Bringing Apps to Life

First of all, I want to begin by admitting I let my kids have too much screen time. They're 3- and 5 years old, and they know what Netflix is and that the TV has to be on Input 6 to use the PlayStation. We have multiple Kindles and each of my boys has his own Leapster and/or iXL handheld.

Prickly Dad and I both grew up with a lot of TV (he tells me about doing his homework while watching Godzilla movies) as well as the various other "screens" of the time period (Pong, the many incarnations of Atari, the Commodore 64, followed by all the Nintendos). I've always been a connoisseur of vintage television as well as being fascinated by the capability of computers--and ended up working in the digital media industry before becoming a stay-at-home mom (so my workstation always included at least two computers, a double-monitor, and a TV).

So being a no-screen family was probably never in the cards for us.

Anyhoo, my children's TV-watching habits are a whole 'nother topic...but I have to admit that I actually like some of the Android apps meant for grown-ups, and don't mind my little guys playing. Of course we have Angry Birds and all its incarnations (and even a spin-off, Bad Piggies), but we also like Cut the Rope, Where's My Water?, and now the grocery-packing game Bag It. In my opinion, all these games teach kids not only fine motor skills, but concepts like cause-and-effect ("I have to cut this rope at this time to get the candy to fall into Om Nom's mouth"), simple physics ("I need to pull the Angry Bird down lower in the slingshot to get him to go higher in the air"), or spatial skills ("if I stack these cereal boxes horizontally instead of upright, I can fit more of them in the grocery bag").

Yes, my boys talk and obviously think about these games a lot, but instead of playing on the Kindle for too long a time (which we do not let them do), my little guys take these games into the realm of reality. Yesterday afternoon, to my delight and amazement, Bug and Pie sat on the kitchen floor for almost two hours with the groceries I hadn't had time to put away yet (along with an empty egg carton I happened to have) and played their own grocery-stacking game, experimenting with different ways to balance cans and boxes, learning that heavy items do better on the bottom and lighter ones can balance on top. They practiced sharing, teamwork, and perseverance, and had fun doing it. I really enjoyed watching how their little minds worked (and had the added bonus of being able to get some housework done while they occupied themselves).

It just goes to show that screen time for the little ones isn't all bad, right?

It's the Hand of Christmas!

(...you have to say that is a low, ominous-yet-goofy voice...)

I have a crafty aunt who has made many of the cherished ornaments I hang on the tree each year. Her creations are fabulous--my all-time favorites include an angel made from various macaroni shapes hot-glued together and an elf with a jingle-bell for an abdomen.

As one would expect, considering the sheer number of different ornaments my aunt has crafted through the years, there have been some duds. And in our house, the most famous dud of all is...the Hand of Christmas!

It's a knit white winter glove stuffed with poly-fill and decorated with felt and other doodads to look like Santa. As far as ornaments go, it's huge. Too huge for any Christmas tree that I'll ever have.

But of course, the boys loved it, and thus it has inadvertently become the centerpiece of a Prickly Family holiday tradition. When Bug hung it on the tree a couple years ago (when he was three), I plucked it off and started chasing him around the house with it, declaring, "oooooooo! It's the Hand of Christmas!" (and of course, the object of the game it to get away from it and avoid a fluffy love-spank!)

This year, Bug is constantly begging me to play (so much so that I'm actually looking forward to taking the tree down so I can pack the Hand of Christmas away until next year). I'm not usually a fan of chasing games, but my little guys love this one so much that I feel like I have to give in and play a few times a day.

'Tis the season to be silly with the kids, right? Merry Christmas!

It's Like a Party in His Mouth!

Last night, right before tooth-brushing time, Bug announced, "Mom! The sugar bugs are having a party in my mouth!" (Sugar Bugs is a cute Leapster app about dental hygiene, by the way). He opened his mouth and asked me to look inside. "See? Look at all of them!"

How often does an opportunity like this present itself?!?

I looked in his mouth and added, "hey! They're dancing! And I think one of them is playing music!" I stuck my ear near his mouth and Bug started to sing. I handed him his toothbrush and said, "get 'em!" As he brushed, I supplied sound effects and dialogue...the "sugar bugs" squealed, "hey! A toothbrush! Run! He's brushing away our party! Help!" I actually got him to do the best brushing of his life as the sugar bugs cried, "He's not brushing his back teeth! Everybody run back there! He's missing his bottom teeth! Everybody go there!" When the whole shindig had finally been brushed away, and Bug spit his fluoride rinse into the sink, we noticed the bubbles and decided they must have been the balloons from the party. Then we rinsed the whole party down the drain.

Of course, Pie decided he had a party going on in his mouth too, so we did the whole act all over again for him. But, hey, it was worth it...the boys both got a good brushing, and got to exercise their imaginations, too!

I Hate LEGOs

Last night, exasperated, I updated my Facebook status: "I hate LEGOs."

No, I didn't step on one, as one of my friends asked. I just don't get them. I do like the basic concept: build something based on imagination. Take it apart. Make it better. Repeat. But now Bug is totally into LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, which, I have to admit, is pretty darn entertaining as a mini-movie and video game, but as a toy (or increasingly-expensive series of toys), I'm confused. You buy a pile of LEGOs that Daddy has to put together. Then...do they really expect an almost-five-year-old to just look at it? He wants to play! Then, one by one, the components come apart and Mommy doesn't have the patience to fix them. Then everything ends up as a pile of LEGOs on the floor.

We could have just bypassed all of this and dumped the brand-new box of pieces directly on the family room floor, you know?

The reality is: I have little boys, and little boys like building with LEGOs. This means it's my duty as their mom to figure out some way to play with them that we can all enjoy. Here's what I'm finding so far:

• Build a marble maze, test structural stability
• LEGO balloon cars
• LEGO bingo (and other ideas)
• And when all else fails...LEGO boards on Pinterest

(P.S. Above all, as an editor, I can't stand when companies insist their product name appear in all capital letters when it is not an acronym. And we wonder why kids don't understand the proper usage of caps and lowercase letters. Just one of my many pet peeves. Grr.)

Happy Mud Day!

Only a mom of little ones desperate for something to do on a summer weekday would know that today is International Mud Day, right? We hosted a play date here at Prickly House this morning with a mud pool, a clean pool, and unlimited access to the hose. A good time was had by all--plus, Prickly Dad commended us on the noticeable absence of mud in the house!

Here is my contribution to the worldwide celebration (I served it with pretzels, apple slices, and strawberries):

The Best Bubble Solution Value Is...

...the one you buy at the store!

I'm my Grandma's granddaughter (she grew up on a Nebraska farm during the Depression), and as such, I'm all about washing and re-using generic Ziploc bags and having a dishrag instead of wasting paper towels. So of course I'm going to make my own bubble solution. Fancy store-bought bubbles? Pfbft.

Last week I donned my "thrifty" hat, washed out a milk jug and put together the popular bubble recipe consisting of six cups water, two cups dish detergent (real Palmolive--from Dollar General, that is), and 3/4 cup corn syrup. Guess what: it stunk! Even tthough it almost produced a few of those cool, giant bubble-tubes, a standard dip-and-blow of the homemade stuff yielded about, well, one bubble. The next day, my husband brought home a bottle of that new "boutique" Jelly Belly green-apple scented bubble solution. Guess what: it produced about 20 bubbles for every one DIY bubble. The bubbles were pretty, too. And they smelled good.

You know what I say, as far as bubble solution goes, just buy the darn store stuff. As moms, our time can be better spent just sitting down and blowing the bubbles (it's good "slow, measured breathing" practice, too). I think Grandma would be okay with it.

Dyngus Day for Kids (What? No Alcohol?)

Roll out the barrel...and don't forget the pussy willows and squirt guns. It's Dyngus Day! 

I was born and raised in the Buffalo, NY area, and am half Polish, so I grew up celebrating Dyngus Day (well, at least being cognizant of it). This holiday, apparently, is unknown (and bizarre-sounding) to the rest of the country (with the exception of Michigan and possibly Cleveland). I guess you could call it the Polish-American St. Patrick's Day. In Western New York, which boasts the biggest Dyngus Day celebration in the country, party-goers show off their Warsaw Falcon tattoos and drink until they puke. And you wonder: why in the world would anybody want to celebrate this with their kids? Well, in my case, the Easter season is one of the only times I celebrate my Polish heritage, which I would like to pass on to the boys.

When you get down to it, Dyngus Day, or Easter Monday, has historically been a day in Poland for the faithful to let their hair down after the solemnity and fasting of Lent and Easter weekend. In the "old country," girls traditionally chase and swat their sweethearts with pussy willows, while the boys retaliate by dumping buckets of water on the swatters.

Unfortunately, it's too cold and windy here today to celebrate properly...but here are some ideas for celebrating with preschoolers:

• Pussy Willow Tag: (You can usually find them at a florist shop or in the floral department of the grocery store.) The child who is "It" tags the others by touching them with a pussy willow. I'd recommend playing the variation of tag in which there are multiple "Its" (each kid who is tagged gets his own pussy willow and becomes another "It") so that evryone has a pussy willow by the end of the game.
• The Ol' Run-n-Squirt: My boys, at least, would be content simply chasing each other around the yard with squirt guns (in fact, Mommy and Daddy love to join in). Give each kid her own water gun and let 'em loose. I usually provide a big soup-pot of water for easy refills: just submerge the squirt gun until all the bubbles come to the surface.
• Learn to Polka: Watch some basic how-to videos (here's what I found on YouTube) and dance with the kids. Or, something I think would be more fun, would be to cut out some paper footprints and tape them to the floor/ground and let the children try to do the steps in order (you could write numbers on the footprints). Check out this Web page for a Polka tutorial complete with footprints.
• Music: As far as what to Polka to, there's actually a song about Dyngus Day (buy the "Everybody's Polish on Dyngus Day" mp3 or search for other polkas). If polka music is just too crazy for your taste, play some Chopin. He was Polish.

More playdate ideas to come. Miłego dnia!

Battle of the Handhelds

We bought Bug the Leapster Explorer for his fourth birthday back in October. At first, thought it was great--but since then, he has blown through most of the games, and annoys the pee out of me begging for more games (which are $7-$25 a pop). The games, however, really ARE educational. I like how he’s learned to navigate a desktop-type environment.

Update: We made the mistake of letting him play an old SpongeBob game on the PS3. Now he's like a little addict (another topic altogether), and the Leapster is "for little kids."