April 21st, 2010 larry
Friday is cartoon night at our house. Both the Cartoon Network and Nicktoons provide a blazing lineup of cartoon action including Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Wolverine and the X-Men, Star Wars: Clone Wars (part 1 of the season finale on Friday), Batman Brave and the Bold, Teen Titans, Johnny Test, and Speed Racer. It is definitely a little testosterone heavy but combined with a D’Augustinos Pizza it is a great night. This Friday, two new series are premiering on the Cartoon Network, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, 7:00, and Generator Rex at 7:30
Ben 10 is one of our favorite cartoons, maybe our absolute favorite. Ultimate Alien is the 3rd incarnation of this series. Ben 10 was a young boy that found a watch (the Omnitrix) that can turn him into one of 10 different aliens (my favorite is a big red guy with four arms, called Four Arms. Then as a teenager, there was Ben 10: Alien Force. He teams up with his sister Gwen (who is a sorceress) and his friend Kevin (turns into the material he touches). His watch had new aliens like Humongasourus and Way Big. Now, in Ultimate Alien, his watch is called the Ultimatrix. There are new aliens and there are also Ultimate versions of old Aliens.
Ben 10 has great action, interesting stories, powerful alien characters, and great bad guys. Ben 10 is also one of the funniest cartoons out there. Ben’s bumbling faces criticism and sarcasm from Kevin and Gwen and there is quite a bit of name calling among friends. Ben’s watch malfunctions constantly and he turns into the wrong alien at the wrong time. If your kid is into superheroes, tune into Ben 10.
The makers of Ben 10 have a brand new series called Generator Rex. Rex is a boy who can turn parts of his body into different weapons. He has Smackhands that are huge fists to bully bad guys. His arm can turn into a rocket launcher and jet packs come out of his back. He can control other machines and actually cure evil machines as well, turn them into good guys. Rex has lost all of his memories so this is sure to be recurring theme as he tries to figure out who he is, if he has a family, and even his real name.
We’ll review both shows after the premiere on Friday night.
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March 2nd, 2008 larry
What conversation doesn’t start with, “Can you remember the last time we got this much snow?” We don’t know anybody that is not completely annoyed and frustrated with the frequency of snow. I look at the forecast this week and it shows snow for Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Ridiculous. You can’t be sledding and out of the house the entire time. And your kids are getting bored of their toys. And you can’t let them sit in front of the TV constantly (though it’s tempting). This week’s Blog points out some of our favorite kids web sites to help you pass the winter time.
First, a couple of technical warning notes. Keys on IBM laptop keyboards are easy to snap back into place. However, once a key from a Dell pops out of the keyboard by little prying fingers, it is detached forever. So until your kids learn to be careful with the computer, keep a close eye on how they are using it. It can be easy to confuse a drum and a computer.
One of the most educational parts about playing on the Web with your kid is that they will learn how to use a mouse and start to feel comfortable navigating the computer. When our kid was 2, it was pretty difficult to use the little touch pad on a laptop or the little joystick embedded in the keyboard. We bought a small wireless mouse from Gigaware that was the right size for his hand with easy access to the buttons. At 3 1/2, he is more comfortable with the touch pad on the keyboard.
All of the web sites we play with are from television programs that we watch. This relationship makes it familiar and easy for the kids and also gets them excited about going on-line. Our favorites are the following:
5. http://atv.disney.go.com/playhouse/mmch/index.html. Playhouse Disney on Disney Online has all of the television shows from the Disney Channel. This link is for the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. To get into the site, you have to click on the familiar “Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse” to get going. Our favorite parts of this site are Goofy’s Silly Slide in the Activities section and Donald and the Beanstalk in the Stories section. Goofy’s Silly Slide lets your kid build a slide and then click on a button to watch the different characters slide down. Donald and the Beanstalk (a short version of the episode of the same name) takes you through Mickey and the gang rescuing Boo Boo Chicken from the giant. It is a very interactive story involving counting, shapes, colors, bubble machines, and directions.
4. http://atv.disney.go.com/playhouse/littleeinsteins/index.html. Little Einsteins is also on Playhouse Disney On-Line and is mostly great for learning instruments. Our favorites are Quincy and the Magic Instruments in the Music section, Orchestra Ocean Treasure Hunt in the Games section, and the Glass Slipper Ball (a short version of the episode of the same name) in the Stories section. Quincy and the Magic Instruments and Orchestra Ocean both match pictures of instruments with their sounds. Orchestra Ocean ends in a picture that you can print and color in. Glass Slipper follows Rocket and the kids to Austria to the ball by learning how to use the space bar, choosing colors, listening for sounds, and helping Annie dance.
3. http://www.thomasandfriends.com. Thomas is as fun on the Web as he is on TV and in toys. Our favorite parts of the site include Decorate Tidmouth Sheds (where you can put ballons, flags and ribbons the engines), Engine Jigsaw (where you can do puzzles of Thomas and his Friends), Build an Engine (where you put together the different engines), Building games (building engines with Legos), and the Matching Game (standard concentration games where you match pictures of the different characters). Of course, if you are just getting into Thomas, there is the Engine Depot that will teach you and your kid all of the characters’ names.
2. http://www.sesameworkshop.org. Like Disney On-Line, PBS Kids (http://pbskids.org/) has all of the PBS Sprout shows. The Sesame Street Workshop has all of your favorite characters, but the best games are in Elmo’s World. Warning: Never ever let your kid see Elmo Potty Time. This is the most annoying thing on the Web and will drive you crazy. As long as you avoid that, Weather (dress Elmo for different climates), Limbo (pick different sizes of monsters to go under the limbo stick in tune with cool Elmo Reggae), Keyboard-a-rama (learn the letters with pictures that sound like the letters, one of our all time favorites), and Peek-a-Boo Elmo (find Elmo in various surroundings) are all great games on the Elmo site.
1. http://atv.disney.go.com/playhouse/bunnytown/index.html. Disney’s Bunnytown is made by the creators of Jack’s Big Music Show on Noggin. We don’t watch Bunnytown all that much, but the Web site is our favorite. The site allows you to customize your own bunny for the home page (colors and clothes). However you dress him up, is how your bunny shows on all the pages. You can also customize your bunny house, by putting furniture in it, hanging paintings, and putting toys in your room. As long as you go to the site from the same computer, the site will remember your choices when you return. You can buy clothes and furniture with carrots at the Carrot Shop. The site starts you off with 50 carrots and you win more carrots by playing games like Ice Cream Parlor (teaches counting and reading by serving scoops of ice cream to bunnies) and Do the Bunnytown Hop (make bunnies dance and then replicate the dance yourself - hysterical).
Larry and Donna
Mom Says: Learning to use the computer at a young age is a valuable skill. Educational and fun, it’s a definite step up from watching TV.
Dad Says: These are great sites and I would probably give honorable mentions to the Doodlebops and Ooh and Aah on Disney and Curious George on PBS Kids.
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