I came home from work one day and Superkid held up a picture he had illustrated. He asked, "Mom, is this the robot arm you use at work?" I picked up the picture, took a look, and picked my jaw off the floor to ask, "Superkid, how did you know what my robot looked like?" He simply replied, "I Googled it." It was amazing, every detail was there down to the color, every joint, and the pincher hand. He then asked, "Does your robot use a laser?" I told him there was one nearby on the platform. I explained the robot moves plates over to it to read the bar codes. He said, "Oh, you mean the lines that mean numbers?" Exactly.
The world is literally at his finger tips. Now that Superkid sees the utility in being able to read and type, he is all over it. The most powerful phrase in his tool kit is, "How to make a..." and off he goes. His next click is the video link. Then he watches video after video of different ways to make whatever he is interested in. Recently it has been watches, rockets, circuit boards, helicopters, and of course robots. It makes for fun conversation too. He likes to give lectures on how to power a clock listing the advantages and disadvantages of weights and springs. Or asking if I power robots at work with gasoline. If I ever disappoint him by telling him I don't know the answer to a question, he tells me to go and ask my boss. If I ask him why he thinks my boss will know, he responds, "WHAT!? He works at MIT Mom, he'll know!"
