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“The Didj handheld is the first grade-school system that lets kids ages 6-10 create the game and parents customize the learning.”
Using the included PC- and Mac- compatible LeapFrog® Connect Application, players first select and personalize an avatar. Then they design the game, choosing background scenery, color schemes or music. Most important, parents and kids can then customize content, connecting gameplay with schoolwork. (more…)
Nintendo’s “Endless Ocean” video game may not have been designed for educational purposes; However, I can’t think of a better way to get your kids excited about the world’s oceans and coral reefs. -Regardless of your geographic location and from the comfort of your own living room. Sea-sickness not included.
Did you know: 2008 is the “International Year of the Reef”?
Having your kids being interested in a subject like Coral Reefs also makes for a great introduction to using Keyboard, Mouse and the Internet (Google) to find answers to (more…)
My kids, ages 5 and 8, continue to be fascinated by Webkinz. Many of their friends from school also have Webkinz and they are forming a little “community” by meeting each other online, inviting their friends to their virtual “rooms” and playing games together. I just ran across a very nice website called http://www.webkinzhub.com that has some good information for parents to understand how Webkinz works, and also has some tips and tricks for the kids.
On Saturday my oldest daughter and I both happened to get up really early for some reason. We started playing around with Scratch, a cool new project from MIT that I’ve blogged about before. And we made our very own video game!
In this game, you are a cute little creature named Gobo. You have to fly on your magic carpet and steal the fortune cookie from the Dragon’s bowl of magical cheese puffs. But watch out - the dragon breathes fire and *really* likes his cheese puffs!
^ Click the image above to play!
The creative ideas all belong to Abby (my daughter.) We had a lot of fun making this game. But where is the educational value in a game like this, you ask?
What are the memories of childhood that keep coming back to you? Oftentimes, they are of the first movie we saw. Movies are profound (and often intense) experiences for first-timers. Think back to your first visit to a cinema: whether it was a public screening or a private viewing at home, when the lights went out and the movie came up, you were alone in your own experience. This great gift of cinema helps create those memories that are so clearly affixed in our minds.
Now do you think that memory from your childhood, that cornerstone in the foundation of your life, influenced who you are today? If you’re were a kid in America in the 70s who turned on the Afterschool Specials on Wednesdays at 3:30pm when they were playing foreign films, chances are that is why you are tuning into KidConfidence and this blog today. And look at how similar things around us are to the 70s.
Cinema has always played a large part in the memory of our American society. Those 70s kids’ parents spent entire afternoons in the cinema for a nickel watching Betty Grable, Clark Gable and the stars of the 40s and 50s. Their parents remember the advent of the “Talkie.” No doubt, vivid memories of cinema days were passed on. But with so much media at our fingertips today, parents have to make more careful choices about providing the opportunities for those memories. What is the exposure that is going to make the lasting impression and perhaps plant seeds that continue to inspire your child as her or she progresses to adulthood?
