Over the weekend, we were reviewing the Rules of Go Fish! before starting to play a hand:
Pea: So first, you ask everyone if they have the card that you want, like you say, Does anyone have a 5, and if they have it, they have to give it to you.
Me: And if no-one has the card you asked for, you have to Go Fish, right?
Jammy: And you say, Go Fish!
Pea: That's right. And then you have to pick a card from the pile in the middle. And what is it you have to say once you have four cards of the same kind and lay them down in front of you?
3Po: You say, In Your Face, Baby!
Wassup for Fall -- A Disney Electronics Sneak Peek
As a blogger, I've been invited by various PR firms to various events, and to tell you the truth, it would be difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes one event memorable and another event forgettable. Sometimes it's the chance to meet some heroes, both real and fantasy. Sometimes it's the awesome food. Or Swag-to-Die-For. And sometimes, all it takes is the chance to say I Saw It First.
Last week I was invited by Disney Consumer Products to get a sneak peek at their lineup of kid tech products coming out in the fall. I joined fellow SV Moms Linsey, Jessica and Nicole for our own private product demo by Thom Richmond, Disney's Director of Consumer Products.
All the toys and gadgets Thom showed us would easily make it on any kid's 2009 holiday wish list, like Mix Lights MP3 player that lights up to the beat of the music, or the Disney Pix Twist, a kid-friendly digital camera with a viewfinder that they can twist around to take pictures of themselves. And it's quite possible that the Ultimate Buzz Lightyear Robot -- with programmable actions, voice recognition, interactive game play, and the coolest animatronic moving mouth ever -- might be the Tickle Me Elmo of 2009.
But the crown jewel of Thom's demo was the Disney Netpal, a full-functioning, Windows-based netbook made exclusively for Disney and marketed to 6-12 year olds. Disney's Consumer Products has really leveraged Disney's knowledge of what kids enjoy, and added in some cool parental controls to make it fun, safe, and easy to use. In fact, the Netpal is loaded with so many features that it deserves a post of its own (so watch out for a separate review sometime this summer on Bonggamom Finds).
The event was simple and low key, but it was so exciting to be shown products that aren't even on the shelves yet. Even occasional glitches during the product demo didn't detract from my positive impression of the products because they just added to the sense that we were true Disney Insiders ("Sorry, that doesn't work quite well yet, it's still in beta but we'll fix that for the final version"). Yes, probably with the other bajillion or so reporters they've given sneak peeks to at trade shows and other demos like this one, but it was a nice feeling anyway. And it sure doesn't hurt with the "Moms Know Everything" mystique -- because now I know what my kids are going to whine for even before they do.
Temptation
It all happened because I wanted.
For months we had flirted. At first was lighthearted, fun, mischievous. We were both in other relationships anyway. Along the way we became friends, and I discovered the perfect companion, debating partner, kindred soul. And I discovered he was single. But he was all wrong for me. And I had a boyfriend.
One night I finally agreed to have dinner with him. No big deal, we're just getting something to eat after work. It's just a dinner between two work colleagues, I told myself. Then he reached over the Chicken Masala and held my hand. Electric sparks shot through me. I didn't admit it to myself, but deep down inside, I wanted. We paid our separate checks and went our separate ways.
I was lonely and I wanted.
No, that's not true. I wasn't lonely. But still I wanted.
Another night we stayed in the office, working late. We ended up talking about this and that until everyone else had gone. It was just him, me and the janitor. Over the hum of the vacuum cleaner, he said, I'd really like to kiss you right now. This time, I admitted it. I wanted. I told him, so would I. But we didn't.
It was obscene, that wanting.
Then we walked out into the parking lot. We went to our separate cars. We looked at each other from across the parking lot. And he walked back to me. I just stood and stared. Again, the electricity. It was as though we were already kissing.
Until we actually did start kissing -- and then the sparks really flew. It was one of the best kisses of my life. I broke up with my boyfriend the next day, and the rest is history.
Italicized text was taken from Anita Shreve's novel, Testimony -- which chronicles one character's moment of temptation, one with much more tragic results than my own. Click here to see what other members of the Silicon Valley Moms Book Club have been inspired to write after reading the novel.
For months we had flirted. At first was lighthearted, fun, mischievous. We were both in other relationships anyway. Along the way we became friends, and I discovered the perfect companion, debating partner, kindred soul. And I discovered he was single. But he was all wrong for me. And I had a boyfriend.
One night I finally agreed to have dinner with him. No big deal, we're just getting something to eat after work. It's just a dinner between two work colleagues, I told myself. Then he reached over the Chicken Masala and held my hand. Electric sparks shot through me. I didn't admit it to myself, but deep down inside, I wanted. We paid our separate checks and went our separate ways.
I was lonely and I wanted.
No, that's not true. I wasn't lonely. But still I wanted.
Another night we stayed in the office, working late. We ended up talking about this and that until everyone else had gone. It was just him, me and the janitor. Over the hum of the vacuum cleaner, he said, I'd really like to kiss you right now. This time, I admitted it. I wanted. I told him, so would I. But we didn't.
It was obscene, that wanting.
Then we walked out into the parking lot. We went to our separate cars. We looked at each other from across the parking lot. And he walked back to me. I just stood and stared. Again, the electricity. It was as though we were already kissing.
Until we actually did start kissing -- and then the sparks really flew. It was one of the best kisses of my life. I broke up with my boyfriend the next day, and the rest is history.
Italicized text was taken from Anita Shreve's novel, Testimony -- which chronicles one character's moment of temptation, one with much more tragic results than my own. Click here to see what other members of the Silicon Valley Moms Book Club have been inspired to write after reading the novel.
Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp -- Day 5
Day 5 activities consisted of revisiting the Pre Assessment activities that we did on Day 1. As before, 3Po and Jammy were able to do all the activities -- but this time, they didn't have to sound out some of the -ALL words. This may be wishful thinking on my part, but I think it's getting easier and easier for them each time they read. Maybe I'll ask them to do the same activities again in a couple of weeks, once their short-term memory of it fizzles out, and see what happens.
And so ends our little experiment. My babies have graduated from Super Why Camp! It has been well worth the 30 minutes or so we've spent on it every day this week. The boys got their little afternoon summer at-home camp, they got to spend some quality time with their mama, and I got the satisfaction of knowing they're getting good practice with their literacy skills. When I asked them, both boys said they'd like to do more Super Why worksheets.... so this is a Shout-Out to Angela Santomero and all the creative minds behind Super Why -- we want to do another Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp -- so we need more worksheets, based on more episodes! See, the reward for doing such a great job with extending the learning activities beyond the TV show is getting asked to even more of it.
Staying in this summer? Start your own 5-day Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp! Go to http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/learningwithmedia/superwhy.html to download the 3 Little Pigs episode and all the activities for each day.
And so ends our little experiment. My babies have graduated from Super Why Camp! It has been well worth the 30 minutes or so we've spent on it every day this week. The boys got their little afternoon summer at-home camp, they got to spend some quality time with their mama, and I got the satisfaction of knowing they're getting good practice with their literacy skills. When I asked them, both boys said they'd like to do more Super Why worksheets.... so this is a Shout-Out to Angela Santomero and all the creative minds behind Super Why -- we want to do another Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp -- so we need more worksheets, based on more episodes! See, the reward for doing such a great job with extending the learning activities beyond the TV show is getting asked to even more of it.
Staying in this summer? Start your own 5-day Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp! Go to http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/learningwithmedia/superwhy.html to download the 3 Little Pigs episode and all the activities for each day.
Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp -- Day 4
Day 4 of our Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp featured the show's namesake, Super Why -- so I thought 3Po and Jammy would be all over it. But they didn't really get into the activities today, which were patterned after Super Why's role in changing the 3 Little Pigs story, as seen on the Super Why 3 Little Pigs episode. The Day 4 coloring pages I gave them were too detailed for them to color properly; at the risk of sounding gender-biased, maybe it's because they're boys? Maybe a girl would easily have colored in the drawing? Or maybe our crayons are too blunt. At least that's what The Pea tells me (I think it's all a plot to get me to buy them new markers).
Whatever the case, Day 4 turned out to be more about Alpha Pig than Super Why. During the Add-on Activity, Jammy had fun drawing the 3 Little Pigs and changing his story to turn them into a quartet. And they really got into Alpha Pig's Alphabet Song when they watched today's Super Why episode (Rapunzel).
I guess Super Why's not their favorite character after all.
Staying in this summer? Start your own 5-day Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp! Go to http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/learningwithmedia/superwhy.html to download the 3 Little Pigs episode and all the activities for each day.
Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp -- Day 3
It's Day 3, Princess Presto Day! Unlike yesterday, the boys weren't too interested in donning a girl's mask (I guess getting in touch with their feminine side doesn't extend to Princess Presto's sparkly pink-ness), but they still tackled the day's worksheets with enthusiasm. Today's activities didn't seem to be too related to the 3 Little Pigs episode, and the kids were getting a bit too intimate with that episode anyway, so I let 3Po and Jammy watch another episode of SUPER WHY (Goldilocks and the Three Bears: The Mystery ) instead.
The activities for Princess Presto Day were centered around phonics: matching letters with their corresponding sounds. It was interesting to see that 3Po and Jammy had no problem at all with the first worksheet (looking at pictures, identifying the beginning sound and circling the beginning letter), but found the second activity (and the related follow-up activity, the Letter Scavenger Hunt) quite challenging. It was kind of the opposite: they were given a letter and had to come up with a word beginning with that sound. They needed a bit of help from The Pea and me, but eventually Jammy really got into it. Our house is now full of letters taped to various objects, including me (I was the lucky recipient of 4 letters: M for Mama, F for Friend, G for Glasses, and A for Ana). My favorite one is the "I" taped to the light switch:
Me: Jammy, why is there an "I" on that switch?
Jammy: Because "L" is for light switch.
Me: But that's an "I', not an "L".
Jammy: But I couldn't think of anything that starts with "I", so I pretended that it was a lowercase "L".
Methinks Princess Presto would be proud.
Staying in this summer? Start your own 5-day Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp! Go to http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/learningwithmedia/superwhy.html to download the 3 Little Pigs episode and all the activities for each day.
Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp -- Day 2
Today was Day 2 of the SSS (Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp), and it was Wonder Red day. 3Po and Jammy cut out their Wonder Red masks (surprisingly, no gender issues there, I'm happy that my boys are in touch with their feminine side) and happily settled down to watch the SUPER WHY 3 Little Pigs episode once again. Here's a video of them interacting with Wonder Red as she sounds out the words TALL and BALL:
The kids are supposed to watch this episode every day for the 5-day period (because all the activities are based on this episode), but I can tell that with my kids (and most older preschoolers), this might get a bit old. They clearly remembered all the words from yesterday and were starting to act a bit know-it-all-ish ("Oh, I know that already, that's so easy!") . Tomorrow I might have to mix it up a bit and show them another epidose, then see if they can still do activities based on the first episode.
The activity sheets for Day 2 were great! 3Po and Jammy really had to use their reading skills by adding the beginning letter to the ALL-family word that matched the picture. Some of the pictures were actually quite confusing -- SMALL was a tiny bug, CALL was a girl on a phone, and don't even get me started on the pictures for HALL and MALL. But I gave 3Po and Jammy less credit than I should have, because they worked it out.
Stay tuned for Day 3....
Staying in this summer? Start your own 5-day Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp! Go to http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/learningwithmedia/superwhy.html to download the 3 Little Pigs episode and all the activities for each day.
Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp -- Day 1
Hooray, it's summer! And this is the summer that 3Po and Jammy are going to learn how to read. Thanks to Alfie's dedicated bedtime reading program (and a few choice bribes), they're actually doing quite well; they've gotten the 3-letter words down pat, and are coming along nicely with consonant blends and words with a silent e at the end. What they need now is practice, practice, practice. Right now they see words all around them, words they are perfectly capable of reading -- on street signs, on buildings, on TV -- but they never actually read them because they only read when they're sitting beside their dad and sounding them out. I want them to be able to recognize the words they see in books outside in real life, and hopefully be able to sight-read the simpler words quickly, without having to sound them out.
Inspired by the success stories I heard at last week's PBS Kids presentation to mom bloggers, I've decided to help the boys get some reading practice in a structured, but fun way by running my own little summer camp this week: Our Superwhy Superreading Summercamp (SSS). The activities are based on the PBS Kids SUPER WHY Learning Activities, a 5-day curriculum of activities that build upon the skills that kids are learning when they watch SUPER WHY's 3 Little Pigs episode.
To get things started, yesterday we did the Pre Assessment activities to see where 3Po and Jammy stand with preliteracy skills. The Pre Assessment activitise consist of simple letter recognition, spelling, rhyming and comprehension activities. After glancing at the activities, I fully expected 3Po and Jammy (age 5) to be able to all of them, and they did. Since they can easily sound out 3-letter words, my main goal this week will be to increase their sight-reading vocabulary (i.e. without sounding out), especially words in rhyming families like ALL, BALL, TALL or PIG, DIG, RIG.
Moving on.... today, Day 1, was Alpha Pig day. The boys donned an Alpha Pig mask and watched the SUPER WHY 3 Little Pigs episode for the first time (In the episode, Alpha Pig's friend Jill is knocking down his block towers, so the 4 Super Readers enter the 3 Little Pigs storybook to figure out how Alpha Pig can get his friend to stop). They really enjoyed it, and I was surprised at how much participation the show enlicited from Jammy. I think he was really surprised and proud that he could read the words he saw on the screen. After the episode ended, they did some letter recognition activities. I wasn't too impressed with the Day 1 worksheets -- the coloring page is so detailed that no kid under age 8 will be able to color it in properly -- but the boys seemed to enjoy doing them. I think the biggest source of excitement for them was the notion of a 5-day SUPER WHY camp, with tv, activities and crafts.
Stay tuned for Day 2.....
Staying in this summer? Start your own 5-day Super Why Super Reader Summer Camp! Go to http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/learningwithmedia/superwhy.html to download the 3 Little Pigs episode and all the activities for each day.
Creamy
This is a berry parfait with vanilla yogurt and cinnamon sprinkled on top. Oh, the creamy, sweet goodness...... it's the perfect ending to a summer evening barbecue. Can you believe that the glaze on those strawberries is raspberry vinaigrette dressing?
Learning with PBS Kids and SUPER WHY
I've always maintained that watching TV can be a positive, educational experience for children. Actually, make that: "watching PBS is a positive, educational experience for children". There's a lot of good quality programming on many kids' networks these days, but as far as I'm concerned, PBS sets the gold standard in educational TV. A lot of it has to do with my own experiences; I learned to read watching the two original PBS Kids programs: Sesame Street and The Electric Company. And because they're noncommercial, airing on nonprofit stations, I really get the sense that they put kids' interests first. I've put absolute trust in the PBS Kids brand: if it's a PBS show, I let my kids watch it.
The Silicon Valley Moms bloggers were recently invited by PBS Kids to learn about the thought and research that goes into all the media (tv shows, online, books, licensing deals, etc..) that PBS Kids develops. I was happy to see that the whole non-commercial, nonprofit vibe extended to this event as well: I didn't get the sense that this was some kind of marketing ploy, because it was actually a two-way discussion. The PBS executives were genuinely interested in hearing from us how PBS shows have influenced our children and how they can work more effectively to reach parents.
By the way, this is totally unrelated, but did you know that Alfie and I held our wedding reception in this very same room? We drank champagne and fed each other wedding cake right about where Citymama (in the sunny yellow jacket) is sitting.
Back to the subject....that's Angela Santomero, creator, executive producer and head writer of SUPER WHY, a PBS Kids tv series. Angela spoke to us about the extensive research process that goes behind each SUPER WHY episode, and all the success it has had in increasing pre-literacy skills in preschoolers. I feel like I should have asked for an autograph, because in my mind she's a bit like a female Jim Henson -- she's also the creator of Blue's Clues, one of my kids' favorite shows when they were younger, and in my mind, one of the cutest preschoolers' shows ever. She's two for two with SUPER WHY; my iPod is filled with SUPER WHY episodes for the kids to watch when we're on road trips or plane trips. And from the independent studies Angela was quoting from, it sure sounds like SUPER WHY is helping kids gain the skills they need to learn how to read, in the same way that Sesame Street and The Electric Company helped me.
We were sent home with a backpack filled with a week's worth of activities to maximize the educational value of SuperWhy. I'm guessing (or hoping) these activites are patterned after their highly successful SUPER WHY Reading Camps, and I'm eager to do the activities with 3Po and Jammy. Call it our very own Super Summer Camp, if you will. I'll be blogging a bit more about the activities as we plow through them, and you can download the same activities we received and try it along with us. Hey, it's free, and your kids will learn something besides making macrame potholders.
The Silicon Valley Moms bloggers were recently invited by PBS Kids to learn about the thought and research that goes into all the media (tv shows, online, books, licensing deals, etc..) that PBS Kids develops. I was happy to see that the whole non-commercial, nonprofit vibe extended to this event as well: I didn't get the sense that this was some kind of marketing ploy, because it was actually a two-way discussion. The PBS executives were genuinely interested in hearing from us how PBS shows have influenced our children and how they can work more effectively to reach parents.
By the way, this is totally unrelated, but did you know that Alfie and I held our wedding reception in this very same room? We drank champagne and fed each other wedding cake right about where Citymama (in the sunny yellow jacket) is sitting.
Back to the subject....that's Angela Santomero, creator, executive producer and head writer of SUPER WHY, a PBS Kids tv series. Angela spoke to us about the extensive research process that goes behind each SUPER WHY episode, and all the success it has had in increasing pre-literacy skills in preschoolers. I feel like I should have asked for an autograph, because in my mind she's a bit like a female Jim Henson -- she's also the creator of Blue's Clues, one of my kids' favorite shows when they were younger, and in my mind, one of the cutest preschoolers' shows ever. She's two for two with SUPER WHY; my iPod is filled with SUPER WHY episodes for the kids to watch when we're on road trips or plane trips. And from the independent studies Angela was quoting from, it sure sounds like SUPER WHY is helping kids gain the skills they need to learn how to read, in the same way that Sesame Street and The Electric Company helped me.We were sent home with a backpack filled with a week's worth of activities to maximize the educational value of SuperWhy. I'm guessing (or hoping) these activites are patterned after their highly successful SUPER WHY Reading Camps, and I'm eager to do the activities with 3Po and Jammy. Call it our very own Super Summer Camp, if you will. I'll be blogging a bit more about the activities as we plow through them, and you can download the same activities we received and try it along with us. Hey, it's free, and your kids will learn something besides making macrame potholders.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
