Take Your Child to Work Day

Yesterday was Take Your Child to Work Day in the US. Barb the Evil Genius echoes my sentiments in her brief summary of how this tradition was started by the Ms. Foundation for Women.

I'm glad the focus has changed to include boys and dads. You might say it's come a long way, baby, in the last 15 years.

Thank you, Kate5Kiwis for asking about it!

Rick's company participated in grand style. The day turned out to be one terrific field trip for the Artist. It could have been have- your- child- read- a- book- in- your- office/cube- while- you- work- day instead. That would have been a supreme bore.

The day was planned as follows:

8:30 - 9:00 am: Children arrive. Doughnuts/Juice/Milk are provided for breakfast. Children will create their own name badges.

Once all children have arrived, we will go over the rules for the day and discuss what we do at this company, and the schedule of events for the day. Digital photos will be taken of all children for projects later in the day. Children will be separated into 2 groups.

9:00 - 12:00 pm: IT department hosts the following sessions--

Internals of Computers A hands-on lab to crack open & remove components from decommissioned PCs. Includes an explanation of the main components (hard drives, memory, bus, etc.).

What's a Database? A hands-on lab where each child will become oriented to how data is stored (database), and build a table in Microsoft's SQL Server.

Building a Web Page -- A hands-on lab where each child will build a real web page including adding the database table they created to the web page.

12:00 – 1:00 pm - Lunch time. Children/Parents will have lunch. Pizza and Drinks provided.

1:00 - 3:00 pm - IT department to host the following sessions--

Claims Presentation Interactive presentation of Insurance claims and how the company helps people when they need it. Includes property damage photos and how the company determines how much to pay for damages.

Buying on the Web and Troubleshooting Interactive exercise explaining the systems infrastructure and how to find a computer problem when someone tries to buy insurance (or anything else) online. (Presented by Rick!!!)

3:00 - 4:00 p.m. Sundae cups/goodie bags. Children make their own sundae cups.

4:00 - 5:00 Shadow parents. Children will accompany their parents to their workstation. Children will be provided with a questionnaire to complete and with the Bring Your Child to Work Day Activity Book.

The Artist had a great day. Rick's company designed the day for children ages 8 - 13. Being right in the middle there, she had a great opportunity to make some new friends. I'm also thrilled that one of the session leaders asked all the kids to send her an email telling what they learned in her session. Something tells me we might see those words as quotes in the next issue of the company newsletter.

The Artist had a blast, and cannot wait to go again next year. But perhaps I should let her explain. Here is her field trip write up for her field trip scrap book.

Today was "Take Your Child to Work Day" at (Dad's company). I had so much fun! First, everybody learned what a database is. After that, we made our own web pages! The name of my page was "The German Baker." The color of the background for my picture was cyan. On top of my picture I wrote: "My dad is a project manager at (the company). I take martial arts. My name is German for (mom is censoring this on-line).

Next we got to take apart computers. I think the RAM was about one inch wide and four inches long. We had a big processor.

After lunch, we saw pictures of damages cars. We learned that people can use their car insurance to fix their car, and if the car is too damaged for fixing, they can use the insurance to buy a new car. Then Daddy gave a presentation about how computes "talk" and work together. Then everybody had ice cream!