While some kids may have every minute of their summer planned out and optimized, now is the season where many parents are wondering what’s the best way to take advantage of the extra time and learn something new.

As parents, we have always tried to find summer experiences for our kids that were unique, hands-on, and fun. Why not find engaging, authentic experiences where kids can improve their academic math and communication skills they’ve worked so hard on throughout the year to tackle a project that builds critical thinking and problem solving skills? What opportunities are out there?

Recently, while having lunch with a friend with three young kids, it donned on me there are some interesting options out there that need to be shared. Here’s a collection of the top gems we’ve found in the last year that will inspire a summer full of play, passion and purpose.

JAM Online Courses (from DIY.org) These beautifully crafted online courses like Cook For Yourself and Invent Your Own Machines are enjoyable and available for a whole year from time of sign-up.

Khan Academy – Pixar in a Box  From “The Art of Storytelling” to the “Mathmatics of Animation Curves” the engaging Pixar content and brilliance of the guests shine through. Content seems to be aimed at upper grades, but younger students will find value in it too.

Hour of Code – Code.org  Full of activities that fit the full range of age groups and diverse interests. Also available in multiple languages including English and Japanese.

While all these are fantastic online resources, what if you want your kids to join an “In Real Life” community of like-minded students? That’s why we’re holding our Maker Toolset Summer Camps that run for 4 days starting on July 30th!

Mission to Mars – Summer Camp 2017

Summer2017

ミッション・トゥ・マーズ – サマーキャンプ 2017

and

Minecraft Coding Summer Camp 2017

マインクラフト・プログラミング サマーキャンプ 2017

We’re excited to see what our creative community of students will build during these days of fun, problem solving, and critical thinking. Hope to see you there!

Wow, we made it! The super successful first annual Electronic Arcade Game Playoffs was a brilliant highlight to the Coding for Life event of Tokyo Sandbox 2017. A huge thank-you to Kevin Lim of Tokyo Sandbox for his confidence in us to put on a show that was remarkable. Additionally, a full round of applause to all of you, the students who demonstrated your creativity, hard work, and persistence to conceptualize and deliver on your ideas!

Please remember to individually thank your teachers who gave up many afternoons and weekends to get behind this project to provide a very unique and authentic learning experience for us all. A wonderful surprise was the extraordinary support from the volunteers at Tokyo Sandbox as well as the team from YouMeWe who will be putting all the proceeds from token sales into their Digital Literacy Project with children living in institutionalized homes. Your efforts will make a difference in the life of underprivileged children in Japan.

A quick summary of the overall event summary in infographic format below.

In the spirit of transparency and reiteration, we have corrected a silly gaff that has actually changed the order of the results previously announced! Please see the v2 results below…

Due to the misreading of a 1 as a 4 during the announcement of winners, we have corrected our mistake and offered even more prizes for the excellence shown by students.

To wrap up, the Grand Prize winner of the littleBits Gizmo and Gadgets kit was K-IST coders. Thank-you again to Korg and littleBits for their assistance with judging as well as for supplying the prizes.

Runner Up – Coding for Life Prize for significant technical coding challenge goes to GuriiEcoGames who have won the littleBits Space Kit and the littleBits Base Kit.

Runner Up – Arcade Gamer Appeal Prize for ability to draw people in to play everyone’s game goes to Team Mallaborema who have won the littleBits Gizmo and Gadgets kit.

Also, a very big congratulations to Mr. Shibata who beat the odds in a raffle of 45 gamers who completely filled their stamp passports for the entry to win a Nintendo Switch!

Judging for the Playoffs was extremely tough as every single team put in a huge effort and came up with interesting and fun ideas for their games. There was a bit of genius in each game and we hope this has provided more fuel to your passion to invent more and constantly stretch your creativity. In the end, the attendees chose for us through their determination to play again and again as they tried to master the game and compete with their friends. We look forward to seeing how high you may have raised the bar for next year!

We’ve done additional checkins with Team GuriiEcoGames and Team Mallaborema and they are on the home stretch with their games which are looking very good and promise to provide fun and challenging game play action for all who attend the Playoffs Event this coming May 14th.

GuriiEcoGames – With a Japanese themed interactive battle game, your reaction speed and moves will be put to the test. Brace yourselves for two player action fun.

Mallaborema – Space and time may bend while playing this colourful challenge to your reactionary speed. Ready, Go!

Posters to remind your friends, faculty and family come to enjoy your game on May 14th are linked below.

Download Poster PDF in English

Download Poster PDF in Japanese