Make Something People Want — A 12-Week Guide to Inventing and Building With an AI Tutor.
Turn "I have an idea" into something real. This is a done-for-you, 12-week plan for guiding a
10–14-year-old from noticing an everyday problem to sketching it, prototyping it out of
whatever's in the junk drawer, testing it on a real person, and showing off an invention they
built themselves — using an AI tutor to ask the questions while you do the leading. You do
not need to be inventive, handy, or technical yourself.
What you get
- A "Never used an AI chat assistant? Start here" onboarding that takes about five minutes:
picking a free AI assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or Gemini all work), setting up an
account, and getting comfortable pasting a prompt — no paid plan and no prior AI experience
needed.
- A parent/teacher orientation: how to sit beside a learner using AI, why the adult stays
the leader and the AI is the tutor, and exactly what your one ~60-minute session a week looks
like.
- 12 deep weekly sessions, each fully scripted: a plain-language concept explanation, a
concrete worked example, a minute-by-minute session plan, copy/paste AI-tutor prompts at every
step, a "show me" checkpoint so you always know it landed, common mistakes to watch for, and
practice to reinforce the idea. You don't need to be inventive, handy, or technical — every
step and every prompt is written for you.
- Four rescue prompts in the front matter for when the learner is frustrated, stuck, bored,
or has wandered off-track.
- An AI-tutor prompt playbook — the Socratic starter prompt and a guardrail that keeps the AI
from ever designing or building the invention FOR the learner.
The 12 weeks
- Meet the Maker Mindset — notice, imagine, build, test, improve
- Problems Worth Solving — turn an annoyance into a real problem
- Who Is It For? — a first real interview
- A Hundred Ideas — brainstorming without judging
- Sketch & Plan It — pick an idea and plan it on paper
- Build a Rough Prototype — using whatever's on hand
- Test It on a Real Person — show, don't tell
- Make It Better — iterate from real feedback
- Tell Its Story — explain it in under a minute
- Invention Project Week I: Plan It (a real invention, scoped and signed off)
- Invention Project Week II: Build It
- Showcase Your Invention — family demo day, choose what's next
Who it's for
Parents, teachers, and homeschoolers guiding a learner aged roughly 10–14 who likes making
things — with their hands, with words, with whatever's in the junk drawer. No inventing,
engineering, or design background needed, and no prior AI experience needed — you lead one
fully scripted ~60-minute session each week, with every step timed and every AI prompt written
for you.
Why this instead of a free chatbot
A raw chatbot will happily hand your kid a finished idea or a fully designed solution the
moment they ask — which skips the entire skill this pack teaches. This pack ships the
structure a chatbot lacks: a real 12-week arc that runs the actual maker loop (notice,
imagine, build, test, improve), Socratic prompts that make the tutor ask before it tells, a
guardrail that stops it from ever designing or building the invention for the learner, and
checkpoints that prove the child can do it themselves. Curriculum + guardrails + a way to see
progress. That's the difference.
FAQ
- Do I need to be inventive or handy myself? No. The AI tutor does the questioning and
coaching; you lead by staying present and doing the "show me" checkpoint. Every session comes
with the exact prompt to start it.
- Which AI does it use? What if I've never used one? It works with any modern AI assistant —
ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or Gemini — and the free version of any of them is enough; no paid
plan required. The guide's first section walks complete beginners through setup in about five
minutes, so it's fine if you've never used an AI chat assistant before.
- Is my child's data collected? No. This is a digital guide sold to you, the adult. There's
no login and no child account — you start and supervise every AI session yourself, under your
own account.
- Does this cost money to run, or involve tools or selling? No. Prototypes are built from
everyday household materials (cardboard, tape, paper, recycling-bin finds) — nothing to buy
and no special tools required. The whole pack is about making, problem-solving, and
creativity; there's no selling, pricing, or finance content anywhere in it.
- What ages? Roughly 10–14. Age-banded variants are on the roadmap.
- Refunds? Standard marketplace refund policy applies.
Get the whole track
Building out a full kids' curriculum shelf? See the full Kids Shelf bundle
for a better price than buying packs one at a time.