This post is sponsored by Fisher-Price.

If you’ve handed a phone to a toddler lately and watched them effortlessly open apps, slide their finger along the screen to scroll through pictures or take a selfie–0r 200–you know that our kids are living in a completely different world than we were growing up. When I was a kid, “tech wiz” meant you could switch your View Master slide disks super fast or get the Frogger game started without your parents’ help.

Today it’s a little different, and though we still celebrate and hang on to the simple joys of old-fashioned things like rotary phones and film cameras, the world of technology is rapidly progressing around us, and incorporated in everything from our classrooms to our grocery stores. There’s no doubt, our kids’ world ten years from now will be even more advanced, and many of the jobs and creative opportunities available to them will require programming skills and computer experience.

Will they be ready? Our hungry little learners continually prove they will be–or as my mom says, watching Nella with my phone, “she knows how to work that thing better than I do!”

Thankfully, kids catch on fast, but it definitely helps when learning is fun. And Fisher-Price is making it a whole lot easier with their new Think & Learn Code-a-pillar, a toy that introduces the critical thinking skills and problem solving behind computer coding in a fun age-appropriate way.

The Think & Learn Code-a-pillar is divided into individual segments–each containing an action–that can be arranged and rearranged to change the direction of the caterpillar’s course. By switching segments around, kids as little as toddlers can see cause-and-effect patterns.

Kids can play around with patterns on their own for open play or try and master challenges like “Can you make the caterpillar go left, then straight, then right?”

All three of my kids have loved playing with him at different learning levels, and it’s so much fun to see how quickly they catch on. Sometimes it takes several tries, but real world problem solving does too.

Fisher-Price is giving away one Think & Learn Code-a-pillar to a lucky reader. Enter through Rafflecopter below (ends 7/27).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We love ours so much, we brought him with us to Michigan. Thinking and learning by caterpillar today, designing websites and changing the world with technology tomorrow!

We returned to Mackinac Island last week, a two-day excursion we look forward to all year long. Retreating from the headline-heavy world feels really good right now, and the island felt especially welcoming this year. You have to get there by ferry and, as Dash says, there are “bikes and boats and horses–NO CARS.” We usually board the ferry from Mackinac City, but this year we drove over the bridge to take the ferry from St. Ignace so the kids would get the bridge experience.

Bonus–far shorter lines for the ferry. Isaac, Dash’s brontosaurus, was most enthusiastic about his windshield view.

One of my favorite things about returning to the same places every summer is the kids’ familiarity and sense of ownership. Nella off that ferry? She was all “this is MY  island.” Knew every turn and where to go. And by where to go, I mean the fudge shop, of course.

I’ve written a Mackinac post now four years in a row, so I won’t bore longtime readers with the same story. Also, I’m in the back seat of  a car typing this on our way to Sleeping Bear Dunes, using my hotspot WiFi, and Ella Enchanted is playing so loud, I can barely think. So moral of the story up front: We went to the same places, were smitten by the same views and laughed that the kids maintained  the same awe for the horses (which works greatly to our advantage when we’re enjoying a meal by a window and need Dash to settle down).

But pictures, I have a plenty.

If you’re a Midwesterner and haven’t been to the island yet, plan a trip, take your family. An American summer charmer, this little island is.

Dash’s romper from a little Michigan Etsy shop I love, The  Little Spoons

We stayed at the Island House again, the oldest hotel on the island. We love all the secret nooks and crannies.

Sunset at the only elementary school on the island–overlooks Lake Huron. It’s heaven, I tell you. Heaven.

Silver dollar pancakes at the Pancake House…every year.

Mission Point lawn is by far the place place to practice cartwheels and handstands in all the land.

And another visit to the public library. Have you ever seen a more charming library? Oh, I’m sorry. Pardon me while I take this stack of books out to the picnic table on the deck that overlooks a Great Lakes lighthouse.

Until next year…we love you Mackinac.