Regardless, we finally unboxed this kit this weekend, and it was a huge success, bringing my two sons (6 years apart, ages 11 and 5) together over a single project.  They even allowed me to play.  The kit models a roller coaster, with sections of track that turn, loop, and do various magnetic tricks.  The track sections are attached to vertical supports.  Sensors that might up and create sound effects are attached to a speaker box (which can also hook to an MP3).  There are 10 or so preset track designs, and experienced kids can freestyle if they are up to the challenge. The instructions require some pretty intense attention to detail, and some trial and error may even be involved, but we managed to get out track set up in less than an hour. Tons if imbedded physics lessons and math work, as promised by the Gear Daddy himself.

The boys had so much fun that they actually continued to play with each other when they were done playing with the iCoaster. Something that warms any parent’s heart.

The thing is also a blast to run, and a bit hypnotic.  You can DJ the whole operation, changing sound effects and theme music. The kids can watch it run and run.  When my daughter came home, she pouted. It took many promises that she could work on the next one to calm her down. This gives me hope that this kit is not just a one-hit wonder.  It will take several coaster constructions before I declare it a good value.  But I am optimistic that we will get good use from this.

The kit is relatively expensive, though you can pick up the previous generation kit (like ours) for cheap.  The newest kits feature magnetic track connectors.

With apologies to Troy and the entire production staff, some home movies below of my kids at work with the kit.

My Kids Ride the iCoaster

I am keeping with my “South By” tradition: meeting with a few people, dropping in on a party or two, then heading out of town for the bulk of the fest.

My problems:

I like doing funnels on Padre.

The festival coincides with Spring Break by design, so all those pesky UT students will get out of the way so the grownups can get good and SXSWasted. But it also means that the rest of my family is on vacation. My choices are to say a) “Go ahead on a vacation without me, I’ll just hang out here” or b) “If you guys wouldn’t mind hanging here and watching TV for a week while I go get SXSWasted, that would be great.” Sound good to you?

It’s a great stocking-stuffer.

Did you know that a “Platinum Pass” to get entrance to all the fests (film, interactive and music) costs between $920 and $1225, depending on when you register? An interactive badge alone is $400 at the cheapest. And I would argue they are actually good values. The opportunities offered by that badge boggle the mind. But the number is just too big for DadLabs, too big for me personally.

The world just can’t get enough of me.

I’m not crazy about the whole “panel picker” system of choosing festival content. I could try to get in the back door by scoring a panel slot, but this would require yet another campaign of self-promotion. Obviously, I’m not afraid the market the brand, but sheesh, really? Another set of emails and tweets and posts asking friends and fans to vote for me. I saw some gripes about this online, that this system results in a lot of panels based on social media because these guys are good at stuffing the ballot box. (Which is actually *more* appealing to me than the really techy-leaning panels of the past, but the list of panels still left me pretty cold.)

I’m completely jealous. I’ll own that. And I harbor fantasies that when the kids are a little older, I’ll be able to afford passes for my wife and me to run off and explore the fest together, a couple of progressive old geezers trying to capture the past and ask, as Ladybird once asked us, “What are the young people thinking?” For now, and probably for the next couple of years, I’ll remain badgeless in Austin.

Now this doesn’t mean I don’t want to have a drink with you if you’re in town, quite the opposite, but would you mind waiting until after I tuck the kids?

Portion Distortion How do you judge the amount of food your kids should eat? (KidsHealth)

Jump in Kids’ Sports Injuries Due To Overuse “Injuries are increasing because kids are playing sports year-round — often without seasonal breaks.” (Healthday)

Entire Family Genome Sequenced For First Time “Children receive 30 mutations from each parent, researchers find” (Healthday)

Thinking About Race In Pre-K Should we consider race and culture a factor when choosing a school for our children? (Dadwagon)

My wife is intuitively gifted in dealing with children exhibiting bad behavior.  She has a knack for combining discipline techniques and conversation with a misbehaving child to bring about a positive leaning experience.  Me not so much.  By observing her methods over the years, I have learned that yelling loudly “what the hell are doing, go to your room,”rarely produces much of a learning moment; so I often follow her lead. 

She is a formally trained counselor and therapist.  She was a Dean of Students and School Counselor for many years so she knows her stuff.  This is good for our household, because during my seven years of college I received many invitations to visit the Dean’s Office. I think his receptionist had me on speed dial and the cops even joined us a few times but that’s another story.  I am fairly confident that my oldest son will be invited to the Dean’s Office for pleasant reasons, maybe to have coffee or talk about the latest student run community service project.  I am worried however that my daughter will most likely be invited for other reasons, so I am glad she is getting good practice talking about bad decision with her Mom now.

On this weeks Cast of Dads episode we talked a bit about discipline in the home.  Take a listen.

Episode 12: Discipline

Topics discussed on this episode:

• Who is the softy in the house?
• Who is the enforcer?
• When siblings begin helping with the parenting
• Teaching to respect adults balanced with not trusting strangers
• Friends known as “aunts” & “uncles”
• Naughty Steps, Dunce Caps and time out
• Losing control and raised voices
• Extreme discipline
• To Spank or not to Spank?

Don’t forget to tell your friends about the show and have them subscribe to either our direct feed or via iTunes. Also, please leave us a review in iTunes!

Cast of Dads is a group of podcasting and blogging dads who gather to gab about fatherhood.  The cast of dads includes C.C. Chapman, Jeffrey Sass, Max Kalehoff, Michael Sheehan, and Brad Powell, who collectively represent 13 kids from the youngest of babies to full grown adults. Each of them brings a unique perspective to being a father.