Meet David

I am a Dad of two boys. They are my greatest inspiration. Some of the best ideas come from our own everyday problems, such as how to help our kids discover themselves. They also helped me to learn the depths of my own patience, which has turned out to be very useful for running sessions with kids, among other things.

The creative spirit has been central to my interests my whole life. I studied art history, I’m an amateur musician, I’ve worked as a commercial photographer, a cook, a computer programmer, a motion graphics artist, and mentor/leader of Kids Make Guelph.

I like bikes, cameras, accordions, guitars, electronic things (especially if they make sounds), and I am obsessed with food. If you talk to me about anything, we will eventually be talking about food.

Of all the hobbies or jobs I’ve ever done, Kids Make Guelph has been the most rewarding. I really hope we can meet you and your kids at one of sessions.

Our Inspiration

I started this program because of the belief that to develop a lifelong love of creation, kids first need to learn that the power of their little brains belongs to them. They need to exercise their imaginations and use their hands to manipulate real things, and the best way to do this is let them use their vast and limitless imaginations.

Our programs take a few different paths to this goal:

Mini-Engineering

Usually, we create a model of something cool, and ask the kids to build it. This is a fun way to introduce things like axles, pulleys, wheels, propellers, levers, and so on. The real fun comes after they have built it and start to take some creative liberties and sometimes we see kids use elements of different projects to do something new.

Open ended building.

We provide the space, tools, and piles of materials and kids build what they want. Things can get pretty interesting.

Coding

We use Scratch, Micro-bits, Lego Robotics, etc.. We have done everything from simple coding to environment aware robots.

Sprinkled throughout our programming we’ve done sewing, simple circuits, paper making, art, motors, and so many other things. If we are lucky, one of our creative kids will come up with a cool creation and the entire room will start making them while the adults get out of the way.