Media Macaroni

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, but I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that. You’re probably still wearing your costume… OK, on the off chance you don’t know about the ahead-of-her-time Ada Byron Lovelace, she’s credited with writing the first computer program while working with Charles Babbage on his invention, the Analytical Engine. She was a huge math nerd from the time she was a young girl. And who taught her math? That’s right, her mom.

I love hearing the story about Ada Lovelace, and hope to raise a little Ada myself. I always loved math and I hope to share that with my daughter. One of my fondest memories of elementary school was staying after school in 3rd Grade to learn how to multiply fractions long before the other kids (Thanks, Mrs. French, wherever you are!)

I hope to impart some of my math nerdiness into the products I make for kids. Years back I worked on computer games called Math Missions, and we named the main character Ada. That’s her on the cover.

You can still get this game for Mac and PC, and there’s even a Leapster version. It’s worth checking out, if you don’t mind me saying so.

And, while I’m on the subjects of math nerdery and self promotion, all this talk is making me realize I never plugged the line of Sylvan math workbooks I wrote last year. I wrote 16 of these (16!), ranging from Kindergarten to 5th grade and covering basic skills, games & puzzles, and applied math. We’ve got all your math workbook needs, baby.

The best part about writing them? I had a lot of help from a self-proclaimed math expert.

On our recent holiday road trip to the Midwest, Olive was alternately entertained with my iPod, my iPhone, our Nintendo DS, and her Leapster. Sure, we pulled out travel bingo, but that lasted about 10 minutes. It got me thinking about how much has changed for kids in the past decade.

At the dawn of the decade, I was working exclusively on CD-ROMs. It was the heyday of CD-ROMs for kids. Budgets were fat and we even got parties and t-shirts at the end of projects. CD-ROMs dominated little kids’ eyeballs while GameBoy was in the hands of older kids, but that was all about to change. Here’s a look at some big milestones in children’s media of the past decade.

2000

• Dora the Explorer premieres, taking over the torch of “interactive” television from Blues Clues, and launching our Latina friend into super-stardom.
• PS2 was new on the scene, but a lot of producers were too busy playing Grand Theft Auto to worry about how to use it effectively for kids.
• Tivo was just hitting the market, and over the course of a decade a generation of kids becomes confused in those rare moments of watching TV as it’s airing.

2001

• Nintendo gives us Game Cube, with terrific launch titles like Luigi’s Mansion. I remember that game really opening my eyes to different gameplay possibilities. It was but a teaser, though, to the Nintendo revolution to come.
• Nintendo also gives us GameBoy Advance, securing their status in the handheld market.
• Beginning in 2001, Leap Frog starts to dominate the kids’ interactive market when the Leap Pad becomes the best-selling toy. CD-ROM tanking sales follow, and those of us in the CD-ROM biz start looking for new media.
• Baby Einstein is sold to Disney, and the tidal wave of make-your-baby-smarter products follow.
• The first iPod is released. While not immediately part of the world of kids, new iPod releases (video! touch! cheap Shuffles!) follow.

2002

• They Might Be Giants releases their first family album, No!, bringing kids’ music into the consciousness of hipster parents everywhere.
• The surprise hit Scene It! puts interactive DVDs on the map. CD-ROM folks jump all over this wave, creating mediocre interactive products for a couple years. (Really, DVD players really suck as an interactive platform.)

2003

• Leap Frog enters the handheld market with the Leapster. Suddenly handheld games are accessible to littler kids.

2004

• Nintendo releases the superior Nintendo DS. To this day, I wish this could be the do-everything platform for kids. I’m still waiting for more educational games on DS, and it seems like they’re finally starting to trickle in.

2005

• The double-whammy: Webkinz and Club Penguin launch, creating in their wake a frenzy of imitation virtual worlds for kids. Even today you can’t shake a stick at the Internet without hitting a kids’ virtual world.
• Sweet, sweet YouTube. Where would we be without you? Ever since she was a baby on my lap, Olive has been watching clips on YouTube: classic Sesame Street, music videos, funny cats, skateboarding dogs, and rollerblading babies.

2006

• One word: Wii. With a single console, Nintendo gets two-year-olds playing video games with their grandparents. It also seems that finally a console maker is paying attention to women gamers. I love you, Nintendo.

2007

• Yo Gabba Gabba premieres. I should really talk about all of the excellent shows that have premiered over the past decade in the explosion of children’s televisions, but this one remains a favorite.
• Apple gives us the first iPhone. Initially, no one would have thought of this as a children’s platform, but as harried parents handed their phones to their kids to play with koi in a pond an endless stream of kids’ apps have followed.

In the past few years, everyone has been innovating on these platforms, and we can expect more innovation in the decade to come (Apple tablet?). If it comes as quickly, the future will be mind-boggling.

Help me out. What am I missing? What has changed your child’s life in the past decade?

My sweet little baby turns 4 today. Unbelievable. To mark this momentous occasion, I asked Olive about all of her favorite things as a 3-year-old, and these are her answers (notice how it’s all so funny to her).

Favorite TV show?

“Olivia. It has funny and silly things in it. I like when the animals jump out of their strollers.”

I think that Olivia might be my favorite kids’ show of the past year, too, though we probably clocked in an equal number of hours watching Sid the Science Kid. 

Favorite computer game? 

“The rabbit game,” also known as Didi & Ditto Preschool.

Olive has become quite an adept computer gamer this year. She can navigate all of the kids’ websites by herself, delighting in finding new things. She also pretend-plays computer interfaces. She’ll set up objects in her room and tell an invisible player to click on things to make things happen. That’s my girl.

Favorite video game?

Dora Saves the Snow Princess [Instead of answering she grabbed case off TV shelf to show me the picture of the "funny" unicorn.] We’re working on the Wii skills, and I’m hoping that four is the year we really get console gaming. I can’t wait to play Mario with my girl.

Favorite toy?

“Mr. Potato Head.” I can’t argue with that classic. Three was definitely a year of building and putting things together. 

Favorite movie? 

“Toy Story. Woody thinks Buzz can’t fly but he can.” Again, another classic choice. This was also the year we discovered the Madagascar movies, and took her to see her first movie in a theater (Wall-E). We’re planning on seeing Up for her birthday, so we’ll see how that ranks, and a year from now we can see Toy Story 3. 

Favorite book? 

“All of the Curious George books, because they have funny things in them.”

This seems as good a choice as any she could have made. Three was the year she mostly let Mommy and Daddy choose the books, and we always tried to mix it up a bit.

Favorite CD?

“The getting dressed CD.” My sweet girl. She’s referring to a CD that I produced for Discover Reading: Toddler Edition. It’s often our final CD of the day, in rotation with the new Recess Monkey CD and the Yo Gabba Gabba CD.

 Favorite museum?

“The helicopter museum” [aka The Museum of Modern Art]. “The big green helicopter is way up high. It’s funny because they keep changing things but not the sculptures in the yard.”

We are members of MOMA so that when we go in and look at the helicopter for 45 minutes and then leave we feel OK because we didn’t just drop 60 bucks to look at a helicopter.

I can’t wait to see what the next year brings. Happy Birthday, baby.

If you noticed a dip in my usual number of posts in February, it could be because I was off reviewing for the Parents’ Choice Foundation. If you’re not familiar with Parents’ Choice, it’s an excellent, unbiased resource for finding quality children’s products. I couldn’t agree more with their mission: 

The Foundation’s purpose is to search out and recommend products that help kids grow – imaginatively, physically, morally and mentally—fairly priced products that are fun, safe and socially sound.

Here are excerpts from my reviews for the Spring 2009 Small Screen Awards. 

   ItzaBitza

The more you play ItzaBitza, the harder it is to stop playing. At first it seems like a basic drawing program. A “Sketchy”, the kid avatar character, asks the player to draw a house. Simple enough. But then the Sketchy starts interacting with the house drawing and the fun begins. [Read full review...]

Crayola Art Studio

The Crayola Art Studio is a robust drawing tool truly suitable to spark creativity in players as young as four. It contains a bevy of Crayola art tools, including crayons, markers, colored pencils, oil pastels, and four different kinds of painting tools. [Read full review...]

 Didi & Ditto Preschool

The first thing you’ll notice about this game is how great it looks. The animation and character design are top notch, and the vast array of animated click-ables are as fun as the activities themselves. [Read full review...]

 Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Snow Princess

Dora Saves the Snow Princess is fitting video game primer for the preschool crowd. Classic platform game functionality is fine-tuned with beginners in mind. [Read full review...]

  Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force

In Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force, players work to become a secret agent and complete missions by solving mysteries around Club Penguin. These missions are standard scavenger hunts. A penguin has the item you need, but won’t give it to you until you, for example, fetch a pizza for him. [Read full review...]

Congratulations, also, on the Gold Award to my friends who made Ultimate I Spy Wii (I didn’t get to review that one. Did I mention the reviews are unbiased?) I encourage you to read more at Parent’s Choice and check out the other deserving winners. 

People often ask me gift ideas for really specific kids, so I’ve decided to hop on the holiday gift guide bandwagon with both feet and offer up some suggestions. For me there are few pleasures greater than giving a gift that someone will love. Without further ado, here’s what I would buy if I was shopping for…

1. The baby that won’t leave Mommy alone at her computer and wants to sit and bang on the keyboards: Giggles Computer Funtime for Baby ($19.99 at Leveractive)

2. The precocious child who snidely refers to Harry Potter as “kid stuff”: Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Box Set ($23.66 on Amazon)

3. My daughter, Olive, so that we might free up some room on our DVR: Yo Gabba Gabba!: The Dancey Dance Bunch DVD ($12.99 on Amazon)

4. The 4-year-old that has so many toys, you can’t bear the thought of adding another to the collection: Too Many Toys by David Shannon ($11.55 on Amazon)

5. The 10-year-old that has so many video games, you can’t bear the thought of adding another to the collection: a Gamefly.com gift certificate ($22.95/month – $275.40/year at Gamefly.com)

This is going to be gift guide week here at Media Macaroni, so check back every day for more ideas. If you have a particular kid that you’d like a gift idea for, leave the details in the comments!