Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Mindstorms - more musical instrument than toy?

After participating recently in a couple of holiday robotics workshops it's become clear DS 8 has a rather exceptional talent for programming. It's the first time we, and others, have really seen in the real world, rather than just on paper, that his peer group for this kind of activity is around the mid to late teens.

He's now been invited to participate in weekly high school workshops and the question of whether we'd purchase a mindstorms kit comes into play. Until now we've really thought of this as a very high end toy. I'm now considering it more in the nature of a musical instrument. Oddly enough while forking out the big dollars for a lego toy is something I'd struggle with the purchase of a musical instrument, I would not. In that vein I'm thinking it shouldn't be a birthday or Christmas present, which I was originally thinking if we decided to take the plunge, but a specialist piece of equipment to further a talent.

How do people give a musical instrument to their kids? Is it a birthday type of gift or is it just equipment to undertake their pursuit of choice?

Anyone else purchased mindstorms? Thoughts?

Why do you have to buy a proprietary robot? Why not make your own from scratch?

My two children wanted a Mindstorm, so my husband and I made a deal with them that if they saved their money to pay for a third each we would add in the last third. We got it, and we all played with it for a couple of weeks. However lately it hasn't seen much use. I do have to admit I think my husband and I were just as excited to get it as them as we both like technology (I have a programming background) so we were more willing to make it a purchase outside of a normal gift time (birthdays, holidays, etc.).

It sounds like you might need this for the workshops. However if he is just looking to do programming, you could get him a Raspberry Pi which is much much less expensive ($35 for the Pi itself, but you also need to supply your own keyboard, mouse and monitor). It is just a very basic computer (not a robot out of the box like Mindstorm), but it has more options for programming. You can also buy lots of additional components that let you build different types of devices. With Mindstorm it uses a graphical programming language. With the Pi, you can use Scratch (graphical), Python (text-based) or others. The Pi also comes with Minecraft installed, and it is simple to use Python to control the game. My DD found it a fun and engaging way to learn Python. There are tons of tutorials out there for it. My DD prefers programming with Python rather than Scratch as she doesn't like the graphical programming model as much.

My son saved up (it took a while) and paid for it himself.

I would not consider it in the vein of a musical instrument. A musical instrument in our house goes hand in hand with dedicated lessons, lots of time spent on practice and theory. The Mindstrom is a toy - a much valued and educational toy, but still a toy.
As previously stated, the Raspberry Pi is a good option.

If the purpose is to build skills and practice specifically for First LEGO League with other kids, then it would be indistinguishable from a musical instrument or sport gear in my mind.

If he is going to take a class and it is expected that he practices everyday then I'd consider it more like a musical instrument.

I too would expect an older child to contribute towards the purchase but we probably all have different parenting philosophy/values when it comes to things like this.

We've purchased mindstorms and musical instruments for our kids, and we've considered them *all* to be birthday/holiday gifts

If he's participating in weekly high school workshops, does he really need a mindstorms kit at home? If you've got the budget for it and he's really into it, I'd get it - our ds loved having a mindstorms kit at home when he was around 7-8 years old because he could program things with it at home that he wasn't able to do within the constraints of competitions/work/etc in the Lego Robotics teams he participated in. He stopped working with it after maybe 1-2 years - and moved on to arduinos. If you are sinking the $ into mindstorms, I'd only do it if you're comfortable with the idea that he might tire of it in a few years.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Regarding your original question, I just provide the musical instrument as a tool. I expect them to be good stewards. It is never part of a birthday or holiday gift for two reasons. I have three children so I try to be fair in what I spend on each and I wouldn't normally spend a thousand (or thousands) on a birthday/holiday gift for a single child. The other reason is that I insist they take good care of their musical instruments whereas their toys are theirs to abuse or not.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

Yes he would go to lessons each week and be expected to practice - the hard thing would be limiting him to 20 or 30 mins a day! The expectation of others (not us) is that he would be participating in competitions at the national level. So we're really talking about having a quite serious intent. He'll be exposed to the senior high robotics lab so PB and 22B are probably right that he might want to move on to more technical robotics and making his own, sooner rather than later.

He's already saved and purchased a raspberry pi (initially just to do minecraft hacks) and loves both python and scratch. And maybe, just maybe, the minecraft obsession of the past 3 years is coming to an end.

When I was thinking of it as a present it had been with the intention that he would contribute around a 1/3 of the cost. Thinking of it as a tool has made me reconsider that, so it's been interesting to hear the approaches on instruments. Of course with instruments you can hire them - no luck dong that for this.

I think I'm still on the fence.

ETA Just to clarify its not a mandatory requirement to own one for his course and the software is free to download. It's just that he wouldn't get to check his programming by actually running it, until his lesson each week and he'd find that very frustrating. He's also very creative so exploring ideas outside of class would be a big thing for him too.