Creative play for a rainy day

Last week, I found 4 great ways to use technology to move kids outside. In the Northwest, our summers are also filled with rainy days. When everyone is stuck inside, sometimes you need a little screen time.

One of my biggest frustrations is watching my kids surrounded by all this amazing technology and doing nothing with it. Sure, they watch YouTube videos and play games but they could be doing so much more. This week, I found some rainy day activities to move kids from consumers of technology to creators.  

Kodu

Instead of playing game, kids can create a game with Kodu, Microsoft’s game creation lab for kids. Kids can build games on the PC or with the XBox. Kodu is pretty easy to use. I needed to watch the tutorial but my kids dove right in and started clicking around. It has lots of tools so kids can create different terrains and design challenges. Once they are done, kids can choose to share their games with other kids on the Kodu website. It is free to download to a PC.

Below is a tutorial on how to design a game with Kodu by Stuart Ridout.

Scratch

Last summer, we enrolled in Codecademy. We started off with great plans to build an app but lost momentum. This summer, we are all trying out Scratch. Scratch, from MIT media lab, is a visual programming language where kids snap together pieces of code to design their own creations. As they snap and unsnap blocks of code, they learn basic programming like creating loops and manipulating variables. With Scratch, kids can create stories, drawings, music and animations as well as 2-D games. Scratch is free and kids can share their creations on the Scratch site. 

Minecraft

Minecraft is an online game that allows kids to build whatever they want using a variety 8-bit blocks. Kids may opt to build monuments, fight monsters, or engineer circuits. The game has two main modes, survival and creative. In creative mode the player has unlimited materials and the ability to fly. This makes it the perfect mode for creating elaborate structures. In survival mode, the player must first gather materials before they can build. In both modes, players can choose whether to fight a variety of monsters; it all depends on their preferences. Kids can play solo or with others. My kid loves this game. My one caution is some kids may want to extend this game from a rainy day to every day. The game is available on minecraft.net for $26.95.

For more games & apps to inspire creativity, check out

• Digital Fun for Creative Kids by Commonsense Media
• Programming (a.k.a. Coding) Resources for Kids by Marti Weston

The Flying Alphabetinis – A Social Gaming App that is Safe and Fun for Everyone

This rainy spring break, we played lots of board games. There are so many great board games: Monopoly, Risk, Sorry, Scattergories… Regardless of age, everyone enjoys playing these games. I am always on the lookout for an online game we can all play together. In the digital world, it is tough to find a family game.

Most online games either appeal to really young kids or the over 13 crowd. The games that are safe for younger kids, my older children find boring. When I check out the older games and see the chat window and the questionable ads, I am just not comfortable letting my youngest on. Thankfully, I finally found a game that is safe and we all want to play – The Flying Alphabetinis.

The Flying Alphabetinis by Fingerprint is a social gaming app that everyone can play. My oldest best described it as Scramble with Friends for kids. I would describe it as digital Boggle. Family members and friends play against each other to see who can find the most words. Everything kids love about social games is still included. They can challenge each other and send messages in a safe (not boring) environment.

A few weeks ago, I got a chance to talk with Nancy MacIntyre the CEO of Fingerprint  about designing games for the entire family. She acknowledged, “it’s a constant challenge from a game design perspective – providing a good play experience, but keeping it safe.” Fingerprint meets this challenge by first making a fun game. Then, they develop their games with the overriding principle of no personal data collected, ever. They also have help from over 50 moms, 200 kids, 400 hours of play testing, and 1500 families in Canada playing the game plus many, many hours with legal experts on COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act).

Do you know the 5 sites teens are on?

In December, Josh Miller interviewed his 10th grade sister about how she and her friends are using technology. His interview inspired Gerry Tan  to conduct a survey of teens and young adults about which services they used regularly. For teens, he found the top 5 sites were Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat and Twitter. The most used site for teens was Tumblr, even more popular than Facebook.

If your teen is on one of these sites or asking to use it, I have added articles about these sites to my Privacy Tools. If you do not want to click over, I included the same links below.

These articles explain how these services work as well as what kids and parents need to watch out for. Even if your kid is not asking about these sites – yet, it wouldn’t hurt to familiarize yourself with them. You may even find one you want to try.

Need a plan for summer break? Attend Codecademy

This week I am taking a break from privacy to share our plans for the summer. When the sun shines, we will be outside swimming, hiking or biking. During our frequent rainy days, I try to sneak in a little education. This summer, we will be attending Codecademy.

Codecademy has free online lessons on computer programming. Many schools are rethinking their digital curriculum and asking if all kids should learn some computer programming in school? The arguments range from “I would no more urge everyone to learn programming than I would urge everyone to learn plumbing” to “[programming is] essential if schoolchildren are to understand the networked world in which they are growing up.”

I do think kids should learn some basic programming. In school, we learned some simple programs in BASIC. Although BASIC and FORTRAN are long gone from my resume, I still remember how to talk to a computer. My kids may know about “griefing” or “tl;dr” but they have no idea what is a bit or a byte. With technology shaping how we interact with the world, a little understanding of how it all works is essential.

So instead of building another fort in Minecraft, we signed up for Codecademy.

4 Ways to use Technology to get Kids Outside

The school year is almost over! I am looking forward to summer break with its unscheduled hours. But with app store full of 430,000 apps, I worry about our screen time and I am not alone. In a recent survey, parents biggest concern with technology is its impact on their kids physical activity. With new “green time” apps, outside time and screen time do not have to be mutually exclusive.

These new games use the power of the screen to reconnect kids to the outdoors. In March 2013, Outdoor Nation sponsored Game On Challenge Grants to encourage app designers to build real-world games that inspire outdoor play. One of the grant applications is from a team of Wellesley students. These students created Bunny Bolt a game where kids run around the real world and complete virtual challenges to recapture a magician’s bunnies. Bunny Bolt is still in test mode but hopefully it or games like it will be available soon.

Inspired by Bunny Bolt, I went searching for more apps and games that encourage outdoor play. I found some that looked like a fun way to combine screen time and green time. Sadly, I have not had the chance to play all these games and there are probably  others available that I did not list. Please comment if you played any of these games or if you have other “green time” apps to recommend.

Digital scavenger hunt

With a digital scavenger hunt, kids race around trying to find items on a list and capture it by taking a picture. To get started, kids need a list of items and a digital camera, tablet, or phone. Parents can come up with a list of items found in a park, around the neighborhood or in their own backyard.  If you want to really get them moving, set a time limit. If you need help making a list, the eclectic site has a long list of items for younger and older kids. 

What parents need to know about ask.fm

According to the Pew Internet, teens, although still on Facebook,  ”have a waning enthusiasm for Facebook.” They are looking for new social media sites to add to their laptops and mobiles. Two of the rising stars for teens are Twitter and Instagram. Some other sites are also on their radar. One site I hear about and parents should definitely watch out for is ask.fm.

Ask.fm is a question and answer site that reminds me of Formspring. On ask.fm, users can ask each other questions and answers are posted on their profile. Ask.fm is available as an app or on the desktop. Teens, over 13 years old, can sign up and create a profile by filling in their name, username and email or using their Facebook or Twitter account. Once they are on, they can add more information to their profile such as a picture or their location.