The most recent edition of Chicago’s Columbia Chronicle is featuring an article all about Greg Gilla of Robot City Workshop and Don and I with Bots 4 Tots. There’s even a mini interview with moi! We are so excited to have the words “Bots 4 Tots” in print; it’s a first for us (besides our pamphlets, of course)! You can read the article online here, or better yet, pick up a copy and hang it up on your office wall, your refigerator at home, or your forehead! Thanks for the recognition, Bertha Serrano! Greg, Don and I really appreciate your spreading the word throughout the Columbia community!

Dan of Robotics Blog puts it best, I think, when he says “I sure wish I had been exposed to robotics at an earlier age”. Don’t we all, Dan? That’s precisely what we’re after, here at Bots 4 Tots; making that introduction of child and robot happen earlier so that kids and adults don’t have to say things like “I wish I could have learned how to do that”. Robotics Blog has not only published an article about us, but it seems that they are so impressed with the cause that they have made us one of their “Robotics Links”. We are honored! Thanks Dan, and thanks Robotics Blog! We’ll see you out there in the robotic blogosphere!  

We love Dadmins.com! Who else provides both links to video game controllers for infants AND ninja/pirate baby mobiles on the same page? So cool! That’s why we were slap happy about being featured on the Dadmins site! We think that regardless of whether or not you are a Dadmin, you should check out this site. You’re bound to find some cool info or toys for that special kid in your life! Thanks, Daddy-O!

I contacted Robots Dreams the other day and, just like so many other people we’ve been in touch with, they wanted to do something to help Bots 4 Tots! They asked me to write up a piece about our wonderful cause, to explain to them what B4T is, and they liked what I sent so much that they went ahead and published what I sent! Word! Check it out over at Robots Dreams, and keep an eye on their site for future pics, videos and media about B4T!

Wow, we are speechless! One of our favorite comic/blogs has a feature on Bots 4 Tots in its blog. And, well… we’re kind of freaking out! For one thing, this posting has perked up some ears and brought a lot more attention to our cause and our site, and for that we are truly thankful. (Seriously, Scott, thank you!) On a different note, it’s kind of like meeting Optimus Prime… or Peter Cullen, at least. We’re a little weak at the knees! Check out the Extralife post, and comment on the post if you’ve got a minute! Thanks Extralife, and thank YOU Internet!  

Sheila Franklin over at Robot Snob sent us a list of questions that she felt might make for a good interview. We felt the same way! 

In fact, we were so excited about the whole thing that we broke out our microphones and recorded the thing as an MP3 for you and yours to consume!

Use our little sound player thingy below to enjoy teh goodnessx0rz!!!1!!!!111!1!one

It’s true. We blew up our hosting service. Not with bombs, but with awesome.

You guys have spiked our bandwidth and ramped up our use so much that we’ve had to upgrade THREE TIMES in the last 2 weeks! I’m not telling you to stop; tell your friends and family and friends’ families and friends’ families’ dogs about us, because if getting you guys pumped about teaching robotics to kids is wrong, then baby I don’t want to be right.

Let’s go for a fourth burn. Our hosting service can handle it. Let’s tear this place down. Get the whole world to visit. If a small faction donate, we’ll be up to our ears in robot workshops!

Hit us with your best shot. Fire away!

826CHI is an amazingly awesome organization, and we are pleased to announce that Bots 4 Tots will be working with them to bring robotics AND robot-inspired creative writing to kids this summer!!! That’s right, people. We are definitely NOT messing around up in this piece!

826CHI, the super-crazy-wonderful Chicago based chapter of 826 National, operates on location at The Boring Store (1331 North Milwaukee Ave) to sell secret agent supplies to… ahem, I MEAN, tutor and teach Chicago kids after school and at countless workshops.

Have you seen this place? You’ve got to check it out! Don and I think the world of them and the work that they do there, so of course, we were ecstatic when they suggested doing a joint workshop!

Bots 4 Tots will be holding a workshop in conjunction with 826CHI this May entitled “Reading, Writing and Robots”. It will be held in two parts: first the kids will come to a B4T workshop and build robots, and then the following week we’ll all meet up again at The Boring Store and talk/write/draw about the adventures our robots have been on, what kind of personalities they have developed, and what we imagine they are like now that we’ve gotten to know them inside and out!

We are really excited to work with the good people at 826CHI, and we thank them for their tireless efforts for the kids of Chicago! Here’s looking at you, 826CHI. You know, through binoculars.

Our good friends at Robot Snob have recently asked us to do an interview for their site, and we are more than happy to oblige! The questions are really fun, and include some juicy ones about how Don and I became interested in robotics ourselves and what kind of projects we’ve worked on in our spare time. It’s going to be good, so stay tuned and don’t miss it! In the meantime, check out this article that Robot Snob did to announce the upcoming interview and praise the program. We are so incredibly ecstatic that B4T is being so well received!

We here at Bots 4 Tots are really excited to be featured on Botropolis! They think that we’re doing some great things, that we are “trying to change the world,”  and we are so happy to hear that another member of our robotics community approves! Thanks Botropolis!