I was recently given a dvd-rom and asked by Kutoka Interactive to have my 5 and 9 year old nieces test it out. They did and I am here to report on their findings and how much fun they had while playing Mia’s Big Adventure - The Bugaboo Bugs. Mia’s Big Adventure is a collection of six that mix adventure and interactive games with learning.
In this sixth dvd-rom in the series, Mia and her family, a family of mice, find that their home has been invaded by the Bugaboo Bugs. It’s important that the mice find a way to get rid of these nasty, stinky, noisy bugs before the humans discover the bugs and bring in an exterminator. An exterminator would mean that Mia and her family would have to find a new home.The first thing we did upon receiving the software was to download it on our computer. It seemed to load very slowly, even though we’re using Windows XP. We did go do other activities while waiting. Once it was finished downloading, we discovered excellent 3-D graphics and colorful displays. The girls enjoyed the interaction between Mia and her family members and guiding Mia through the old Victorian house.There are two game styles included, Adventure Mode and Activities Mode. My nieces played in Adventure Mode to discover more about Mia and her family. There are four difficulty levels to match with different learning levels and all are appropriate for ages 5-9. My nieces used the computer mouse and arrow keys to guide Mia through the house discovering inventions and passageways. Throughout the adventure, Mia is looking for jewels which can be used as a form of money at The General Store. While my girls never managed to get that far, they did collect a couple of jewels and played a few of the activities.
The learning activities cover associating images to words, adverbs, phonics, rhymes, spelling, sentence structure, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and word recognition. The games have different levels of difficulty and are clearly explained before each game begins. There are even helpful hints so that players don’t get frustrated.
While each game that was played was enjoyed and a great learning tool, the girls found that most of the time in Adventure Mode was spent having Mia walk from room to room through the house. The slow pace made it a bit difficult for them to stay focused, particularly the younger one. This age group might enjoy the Activity Mode more than the Adventure Mode.
We received an interesting letter home from school this week from the school’s PTA. The letter wanted parent input on if the current school fund raisers should be continued in the future or should parents simply pay a $50 per student fund raising fee at the beginning of the school year. Interesting choice!
Personally, I think the fund raising can continue the way it is. Parents can choose which programs, if any, to participate in and don’t have to do any if they don’t want to. Of course, there are also other methods of school fundraising besides sending kids out door to door. For example, SchoolPop.com partners with national retailers to allow a percentage of customers purchases to go directly to their chosen school. So, just be being a part of SchoolPop and doing what you know you’re going to do anyway, shop, you can earn money for your school.
What fund raisers are you involved with for your children’s schools?
A couple of months ago, my daughter, who is in 6th grade, brought me a flower home from school. The 6th grade had sold carnations as a fund raiser and she bought one for me, I was so touched!
When she handed me that single stem with a beautiful pink carnation on top, I just about broke down and cried. It brought back wonderful memories for me from when I was her age and I was really touched by her gesture. She had no idea that for several years, as a kid, I would buy my mom a single carnation as her Mother’s Day gift. I was always so proud of myself for spending my own money on such a delicate gift. When my daughter handed me that flower, I could see the same sense of pride in her eyes and I wanted her to know how much I cherished that flower and her. I was so happy too when that single flower stayed fresh for almost 4 weeks! I just kept changing the water in the little bud vase I had placed it in.
I’m not sure why it came to be that I always bought a carnation. They are a fairly sturdy flower with such a delicate appearance, and I think they are relatively inexpensive, which is probably the reason I was able to afford that flower versus a rose or something more extravagant. Carnations also seem to be in bloom around Mother’s Day and it’s the time of year we always headed to the nursery to get our spring flowers and vegetables for planting. The memory of those carnations has always stayed with me. I even used carnations in my wedding bouquet over 20 years ago.
Now, my mom & I live about 800 miles apart. It’s comforting to know I can still send her carnations or any other flower if I want to by visiting or calling 1800Flowers. Plus, right now, they’re holding a “Celebrate Mom” contest with over $30,000 in prizes! I’m definitely going to be checking that out!
Do you have an embarrassing moment that you’d like to keep closed and under wraps?
I have decided to share one of my most embarrassing moments with you that happened many years ago, but it was devastating to me as a pre-teen and I’ve always remembered it.
What I learned from my experience is that whether you’re eating Gulf oysters or shopping for clothes, you need to be informed, cautious, smart and sure.
After leaving the crib, my daughter slept in a twin size day bed, a bed we all ready owned and used in one of our guest rooms. She was wanting a new bed when she was about 9, so we went furniture shopping. It’s definitely not easy finding kids furniture and we ended up moving her up to a queen size because we all ready owned the mattresses. Truth be told though, she wanted bunk beds in the worst way! We had lower ceilings at the time and I wasn’t comfortable with the beds we saw, so we didn’t get them then.
The biggest benefit of getting bunk beds would have been the space they save in the room. In the house we’re in now, we have very tall ceilings, so the bunk beds would’ve worked just fine. Oh well, too late for us, but if you’re looking for space saving bed ideas, you should consider it. If you order online, this site has very good customer service and you can read customer feedback. The site provides fairly detailed information about the construction of it’s beds as well as assembly instructions.
I’m still recovering from the crazy, hectic couple of weeks I had finalizing plans with my Destination Imagination team and making sure they were ready for the regional tournament. The one thing I did myself as a surprise for them was to embroider t-shirts with their team names on the fronts and individual names on the back. The girls actually designed the shirts, but they thought a professional was doing the work. I opted to do it myself with shirts I bought at Joann’s and using my own embroidery sewing machine.I’ve posted pictures of the progress of those shirts throughout last week, but I never got around to posting the end result, so, here it is!
This one is the back of one of the shirts, before I took out the basting stitches (the rectangular around the name).
I was blog hopping this morning and I found the trailer for Pixar’s latest movie, set to arrive in theaters in July.
I don’t know about you, but I think Pixar has created some fabulous movies, Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Cars are all my favorites. What about you, do you have a favorite Pixar film?
Thanks to Michael Aulia’s Blog for posting this trailer on his site. I love Pixar and wanted to share this trailer for their new movie “Wall-E” here too. Enjoy!
A couple of months ago, my husband and I attended a meeting at the Junior High school for parents of students who will be in 7th grade in the Fall. What was most interesting about this meeting was that not only are we learning how to help our children plan for junior high by choosing appropriate electives, but we’re also looking ahead at planning for high school! Pretty amazing since our daughter is only 12.
During the meeting we were attending, the high school guidance counselor spoke about class choices for 7th grade and how those choices can affect what a student will be taking once they get into high school. For example, taking pre-advanced placement (pre-AP) classes in 7th and 8th grade will ensure that a student is prepared for Advanced Placement (AP) classes in high school. AP classes in high school can eventually earn college credit, while still in high school! It’s difficult for me to think that far ahead, even though I now realize college is only just 6 short years away. This is amazing to me, especially since our daughter is only 12.
So, I went from thinking of next year in Junior High, to 2 years from now beginning high school, and then 4 years after that it’s college. Where will she go? Will she stay local? Will she go to a public university or decide to go to a possibly smaller, private school? How will we pay for college? Will she receive any scholarships? (We’re hoping she does in either band or softball). What will she study? I can’t believe I’m having to think of this now, she is after all, only 12!
To distract myself from all of the stress that comes with thinking about all of these questions I decided to watch some YouTube videos where I found a rather creative (sort of) video from Kettering University. Kettering offers bachelor programs in everything from applied mathematics to mechanical engineering and applied physics. US News and World Report has ranked Kettering University as “the #1 University in the nation for Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering” in its annual “America’s Best Colleges Guide for 2008″.
So, I saw this webisode and thought I would share it. This particular video is titled “School Daze Episode 2: Stickman Reads his Fan Mail”.
I met with my Destination Imagination team yesterday for the final time this season. We went over everything they had done over the past 6 months and all the work they did. I am very proud of them. They worked hard and came together as a very good team. They didn’t place at the tournament, so their season is done, but I want them to know that they did a very good job.
I believe they learned a lot and will make some changes to how they do things next year. This was their first time to do DI for most of the team. They also saw so many other teams at the tournament and watched two other teams present their team challenges. It gave them ideas of not only things to incorporate into their stories, but also materials to use for building sets.
If you’ve never heard of Destination Imagination, it’s a terrific program where the kids are responsible for EVERYTHING! They choose one of 5 team challenges and work on that for 6 months. They incorporate any requirements into their story, their sets and props. They create their own costumes and sets. There can be no outside interference from parents, siblings, teachers or team managers. As a team manager, I am responsible mainly for making sure they understand the requirements and the challenge itself. How they choose to use their time and make their creations is completely up to them.
It is very interesting to watch a team grow and mature over the course of the season. If we do this again next year, it will be my first time with an experience team. I hope they will stick together. Right now, they are telling me they want to, but we all know that when kids move on to junior high, their interests can change.
It was bittersweet yesterday, many of them wanted to continue with meetings. I am tired and need a break. But, once I have confirmation from the junior high that they will sponsor us, we may start meeting again as early as August or September. It will be fun!
I walked into my daughter’s room over the weekend and discovered her & the dog enjoying a completely relaxing evening together. I’m not sure how long they had been like this, but I gathered it had been quite a while! Plinko, the dog, is happily chewing on one of my daughter’s socks. I, of course, had to ruin the moment by taking the sock away, but only after capturing it on camera.
