Happy Sunday folks! Here’s what we’ve been working on.
Two things happened this week:
- I published a guide on the 7 AI skills every kid should learn in 2026.
- My mother-in-law arrived from Colombia 🇨🇴. My 8-year-old Mateo understands every word of her Spanish. But he's never spoken it back. Eight years of English-only responses. We had five weeks. I had an idea 💡.
🇪🇸 The 5-Minute Spanish Challenge
Mateo understands every word of Spanish. Always has. But he responds in English. Every time. His Colombian grandmother arrived Friday for a five-week visit.
So we created a challenge: 5 minutes per day, Spanish only, with Abuela as conversation partner.
Day one topic: who's taller and who's smaller. By the end, he'd produced his first real sentences.
"Mama es más alta que abuela. Yo soy más pequeño que papá."
The AI assist: ChatGPT generates conversation starters. Google Translate handles quick vocabulary checks. The tools support the challenge - the human conversation is what matters.
The guide includes 25 daily prompts across 5 themed weeks, plus a printable tracker.
👉 Check it out
📝 7 AI Skills Every Kid Should Learn
After 500+ hours testing AI with my kids, I’ve identified seven specific skills that separate kids who use AI well from kids who just use AI.
The highlights:
- Prompt clarity – vague instructions produce garbage
- Fact-checking – AI lies confidently
- Knowing when NOT to use AI – the most important skill on the list
Each skill includes practice exercises and age-specific guidance.
👉 Check it out
P.S. Abuela's face when Mateo spoke his first full Spanish sentence? Worth more than any AI tool I've ever tested 😊.
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Thanks for following along on these experiments.
Niall
AI Dad Lab
