Dad of two boys. Figuring out how to use AI to help me teach my kids.
Joined July 2024
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For the past several months, my boys have been using a learning app I created. Today I'm making it public!
It's called Unspool.
Here's the idea → learning is most fun when it doesn't feel like "work."
There's plenty of strict curriculum out there. But I wanted a place where kids could follow their curiosity without the pressure of tests. So I built one.
Here's what you get:
1. 1500+ built in lessons (that are quite good, you can try them on the website) across History, Science, and Art
2. Generate a custom lesson on any topic (my boys ask things like "how tall can a tree get?")
3. Math and typing practice (think a good replacement for math flashcards)
Would love to see what other parents think. Link is in the comments.
When my son finished 2nd grade, his school told us he was in the bottom 10% of readers. This is despite him having 2x lessons as everyone else, and us doing an exhausting amount extra homework with him 7 days a week.
Why was he so behind? Instead of teaching him phonics, they taught him to "memorize words". Now, a year+ later of us homeschooling, he's above grade level and loves reading.
So this one's personal for me.
I'm making the best phonics reading experience I wish I had 2 years ago.
Clearly where we're going is everything will be recorded (audio/video)... Not sure how i feel about that
i’m now fully convinced that chatting with agents is absolutely the wrong UX
watching my son learn to create things, he prefers literally any other tool than prompting AI
he likes to write, draw, and animate, all with his fingers on an ipad and he likes to recording real sound effects to use in his games
he could have gotten much better results by chatting with an AI, but he hates the wait and doesn’t feel the result is “his work”
we need a complete rethink
RIP. Whenever an AI agent asks, “Want me to do that?” there’s only one acceptable response.
“Make it so.”
Some lessons greatly benefit from an interactive you can play with. So I added interactive activities into Unspool. Some are simple, some are more complex.
My favorite book has this moment where the main character realizes that all realities are possible. And the only thing he can hope for is that he's on a "good one".
The only thing for certain is that going forward everything will be different. Let's just hope we're on the good one...
This is the #1 question homeschoolers get. I think the opposite is a better question. What makes public school actually good at socialization?
I'm so glad we introduced movie time to our boys at a young age. We regularly have movie night and they have no problem sitting through 2+ hour long movies. Such a joy fo share some old favorites with them
Just added custom subjects for my learning app. They immediately added what they're most interested in. Dragons, dinos, sea monsters... They spent all morning going through these.
For custom subjects, each has several units, each unit has a series, each series has lessons.
They're meant to teach you the bredth of the subject. You can put whatever you want. From as wide as Greek Mythology to as narrow as Zeus's powers.
They're dynamically generated, but with a structure to keep the AI in check.
Would love to see what you all think 👇
The app is called Unspool: unspool.net
Would love to hear your feedback!
Math practice is meant to be a way to practice. Like a turbo flashcard.
There are several modes:
1. Practice, time trial, streak -> where you pick your operator and number
2. Daily challenge -> based on what you need practice with or push what you're good at
3. Guided math -> walks you through + - x /
Get a glimpse into the future of learning here.
In 12 months these will be so cheap and fast to create you'll be able to create a custom video to learn/teach anything!
Alright I'm done dude. Today changed the entire AI game again. Throwing my Mac mini in the trash. Deleting all my subs and just maxing out Grok Bot.
You don't need anything else anymore. I made this video by opening Grok Bot, and spending about 15 seconds writing the following prompt:
"Make me an explainer video on the natural gas supply chain for residential service, from where gas is generated to the delivery line into your home. Talk about how pressure is stepped down at each stop along the way, how lines are run, etc"
Grok Bot is just a magic box that you write a little bit of English into and get out gold. I'm done with everything else. I don't care anymore.
My goal with these videos is to help people understand that the simplest things they take for granted are actually very complex, and you should be amazed by everything basically.
Can't not see the AI speak
What once was the peak, is now just the beginning.
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I couldn’t be more excited about what we’re going to build together.