Just got back from attending the Maker Faire 2014 in SF Bay Area. This was our 3rd Maker Faire and as in the past years we wished we had more time there.

The 2012 Maker Faire and an article on Popular Science about 12 year old entrepreneur Quin Etnyre sparked my son’s interest in making. So certainly the big highlight of the day was meeting Quin himself in person who was generous with his time and goodies. Be sure to check out his company website qtechknow.com for his kid friendly Arduino products.

The second highlight was the encounter with Spark Core team at their booth. They were so super awesome in recognizing my son from his last video and showered him with praises, encouragement and goodies (even a new Spark Core!). Plus he got to meet their CEO Zach Supalla who was really nice to offer encouragement and support. Thanks guys – we promise to make some cool projects with the 2 Spark Cores soon.

A few other kits that he was really interested in were:

• Phoenard – Arduino Phone kit
• Makey Makey – make almost anything a keyboard
• littleBits  – electronic kits for kids including a new Arduino kit ($10 discount coupon)
• Touch Board – touch sensing Arduino board that you can connect by drawing circuits
• Dash Robot – origami robot kit.

Except the Phoenard all the others look like good kits for young kids to get started, though he said the Phoneard was the coolest thing he saw at the show. The best part was seeing exhibits from many young makers including these 12 year olds:

• Saurabh Narain with a robot that can solve a Rubik’s cube
• Ted with up-cycled TedClocks
• Sylvia with her Super Awesome Maker Show

…sure feels like year of the kid maker!