Now that the school year is fully in swing, and all the "What did you do this summer?" show and tell conversations have been had, I'd like to tell you a little bit about a fake summer camp that I created this summer for my two kids who were going ...
The Smartest iPhone Case Ever
The Smrtcase Glide for the iPhone 3G / 3G S has an integrated cardholder for a your most frequently used cards. It has this clever sliding design so that you can easily swipe your Metrocard without fumbling. The cool design allows you to stash your credit card, ID, etc, for ...
Leave it to an evolutionary biologist to pen a children’s book that describes the “magic of reality”. In the video he says that its aimed for kids around twelve-years-old, perhaps younger. Along with these beautiful illustrations, this will certainly find a place on many a coffee table and bookshelf. Every chapter is a question. Questions like, “Why do bad things happen?” or “What is the Sun?”. He talks about myths from around the world that have explained the answer to that question, then weighs in with what science has to say – and its usually an equally if not more wonderful answer than those given us by the poets of the past.
Reminds me of the They Might be Giants song, “Science is Real“.
This is the second in a series of videos with children’s librarian extraordinaire Susie Heimbach, from the Mulberry St. branch of the New York Public Library. In this video, she talks about six great books that are perfect to share with young aspiring astronauts in your life.
Here’s a list of the books from this clip (Amazon links):
This is the first in a series of videos I shot with children’s librarian extraordinaire Susie Heimbach. You can normally find her sharing great books with kids of all ages at the Mulberry St. branch of the New York Public Library. She has an infectious enthusiasm for books and reading and impacts countless kids who pass through her library. Hooray for librarians! In this clip, she talks about five great books to get kids in the mood to go back to school.
Here’s a list of the books from this clip (Amazon links):
Saturday’s performance was meant to be the culmination of a full week of workshops, rehearsals, and set preparation at Stagecoach Theater Camp. The costumes were ready, the kids knew their lines, songs were memorized, blocking locked down. Friends and relatives cleared their schedules for performance day. Everyone was ready to break a leg – until we got to the theater and saw a rusty old chain locked to the front gate. Due to a custodian error, the school – and the theater inside – was locked shut.
Now, this easily could have turned into a case of no theater, no performance, a bunch of disappointed kids and pissed-off parents. But it didn’t. The ever-resourceful, composed, and positive principal of the camp, Beth Kent, had somehow secured another performance space – that morning. I don’t really want to know what favors she had to cash in or strings she had to pull, but she directed the little performers and their parents to a nearby space in the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims.
As the parents arrived at the new location, I noticed something unusual. No one was angry or grumpy or tossing a fit (adults or kids). They took Principal Kent’s lead and stayed positive despite the unexpected change of plan. Chairs were hastily arranged in a gym space there and the show began – not without a few more little hitches. The CD player worked, but the outlet didn’t, then the outlet did, but the player didn’t. The four and five-year-olds opened the performance with the a capella accompanyment of their counselor, Cassi, who single-handedly sang and directed the entire opening number of Barnyard Moosical. Finally, the CD kicked in – saving Cassi from singing the entire soundtrack, though she gave a lovely and energetic performance.
The crowd of friends and parents who came to watch the 4-16 year olds were in for a treat as the numbers rolled forward – an energetic rendition of Fat Sam’s Grand Slam Speakeasy, a rousing dance – conga line and all – to Hot Hot Hot, and a gripping piece of comic book drama with Captain Nuclear – the story of a girl who happens to have superpowers but is really just trying to fit in – brought to you by WHEATIES!
I couldn’t help being totally inspired – by the counselors and the kids. It didn’t matter that their costumes and sets were locked away. It didn’t matter that the stage blocking they had rehearsed had to be rearranged in short order. Or that they were performing in a gym instead of a theater. It might as well have been Carnegie Hall given how each of the kid gave their best. You could tell that some of the shyer kids were breaking out of their shells. Some of the hams got their moment in the spotlight. And everyone gave it their all – all the way to the show-stopping big finish, their version of Glee’s version of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing. I never thought I could actually cry to a Journey song, but there you have it. At least I wasn’t the only camera-toting dad having to “wipe his lens”.
My kids learned a lot that week, but the biggest lesson of theater camp came on that unexpected Saturday lock out. In theater and in life, things don’t always go as planned. But its how you handle them that matters. In less cool and calm hands (Beth Kent for President!), the lock out could have been a disaster. Instead, it was a triumph. As the campers head to school this fall, they can tell their friends about “the big performance day lockout!” Then they can tell them how the show most definitely goes on – even when you are five and the theater is locked.
I have been enjoying watching the progress of this kid’s book make its way through Kickstarter. Written by Amber Jones, an award-winning concierge who knows a thing or two about how to show visitors the best sights – and smells – of NYC. Her scratch-and-sniff tour of NYC includes many of the smells that are all too familiar: Garbage, Pizza, Hot dogs, Sewer steam, Fish, Horse Manure, Shish-kabobs, Smoke, Bagels and more.
As a Kickstarter backer, I was given access to some preview pages and can share them with you. Jones has covered all the key New York points – from the depths of the subway to a sidewalk cafe in Little Italy. The book is a feast for the eyes and will certainly be for the nose – IF it makes its funding. Jones is still $3,200 shy of her goal of $20,000 to fund the first print run with only a week to go.
Tim Probert’s illustrations are great on the eyes. I hope we all get to smell them.
Hopefully, she’ll get another last round of momentum. This is a fun book that I hope gets a chance to see the light of day and the dark of kid’s nostrils!
For chocolate lovers of all ages. How about snuggling up inside a candy bar – sweet dreams guaranteed. Also, what a great way to convince the kids to go to sleep. Mine would cooperate for at least one night.
The beautiful dragon crawled from the crooked trunk… Seems like the start (or end) of quite a story. I made this simple Android application using Google’s App Inventor program.
This program fill gaps “Mad Lib” style with a random word to create a single – and, most likely, silly sentence.
I have a button at the bottom that randomly picks “Beginning” or “End”. So, the silly sentence is either the beginning or the end of a story. Me and the family has to fill in the rest. Its a fun way to tweak our imaginations.
Every button (except for the two “the’s”) can be pressed, changing the meaning of the sentence in surprising, existential, and silly ways.
This is a project I made during the 1-in-1 (1 project in 1 day) challenge in early June. So far, the kids and I have had fun with it. Though my daughters obsessed with fairies, so she keeps clicking the subject button until its a fairy. Then the adjective until its beautiful.
Here’s what the block code looks like. If you have an Android and Google App Inventor, you can download the .apk file here. You can customize it with your own word groups.
Fed up with “clip-art” temporary tattoos for her kids, designer Tina Roth Eisenberg (swissmiss) founded a temporary tatoo company of her own. I think I’m going to surprise my better half with this “Mother” one and tell her that its not temporary. Hmm, wonder how that will go down. She has pulled together some great design talent to make a nice collection of temporary tattoos that are fun, whimsical, and smart.
I am late to the game on this great site (and internet phenomenon) that encourages people to send in new pictures having inserted an old one from the same spot. Kids change so quickly, I do find myself getting nostalgic for events that were just a year or two ago. The boy in this photograph is all grown up with two kids of his own.
What a wonderful idea – an interesting way to track time and changes in the landscape and architecture around us.
Smartphones are great. Their built-in cameras enable parents to capture video and photos of things that we normally wouldn’t have the ability to capture. Think of all the first steps, words, and cute moments that have would have otherwise been left unphotographed or unrecorded. Thanks to smartphones, babies born today are the most documented in the history of the human race. That’s great for the parents, but can unfortunately be painful for the adults around them. Because, also thanks to smartphones, parents have entire media libraries at their fingertips. Gone are the days when dad would have to set up a slide projector and screen in order to bore a table full of people out of their wits. Why just tell the story about “the big hysterical spaghetti hat” when you can whip out a smartphone and show a picture?
I was recently subjected to a dad’s multi-media storytelling about his child that included ten minutes of shaky (isn’t it always shaky?) video and over twenty photos. The episode started off innocently enough. He was talking about some trip they went on together (details are left vague in the interest of maintaining the friendship). I nodded and was genuinely interested in my friend’s videos – for the first sixty seconds.
But the videos went on and on – for a full ten minutes! Every time I started to pull away, steer the conversation in another direction, or focus on something more interesting like the pattern of uneaten risotto on my plate, he’d shove the phone under my nose and say, “This next part is great. Watch this. It’s coming up!” Then, ten seconds later, “It’s coming up!”
I thought about all the people in the world who have been subjected to KMO (Kid Media Overload) and, based on an informal polling process of other parents, I pulled together this handy chart to help people understand the minimum required viewing of photos and videos of other people’s kids – based on their relationship to the parent.
Now, there are certainly variations to these guidelines and other factors can come into play: geographical location, frequency of sharing, quality of the photography or cinematography, objective cuteness/humor of the kid or the situation. That’s why they are guidelines and not rules!
Certainly, its a reminder to all parents (myself included) need to remember that your kids are never as interesting, cute, and watchable to other people as they are to you. Sharing is nice. Over sharing is irresponsible.
