The Chronic Consumer

Although I purchase a lot of games for my son to play on the iPad, I also try to use it as a learning tool as much as possible. This means getting my hands on as many interactive storybooks and other educational apps as possible. One of the latest books we’ve tried together is called Cozmo’s Day Off. It is produced by Ayars Animation, the same folks that brought us the Jack and the Beanstalk interactive book, and was offered to me as a free download. That will in no way influence my opinion here; the following impressions are based on my own thoughts as well as my 8-year-old son’s.

First, the description from the App Store…:

Experience an interactive storybook that is out of this world! Join Cozmo in his adventure across the stars, and enjoy games and activities along the way.

★Audio Narration
★Over 100 Unique Audio and Animated Interactions
★Customize Narration with Your Own Voice
★Have Fun Using the Voice Pitch Control
★Games and Activities

…and a screen shot of the first page of the book:

And now onto the review.

The first thing that jumps out at me is the quality of the illustrations. I have seen a LOT of these children’s books, and some of the artwork is just not that appealing. But in Cozmo’s Day Off, each page features a beautiful illustration that is chock-full of details. Plus, as the above description mentioned, there are over 100 interactions throughout the book. My son loved tapping away at every object on the screen, hoping to see it come to life and do something funny. With 100 interactions in a 10-page book, there are obviously plenty of things to try!

The second thing I noticed is that the story is pretty decent. I mean, it’s hard to tell a complete story in just 10 pages and make it interesting for kids, but I think this one works. Each page has between two and four rhyming lines that tell how Cozmo gets from his home to his job. I think that amount of text is perfect for this age group (4+), as it allows the story to get told, but doesn’t bog kids down too much.

On the educational side of things, I really appreciate that when the auto narrator is on, the interactions don’t work until AFTER the text on the page has been read. This forces kids to listen to the story instead of just tapping away looking for the “fun stuff”. As a parent, this sort of detail is very important to me.

I also like that the text gets highlighted as the narrator reads, which makes it easier for my son to follow along. (One slight quibble about the feature, though, is that I think it would be more effective if single words were highlighted instead of the whole line.) And of course, there’s the fantastic feature that allows us to record ourselves reading the text. Kids — especially my son — LOVE this kind of thing. As developing readers, I think it’s critical that they hear their own reading like this, and I’ve gotten my son to do several recordings. Now he listens to himself almost exclusively, which is just fine by me.

My son liked this app, and thought most of the interactions and animations were fun. The one thing he didn’t like was the game on Page 4. He said it went on too long, and that it was too easy in the beginning, but then became WAY too hard before the end. I haven’t tried that game myself, but I’ll take his word for it.

Anyway, Cozmo’s Day Off by Ayars Animation is definitely an interactive book that I would recommend buying. It costs $3.99 at the App Store, and I think that price is appropriate for what the book contains. At 8 years old, I think my son was perhaps a bit old for this one, but he still enjoyed it. I think younger children would have even more fun with it, so if your kids are in the 4-6 or 4-7 range, go check this one out! (A “Lite” version is also available if you just want to try it before you buy.)

I have been making a concerted effort to purchase more education-oriented iPad apps for my son to use instead of the standard games that we had been buying for a while. One of the highly rated apps I decided to try was this one from Encyclopedia Brittanica Kids called Volcanoes.

Here is the description of the app as it appears on the iTunes store:

Volcanoes are an awesome display of the Earth’s power. Explore them interactively with this new app and learn about the world’s major volcanoes and their eruptions, lava, plate tectonics, and much more. Learn and play at the same time through a variety of games like Memory Match, Jigsaw Puzzles, and the Magic Square among others. Learning has never been more fun with this interactive and educational app that is based on school curriculum.

Learning about Volcanoes has never been more fun with this quick, interactive and educational app based on the school curriculum. And as it’s from Britannica you can be sure it’s appropriate and safe for the whole family. Ideal for homework help, the app features:

Exclusive Encyclopædia Britannica curriculum-based written specifically for ages 8-12. Coverage of the topic includes:

The Erupting Earth
Lava and Magma
Types of Volcano
Birth of an Island
Plate Tectonics
Eruptions
Decade Volcanoes (featuring 16 of the world’s deadliest volcanoes)

Then the fun starts:

•Interactive Map – With this amazing tool you can locate where you are anywhere in the world and see how near you are to the most powerful volcanoes. Want to see your favourite volcano? It’s easy with our map tool, use the zoom feature to see right into the craters.

•Jigsaw Puzzles, created from amazing graphics of volcanoes. Break apart the puzzle and have some fun by shaking your device and then sliding the pieces back into place to complete the puzzle – it’s not as easy as it looks!

•Scramble images of volcanoes in The Magic Square game by shaking your device. Challenge yourself by re-arranging the squares to unscramble the image.

•Brush off – brush off the lava, soot and dust from the eruption of Vesuvius to reveal an object in the city of Pompeii and then try to guess what it is – how many can you answer correctly?

•Test your knowledge on volcanoes with the Quiz feature – how much have you learned? But hurry: you must answer quickly as the quiz is timed!

•Test your memory with the popular Memory Match game and match up the pairs!

Clearly, this app contains a ton of great features, which is probably why it has gotten such great reviews to begin with. All of the pictures are beautiful, and the games and puzzles really add to the experience. The reading difficulty is a bit too high for my son (who is just 8 and a little behind his peers in that subject), but I have taken the time to read from the app to him, which he seems to enjoy just as much. He’s interested in volcanoes anyway, so it’s no wonder he loves this app.

The games and activities are the big draw for kids. The puzzles and matching game are the ones my son spends the most time with, though he also likes the Magic Square activity despite how tough it is. Also, the pictures and video segment is something that holds his attention for a long time as well.

Overall, I am happy with my purchase of the Encyclopedia Brittanica Kids “Volcanoes” iPad App. There is a lot of information packed into this little program, and it is presented in such a beautiful and fun way that kids can’t help but spend time with it — and learn a little something in the process. I recommend it!

My son has been getting into floor hockey and soccer at school, so I decided to buy him this Mylec All-Purpose Steel Goal to use in our basement during the winter and in the driveway during the summer. The goal can be used for hockey, soccer (obviously a LOT smaller than regulation, but better than nothing), lacrosse, handball, field hockey, etc. which is pretty cool.

After reading some product reviews, I decided to go with a steel goal rather than one made of plastic or PVC tubing. Those models, while definitely lighter and cheaper than the steel version, tend to break easily according to other customers. I figured I should just get the best product I could afford rather than getting something that would need to be replaced several times.

The Mylec goal was fairly easy to assemble. It comes with about 10 pieces of numbered steel tubing that snap together and lock into place. The net is quadruple stitched onto canvas sleeves that the tubes then slide into. The quadruple stitching ensures that the net will hold up even against the toughest slapshots — and so far, that has been the case. The goal is 52x43x28, which is actually pretty darn big. But that’s a good thing as long as you have the room for it.

Overall, I have to say that I think this was a great purchase. We’ve had the goal for a month now and my son has spent at least an hour a day taking shots at it in the basement. It has stood up to everything so far (granted, we’re just using a plastic floor hockey puck or plastic street hockey balls) and still looks like new. I have no regrets about spending $50 on this heavy-duty goal. I’m sure it will last for years and years, which is exactly what we want!

I’ve been trying to find more educational toys for my son so he’s not always just playing video games when he’s at home. He seems to really enjoy science at school, so after browsing around, I decided to purchase this Snap Circuits Jr. kit by Elenco.

Snap Circuits Jr. is supposed to teach kids how electricity works. It comes with a variety of parts that snap onto a grid (and each other), as well as an experiment book that has blueprints for 100 “projects” that kids can make.

My son absolutely LOVES this toy! It took him a while to get the hang of reading the prints (they’re simple, but he’s never had experience with that type of thing), but once he did, he started enjoying the whole process. He often builds stuff by himself, and when something doesn’t work right, he studies the print until he finds his mistake. Plus, from the questions I’ve asked him regarding directionality and closed circuits, it seems that he IS actually starting to understand electricity a bit better.

His favorite projects are the ones that involve the mini fan blade (you can see it in the picture above). If the project gets the fan blade spinning fast enough, it will fly up in the air when the power is shut off. My son loves that!

Anyway, he hasn’t worked through all 100 projects yet, but when he does, we’ll probably check Elenco’s site for more projects or an upgrade kit. It was only $17 when I bought it, which is a bargain in my opinion. This toy is definitely recommended!

We hardly ever go to Toys R Us anymore (we just shop online), but had to pick up a last-minute gift for a birthday party and didn’t have time to order anything from the Internet. While browsing in the store, my son came across this Animal Planet Radio Controlled Rattlesnake and begged to get it (another reason shopping online trumps going to the store!).

He’d been a good boy recently, so we went ahead and paid the $30 for it. The promotional video that was playing right by the display did a wonderful job of selling the snake as being somewhat realistic and fun.

The snake actually does work fairly well, insofar as the “slithering” action goes. That movement seems realistic, despite the toy rolling on wheels instead of actually slithering on the ground.

The one thing that the video didn’t show, however, is that the snake makes a very loud mechanical noise that’s fairly typical of RC toys. Because of that noise, any semblance of “reality” (not that we were expecting much, mind you) went right out the window. You’re not going to scare or trick anyone with this thing.

My son played with the snake extensively the first night we had it, and has taken it out a couple more times since then. But for the most part, it’s just gathering dust in his room — exactly like all his other non-video game toys. Sigh. When will I ever learn???

Okay, I am nearly 40 years old, but I’m still getting birth announcements from friends. When will the madness end?! I think I’ll be buying baby shower gifts until I’m old and gray — at which time my friends will still be sending me announcements about their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Sigh.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I could think of unique things to buy, but I always end up getting the same gift box of onesies or bibs. I know, pretty boring, right? Oh, well, there are certainly worse things in the world!

I went to the outlet mall with a friend today to see if I could find any good bargains. While I didn’t come away with anything for myself, I did find a Gap kids hoodie for my son. It is navy blue with yellow lettering, and the letters are stitched onto the front instead of just screenprinted.

It’s a fairly nice hoodie that originally retailed for about $30 according to the tag. I picked it up for about $18, which wasn’t too bad at all. My son loves hoodies and needs a couple new ones for this fall anyway. I usually don’t buy name brands for him, but made an exception here.

(And sorry, I was too lazy to take a picture, but the hoodie is very similar to this image I found on Google. The only difference is the lettering is yellow and there’s no “Rome” logo on it.)

My son outgrew his plastic slide and swing set years ago, and has been asking for some kind of replacement ever since. He’s still only 8 years old, so it’s not unreasonable to think he’ll continue to be interested in jungle gyms and such for a few more years. The only problem is, most of the stuff for backyards seems to be geared towards younger children.

Maybe what I need to do is look at commercial playground equipment instead. Obviously, this stuff is meant for public parks and places like that, so we wouldn’t be able to have a full set or anything. But a rainbow climber or something similar might work. I’ll have to check into this a little bit more!