Let’s take a Summer MAKEcation!

Let’s take a Summer MAKEcation!

MZ_MAKEcation_Badge.gifLast year, Phil, bless his pointy little head, came up with the idea of the “MAKEcation.” With gas prices at an all-time high and so many news stories about families vacationing on the cheap, close to home, or even AT home, he had an idea for the MAKE community. Why not encourage people to stay at home, learn new skills, and make cool projects, as a family? The idea of the MAKEcation was born. Of course, Phil himself took the first one (he had to make sure it was safe for the rest of us).

So, for the rest of the summer, we’ll be hosting a series of family-friendly projects and challenges here on Make: Online, with some awesome product bundles in the Shed, MAKEcation contests, and articles with MAKEcation ideas, tips, and how-tos. We’re even going to have experts for each program come in as Camp Counselors. It should be a lot of fun.

Our first MAKEcation event starts this Monday. It’s “Teach Your Family to Solder” week. We’ll announce full details on Monday. Don’t worry, we don’t expect you to necessarily TAKE the MAKEcation next week, we’ll just be running content related to soldering, posting easy-to-solder projects, announcing the Shed bundles we’ve put together, etc. And our Camp Counselor will be in his virtual cabin, if you have any questions related to soldering and basic kit-building. Soldering is too often seen as more of a challenge than it needs to be. It’s really not that hard and it’s something that even older children can do (with some supervision).

And don’t wait for us to plan your MAKEcation! We’re hoping makers will plan and take their own family-oriented DIY time off. If you do, please document it. We’ll be giving away some cool Shed products to folks who send us the best MAKEcation videos and pictures. Upload yours to the MAKE Flickr pool and tag them “MAKEcation.” If you’re in the process of planning a family stay-at-home-and-make time, let us know about it in the comments. We’d love to see a brainstorm of MAKEcation ideas.

Above picture from the Hoefer family “Great Chair Challenge.”

More:
Another MAKEcation family challenge
Hydrogen balloon camera project
Laser cut case for a clock – MAKEcation

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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