Now that Little Man is no longer tied to our public school system, or to their calendar, we took our trip to the northeast in September, just after Labor Day. It’s a gorgeous time to be there, tourist and summer resident crowds have thinned considerably, and airfare is a tiny bit lower than during high season.
One of the big fires in Little Man’s life these days is action photography. He’s a pretty active guy, and has discovered UAV’s (unmanned aerial vehicles), also known as drones. He’s flown remote-controlled helicopters since he was about six years old, and moving up to flying a quadcopter with a camera on it was a no-brainer for him. When he flies, he’s an extension of the aircraft, and watching his piloting skills makes flying look deceptively easy. He’s so good at it and such a natural that you don’t fully appreciate how challenging it is unless you go on YouTube and watch videos of people (usually adults) crashing their drones.
Just today, when we were meeting with his teacher (we do this weekly), Little Man sat at the table and was messing around with his iPad. Sometimes, when he’s having a difficult time with focusing or if his anxiety is acting up, being distracted by things on his iPad helps him cope. The next thing I knew, he was asking me how to spell a word, and he uploaded a video he’d just created to Instagram. To see the video he made and to follow him on Instagram, his user name is carson_seahawk.
The app that is used to fly DJI’s drones lets you see in real-time (on your phone or tablet) what the camera sees, and it records a degraded copy of the video. It also has a small editor built into the app that lets you create clips of video, string them together, and add music; and then post it online. I didn’t realize the app could share the video to sites like Instagram. And I also didn’t realize that you can embed an Instagram video into a blog post, until about an hour ago.
So, without further ado, here is a minute long video I made (because apparently that’s as long as Instagram will accept) of Little Man’s drone footage on the coast of Maine. He’s flying over Cosy Harbor, where I spent many summers learning how to sail. (In future, when I embed videos from Instagram, I’ll create them as a minute long or less. This video was originally just over a minute, so not much is missing).
Life Is a Journey... Not a Guided Tour 
Beautiful – well done to your son! Loved watching this x
Thanks Jan! He does so well with the drone.
Pretty cool!
Thanks so much.
I wondered if it was your son that took those drone clips I saw on Instagram. I bet he has a lot of fun with it!
Yes. The aerial work on my Instagram feed is mostly his. I tried to remember to credit him, to get people over to his feed. I created the videos with his footage, and one aerial shot was mine. He loves to fly and to shoot photography with the drone. He also loves to shoot with a waterproof GoPro. I’ve created a blog for him to show off his work and for him to get writing practice, but he hasn’t gotten a post up yet. As soon as he does, I’ll share that blog with everyone. With his having dyslexia, writing is a bit of a challenge, and it’s hoped that this platform will make it more fun and interesting.
Yes, excellent idea. Is it easier for him to type rather than write? Is it cheating to use voice assisted software?
No, it’s not cheating for him to use voice assist software. We used it last year when he was still in public school, a few times. He refuses to learn how to touch type, but he’s a fair hunt-and-peck typist. His handwriting is barely legible, but he can do it. The bigger issues I see at this point are that spelling, grammar, and punctuation do not compute. Using tech assistance for those will help him learn (as well as my going over things with him). He’ll likely be typing out his work.
Beautiful! And I love that he is finding his rhythm with less of a set school environment.
Thanks Kris. Establishing a new “normal” is taking a lot longer than I expected. We’re still figuring it out a bit. But we’re getting there. (I think).