Posted in Software reviews and ideas

http://fototiller.com/blog/2006/06/26/coloring-pages-from-your-photos-3-easy-photoshop-steps/

This claims to be three easy steps ... it's not quite that simple, but it's a lot of fun. It uses Photoshop and your digital camera photos. Mine are coming out very light so far, but the kids think they're great! I can see some exciting possibilities here ... for example, we went to the museum a few weeks back. Even though our photos are blurry, I'm making some nice coloring pages from them (they look more like rubbings than crisp outlines, but hey, still fun!). Neat way to emphasize a lesson or project, and another use for those millions of photos that pile up.

Posted in Software reviews and ideas

Gotta love thrift stores! There are so many neat games to try, and this is a much cheaper way to do it. So I want to share what I've discovered.

The first is called Count Dino's Number Marathon, by Discovery Toys. The main concept it covers is place value, up to thousands. (I also posted this review over on the FIAR boards.)

It's surprisingly fun. Each player (up to four) gets a species of dinosaur figurines. They are in four colors, and each color represents a place value from ones to thousands. A player rolls four dice and then lines them up to make a four-digit number. There's a space on each corner of the board to line up your dice ... the squares are color-coded to match the dinos and the board, so you can tell what goes where. Say you roll a 1,2,3,and 5 ... you can line those up to make any number, like 5,213. Then your red dino, which is on the thousands track, moves 5000 spaces (the spaces on that track are marked in thousands). Your next dino would move 200, and so on. Really cute. The idea is simply to get your herd to the finish line before anyone else.

It turns out Ted has already mastered place value to thousands, but he had a ton of fun playing and making the numbers.

For harder games, there are two decks of cards you can add. One simply has a cute statement like "Ice age! Your herd gets skates. Move your dinosaurs 27 spaces." So you'd move your tens dinosaur and your ones dinosaur. The other deck has actual problems to solve before you can move extra spaces.

For an easier game, start with just the ones track and then add another place later.

This would be an easy concept to replicate in making your own game, you just need color-coded pieces in different styles for each player, and four number dice (rather than spotted dice). But if you happen to spot this secondhand, and need to work on the concept, it's well worth it!

The box has a big t-rex on the cover and descriptions of dinos on the back, so there's no way to tell the sort of game without opening it up.

Another is simply a Duplo Counting Game featuring their forest friends figures. A cute game if you already like duplos or cutesy stuff. It is for up to four players. Each gets a figurine in a different color and a separate little track on the board. You go in circles, drawing number cards to determine your move. The aim is to land on the Brick space and earn one of your color bricks. When you get all three, you circle back around to start and win. There are also ways to have 'extra turn' and 'lose a turn' spaces, but I'd leave those off with younger players, as it's just more stuff to knock off the board. There are multiple levels to this game, as well. The first just uses the basic number cards, with the number, word, and a set of objects to illustrate. Very nice. Then you can add a second deck for a harder game, the addition set. You turn over a number card, and then turn over a plus card with another number on it. Add it up, or count the total objects, and then move. The last step is to add the subtraction cards to the mix. This doesn't work so well, as the kids have already been counting on both previous sets of cards and the take-away concept doesn't go well with that. Might want to have some handy counting manipulatives (or extra duplo blocks) for that level. Your answer, and your move, is never higher than five or six, I think, so the math is simple enough for the youngest players, with a bit of help. Nothing chokable either. Cute, and nice concept, but not something I would've bought new.

I also found some nice CD games, Operation Neptune and Treasure MathStorm, both Learning Company games. Operation Neptune is for older players 9-14 and covers a variety of concepts. You're piloting a sub around the ocean floor, picking up parts of a crashed space ship and solving problems. It's more of an arcade-style review game, in that there's more playing than math, but it looks fun. I did get frustrated when I missed a piece and had to track my way back to the very beginning before the game would let me go on ... very annoying to dodge all the same critters to the end, then back to the beginning, and back to the end again. I assume a 9 year old would've been paying better attention, though. LOL. The other game, Treasure MathStorm, is supposed to be for ages 5-9. I think it's part of a series. It requires some navigating around to find the right locations, so younger folks might need help at first. It's also an adventure-ish math game. Both are dual-platform games, though I haven't yet tried them on our Macintosh. Our PC is currently running Windows 2000 and the games work fine.

On another note, we also got Jumpstart Baby, which Maddy likes. (If we all play on the computer, she wants a turn too!) It has some color-display issues but otherwise plays well in spite of being an older game.

And a very kind seller on ebay respond to my Want It Now ad, and sold me his copy of The Backyard, PC version. I can't say enough about how fun that old Broderbund series was ... Playroom, Backyard, and Treehouse. I now have all three games on both PC and Mac. They have newer versions of Playroom and Treehouse, but I will say this ... if it isn't on floppy, then it's the wrong version. The newer ones are just nowhere near the same. (Well, the CD Playroom may not be too bad .. I haven't tried that one much ... but they destroyed Treehouse.) As for running on new machines ... I am happy to say that Backyard does indeed still work. Playroom still has issues with sound ... working on that ... and Treehouse works well too. All three are fine on the Macs up to OS 9; I don't have a newer system so can't report on OS X yet. They are really really hard to find, especially The Backyard, but well worth it if you want a sweet play environment with learning thrown in as a bonus.

Hmm. If I can figure out how to manage screen shots, I should post those.

Anyway, getting that last piece of software was a great birthday present! (My birthday is tomorrow.)

Posted in Software reviews and ideas

We haven't done too very much since posting last weekend. Over the weekend, though, Maddy really took off. Instead of just cruising or crawling she has completely transitioned to walking. She still prefers to cruise if she's near something, of course, but she also loves to just stand up in the middle of the room and start going. I think she's wearing out her chubby little legs in the process, but she is so cute!

Monday I started the first of my 'serious' computer lessons with the kids at the Mother's Day Out program. We've spent half the year on basic mouse skills and fun games and drawing, with a few specific activities thrown in. Now that they're all doing so well, I want to focus on a few specific skills. I'm gleaning ideas from some teacher and Kid Pix manuals I have, as well as doing my own. This week we were to use the 'stamp' tool in Kid Pix (we use the old version of KP, by the way). I made a template that had lines all the way across the screen, dividing the paint area into several sections. Each section was for a particular color: red, yellow, green, and so on. The kids were to look at the different stamps and sort them on to the correct line. They love using the stamper so I thought this was a good place to start. Nope! It was a bit difficult. Not using the stamper, or sorting colors.. they know their colors. Just focusing and following directions was hard. A few kids did a really great job, but most of them ... oh well. It was fun anyway.

Next week we're going to use the line tool. I got this idea from the Official Kid Pix Activity Book (wish I could find a link for that one, to show). First you fill the whole background a solid black or blue with the paint bucket. Then you use the special 'star' paintbrush to splash stars all over the screen. There's your template. For the project, the kids use the line tool to connect the stars and make their own little constellations. I'm going to preface this lesson with a reading of Peter Malone's Star Shapes. It's an absolutely gorgeous book of the constellations.

These ideas can be adapted to the standard little 'Paint' program or even a fancier one like the newer Kid Pix Deluxe versions, but I like the old KP and KP Deluxe because they are truly so simple my 3 and 4 year olds can work them. Plus, unlike the new KP programs, you can import your own images to work with. Anything that can be saved as a bitmap can be tweaked to work with Kid Pix. Gotta love it.

We did go to storytime again this week. The theme was monkeys. We're still going to the 6mo-3y age group because of Madeline, and because Ted won't sit still for the older group. This one does a lot of music and play as well as the stories, and we have a lot of fun there.

Ted is also zipping through that Explode the Code primer. Glad I already have the next two! He loves his 'coloring' time each day. :) We do as many of the ETC sheets as I can stand, then I pull some math sheets from his Fisher-Price workbook and distract him with those.

It did get nice and warmer yesterday, still chilly but nice enough that all three of us played outside. Maddy loved bouncing on her horsey and being in the sunshine, and Ted loved being able to play outside with company.

We've been trying to increase our indoor exercise too. We have a couple kids exercise videos from Target. One came with a big inflatable exercise ball, and I got a mommy-sized ball too. That's kind of fun! Also, at the thrift store I picked up a neat balance board, or wobble board. This one is a bit big for Ted, because it has a labyrinth in the middle you're supposed to roll a ball through while not falling off. We're still trying to find a ball that fits just right, but this is a HOOT to try to do. If we just aren't going to run around outside, let's find something to do inside. I think we're off to a good start here.

My new theory of housekeeping seems to be working well. I don't remember if I've mentioned it already. I gave up trying to get housework done while both kids are awake, so I could rest when baby naps. Nothing was getting done. Maybe dishes or laundry, but not both, and not more than that.

NOW I have swapped it. I goof off all day (no, not really). I play with the kids or do something for me, like this blog. Then, when Madeline naps (ok, IF Madeline naps) I work for that hour on chores. If by some miracle both kids nap all bets are off and I nap too, but usually it's just the baby.

Amazingly, I can accomplish in that hour at least as much as I was struggling to do all day long, and often more. And I'm not nearly so stressed and cranky when my husband gets home. So, for now, this is my new way to keep up the house. Much better!

Oops... now baby's napping and here I am typing! Gotta run!

Happy Friday, all!