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The concept that the entire world is run on code and that code delivers pixels to screens is something I’m pretty sure most people also don’t grasp (or even care about lol). Every TV, every computer screen, mobile device and tablet is a series of running code based applications delivering things to the screen, those things on the screen, whether they are movies or simple text, are all just sequences of pixels.

That’s my world. The pixel. The smallest increment of measurement on a screen (for now). I am not one to beat technology into my kid or use technology as a nanny I just want to ensure that as he heads off into the world that he is armed with a full understanding from the non-user side of things as to how this all works.

I am a big fan of CODE.ORG and also believe that if everyone knew how to code, even just a little, their lives in this digital era would be a lot easier. With that said, I have a small lesson for those armed with Adobe Photoshop and a LEGO set.

What I did was create large simple, single square block based letters on his LEGO table, spelling out his name. I made sure he saw the process. I then associated certain LEGO minifigures with the letters (“M = Marilyn Monroe, H = Hulk, A = Astronaut, L = Loki, C = C3PO)

Then I took him up to my computer, opened Photoshop, made a clean blue screen and zoomed in to 3200%. At 3200%, the screen becomes a grid.

Using the Pencil tool with a 1 pixel brush, I had him take the mouse and click, click, click as if he were placing square LEGO pieces. I guided him on the curved letters to also show that a series of squares can create a round edge.

Zoomed it back out and showed him the tiny text he just made is just like all of the other text on the screen.

Enjoy!