students.   

Responsibility.
The task was to create your own game.  So the mechanics of the whole thing had to be planned out. Lots of swarm actor attributes, explosion size, and integer talk here and I'm not going to pretend I understood an iota of what went down.  But you do see consequences to your miscalculations and you have to rethink and redo your strategy.  They allow the kids to make mistakes and make it right. 

Fulfillment.
When all was said and done, the kids demoed their own games.  This was the only time when the kids went back to being kids again --screaming their heads off when they killed off the alien ships or when their hero ships got obliterated 5 seconds into the game.

Reward.
Loot bag time!  The kids got to take home their self-made games to show off to their friends and families.  They got a neat t-shirt, too.

So in that short-a-time, Miro had enormous fun and learned at the same time.  He came out with a proud, goony smile, and me -- with a happy, well-deserved pat on the back.  Good job, mimi... good job. :)

The Power Mac Summer Workshops are still ongoing.  Choose your child's wild here.  We're thinking of doing 3D Animation next.  Yowza!