Cialdini's Social Proof (Age 8)

 I want to teach Benny about "social proof" in Robert Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

Social proof is basically "monkey see, monkey do".  But I wanted to show this in a form that a child can understand.

So I showed him these videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P00i7_C8tl8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEhSk71gUCQ  

Coding Functions (age 6)

Benny has been playing coding games where he was using very simple functions.

"Benny I use functions on my computer too! Come see!"

def my_function():
    print("hi Benny")

"This is my function. It says "Hi Benny". It's like the functions in your game. What do you think is going to happen if I call the function?"

def my_function():
    print("hi Benny")

my_function()

Benny laughs.

"What do you think is going to happen if I call the function five times?"

def my_function():
    print("hi Benny")

my_function()
my_function()
my_function()
my_function()
my_function()

Benny laughs loud.

"Why don't I change the name of my function to "say_hi_to_Benny"?"

def say_hi_to_Benny():
    print("hi Benny")

say_hi_to_Benny()
say_hi_to_Benny()
say_hi_to_Benny()
say_hi_to_Benny()
say_hi_to_Benny()

Benny laughs less loud.

"What if I make a function that calls the other function five times? What do you think's going to happen?"

def say_hi_to_Benny():
    print("hi Benny")

def say_hi_to_Benny_5_times():
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()

"Nothing happened! Because I didn't call the function. What do you think's going to happen if I call the function?"

def say_hi_to_Benny():
    print("hi Benny")

def say_hi_to_Benny_5_times():
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()


say_hi_to_Benny_5_times()

Benny laughs but I can tell he's losing interest so we stop there.

Why the Store Sells Us Apples (age 6)

"We give money to the store for apples.

The store gives some of that money to the store.

If the store gets $2 for the apples, and they give the farm $1, how much money did they make?  How much do they keep?"

"One dollar!"

"That money is called profit.  Profit is the money the store made.

If the store doesn't make any money, they won't sell us apples anymore because they won't have money to buy apples from the farm. They'll shut down."

"What will they do if they shut down?"

"They'll find out how to make money doing something else.

Do you know why the farm sells apples to the store?"

"So they can get money."

Math practice (age 5)

I put this on Benny's wall and when he's bored, he answers a few...

... until he finishes.

Now I'm switching on adding 6 through 10, and then will move to subtraction after that.

It helps that he now has a Google Home Mini that he can ask for help.

Line Graphs (age 5)

While Benny was working on his goal of saving money for costumes, I decided that we should take the opportunity to teach Benny about line charts.

Making An Animation (Age 5)

I'm trying to teach Benny that the world is malleable.  That he can change things.  He doesn't have to just observe or consume.  He can create.

He likes to watch Pencilmation on YouTube.  So we made our own (with pencil, paper, a phone camera and Google Photos):

Then I let Benny do more of the work:

Saving Money (Age 5)

I had previously introduced Benny to the concept of money.  Now I wanted him to learn to save money.

He asked for a Gecko costume in early October.  So I told him to save his money and he can buy it.   I told him how much he needed and helped him count his money to see his progress towards the goal.  Sometimes he got a little frustrated and anxious but he made it.

Not only did he get the Gecko costume, but he went on to buy more costumes.  Now (December 2018), he's working towards a Hatchimal.