July 12, 2026
Little Observers
Moon Picnic's My Weather Station, Mentari's Mood Board, and more
Four tools for noticing what's out there and reporting back.
Oh and this week, we're trying something new! Read on for an exciting opportunity for exceptional teens, hosted by our friends at 1517.
Mentari's Mood Board is a shape sorter where each expressive face fits a slot labeled with its mood word. Moulin Roty's Le Botaniste Seasons Magnetic Calendar has kids set the day, the weather, and the moon with 108 illustrated magnets, then dress the tree for the season. Mentari's Wooden Teaching Clock is a practice clock with hour and minute hands a kid turns to set breakfast, school, and bedtime. And Moon Picnic's My Weather Station puts four dials and a sliding thermometer in front of the window, so someone small can file the day's weather report.
Mentari
Mood Board
A wooden shape sorter where each expressive face fits a slot labeled with its mood word.
Get it here →
Moulin Roty
Le Botaniste Seasons Magnetic Calendar
A magnetic perpetual calendar to set the day, weather, and moon, then dress the tree for the season.
Get it here →
Mentari
Wooden Teaching Clock
A wooden practice clock with independently moving hour and minute hands.
Get it here →
Moon Picnic
My Weather Station
A beech-wood weather board for kids to file the day's weather report.
Get it here →
Spotlight
Applications open for 1517's 2E Teen Camp 2026
Some of you have teenagers, not toddlers, so this one is for you.
1517, the fund started by the people behind the Thiel Fellowship, is running a small fall camp called 2E for high schoolers who are "irrationally passionate" about something.
Now in their fourth year, 30 teens spend a long weekend in the Bay Area meeting founders and scientists, touring early-stage companies, and hanging out with other kids who are just as obsessed. Teens attend free, housing included. If you know one who’d light up at that, applications are open until August 2nd.
This week's picks
One product and one brand from the collection
USB Digital Microscope. A $25 digital microscope with 1,000x magnification that plugs into any screen and turns a leaf, a fingertip, or a grain of sugar into a landscape. Get it here
Camp Snap. Camp Snap makes screen-free digital cameras for kids: a viewfinder, a shutter button, and no screen to review, so shooting stays about looking. Find it here
Last week's drop
In case you missed it
Big Talk. Big Ideas for Curious Minds, The Fallacy Detective, and more View the drop
MYC Games
Make Your Case
A courtroom card game where players argue absurd cases before a judge.
Get it here →
Books
The If Machine, 2nd Edition
25 ready-to-run philosophy sessions, each built on a thought experiment and a sequence of questions.
Get it here →
Books
Big Ideas for Curious Minds: An Introduction to Philosophy
26 big questions answered with ideas from 25 real philosophers.
Get it here →
Books
The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning
38 short lessons on spotting bad reasoning, taught with Peanuts, Dilbert, and Calvin and Hobbes cartoons.
Get it here →