End of an Era

UNDER A SPELL: We started the morning by test driving an educational computer game I bought months ago. "Mrs. Flinkster's Spelling Accelerator" is supposed to be for grades 1-5.

The jury is still out on this one. I'm not sure it's working the way it's supposed to be. There are "six (mildly) entertaining, animated games" but it seemed to be missing "a dropdown list (of words students' need to learn) for easy, quick customization." Instead, I had to type in my own list. What a nuisance! (Just kidding - not like typing a list of 20 spelling words is hard, it was just unexpected, given the literature on the box.) But seriously, it wasn't quite as gee whiz as I was hoping for. We'll give it a few more tries. The "games" (flashcards, letter sorting, and such) did hold their interest for a half hour, so that was a plus.

WONDER BOY: C "Question Guy" J has been very inquisitive as of late. Before, during and just after Florida he was on a huge "what if there were no such thing as..." kick. (For instance, "What if there were no gravity ... food ... hands ... you name it.")

He seems to be coming out of that phase, but the questions haven't stopped. The first question today was, "I wonder who ROM hacks are made by."

I know that's what I ponder over my morning coffee, don't you?

Christian explained ROM hacks are made by people who know about computer programming. CJ spends a fair amount of time studying ROM hacks (the work of people who have altered a game's graphics, dialogue, levels, gameplay, or other gameplay elements) on YouTube. I'm pretty sure CJ dreams of a day where he can ROM hack.

QUICK DRAW: It has been a long time since we've availed ourselves to a fun drawing lesson with Emmy nominated cartoonist Bruce Blitz.

Using a big letter X to get them started, the kids created a pair of kissing fish . After that, the letter G was turned into a grumpy guy.
While I certainly wouldn't want to use only a 'copy this' type approach to art instruction, I do think these lessons have merit - especially for CJ who (at this point) really doesn't show much interest in free form drawing. I can see these exercises giving him confidence in using the media and producing a picture that he's proud of.
SUGAR BABY: Around noontime. in what might have been a flash of nostalgia, Annabelle asked if someone would play Candy Land with her. I can't stand that game, because it's one where no skill is involved. So I volunteered Christian (who has a wacky work schedule this week).

The game is great for learning colors and counting to 8 or so - but those are both things CJ and Annabelle have been doing for years at this point. And the characters are whimsical, I'll give it that. Of course they've been updated since the Candy Land I played with back in the late '60s, early '70s.
Me being me, I got to wondering about Candy Land's history. Turns out 2009 marked its 60th anniversary. Wow.Hasbro has a nice history on its Web site (including a neat slideshow of the game's incarnations).

Candy Land was invented by Eleanor Abbot, who was a recovering polio patient. Her goal was to create an activity that would entertain children affected with the disease. That's a sweet backstory.

For its first 30 years, Candy Land's packaging declared it "a sweet little game... for sweet little folks."

In this photo, Annabelle carefully watches her Dad to make sure he's not cheating ... ;)

VIDEO EDITOR: This afternoon CJ called me into the bedroom, saying, "You've got to see what Bowser is saying."

CJ was playing Super Nintendo 64 and had collected 7 stars during a certain mission. He approached a locked door, only to be told by Bowser, ""You need 1 more stars." CJ thought it was hysterical that Bowser didn't know star should be singular when it's with the number one.

POETRY IN MOTION: Today I got an email that contained a wonderful poem written by a reader's grandson (hi Ruthie!). It got me to thinking - the kids and I haven't talked at all about poetry. Oops. Time to right a wrong!

I suspected BrainPOP would have a lesson on it, and I was right. Unfortunately it wasn't working/wouldn't play for some reason. So we turned to BrainPOP Jr. and found a GREAT movie (viewable only by subscribers/those of us on a free trial). It introduced several kinds of poetry, including haiku, free verse, shape and rebus poems. After the video, the kids wanted to give an acrostic poem a shot. So, I wrote S-E-A-T-T-L-E down the side of a whiteboard and then the kids started spouting out words or short phrases that started with each of those letters. Here's what we would up with.
Afterward, I told them they could write any kind of poem they wanted. CJ chose to do another acrostic poem.

Chuckling
Jam he does not eat

"Guess who it's about?" he asked. I guess correctly that it was autobiographical. :)

Annabelle's was definitely, um, free verse.

I saw the shuttle lift off into space
My brother has a shirt about an
intergalactic space race!

We'll be doing more poetry in the future.

GOING, GOING, GONE: Stunning news in the Emerald City today. Ken Griffey Jr. called it quits. He's hanging up his spikes. The Kid is Done.

When I gave Annabelle the news she said, "Why did Ken Griffey Jr. quit baseball when he was so good at it?"

I suppose the "right" answer to that is that he was so good, he got to decide when he was done.

I'm so happy we just happened to be at Safeco Field last night - the very last night Junior donned a Mariners uniform. He didn't play - but for much of the game stood on the top step of the dugout, smiling and joking with his teammates.
Oh, Junior, how you will be missed.