Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Roto Rocket™ STEM Kit

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Estes Rockets

My grandfather worked for NASA and helped build rockets, so this was a fun activity for me. I always enjoyed model rockets as a kid, and I finally got to share that passion with my own kids. They helped build the Roto Rocket kit, and we had a successful first launch to approximately 500 feet! We bought this specific kit because it included all the extras you need for a first-time launch.

  • Rocket: 1 Roto Rocket Kit
  • Engines: 1 x C5-3 Engine, 1 x C6-3 Engine
  • Launch Pad: Porta-Pad II
  • Launch Controller: Electron Beam Launch Controller

2 hour build / 1 minute of flight

I will say this is one of those things you put a lot of time in up front to order, collect the pieces, and build… and then the launch comes and goes in a single minute. Even with all that time spent for such a quick activity, they kids loved it and can’t wait to launch it again with their friends. We did find all the pieces after the launch and will be ready to launch again soon.

A quick video of the launch

Build Notes

We didn’t have plastic cement and had to make due with rubber cement which didn’t work that well for gluing some of the rocket pieces. I enjoyed getting the right glue before you start the build.

Recovery

On the right you can see some smoke showing how high and far away the rocket went. On the left in the top right of the image you can see the parachute coming down, while at the bottom left you can see the roto rocket safely spinning back to the ground.

We lost track of the parachute as we watched the spinning helicopter like piece slowly come to the ground. That piece returned to earth much faster than the parachute, but Theo was running all over looking near our launch sight and found it probably another 100 feet from the spinning piece. Since we recovered all our pieces we can now prepare for another launch.

kids, Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Crunchlab’s Creative Kits

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My kids found Crunchlabs on youtube and then nextflix, and my son really wanted to get a hack pack subscription for Christmas, which made my daughter really want to try their creative kits, so we got those as well.

We have now received and worked through the first two creative kits, and Sasha was able to do them entirely by herself!

Crunchlabs Creative Kits

The creative kits are simpler and a bit more like art projects vs engineering and robotics. They still do teach how to build and follow complex instructions to complete the project. Overall these are closer to many of the kiwi kits we have done in the past, but they have such good instructions and videos that Sasha was able to do these kits without needing a bunch of help from me.

Treehouse Kit

Our first kid was the Treehouse kit. Oddly enough they made a mistake and sent me 2 creative kits not one creative kit and a hack kit (they fixed this and we got our hack kit). So we had two treehouse kits, but Theo was pretty excited to do the kit as well. They both worked on theirs together and helped each other name their squirrels and design slightly different houses.

Ice Cream Stand

This was the the Ice Cream stand. We didn’t get two of these as they fixed the mistake, so we played a board game that was a bit to old for Sasha, while she built her creative kit. Other than helping after one piece was put on backwards she built the entire kit herself. She really enjoyed it and was engaged in the process and she likes it even better than the treehouse. She has been taking ice cream orders around the house ever since. She even got the treehouse back out and played with the treehouse and the ice cream shop and the little animal characters together.

Verdict

The creative kit is a hit and probably works well for kids 4-7. After that they might be leveled up to the next one.

The list of pro’s and cons is similar to the hack pack.

Pros

  • This is one of the highest quality toy build kits I have had
  • This has great videos, tutorials, and support
  • The programming and hacking was very cool and fun
  • The kids have enjoyed playing with this a good deal and are excited for the next kit

Cons

  • kind of expensive
  • not sure of long term re-play, but so far so good

Referral Code

Since we like these I am happy to share my referral code if you sign up we get some free credits.

kids, Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Crunchlab’s Turret

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My kids found Crunchlabs on youtube and then nextflix, and my son really wanted to get a hack pack subscription for Christmas, so we did.

The first hack pack delivery was the IR Turret and it was a hit!

Crunchlabs Turret

So the kit first kit came and it was this IR Turret that shoots Nerf like arrows (Although I am sure crunchlabs is not allowed anywhere near the name nerf). It said it would take around an hour to make if you were new to building robots. We built it over 2 sessions that added up to about an hour (The kids got distracted and it was good to take a break). Our youngest at 6 was still able to help with some of the build, our oldest at 8 was able to do many of the steps.

A few days after we built it and fired many rockets, Theo wanted to “hack it” so we then went online and followed the video instructions. It was easy to get the software setup and start sending custom code to the turret, we started with the prebuilt stuff and within 30 minutes we were modifying the code ourselves with new customizations. Theo already wants to try to get some new sensors and possibly more motors.

Pros

  • This is one of the highest quality toy build kits I have had
  • This has great videos, tutorials, support
  • The programming and hacking was very cool and fun
  • The kids have enjoyed playing with this a good deal and are excited for the next kit
  • They offer 3d printable versions of the pieces and the kids are interested in learning about 3d printing
  • Dad had always been interested in Arduino’s and now he has written code for one

Cons

  • one of our motors started to have issues a few hours after use, a few days later it totally broke we had to order a replacement for the up / down motor
  • expensive
  • Kids keep leaving it on the floor and I trip over it

Summary

This was a hit and we are looking forward to the next one.

Theo’s Mom Attack

Theo Showing Off His IR Turret

Holiday Updates, kids, Pictures

Happy New Year 2026

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We’ve been grateful for these good ole’ elementary school days with Theo (8) and Sasha (6) as we attempt to navigate the turbulent waves of our times. The kids have become tree skiers, snorkelers, and white water rafters! We celebrated my mom’s 70th birthday with a slightly-delayed Galapagos escapade, and despite the more-intense-than-predicted logistics (which were predicted to be intense), the kids proved to be adventurers. The highlight was snorkeling with sea lions in Punta Pitt.

This year we said goodbye to Great Grandma at 99. She leaves a legacy of love, warm hugs, watching her 9 great-grandkids swim in her pool, and always pulling up an extra seat to her table.

Wishing you love and peace in 2026.

See more pictures from our 2025 adventures here.

Cousins in the Flatirons
Kindergarten graduation
Driving a zodiak in the Galapagos
Mayer Family in PV
Buena Vista, CO
Garden of the Gods
Great Grandma with 7 of 9 great grandkids
Great Grandma’s Funeral, Nov. 2025

Advocacy, kids

Vote Yes on LL and MM in Colorado this November

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Theo published his first Op-Ed in the Westword today. He’s a 3rd grader in DPS and a  supporter of universal school meals based on his first-hand student experience. 

He drafted the op-ed in response to a recent article on the two state-wide ballot measures voters will decide on this election cycle to fund the universal school meals statewide.

The op-ed is especially timely given the recent delivery of election Blue Books to households across the Denver metro area.

Theo argues for the importance of school meals and the passage of these measures based on his experience as a DPS student and the evidence supporting universal school meal programs. 

See the full article over at the Westword.

Screenshot of the Westword masthead and framing for the readers responses that follow.
Additional framing and a screenshot of Theo's Op-Ed.
Science Saturday

Science Saturdays: Crystal Tree

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I didn’t have high expectations for this kit but was surprised at how much interest the kids had. They set it up quickly and checked in on it for 2 days before smashing it and throwing it out.

About 1 hour after setting it up

I think that because the crystals started forming very quickly and grew larger than expected the kids were pretty impressed. Obviously, this is just a quick one off but it was fun to check in on it through out the day.

Theo’s review: “not a scam at all!” You will have to trust me that is high praise.

Gardening

Harvest Season

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We all love harvest season.

Peaches Everywhere

A lovely peach season

Peach Ice Cream

The kids help make peach ice cream

https://photos.app.goo.gl/53YhZ4MX1DgbD7Mi8

Peach Caprese Salad

Erin Makes the peach version of our favorite summer salad

Apples Everywhere

A lovely apple harvest

Fun Apple Dishes

We make normal stuff, but also start to get weird as we need to use up so many apples.

  • German Chicken with Apples in mustard sauce
  • Home Made Apple Sauce
  • Apple Crisp
  • Shepherd’s Pie with beef, spicy peppers, and apples.

Spaghetti Squash

We have two plants making a bunch of spaghetti squash this year.

Our favorite dish is spaghetti squash burrito bowls… basically make taco filling and put it in a spaghetti squash and bake it.

Pictures, Quick Thoughts

Peaches, Gardening, and Japanese beetles

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I was recently asked how I get such nice peaches and for tips on winterizing / care… I kind of laughed as I don’t really do anything in particular. I thought my response was kind of humorous so, here it is for others to enjoy, and I guess perhaps it might help someone out there.

Denver Peach Tree Care

I have crazy gardens both year round hydro-ponic and seasonal outdoors. I have what seems to be a very productive garden, but I treat all of it more as an art than a science. Too many of my hobbies end up very science, numbers, and on computer screens. So when I got into gardening, I basically made a rule of no book learning, just experimentation. So any advice I give needs that caveat, it might not be the best way to do it, but it works for me.

  • winterizing, um… I don’t do anything… I do put fruit spikes into the soil near the tree twice a year and one of those is in the winter.
  • You might get some tiny fruit in the first year, but if you pick them all off the tree will put more energy into making roots and you will do even better in the future.
  • peach care… I dug a big hole and put 3-year-old trees in the ground. I have a watering system that waters a bit daily
  • I prune the tree more on bonsai aesthetics vs any advice about being good for fruit
    • I do prune any branches that look too thin to support fruit
  • I occasionally thin the fruit, but I mostly leave that up to the squirrels

I distract the Japanese beetles by letting them eat all my roses, and some of my apples… So they really don’t have any time left to eat peaches. The squirrels sadly prefer peaches over apples, which is why I have two peach trees and one apple tree. When we have a boom havest I pull about 500 peaches and apples… Squirrels extract about a 20-30% tax on fruit…. Probably higher for the strawberries, which they seem to go nuts over, and I thought squirrels like nuts.

Occasionally I spray with a mint based organic bug spray, but I am not convinced it does anything, but it does smell nice which is a plus.

Anyways, happy to share anything that might help, but my urban farming philosophy can mostly be summarized as plants really want to grow, put them in the grown and give them water and sun. 

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Windmill Generator

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I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities. Recently, we made a windmill generator that powers a light bulb.

green science: windmill generator

Given how much the kids liked the Green Science: Eco Lightbulb I thought this might also be a hit… but it was not.

Kid Approved? No

So what went wrong why wasn’t this as fun…

  1. The light even with a crazy amount of wind isn’t bright
  2. There isn’t really wind indoors and for lights they turn off all the lights in a room to play with something.
  3. It barely will glow if you blow on it
  4. Outside we have to get up really high above our fences to get enough wind to turn the windmill
  5. It keeps blowing the bottle over and falling at about the same amount of wind that will turn the windmill
finished windmill

Basically, building it was fine but they couldn’t find a way to play with it to drive the light in a way that would stay fun. So they lost interest quickly and now we have a plastic windmill piece of trash to throw out at some point when I give up on it.