Apple introduces more lessons for kids to learn about coding and creativity

Apple wants to build the coding and creative skills in your young ones this summer. Canadian kids can take part in things like Apple Camp, new weekly Kids Hours, and How to Get Started with Coding sessions. For those interested in the Apple Camp, it’s a free three-day experience for children ages 8 to 12 years old. The camp teaches kids about coding, illustration, movie making, and composing of music. In Apple Stores around the world, there are now also weekly Kids Hour that educates about different, fun hands-on projects like “Sphero Maze Challenge,” “Making Movies Together,” and “Creating Music with GarageBand.”

There are also new daily How To sessions at Apple Stores. The new one geared towards kids is the Get Started with Coding sessions. This gives children a chance to explore coding concepts and use the same code professional developers use. Apple’s Swift Playgrounds app for the iPad helps make coding lessons more interactive and fun for beginner coders from ages 12 and up. If you’d like to check out these lessons and sign up, you can find out more in this link.

Doodle 4 Google competition to celebrate Canada's 150th Birthday

By Sonya Davidson

Google launches this year's Doodle 4 Google competition that invites kids across Canada to celebrate the country's 150th Birthday by redesiging the Google logo. Based on the theme "What I see for Canada's future...." the competiton offers entrants tens of thousands in prizing and a chance to be featured on Google.ca

"Doodle 4 Google is a chance for young Canadians to dream and think big. At Google, we are trying to make the future world a better place, by building new technologies, investing in initiatives and making the internet more accessible," said Google vice-president and Google Canada managing director, Sam Sebastian. "This year's competition is all about celebrating the future of Canada. We're excited to see how students imagine the next 150 years!"

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Netflix still wants to help you trick your kids with new fake New Year’s countdown

If your children haven’t discovered it yet (or you’re trying it out for the first time), Netflix has a kid-friendly fake New Year’s Eve countdown video ready for 2017. The idea behind this clip is to show it to your child/children a few hours before midnight and then send them off to sleep afterwards—it’ll supposedly give you time to party with the adults after.  Head to Netflix and search for Countdowns. You can see clips from 10 Netflix videos (including the likes of Chasing Cameron, Fuller House, Trollhunters, All Hail King Julian, Beat Bugs, etc.) with each video lasting  between one and five minutes. Common sense dictates you don’t try this on kids that can tell time, how else are you going to fool them to head to bed early?

Source: Lifehacker

Apple Camp is back for the summer!

By Sonya Davidson

It's mid-way through July and between summer family getaways I'm also looking at what else the kids want to do that doesn't require a full commitment of a week or even a full day. Sometimes we just want a little something that takes a morning or afternoon. 

Apple hosts a really great short camp solution for kids over the summer months. The in-store experience offers a themed project that kids can work on using the latest technology through Apple's devices. Your kids don't need to have Apple products to attend as everything is provided but it does help! 

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