The Speaking Spelling Bee is a really fun handheld game that helps you spell and kids who like spelling bee games should get it. I mostly like it when I do the hard words I’ve never spelled before. And you can hook it up to the TV and play it! It’s pretty cool. You can have a tournament against other people, or you can play by yourself.
Flip Words 2 is another word game and it’s kind of like hangman. Lots of fun! Oh, and here’s a code for 40% off at Brighter Minds! It’s KIDS40.
We also have some computer software that’s fun to use. Corel Painter Essentials 4 is digital art. It lets you turn photos into paintings or sketches. It’s pretty cool for bigger kids and adults.
If you like to do art and learn about art, you should try Creativity Express. It has games and it teaches you art basics and about artists and famous paintings.
Don’t forget about our cookbook and headphones giveaway!
The nice people at Leapfrog sent us their new Tag Reading System. This is just the kind of thing I would’ve scoffed at at one point in my parenting career. I would have said, “Why would I have an electronic gadget teach my child to read when I could do it?” But now I see.
Like many 4 and 5 year olds I know, Maya is smart and independent. She likes to be in charge. She doesn’t want me teaching her anything because she thinks she’s smarter than I am. She’s probably right about that. Tag is perfect for kids like her because it allows them to feel like they’re teaching themselves. Since using the Tag System, I can’t tell you how many times Maya has gleefully showed me a newly acquired skill (”Look! This word used to be ‘not’ but then it changed to ‘note’!”) Now I’m a believer. She has a sense of pride in her accomplishments because they are truly herown. For kids like Maya, that’s the most important part of learning.
One thing I don’t like about it is that LeapFrog’s recommended age ranges are prominently displayed on the front of the books. I really think this product is great for older, struggling readers who might be tired of the same old routine of the mom/teacher constantly harassing them, but it would be so disheartening for an older child to use a book that is recommended for a 4- to 6-year-old child. Other than that, it’s a great product.
I forget to tell you very much about the Gamecube, but I love playing it a lot. I wish I didn’t have to buy a memory card separate, though. That’s more money that I have to save, but I keep buying games for it instead. I bought it used. I buy all my games used.
Don’t forget, The Blue Elephant DVD giveaway is stll going on. Sign up if you haven’t done it already!
I got this for Christmas, but it’s broken now. Boo! SanDisk is sending me a new one! Yay! My dad called and told them what happened (the volume was stuck) and they said they would send a new one. I like it because it has a screen so I can see what music I’m playing. I wanted an iPod, but my mom and dad said it would be too expensive. I didn’t know there was a different mp3 player that would come in pink and I love it! Except for the broken part.
It has some bugs, like the clicking sound when you zoom, but we pretty much like it. And it only about $90 at Kroger, which is really cheap for a video camera!
Some other things that bug us: It has no quiet pause, so if you’re videotaping something where you want to be quiet (such as a kid’s play), there is no way to pause recording without the noisy “blip-blip.” Then when you start recording again, the “blip-blip” happens again! That’s embarrassing. Also, the one we have only has 30 minutes of memory. We use it up every day. Need more memory! We still like it, though, because it’s easy to upload videos and delete them so you have more memory again. You can edit them with the Flip software, or just save them and edit with Windows Movie Maker.
