Happy SunMonday! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, if celebrating it. Here's what we've been working on.
1. Launched on Social!
I've been avoiding TikTok and Instagram for months. The accounts existed, sitting empty while I focused on building the website and newsletter.
This week, I finally started posting.
The footballer selfie videos we created last week - showing my football-mad 8-year-old "meeting" his heroes - turned out to resonate.
The Barcelona version got 35k views. Real Madrid followed with similar numbers. Then Liverpool hit 86k views, 910 likes, and 422 comments.
My TikTok follower count? 119 people. My Instagram? Literally one follower (hi Mom).
But those view numbers taught me something: the projects we're creating here aren't just fun for our family. They're exactly what other parents are searching for.
If you're on TikTok or Instagram and want to see the behind-the-scenes content, I'm @aidadlab on both platforms.
Fair warning: I'm still figuring out short-form video, but the AI projects translate surprisingly well.
2. This Week's Unexpected Win: NotebookLM for Learning
On 27th December, we walked along Dublin's docks and saw statues commemorating victims of the Great Irish Famine (1845-1852). My 8-year-old asked questions I couldn't fully answer.
Rather than a boring lecture, I tried something different: I created a custom podcast using NotebookLM.
The process:
- Asked ChatGPT and Claude to recommend age-appropriate sources about the Irish Famine
- Downloaded PDFs and uploaded them to NotebookLM
- Prompted it to generate a 10-minute "podcast" conversation between two people, specifically for an 8-year-old audience
- Asked it to define key terms (famine, blight, potato crop) clearly within the conversation
- Requested 5 comprehension questions at the end
The result: A 10-minute audio discussion that explained the history through conversation rather than lecture. At the end, he correctly answered all 5 questions. I could genuinely see he'd learned something.
What worked: The conversational format kept him engaged far longer than reading would have. Defining terms naturally in context made complex history accessible.
What I'd change: 10 minutes was slightly too long—his attention wandered in the last 2 minutes. Next time: 6-8 minute episodes. Also, play it out loud instead of AirPods. He wasn't used to wearing them, which created unnecessary distraction.
The bigger picture: This is microlearning that actually works. Turning any topic into an age-appropriate podcast takes about 5 minutes of setup. The educational value is remarkable.
Full tutorial coming to the site this week but in the meantime here is a review I did a few weeks ago.
3. Looking Ahead: Tools Worth Trying in 2026
As we head into the new year, these are the AI tools on my radar for family testing:
- For creative projects: Kling 2.6 continues to impress for video animation. Nano Banana Pro remains unmatched for image generation with kids.
- For learning: NotebookLM just proved its worth. I will be experimenting more with this in the coming weeks.
- For content creation: The TikTok experiment showed that short-form AI content resonates. Expect more behind-the-scenes family project videos in 2026.
I'll be testing, documenting, and sharing everything we discover. Same honest assessments. Same family-first approach. Same parent-to-parent communication.
Recent Project Links
AI Footballer Selfie Video Tutorial (The one that went viral)
NotebookLM Tool Review
All Family Projects
Thanks for being part of this journey. 2026 is going to be interesting.
Niall
