Media Macaroni

Hiya, readers. As you may know, I’m a contributor to GeekMom and I thought I’d start rounding up links of some of my posts over there that might be of interest to you here.

Highlights’ State of the Kid Report: Thoughts on Bullying, Happiness, and Gender - Highlights magazine’s results of a survey to kids with some fascinating (and disappointing) results.

Time to Play: What Tech Can Do for Toys - More of my round-up of exciting toys at the Time to Play holiday showcase (see also my round-up here).

Banned Books Week: We Need More Tangos - It’s not too late to celebrate banned books week with the most adorable of banned books.

Maker Faire NYC: Easy Stuff for Kids - Not a maker? Now you can be. Here are some of the highlights from this year’s World Maker Faire.

Geek-Pleasing Finalists for the Toy Hall of Fame - So many worthy toys! Who will make the cut?

Talking to Your Kid About 9/11: Chickening Out Edition - We couldn’t do it. Could you?

One of my favorite toy events is Time to Play Magazine‘s holiday showcase. It’s like an intimate Toy Fair where bloggers like me can try out a bunch of toys that could be of great interest to our kids this holiday season.

Hexbugs are so huge in my house that I can’t believe I’ve never talked about them here. Ozzie, now 16 months, has recently discovered Olive’s stash of Hexbugs. He’ll remove them from their containers thrust them at you until you turn them on, at which point he’ll either press them against his cheeks to feel the vibrations or drop them on the floor and dance excitedly as they scurry under the bed or couch (thank goodness for the technology that sends them back out). The new Nano Hive Habitat is great because it has lots of moving parts for the Hexbugs and it folds into a carrying case.

I will also be running, not walking, to Radio Shack for their exclusive zombie Halloween Hexbugs and little Christmas Hexbugs with antlers that are delivered in Christmas ornaments.

On a similar note, the latest from ZhuZhu pets creator Cepia are Xia-Xias, little robotic hermit crabs that have secret surprises hidden in their shells. We missed the ZhuZhu trend, but these little guys are like a cross between Hexbugs and Littlest Pet Shop, and Olive will go bananas for them.

Another toy that I can see Olive enjoying (and Ozzie as well) are Lite Sprites. Fairies? Magic wands? Yes, I realize this is girlier than my average recommendation, but the technology is pretty cool. You hold the Lite Sprite Wand vertically over a patch of color, and then the top of it will light up in that color. You can then transfer that light color over to the fairy or one of the various playsets. I was skeptical of this as it comes with a color wheel, but then the WowWee rep demoed it on a printed napkin where it picked up all sorts of color. The giant glowing wand might just make Ozzie forget about Hexbugs.

Hopefully my niece isn’t reading this (Elizabeth, stop reading!) because I think she might be getting the latest from Paper Jamz for Christmas - the Pro Series Microphone. It has features like auto-harmony and chorus, and it’s mp3 compatible. Even in a super-crowded noisy room, it sounded great.

We’ve had an ant farm before, but it wasn’t nearly as cool as Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm Revolution, which shows a circular view of the ants and projects them onto the ceiling. How’s that for a nightlight?

In our humble NYC apartment, floor space is a premium. The considerate folks at Mattel have created Hot Wheels Wall Tracks that mount on the wall. I’m not sure we have the wall space for this either, but boy is it cool. You can imagine how you could combine the sets and make them into a Rube-Goldberg OK Go video.

I recently won an XBox Kinect (woohoo!) and we’re gonna need games. The new Kinectimals is all about training an adorable baby bear. I might have let out a delighted squeal while playing it today. And in a smart bit of co-branding, there will be a special line of Build-a-Bears that will be recognized by the game.

And of course, there’s great stuff from favorite brands. The LeapPad Explorer and Tag Solar System Adventure Pack from Leap Frog are great. We’ll be buying Olive the Lego City Advent Calendar. I’m also a big fan of Playmobil’s new Top Agents line. And, though we don’t have a Cars fan in this house, you can’t deny that the new Cars AppMates are cool tech - toy cars that drive on an iPad app raceway.

On a bitterly cold winter day a couple years back, a handful of train transfers got me to the doorstep of Puppet Heap, makers of truly amazing puppets. Since then, a few cool things have happened. First, they started doing puppets for the Daily Show. Hilarious. And that John McCain one is a pretty good likeness.

Puppet Heap has also launched their own puppet line, putting their bizarro puppets into the hands of babes. Just look at this motley crew.

The Constable puppet, of the Puppet Heap police department, was kind enough to come for a stay in our house so we could try him out. His head is like a firm pillow that you can put fingers in for stability, and his body is soft fabric which makes gesturing easy. (I can’t tell you how many puppets we have that are too plushy to get any real movement.) As a funny little detail, the Constable also has a ‘Kick Me’ sign on his back.

What I really appreciate is the weirdness of these puppets. Here are some of the other puppets we have in our house: monkey, lion, princess, monkey, caterpillar, monkey… To introduce an old-timey policeman in the midst brings a whole new level of imaginative storytelling. It was fun puppeteering with Olive as we tried to arrest each other for a wide range of different offenses. There are some other nicely strange puppets available, including Old Mother Hubbard and Cabby the Alien. Imagine the conversation these puppets could have with one another.

Coming in the next batch are Omar and Omar’s Mother, so you can reenact this delightful tale:

The first set of puppets will be available next month for around 20 bucks each.

Sometime last year I bought a card game called Numbers League. Superheroes plus math? Sign me up! When it arrived, I opened it and had a look through the awesome art of all of the cards. Then I looked at the complicated instructions and the multiplication and cards with negative numbers on them and put the game away for a later time. It was too complicated for my Kindergartner.

Fast forward to late summer, and Bent Castle Software sent me a review copy of their new Numbers League iPad app. Again, I thought it was going to be too complicated for Olive. Then one day, she discovered it all on her own (she has a super spidey sense that tingles whenever there is a new icon on the iPad). At that particular moment I was busy with something and she started playing it on her own. For days. When it came time for me to learn how to play, she taught me.

There are a bunch of evil villains, see, and they all have a secret number with which they can be taken down. To make a superhero, you take a spin and bring up different heads, torsos, and bodies. Each part has a number, and you add the numbers to arrive at your superhero’s number. If there’s a villain with the same number as your hero, you can capture the villain. But here’s where things get interesting. You can also add your heroes together, and even power up your heroes with gadgets that have their own values (including multipliers).

The art in this game is fantastic. We like to look at all of the details and speculate on the names and powers of the different heroes and villains.

There are several different levels of play ranging from Minion to Superhero, and Olive can play the easiest levels on her own. We can also play against each other, and when we do that, I help her through the harder levels. What summer slump? My girl is headed into first grade with a primer in simple multiplication and negative numbers.

After much iPad play, we decided to pull out the card game and give that a whirl. This time around it didn’t seem so complicated because we totally understood the game basics. We like the card game, too, but prefer the iPad for several reasons. The card game takes a ton of space. We have to wait until Ozzie’s sleeping so we can play on the floor without being disrupted.

Being able to choose a game level on the iPad is great. Sure, you can add and remove cards in the card game to customize the level, but that just seems so time consuming. There’s also great reinforcement of the math, nice music, and satisfying little animations when the villain is nabbed.

At $3.99, I’d call this app a must-have for your elementary schooler.

Just in time for Hurricane Irene to pass over NYC, Hasbro sent us Scrabble Alphabet Scoop. I was excited about this game when I saw it at Toy Fair in February and it’s now hitting store shelves.

We’re big Scrabble fans in this house. Olive will see my husband and I play (usually on the computer) and she’ll want to play, too. If you’re a Scrabble fan you know the patience it takes to play Scrabble with a 6-year-old. Here at last is a version of Scrabble that’s fun for her skill level.

Every player gets a card and you maniacally (or calmly, depending on your competitive nature) scoop letters from the bowl. The goal is to find all of the letters in your word before your opponents find all of the letters in their words. The words on the cards range from easy to hard, so you can adapt the game to people with different skill levels.

As always, I like a game that can be played in different ways. After we played a few rounds, Olive went to work scooping out letters and making words. After she made words for a while, she began making sentences. My favorite was, “Ed fed the cop a fly as he ate bread.” A bowl, scoops, letter tiles… the gaming possibilities are endless.

The game is great for emergent readers. You can even play Alphabet Scoop with pre-readers, reading the words for them as they match the letters. Of course, if you get kids that are too young for the game, they’ll just eat the letters and use the scoop to smash what’s left of their scone.

I’m sure we’ll be playing more tomorrow as I teach Olive how to spell H-U-R-R-I-C-A-N-E.

Unbelievably, my niece Elizabeth has just turned 10. 10!! While we’re here in Illinois, I took the liberty of doing another birthday interview. It’s clear by her answers that the tween years are here (you’ll see one particular name popping up again and again), and the “Favorite Toy” question’s days are numbered.

Favorite TV Show

Wizards of Waverly Place because it’s a mix of a drama and a comedy for kids. It has my favorite actor, Selena Gomez.

Favorite Video Game

Cooking Mama on Nintendo DS. It’s easier to do it with a pen than with the Wii, and it’s a way to cook and there’s no way I could get hurt.

Favorite Book

The Sisters Grimm, Book 5 because they travel through time and it’s interesting to read about what they are when they grow up and what it’s like when they grow up. And you’re just getting introduced to Scarlet Hand.

Favorite Album

When The Sun Goes Down by Selena Gomez. Almost all the songs have a good beat.

Favorite App

Fruit Ninjas because I like slicing fruit. The fruit comes up fast.

Favorite Toy

My Just Like Me American Girl doll. I like changing the clothes.

Favorite Museum

The City Museum in St. Louis because it’s a fun area where you can learn and play. My favorite thing to do it go down the 10-story slide.

Favorite Movie

Ramona and Beezus. It’s funny and it also has my favorite actor.

So what is it you like so much about Selena Gomez?

She’s a good role model. She’s good at what she does, and she’s in all my favorite things.

I was in an elevator today with a young woman, barely into her 20′s, talking about Harry Potter. She was saying that she didn’t want to see the last Harry Potter movie because it would be like saying goodbye to her childhood. She was in 5th grade when the first book came out.

For me, Harry Potter has spanned most of the time I’ve been working in kids’ media. I began working at Scholastic after the first book had come out, but well before the first movie. I remember seeing that first movie with what felt like the bulk of the company, a collective gasp across the theater as we entered Privet Drive.

Now, years and years later, I went by myself to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. It was still a remarkable shared experience with all of the fans in the audience, full of applause, cheers, and tears. Truly the end of an era.

Or is it the beginning of one? Last week, I was playing Harry Potter Clue with Olive, and that was her first real exposure to these characters (doing it wrong, I know). She sorted all of the cards in front of her and drew pictures of all of these new wizards. So that night, I read her the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I think the time might not be quite right for her, though, as she hasn’t wanted to return to it since.

But it’s all of matter of time, really, before I get to relive Harry Potter again through her fresh eyes. Read all of the books again, then see each movie, and maybe even play a video game or two. Then, just as Olive and I finish our journey through Hogwarts, Ozzie will be just getting ready to start! I figure I can get through two more entire life-cycles of the franchise before I need to move on.

Harry Potter has always been, and Harry Potter will always be.

If Friendship Pixies is the Klutz activity book for rainy days, then surely Window Art is the kit for sunny ones. Olive received this kit from her BFF for her birthday, and we’ve been having fun decorating the windows of our apartment.

As a little girl, I remember going to my grandma’s house in the summertime and making sun catchers out of those little metal frames that you fill clumsily with tiny plastic beads and stick in the oven. Here’s all of the fun without heating up the house. To make a design, first you create the outline of your window art on a clear plastic sheet. You can place the sheet over any of the designs in the book to trace it, or create your own.

What follows next is the only drawback of this kit: it takes a few hours to set before you can start squirting in the color. You can make these in a day if you start early, but you might want to plan on doing it over a weekend.

The book designs include all sorts of images: dinosaurs, fairies, animals, food (who doesn’t need a sun catcher hamburger?), vehicles, a few different alphabets, and designs that look like stained glass. Here’s a flower pot that now resides on the window by my desk.

Here are some of the designs we made for the kids’ room.

And why stop at windows? The book has great ideas for decorating mirrors, shower doors, and glassware. Imagine using this kind of personalization at your next party:

Olive’s friend (OK, his mom) was also kind enough to buy a refill pack that has even more colors to choose from. I don’t know who has more fun making this, Olive or me, but I expect we won’t be able to see out of our windows soon.

Branding is fine, and it certainly has its place. If your kids loves a TV character, why wouldn’t they love a toy featuring that character? Where I’ve historically drawn the line, though, is where brands are applied where there need not be a brand at all. Diapers? Granola bars? Crayons? I’d prefer these things to have nothing to do with licensed characters.

However, while preparing an aquarium for Olive’s birthday present, my husband discovered an exception to my rule. With one of these subtle additions, you give your aquarium a little Bikini Bottom flavor.

Sure, you can buy little Spongebobs and Patricks to put in there, too, but just having one of the buildings is enough to be hilarious. In addition to the pineapple under the sea, you can get the Krusty Krab and Squidward’s house. It was a tough call for us, and by sheer coincidence, Olive’s best friend got an aquarium for his birthday, too, and there in the bottom is Squidward’s house. Are we the last people to know about these?

Now all we need to do is figure out how to be fish owners. Who’s got aquarium advice for us?

It’s that time of year again, where I marvel at the fact that the little baby I used to cuddle in my arms is a year older. 6. Crazy. I went back and read the interview with my then 5-year-old, and this year - the year of Kindergarten - seems like the biggest leap forward yet. It is marking, too, the beginning of the end of my influence over her choices as you’ll see in some of her responses.

Here is my interview with Olive, the 6-year-old, with commentary from mom.

Favorite TV show?

“Phineas and Ferb because they’re funny and they make cool stuff.”

I’ll go out on a limb and say this is the whole family’s favorite show.

Favorite website?

“Webkinz because I have three pets. I like to dig for gems and play Jumbleberry Fields.”

Webkinz has gotten even more enjoyable for Olive as she’s learned to read. We often sit and play together, or she asks me to play while she’s eating so she can watch.

Favorite museum?

“The Natural History Museum because I like the Brain exhibit.”

This response wasn’t a surprise, though it knocked out two-year favorite, MOMA. We’ve been to AMNH a bunch of times this year, plus school field trips, so we’re really getting to know it.

Favorite toy?

“Zombie bendy guy because the sides of his head are flat.”

This guy’s new, a gift from a Popcap-hosted lunch I went to this week. I came home with a bunch of cool things (including an iPad2 for winning a video game trivia contest!) yet this little guy was the thing Olive was most excited about. It makes sense, as our apartment is filled with Plants vs Zombies fan art.

Favorite video game?

“Bejeweled because it’s really hard to find a similar game to it. I like to play the treasure part.”

Popcap gave us a free download of the new Bejeweled 3 and holy cow, is it fun. I just went to grab a screenshot for this post and now it’s an hour later. This response from Olive cracked me up. When she said there are no similar games to Bejeweled, I asked her about Goober’s Lab in Webkinz. She said, “well, yeah, but not everyone knows Webkinz.”

Favorite movie?

“Snow White: Happily N’Ever After 2 because it’s funny. I like the ugly duckling.”

Yeah. I haven’t even seen this except to peek over the iPad to see what she’s watching. I’ll withhold judgement until I see it, but we’re starting to get out of the territory of the mom-sanctioned media. Boo.

Favorite app?

“Netflix because I like to watch movies on it.”

See above. Netflix streaming on the iPad? So easy a 5-year-old can navigate it. I also catch her watching cartoons from the 30s and some other cool stuff. And lots and lots of Phineas and Ferb.

Favorite book?

“Every Junie B. Jones because she’s says a lot of funny stuff.”

I have a separate post to write about Junie B. Jones, but boy, do those books make her giggle.

Favorite music?

“Piano music, because I like to dance to it.”

She’s referring to Chopin. *sniff* My little girl is so cultured.

I can’t wait for a whole new year of adventure with my 6-year-old! Happy Birthday, Olive!