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Product & Book Reviews

Product & Book Reviews

2016 Raising Nerd Mega Holiday Wish List

Posted on November 22, 2016

If you’re like us, you’ve got two holiday wish lists: 1) your kids’; and 2) “the list of acceptable items.” It’s a value filter most parents try to run their kids’ lists through before they shop and/or disseminate gift requests to grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

At Raising Nerd, we, of course, have an additional filter to help us determine the most Nerd-worthy, STEM/STEAM-enhanced toys, games, and maker materials for kids.

To help you in your search for the perfect Nerd gifts (and stocking stuffers!), the RN team poured over foot-high stacks of catalogs from our snail mailboxes, browsed dozens of … READ MORE

Engineering Product & Book Reviews Science & Tech

Got Creative Kids? Find Great Hands-On STEAM Activity at Maker Events and Odyssey of the Mind

Posted on October 4, 2016

Like the fledgling universe after the Big Bang, Maker events can be a bit chaotic. But that’s only because of all the energy created by the swarms of curious and excited kids (and their satellite parents) clustering around robots, 3D printers, and a diversity of other experimental crafts and STEM mini-projects.

The enormous power and thrills generated by these moments of creative, hands-on learning are fuel for a lifetime’s worth of discovery and success.

With all our soccer games washed out this past weekend by three days of rain, my wife, Stylin’ IT Momma (not her real name), and I … READ MORE

Product & Book Reviews

Raising Nerd Approved: Top 5 Best Nerding Blogs for Inspiring You and Your Nerd

Posted on September 29, 2016

Top 5 Best Nerding Blogs for Inspiring You and Your Nerd

There are millions of blogs out there (it’s a statistical fact!) hoping to do everything from teaching napkin origami to sharing bizarre stock photos to fulfilling your daily fake science quota. It doesn’t take a parent long to realize that finding Nerd-worthy material on the Internet can be as easy as landing a spacecraft on an asteroid.

We’ve all been there. What starts with a simple search on home science experiments or the Mars Juno Mission, somehow sucks you into an exposé on how your favorite 80’s TV icons have aged over the years (spoiler: not well).

All … READ MORE

Engineering Product & Book Reviews Science & Tech

Nerd-Inspiring Book Review: What If? and Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe

Posted on September 19, 2016

As a Nerd and a Nerd-builder, myself, my beach read this summer was Randall Munroe’s New York Times best-selling What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. What can I say? When I have quiet time on an airplane (or “sky boat,” in Thing Explainer parlance) or the beach, I like to stretch my brain. It relaxes me.

On the recommendation of another Nerd parent, I also bought Munroe’s follow-up book Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words.

If you don’t already know Munroe’s science question-and-answer blog What If and webcomic xkcd, I encourage you to … READ MORE

Engineering Product & Book Reviews

Nerd Product Review: Kiwi Crate

Posted on July 29, 2016

Kiwi Crate is a art & craft kit for kids that is delivered to you every month. Each kit contains 2 art, craft or science projects and each monthly subscription has a different theme. Kiwi Crate is a art & craft kit for kids that is delivered to you every month. Each kit contains 2 art, craft or science projects and each monthly subscription has a different theme.

Like many places across the country, summer in the Washington, DC, area has been oppressively hot. Too hot to ride their bikes, too hot for trips to the zoo, even too hot for the pool.

The regular 100-degree heat index has kept us mostly confined to indoor activities. In this situation, you quickly run out of movies worthy of a $50 theater visit (by the way, … READ MORE

Product & Book Reviews

Movies Your Nerd Will Love: The Timeless Back to the Future (and its Evil Sequel)

Posted on July 11, 2016

Now that they’re getting to be an age where they can handle a little more action and complex themes, I’m starting to introduce my Nerds to some of my favorite science fiction movies. In a previous Raising Nerd post, I mentioned passing along my love of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Science Channel’s How It’s Made. Similarly, I’m always looking for opportunities to pass on my favorite movies and the things I love about them that make them classics: great stories and characters, special effects magic, and cool gadgetry.

I’m not getting too crazy, of course. I haven’t … READ MORE