Parents
Hackerspaces can be great for parents who bring kids and supervise their kids by interacting with them to help them engage with activities and to take responsibility for their entertainment and safety.
Parental Opportunities
There are many classes and events that are beginner and kid friendly, including and not limited to:
- Circuit Hacking Mondays
- Gamebridge game development and VR class on Tuesday nights
Parental Responsibility
Generally, if you bring kids, you should stay involved with them while they're in the space and help them with activities such as classes and projects.
People come to Noisebridge to hack on projects and while many participants will be excited to see young people learning and engaging in the space, many may also be busy working on projects and expect parents to watch their kids.
Unsupervised kids may be bored and explore things that might be dangerous, which may force other participants who did not sign up to do daycare to watch them out of concern for their safety while they wonder where the parents are and why they're not keeping an eye on their kids. For those interested in a hackerspace with daycare, HackerMoms in Berkeley is a hackerspace for maker moms and kids with cooperative childcare.
Resource Sharing
Kids may get really into using things and want to spend all day enjoying stations such as the VR room. If we had hackerspaces as kids, we would be just as excited!
- It is important for parents to stay with kids using things and notice if other participants are waiting to use tools, especially when they're trying to do development projects.
Tool Safety
- Noisebridge has many powerful tools that can be dangerous for adults and kids alike, so be sure to supervise or use it for kids that are too young to use it safely.
- If you haven't used something before or it has safety instructions, be sure to ask for help from those around the space who might be able to instruct you on safe operation.
- If nobody is available to train you on a tool, ask about training times and wait till someone who can instruct you becomes available in the future.
VR Safety
- The VR room is disorienting and there should always be someone watching people new to VR to make sure they don't trip/strangle on cords and bash into things.
- Don't let anyone enter the VR green foam area while someone is wearing the goggles except to help that person because they might collide with people they can't see by making sudden movements.
Resources
- Education initiatives are underway at Noisebridge if you want your kids' schools to participate via fieldtrips for example.