(trumpets sounding) (upbeat piano music) - Today's dads grew up playing video games like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Dungeons and Dragons, and watching epic sci-fi films like Star Wars and Superman.

Coming up next on iQ: smartparent, how are digital-aged dads sharing their love of science, tech, and media with their kids?

(upbeat piano music) (audience applauds) - Hi, I'm Angela Santomero.

Welcome to iQ: smartparent and our show on tech and dads.

As the creator of children's television shows like Super Why, Blue's Clues, and Daniel Tiger's neighborhood, I often hear about fun ways parents use media with their kids.

And I'm so excited today to talk with dads who are here tonight about their experiences online and the awesome projects they've created.

So, a total science geek himself with me now is Ken Denmead, editor of the Geek Dad blog that got it's start at Wired Magazine and author of the New York Times bestselling book series Geek Dad.

Welcome Ken.

- Thank you very much.

It's great to be here.

- Good to be here.

I'm so excited cause I'm a big fan of yours and read your blog.

- Well, we've had, we've had your work in our house for years, so I'm a big fan too.

- [Angela] Oh, I love that.

So you are a self pro, a self-proclaimed geek who married a geek, - [Ken] Mhm.

- And now you have geeks, which makes you a geek dad.

- Definitely, definitely.

It, it's, it's a, it's all in the genes, but yeah, my, my wife was a huge, she had been a Doctor Who fan when she was little and, and a Star Trek fan and read all the books.

And when we met, there was nothing that mystified each other.

We were just like, I love that, I love that, I love that.

So the same thing.

And so, yeah, you know, we've tried to raise our boys to be a pretty good geeks.

They have a lot of good geeky knowledge.

Little, there's some sports in there too, but we, we try to downplay that.

(Ken laughs) - So tell me about your vision and when you're thinking about the Geek Dad blogger taking it to where it is today.

- Well, I mean, it's all been about, you know, modern generation of dads trying to overcome this, the stereotype.

And that's a stereotype we see in advertising and in our media, sitcoms and so forth where dad is always portrayed as this bumbling fool.

- [Angela] And the Pampers commercial, right?

- Pampers commercial, where, where they tried to promote their diaper as being so, so powerful, so rugged that you could leave the baby home with dad for the weekend and everything would be okay.

And you know, that's not where things are at these days.

And it's not just geeks.

It's, it's dads of all stripes, but, but you know, the, the, this of people that I've come to know, we're all very media savvy, we're all online.

We, we love geeky things, but we're partners in raising our kids.

We're partners with our wives.

We, everybody works together.

It's not dad does this one thing.

Mom does the other stuff.

Mom's the nurturer, dad's the disciplinarian or vice versa.

You know, everybody needs to be a partner in raising your kids.

And it's really important to me to sort of present modern dads, and especially geeky, nerdy dads, in this light of being people that want to be well-informed and, and, you know, a part of our kid's lives.

- [Angela] I love that.

So it's really, it's the voice of dad, and then you just happened to be a geek.

- Yeah.

I mean, you know, the, the definition that has sort of evolved over the years, what is a geek, and that is someone who gets a little bit obsessive, a little bit passionate about something that they love.

And there are, you know, science fiction geeks, there's fantasy geeks, there are movie geeks, there are NASCAR geeks, there are all sorts.

And when it comes to being a dad, you can be a geek about being a dad.

You want to be informed about good diapers or how to teach your kid how to read, or, you know, what's the best way to show them how to ride a bike or swim, or, or how, how young do I give my kid a cell phone, that kind of responsibility we want to know.

And so let's share that information.

Let's write about it and, and inform ourselves.

- Well, and I want everyone to be enthusiastic and passionate about whatever it is that they're into and especially when it comes to parenting, right?

Absolutely.

- It's the most important job you'll ever do.

So be, be, be there, be present all the time.

- Yeah, that's awesome.

And so now your blog, just to put it in context, it was named as one of the top 25 blogs by Time Magazine.

And what, what do you think makes it so successful?

Is it because you found this community and now it's an outlet for dads to get this kind of information?

- I think so.

It's, you know, it's, it's just sort of connecting the dots for people that, you know, up until I think this internet age, you had people that always felt isolated, that felt like they were going through it by themselves, or, you know, married and so forth.

But the only role models you had were what you saw on television, which was often just very frustrating and very alien to what you were really doing.

And so being able to, to, you know, having, when I took over the blog, it was, it was created by, by Chris Anderson at Wired Magazine, but it was sort of a pet project for him.

I came on it, it spoke to me.

I knew what I thought it should be and, and how to bring this group of people from all over the world together and just write about what we love about being dads and being geeks.

And, and we, it just sort of exploded from there.

Chris just sort of let me run with it and turn it into what it is now.

And I, we've reached a lot people, which is, which is amazing.

- [Angela] That is amazing.

And you are sharing all of these projects that you're excited about with your kids.

And of course, when you have a top 25 blog, what do you do?

But you turn it into a New York Times bestselling book series.

And I have your newest book here now, which is amazing because it takes all the activities and all of these things that you're excited about and puts them in a format that we can all use.

And Ken has brought a copy for everybody in the audience today will be going home with one.

So I was joking, I get to be Oprah now.

You get a book and you get a book!

So we're really excited.

And we actually have a video of you talking about the books and some of the great projects that you do with your kids.

So let's take a look at that.

- [Ken] I'm the author of Geek Dad.

Awesomely geeky projects and activities for dads and kids to share.

Are you guys ready to rumble?

- [Quinn] Yep.

- Hacking together stuff that you probably already have in your garage.

Two, one, go!

(toy cars crash) (Ken yells excitedly) I am entirely a geeky dad, myself.

(toy cars drive) Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!

(Ken groans) Ooh!

One of the projects that's been most popular out of the book is called the Never-Ending Demolition Derby.

(curious music) Quinn, let's put the adhesive strip on here.

And what that involves is taking two remote control cars, inexpensive ones, and sticking the flat Lego plates on the outside surfaces.

Perfect.

- Yay.

- [Ken] I think that's ready to go.

Each contestant in the demolition derby sticks a set number of bricks on those plates to create battering rams and armor, and you put them in an arena.

Let's lay out a big oval.

I like to make the arena out of a circle of pool noodles taped to the floor.

And you have a demolition derby.

- [Quinn] Ohh!

- [Ken] You try and knock as many bricks off of your opponent's car.

Oh, he's stuck, Eli.

Go get 'em!

(Ken laughs) Pound.

And whoever's got the most bricks left on their car at the end of the round, wins the round.

- I think I'm winning now.

- The projects in the book, they're all fun.

You're going to have a great time doing them.

They're all pretty easy.

There's no rocket science here, and they've all got a little touch of education in them.

Some of the other projects included in the book are a rope swing with phone books as your support.

A binary calendar made out of Legos.

And a duct tape wallet with it's own internal lighting.

- I love how excited the kids are.

And of course they're learning every step of the way.

Can you talk through some of that project?

So that particular project, like what are the kids learning?

- Well, I mean, (Ken clears his throat) in that case, there was a, there was important, important stuff there, you know, fundamentally the two cars you had to learn a little bit about how radio controlled cars work, because you have to find two cars that are in separate frequencies, or they would control each other, they're remote controlled had to do that.

And then just, you know, everybody loves Lego and you had to, you know, figure out how to, you know, they were going through a learning process, figuring out how best to build constructs under their cars that wouldn't fall apart.

And if you played a number of rounds, you would go through that iterative process, figuring out what's the strongest thing that you can build onto the car.

- [Angela] And they were figuring that out and doing it over and over again?

- They were figuring that all the way along.

But I mean, that's been, you know, that was one of the, one of the big features of the, the, the blog itself and, and which is why we thought it important to bring into books, was giving parents ideas about things to do.

We all want to spend time with our kids.

We want to find that mythical quality time.

But when we find the time, what do we do?

And, you know, there's only so many movies you can go out to, or, you know, go to the park or whatever.

And, and if you can, you want to find projects and activities that will allow you to find those teachable moments where you can bring and bring some science and math and things like that into the home.

- And we, we talk a lot on the show about how communication and talking with your kids is one of the most important things that you can do, whether it's during family dinner time or emptying the dishwasher, or, you know, but when you're involved in a project and you're learning along with them and failing and making mistakes, along with them, there must be so, there's so much that you learn about your kids and how much they're learning.

Just even from a self-esteem, let alone all the science.

- Exactly, and one of the biggest points, especially in this book for aspiring mad scientists, it's all projects for kids to do for their science fair projects.

But, - So, they, they have the leading edge on all the, - [Ken] Exactly.

But, but the first thing you have to, you have to get everybody to understand about science is that science is more about failure than it is about success.

It's about coming up with a concept, designing an experiment to test the concept.

And if the, more likely than not your experiment will fail, figuring out why it failed and then either adjust your original concept or adjust your experiment to get past that failure and, and find some sort of explanation.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

And you're doing it on the go.

Well, you know, right there with them, which is so great.

So will you stay?

Cause there's so much more that we have to talk about and I want to introduce our next guests and bring them to the couch.

One of them is a dad who makes some very popular videos with his two daughters.

Check out this clip from one of those videos called Too Many Addies.

It has received over 4 million views.

(keyboard clacks) (laser beam sounds) - Addie, stop doing that!

- Never!

(keyboard clacks) (laser beam sounds) Hi, Jillian!

- I have to stop her!

(Addies giggle) - Let's go!

- Now sit here, Addie.

Now where did all the other Addies go?

Now it's time for plan B.

(electronic music begins) There, that should do the trick!

(doorbell rings) Wow, that was quick!

(electronic music continues) Thank you!

(doorbell rings) So long!

(doorbell rings) Take it easy.

(doorbell rings) Sayonara, dude.

Bye-bye, don't forget to write!

Have fun and don't come back.

Thanks, and good luck!

- I don't want to go.

- Well, too bad!

- I don't know about you, but I want to order all those Addie's off of Craigslist.

Here with me are the stars of the Babyteeth4 videos, Jillian and Addie, and their dad, Bob McLaughlin.

Welcome to iQ: smartparents.

I am so excited to meet you guys.

(Bob chuckles) So Bob, can you tell me, how did this all start?

You just saw these amazingly cute kids and started to be creative.

- [Bob] Yeah, I just pointed my camera at them.

- There you go.

Do you have a background in video production?

- No, I don't, actually.

I worked for a financial company as a manager, but my wife had suggested when Jillian was turning one that we do a video invitation, so would be kind of a good creative outlet.

So we made a little video of her at a party with no guests and ask people to come join her.

So it worked really well.

It ended up, I put it on YouTube eventually.

Just so some more people could see it.

And then things just kind of went from there.

- If we could shout-out to mom, that it was mom's genius idea to get that started.

Good job.

And so can you tell us how old you guys are now?

- I'm six.

- You're six.

Jillian?

- I'm eight.

- You are eight.

Now, what do your friends at school think of all of your videos?

- A lot of them just say, oh, I love all your videos are so cool.

And then sometimes I'll get shy, but pretty much depends on the mood I'm in, so.

(Bob chuckles) - [Angela] Did everyone want to have a play date and come over so they can be in one of your movies?

- No.

(Bob and audience chuckle) - Now they will.

I just gave them that idea.

So you also have a video that has reached 49 million views.

I think that was Fast Cars, Bad Kids.

- [Bob] Right, right.

- Do you remember driving the car, taking keys and driving the car?

So you can talk about that, how that started in your whole process.

- [Bob] Okay.

We had the idea, or I had the idea that I wanted them to drive the car and I didn't really have any kind of particular plot in mind, but I knew I wanted to get them in the car.

So I put a green sheet over the car.

I had a program that I use to erase the green to it.

Then I overlaid that on top of driving footage.

And then, - [Angela] That's how we do Blue's Clues.

The whole green screen thing.

(Bob chuckles) - [Bob] There you go.

So, yeah, we build a little bit of a plot around it.

I do write scripts for the girls.

I found that out early on that it works best if I have some kind of script just to give it some structure.

- So do they memorize the scripts?

Are you improving or giving some lines?

Jillian do, - Sometimes we'll, like, memorize it.

Sometimes we'll be reading it off of something.

- Do you have, do you have ideas that you then get to start making movies out of?

- Well, we animations called Overly Sensitive Zombie Girl.

- Oh, really?

Sensitive zombie girl.

Yes.

- [Jillian] We started first with whenever we were in the tub, we had zombie finger puppets.

There was only one that was a girl.

We named her Zombelina and she was always whining, and complaining how she didn't like the other zombies and things like that.

- [Angela] And this was all in the tub?

That's where I get my best ideas, too.

That's a good place.

- And then it was daddy's idea to make it into an animated series.

But since there, by that time, there was already a book called Zombelina.

- [Angela] Yeah, I've been there.

- So we had to think of another name and we eventually got to Overly Sensitive Zombie Girl.

- [Angela] That's awesome.

Ken, what do you think when you're, when we're empowering kids to make the media and to do the projects, what do you think that they're getting out of?

- [Ken] I, I, they're, they're feeling ownership in, of creativity so much earlier.

It's fantastic.

I mean, you know, none of us ever grew up with the ability to, you know, record our home movies and then throw them up and potentially have millions of people see them.

I mean, I, I think there's, there's an empowerment that happens.

There are of course, you know, cautions that we have to make sure parents are taking when they're doing that.

But, but it's, it's a, it's a really interesting new world.

- [Angela] And you have this very strong community and all of you are, do you respond to what people are saying to you?

- Yes.

Yeah, it, I take probably an hour out of each day just to respond to all the different comments.

Cause a large portion of our viewers are children and a lot of them, I mean, they will say very nice things.

Like I wish Jillian and Addie were my friends and they, they really, there's this desire to connect with them.

And it, it's been great for us.

I mean, I really enjoy it.

Kids also are very, you know, they're, they're very excited just to hear back from you at all, because I think so many YouTubers it's, you know, they're I don't know if they don't have time to respond to all of them or what, but, yeah, that's, our community is definitely important to us.

- [Angela] That's great.

And you're doing some candy reviews I heard?

Is that your favorite thing?

Do you like to do the candy reviews?

- Yeah.

- Yes.

- [Angela] Yeah?

Like which candy is your favorite?

- My favorite, I don't really have a favorite.

They're all my favorite.

Except for the ones that say are disgusting.

That's like.

- [Angela] Yeah, exactly, definitely.

- [Adelaide] I like the Warheads.

- Yeah.

What have you learned about your dad from doing these videos?

Is he very patient?

- Silly.

- [Angela] So silly, that's great!

- Sometimes he'll give us the ideas for like, little jokes or things we'll make.

And we might slightly change them a little bit, like in one of our candy reviews, Addie says, Problem, I don't really do sharing.

(Angela laughs) And then she says, just kidding, I share all the time.

- That's so funny.

- Cause we had to cut the chocolate bar, I mean the frog, in half.

- [Angela] Uh huh.

That is, that's a big deal.

What do you think your kids would say they learned from you when you guys are doing all the projects together?

- I know, that they don't want to be around me when I'm working on the book.

- Oh yeah, well that's so funny.

- Well, no, I mean, they've seen a lot of this transformation, too, where, where you can be just working on this kind of stuff at home in your spare time and still have it become something that is seen and recognized all over the, all over the country, all over the world.

So I mean, these kids are all growing up in a world where the potential for what you do to be out there is a billion times bigger than it was when we were kids.

- Right.

And hopefully positively right?

There can be pros and cons.

But that's another, another show we can talk about that for hours.

I'm gonna ask all of my guests to stay right here.

And when we come back, we'll hear from our audience and take their questions for Ken, Bob, Julian and Addie.

That's next on iQ: smartparent.

- [Announcer] Want to find out more iQ: smartparent?

Visit our website at WQED.org/smartparent.

There you'll find information about each episode, including topics and guests.

Links to the latest research on kids and media and other great resources like books, videos, and articles on iQ: smartparent topics.

It's also your place to connect with our online community.

Look for WQED EDU on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Pinterest for iQ: smartparent updates and much more.

For more than 50 years, WQED has helped spark your child's curiosity and love of learning with trusted resources in literacy, math and science and social wellbeing.

Now, we're excited to launch a new institute for parents that will empower them with knowledge and resources to raise their 21st century children with confidence.

Join our iQ: smartparent community.

Sign up at wqed.org/smartparent.

- Welcome back to iQ: smartparent.

We're talking about dads and kids and digital technology.

My guests are Geek Dad blogger and author Ken Denmead, along with YouTube stars, Jillian, Addie, and their dad, Bob McLaughlin.

So we have our first question.

Come up, and will you tell everybody your name?

- Natalie Martinez.

- So Natalie, what is your question?

- This is for Mr. Ken.

So one of the biggest, I think, controversies with technology is that kids don't get to go out so much and be active.

What would you say to those kind of people?

- [Ken] Well, I, it's, it's always about balance.

Any, anything that your kids are going to get into, you know, you can't let them get so obsessive that it takes over from other things and, you know, being inside versus being outside, you want to balance those times.

I think there are ways, you know, if, if, if your kid has iPod Touch or an iPhone or a digital phone, you know, there are apps that encourage them to go out and do stuff and you can always get them if you need that kind of bridge to get them to do stuff.

That's fine.

I think the most important thing is that parents always have to lead by example.

So they can't see you sitting at your computer or on your phone 20 hours a day and not going out and, you know, doing exercise or playing stuff outside.

And then you have to tell them, well, no, you should be outside.

You have to lead by example.

- [Angela] The modeling.

- So, so look in the mirror first and then figure out what you need to change and help them change or, or set those rules.

- [Natalie] Thank you.

- I think that, that the book is a really great place to go outside and do the activities, right?

So it's a starting point.

If we, like you said earlier, that if we don't have an idea, you can go to the book and it'll break it down, right by steps in terms of what's ease, what you might have at home, how expensive it might be.

- That's the idea.

All, all of the projects in the books have had the sort of a, it's almost like a restaurant guide to what it's going to take, what you need to, to buy, what you might have lying around at home, how hard it's going to be, what the, what the key, you know, takeaways are, things like that.

And at least half the projects involved, just get outside, and fly a kite with lights on it or something like that, yeah.

- Or just a kite, even.

- Just fly a kite.

Build a kite.

- Build a kite.

Did someone else have a question?

Oh, great.

Come on over.

And what's your name?

- Emily Adkins.

- Hi, Emily.

- Hi.

I was wondering how the girls fit their show making into their school schedule.

- That's a good question.

- [Jillian] We mostly do it during the summer.

We do some of the candy reviews either on the weekends or after school hours.

And, (Bob chuckles) - [Angela] What do you like better?

Making videos or making the candy, the movies or the candy reviews?

- [Jillian] Well the candy videos, they're a lot easier.

They're not scripted very much, - [Angela] Right.

That's great.

You get to be yourself a little bit more.

Well, thank you.

Those were, those are some really great questions.

Media can be a rewarding way to connect with your child, whether it's blogging about science experiments or creating videos, our online world lets kids and parents share their experiences and creativity with others in such a positive way.

So even if you don't feel like you're ready to make videos that get millions and millions of hits, you can make videos just with your family or read another parent's blog or watch a YouTube video with your child to inspire some really great ideas.

We give you permission to geek out with your kids.

And our partners at Common Sense Media also have great suggestions on books about dads, favorite TV dads, and best dad-daughter movies.

Visit commonsensemedia.org to check it out.

And we'll be featuring more parent tips and great resources on our Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages.

Follow us at WQED EDU and it hashtag iQ: smartparent.

If you have a video of your Idad projects, you want to share, send it to us.

And our conversation will continue online.

So hear more from my guests and tonight's audience at wqed.org/smartparent.

Be sure to share your thoughts and advice there too.

And thank you so much for joining us.

Goodnight.

(audience applauds) (uplifting piano music)