Media Macaroni

I’m sure you must be going through withdrawal from my Toy Fair coverage, right? Well, if that’s the case, fear not! Scott Traylor of 360KID has kindly put together this video of a roundtable discussion I participated in during Toy Fair and the Engage Expo, hosted by Warren Buckleitner of Children’s Technology Review.

In this video, you’ll see such esteemed industry folks as Robin Raskin of Raising Digital Kids, Reyne Rice from the Toy Industry Association, Christy Matte from About.com’s Guide to Family Computing, Gary Goldberger from Fablevision, and Ellen DePasquale of The Online Mom, and many fabulous others. You also get to see me, all gorgeous and articulate pregnant and brain-fried after four days of Toy Fair. Enjoy!

I’ll admit, I may still have one Toy Fair/Engage Expo post in me. I mean, I haven’t even written about seeing Will Wright speak at Engage.

I’m happy to be raising a little science girl, and I’ve previously talked about PBS playing a large role in that development. Now, PBS has a show for older science girls, aptly named SciGirls. Geared for ages 8-12, each show features the scientific discoveries of real life girls in the topics of science, technology, engineering and math. (If you’ve ever heard the term STEM, this is it.)

What’s remarkable about the show is that these aren’t just girls doing a project at school. The experiments are tied to the day-to-day need for science, and the girls are given access to experts, materials, and wildlife that make science seem extraordinary.

One of the most interesting episodes so far as been about the self-awareness of animals, using dolphins as a test subject. The goal was to see if dolphins could recognize themselves in a mirror. Apparently elephants can, as shown in footage on the show. Two girls recorded dolphin behavior in an ethogram, setting up different experiments and a control test. They even got to swim with the dolphins. I asked Olive if she could ever imagine swimming with dolphins and her reply was, “Phineas and Ferb swim with dolphins.” I said, “Yes, but they’re cartoons, and these are real girls. This is something you could actually do.” And I think that’s the magic in the show. Girls: this is all possible.

Some of the episodes have the girls working in groups of four, like an episode where girls work with mechanical engineers to build an animatronic May Day parade float. This is when you get into the interesting dynamics of what a group of four 8-12-year-old girls is like. The conflict and resolution is almost a science unto itself.

Each show is bookended with two characters, Izzie and Jack. Izzie asks Jack for help with a problem, and when he can’t help her she turns to the SciGirls for help. I understand the need for the bookends to unify the episodes, but honestly, this is my least favorite part of the show. Izzie always seems helpless, and Jack is a bit of a doofus. He also highlights how boys are left out of the equation completely, which, while the point of the show, is starting to get under my skin now that I’m going to be mom to a little boy. It’s a conundrum.

There’s also a great website that promotes some pretty cool science projects, and allows all the SciGirls out there to upload their own. As a kid, I remember not having any interesting ideas come science fair time (my lab partner gets all the credit for our hydroponics entry). It was always like, “Hmmm, I wonder what will happen to this plant if I pour Coke on it.” This site is a great resource for ideas that are both interesting and accessible.

SciGirls is great for science girls, both in the 8-12 range and for the younger ones alike. Because of their interesting topics, Olive stays focused through each episode. Go SciGirls!

Today we celebrate a great day, the birth of Dr. Seuss. I mean, where would we be without him? While I’d mostly like to celebrate with one of these phenomenal Dr. Seuss-themed cakes, I’ll settle for a sugar-free Seuss on my iPhone.

Yes, just in time for the big birthday, Oceanhouse Media has launched a line of Dr. Seuss eBooks for the iPhone, including Dr. Seuss’s ABC, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and the one that I looked at, The Cat in the Hat. This app is another interesting entry into the unknown world of eBooks for kids, and there are a few things worth noting. First, the book looks great. The close-ups, zooms and pans work really well, both for this particular book and on this particular platform. The text is clear, and they’ve done a nice job highlighting the text as the story is read. The voice-over could be more dynamic, but that’s a pretty minor quibble.

This app runs $3.99, which simultaneously seems high for a kids’ app and low for a book. While $3.99 seems a fair price to pay for one of the great classic kids’ books (and I paid it), for that price app I’d love to see some additional activity after the book is read. Now, you can tap on the picture and see words appear, and there is a mode where you can read to yourself, but I’m talking about some bonus gameplay here.

The interesting thing I’ve found since downloading this book is that even though The Cat in the Hat is a household favorite that’s read often, I can’t get Olive interested in looking at it on my phone. I think it’s because it has to compete with the likes of Peggle and Slide-a-ma-jig. We’ll see. I’m curious, with polished apps like this and toy readers like the VTech Flip, how eBooks take off for kids. Something is going to hit the mark, I’m just not sure we’ve seen it yet.

Note that March 2 ONLY, in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, all of these apps will be on sale for $0.99. At that price, they’re definitely worth owning, and I’m downloading ABC and Grinch as I write this. I willing to bet that Olive will come around.

We’ve recently discovered the beauty of wordless picture books. You see, that “one more story” request emanating from Olive’s room well past bedtime was getting out of hand, and bedtime was getting later and later. We started encouraging that she read books by herself, only to be met with that lame excuse accompanied by big puppy dog eyes, “but I can’t read!” (As if she doesn’t have two dozen books memorized…)

So we played our trump card – books without words! Luckily we had a couple on hand:

Zoom by Istvan Banyai shows a series of pictures, each one zooming out from the last. For example, you see children looking out the window of a house. The next page shows the exterior of the house. Then a further zoom shows the house as a playset that a girl is playing with, etc. We also have the sequel of this illustration-trickery, Re-Zoom.

A similar book, but more of a brain-bender is the Caldecott Honor Book The Red Book by Barbara Lehman. A boy is walking down the street and finds a red book. As he pages through it, we see illustrations of other kids who have found the book, and they (and the reader) all start to realize they’re part of this magical book experience.

Somehow, these three books weren’t quite enough, so I picked up a few more.

The obvious first choice was 2010 Caldecott Winner, Jerry Pickney’s The Lion & the Mouse, his adaptation of an Aesop fable. A lion spares a mouse’s life, a gentle act that gets repaid when the little mouse is able to save the lion from a hunters’ trap.

Wave by Suzy Lee is wonderful in its simplicity, showing a girl playing in the ocean as the waves come in and out. This interplay of girl and sea is enhance by the book’s wonderfully long spreads.

I think the Caldecott enjoys the wordless books. Last to join our collection is Flotsam by David Wiesner. This surreal book, much like The Red Book, shows a curious boy who finds a camera washed up on the beach. When he gets the film developed (yes, you’ll have to explain to your kids what film is) he sees the remarkable and alien life of undersea creatures, as well as all the kids who have found the camera before him.

And yes, with the help of these books (OK, and a sticker chart), we’ve seen much more nighttime independence and more sleep.

I was surprised not to see more at Toy Fair surrounding cooking with kids. There were just a small handful of products, and most of what I saw was for making sweets like cupcakes and cookies. I’ve mentioned here before how much I enjoy cooking with Olive, for it’s in those moments she’ll try just about anything. She even ate kale while making soup with me.

Teaching our kids about food is the subject of Jamie Oliver’s TED talk, winner of the $100,000 TED Prize. If you haven’t seen this video, it’s seriously worth watching.

I love Jamie Oliver, and not just because of his accent and delicious recipes. He’s truly dedicated his work to making kids (and adults) healthier. His new show, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, will debut March 26 on ABC where he will challenge the way America eats. I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve talked about some of the big trends and big players at Toy Fair this year, but I thought I’d round it out with some of my favorites from the show, particularly the booths I didn’t want to leave.

It was interesting to be pregnant at Toy Fair. It was quite a bit like shopping for the new little guy, down to picking out my future diaper bag at the Skip Hop booth. On the baby gift front, there was nothing as cute as the animals and blankets from Apple Park. And, with the adorable hat box packaging, these goodies are perfect for showers.

Speaking of pregnant, how about this awesome puzzle from Beleduc & Hape Toys? Z Recommends turned me on to the multi-layer Beleduc girl and boy puzzles, and these Mother Layer Puzzles are a great addition to the line.

Elsewhere in the marvelous Hape Toys booth were these gorgeous Organeco blocks. Forget about the kids – I want to play with these.

Similar wooden goodies were at the Kid O booth, including that Things That Go wooden book I recently discovered, and this Deep Into the Forest play theater.

Some things stop you cold in your tracks, like when you see unbelievably cool Wild Things figurines from Medicom Toy.

Other things you need to interact with to love. In the Eco-kids booth, I started playing with their Eco-Dough and never wanted to give it up. And I left the booth smelling of rosemary. I love Play-Doh, but this was a hugely appealing substitute in gorgeous vegetable-dyed colors.

I saw this beautiful stack of cards from Rubbing Hands, and stopped to learn more. The game is called Get the Gem, and you hide the gem then leave a trail of arrows to point the way, a great activity to get kids moving.

Rubbing Hands has another hide and seek game called Capture the Gag. You hide this little critter, making sure to leave his little eye visible. The suction cups and clips allow for endless hiding possibilities.

Lots more toys after the jump… including the ability to make snow anywhere, anytime.

Read the rest of this entry »

The American Museum of Natural History, known as the Dinosaur Museum in this house, was kind enough to invite us to their family program Wild Wild World: Awake at Night yesterday. Bat expert Rob Meis from the Cranbook Institute of Science in Michigan was the speaker in the museum’s intimate Linder Theater, and he brought with him a bevy of live nocturnal animals.

Olive and I parked ourselves in the front row, and as Meis left the stage to walk around with the animals, we found ourselves two feet away from some of these amazing creatures, which included an owl, a fruit bat, a sugar glider marsupial, and a two-toed sloth.

Meis’s presentation that worked at just the right level for the kids in the room. It was packed with interesting facts and he didn’t sugarcoat anything having to do with predators and prey. For example, did you know the small bats we get here in the northeast are so small that 300 of the them can fit in one small bat house? Or that the two-toed sloth only goes to the bathroom once a week?  We learned about how the eyes of nocturnal animals work and the different elements of animal camouflage. Meis took questions from the crowd, patiently answering every question the kids came up with. Add to that the delight of watching a sloth feed himself grapes and the sugar glider peeing all over Meis’s gloves, and you’ve got yourself a room full of delighted kids (and parents).

I’m thrilled to know about these family-centric shows that exist outside of the museum’s usual tourist-filled roster of shows. Upcoming shows include Celestial Highlights: Family Fundamentals this Tuesday in the Hayden Planetarium, giving young observers a basic understanding of constellations. The next live animal show in the Linder Theater is Predators on Saturday March 27, where wildlife expert Andrew Simmons will show an eagle, a python, and a bear cub. The show we were at was packed, so advanced tickets probably aren’t a bad idea.

While I love looking through the booths of the mom and pop toysellers at Toy Fair, it’s also interesting to see what the major players are doing. I’ve already given a rundown of what Hasbro is up to, and here are some interesting things coming from other big toy companies.

I’m most excited about Lego board games. Oh, yeah, you heard me. Lego. In the game aisle. This concept works out exactly as I hoped it would: build the board then play the game. Because Lego is master of open-ended play, each game comes with alternate rules and board set-ups to change up the games for different levels of play. There’s even Lego dice that get transformed during gameplay.

Lego and board games is such a natural match, I found myself marveling at the fact that this chocolate-and-peanut-butter combination hasn’t happened sooner. Hasbro is also playing with this idea, with board assemblages of some of their classic board games, but the Lego games (unsurprisingly) seem to have a better building component.

Two companies, VTech and Fisher-Price have come out with eReaders for kids. I haven’t had a chance to play with Fisher-Price’s iXL yet, but I got a hands-on demo of VTech’s Flip. The Flip is a well-designed piece of hardware for kids ages 3-7, with nice resolution on the touch-screen and a keyboard for different types of gameplay. The stories are animated and there are different story-related games to play.

The Flip itself is a reasonable $59.99, but each individual story cartridge is $19.99, which seems a hefty price to pay for a book with games. There will be cheaper downloadable content, which helps. In the past, though, I’ve enjoyed VTech hardware but not the software. If the eBook titles are good, they could warrant the price. If not, I fear there won’t be enough bang for the buck. The Flip titles at launch will include properties like Shrek and Olivia, and there’s only one classic book, The Little Engine that Could. I’ll be keeping my eye out for more of the classic books.

Until I get my hands on Fisher-Price’s iXL, here’s Gizmodo’s review.

VTech also introduced their handheld device, MobiGo. This too has a touch screen, and it also has a flip out qwerty keyboard, like a mini Sidekick. It has the same pricing structure as the Flip, and I carry to this device the same set of reservations as the Flip, though the Shrek game I saw looked pretty fun.

Ultimately, though, it seems like all of these touch-screen toys and readers are filling the time between now and when we can get a second or third-generation iPad into the hands of our kids. The versatility of a platform like that (even at the significantly higher price tag) has the power to blow these smaller toys out of the water. My iPhone remains Olive’s handheld device of choice for now.

Lastly, I previewed Disney’s The World of Cars Online, a virtual world based on a little animated film you might have heard of, Cars. The story in the virtual world picks up where the film left off. Lightning McQueen returns to Radiator Springs to teach other cars how to race. Players get to custom design and name their car avatar and enter the world of Radiator Springs.

Disney was incredibly smart to buy Club Penguin. It’s clear that all of the learning curve of Club Penguin has been applied here. You can find and chat with friends, explore the world, and play mini-games. Much of the content is free to play, but a $5.99/month subscription unlocks extra features. The unlocked car customization is extraordinarily elaborate – a whole game unto itself. I think Pixar fanboys (and girls) will be pleased with this world, doing justice to the story and characters created in the movie. The World of Cars will launch later this year, but if you’re itching to play a non-penguin Disney world right now, Pixie Hollow looks equally well-treated in its own beautiful fairy way.

OK, after this I promise only one or two more posts about Toy Fair. What can I say? I found a lot to talk about this year. There’s also my latest post at Z Recommends about hands-on building and creativity toys.

Z Recommends has my latest round-ups on Toy Fair:

Toy Fair Goes Green – featured environmentally-friendly toys from the new green section of Toy Fair

The Best of the Board Games – easy to learn and fun to play

There’s no question, Olive’s turning into a little scientist, much to our delight. She recently received Scientific Explorer’s My First Chemistry Kit as a gift (thanks Kurt & Carrie), which has led to some excellent home experiments on liquids and solids, acids and bases, dissolving, magnification, and more.

Walking the floor at Toy Fair 2010 I noticed and exciting new trend – science is everywhere. More and more companies are making home experiments easy, affordable, exciting, and accessible to a wide range of ages.

Thames & Kosmos featured a huge selection of elaborate science kits in all areas of scientific exploration. There are kits for electronics, engineering, wind power, physics, and climate change. I particularly liked this Power House, with experiments showing how to live sustainably.

They also have kits that show how science is crucial to products that we use every day, like candy, perfume, and cosmetics. These are nice for kids who don’t really want to think about the fact that they’re learning science.

Tedco Toys features a similar array of products in small, easy to use kits with their Ein-Os line. In categories of Basic Science, Human Biology, Crystal Growing, Electronic Devices, Environmental Science, and Electricity Science, each kit represents a scientific area of inquiry with 4-5 experiments, each for around ten bucks.

What would you say if I told you my 7th grade science project was hydroponics? I know, I’m awesome. Well, it would have been a much easier project if my partner and I had this Hydroponics Lab from Educational Insights. It has everything you need to start growing plants without soil.

For the study of nature, Backyard Safari Outfitters has tools to get your kids outside and exploring. A product combo I liked was the Bug Vacuum and the 2-In-1 Habitat. You suck up bugs with the bug vacuum (which I’m told does not harm the bugs) and release the chamber into the habitat for observation and enjoyment. You never have to touch the bug, making it perfect for the curious but squeamish explorers like me.

Speaking of science, today I met my parenting hero, Lenore Skenazy of Free Range Kids. Just this morning I read this Outrage of the Week on her blog, where one school effectively banned science from the science fair in the name of safety. Please promise me that if anything like this happens at your child’s school you’ll fight it tooth and nail? Kids need science!