As a perk of the warmer weather, I took NHL and JSL to a local park two times over the weekend. Of course, I took my camera and video camera with me and took many, many photos as well as a few videos. I’ll run a few of the photos tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday. For now, I dare you to watch this video full screen and not get dizzy!
With summer a fast-fading memory and winter’s icy temperatures making a couple of pre-launch appearances, outside play time is getting rarer and rarer. So, when temperatures the past two days were in the 50’s, we took advantage of this “heat wave” and allowed the kids to play out of doors.
Saturday, we went to B’s parents’ house and, while B and her mother went shopping for B’s birthday present, NHL, JSL and I took to the sidewalks. JSL had his big wheel bike and NHL had his scooter. NHL tired of the scooter quickly, as it wound up just slowing him down, and decided to hoof it instead. He would “race” JSL up and down the block with me trailing not too far behind.
One time, as we reached the end of the block, I stopped and called for them to turn around. NHL kept going which spurred JSL on to follow him. I called a second time and then, seeing that they were starting to get close to the main road without signs of stopping, went into a full-on run to catch up. NHL stopped but it looked like JSL wasn’t going to. As I screamed for JSL to stop (and as someone crossing the street turned around and looked poised to leap into action), NHL quickly jumped in front of his brother’s bike, grabbed the handlebars and forced it to a stop. I was so proud of him! (And, needless to say, I didn’t let JSL get too far from me the rest of the weekend as I don’t think I can trust him to stop when I tell him to.)
After some play, NHL decided to head indoors to play Nintendo DS. (B’s father was inside so he was supervised.) JSL wasn’t ready to go in, so we walked around the block twice. Well, I walked, JSL biked. His little feet pushed those pedals up and down with such expertise that you wouldn’t know that he just figured it out this Spring.
On the way, we met a nice lady and her dog. JSL loves dogs, but hates being around them up close. It might have to do with a dog that knocked him over once. We (meaning I) chatted with her for a bit, but soon JSL was feeling the urge to bike again and called on me to hurry it up.
On Sunday, the boys and I went food shopping, letting B get some quiet time to do laundry and write articles for KidsFunPlaza. When we got home, B had left to do some more shopping with her mother. After putting the groceries away, we decided to go outside and do some more bike riding.
After going up and down the block a couple of times, the boys started to repeat their “too close to the main road” act from the previous day. This time I was better prepared and stopped them. NHL said that he wanted to go around the block (usually, he doesn’t want to do this). I told him that he needed to ask me first before simply biking off towards a main road. We went around the block two times again.
As we hit the halfway mark of the second around-the-block trip, I got notification from B that she was headed home. The race was on. Would we make it home first? Or would B, driven by her parents beat us. The kids pedaled furiously, driven to increase their speed in the hopes of seeing Nana and Papa. (Oh. And Mom too.) As we rounded the final corner and began to go up our street, I looked back and recognized the car making the turn. It was a race down our street between a car, a bike, a big wheeler and my two feet. The car won, followed closely by NHL on his bike. Trailing behind was a fast pedaling JSL and then, bringing up the rear, was me.
By now, NHL was tired and wanted to go inside, but JSL didn’t want to stop. So B went inside with NHL and I let JSL pedal up and down the block a couple more times before it was time to head indoors. Sadly, I don’t think we’ll get to repeat these biking excursions too much longer, but there is hope for the Spring. It looks like JSL might be able to inherit NHL’s bike (graduating from a big wheeler to a training wheel-enabled two wheeler) and NHL might be able to move into a bigger bike (perhaps without training wheels). Maybe, if we do this, then B and I can get bikes too and we can all go on family biking trips. I used to love biking when I was a kid and would love to be able to take the boys and bike around our neighborhood.
P.S. By the way, that neat “blurred background” effect on the first photo? Done by following JSL with the camera and matching his speed. No photo editing programs involved! I tried that with NHL but didn’t get results as nice as with JSL. I think that’s because NHL goes faster and so it is harder to match his speed just right.
I love playing board games with my kids. Unfortunately, too many games rely solely on luck to win. Did the spinner land on 3? Did the die roll go your way? Did the card you just drew match what you needed? Thankfully, there are games out there that depend on brainpower instead of luck. Mastermind Animal Towers is one of these games.
In the “grown-up” version of Mastermind, one person is the code maker and one person is the code breaker. The code maker chooses 4 pegs out of 6 possible colors and arranges them in a spot hidden from the code breaker. The code breaker then tries to guess the code in 10 attempts or less given the minimal information of how many pegs were the correct color and how many were in the correct spot. (Specific information like “Green is in the right spot” isn’t given.) Obviously, this takes a keen mind to figure out. Simply tossing pegs onto the board and hoping luck will be with you isn’t a winning strategy here.
The same is true for Mastermind Animal Towers. Of course, the game play is simplified for kids. In this version, both players are code makers and code breakers. You each get a series of tiles with animals on them and a “tower” to put the animals in. When the animals are in the tower, the opposing player can’t see them. Both players also get a second set of tiles representing their opponent’s animals.
Play involves trying to figure out just how your opponent has stacked his or her animals. You ask “above or below” questions such as “Is the Lion above the Giraffe?” As your opponent answers your questions, your estimation of their tower becomes more and more accurate until you guess it correctly. Of course, your opponent is also asking questions and trying to guess how your tower is arranged and will try to win by guessing correctly before you.
During a family get together, NHL played this game against me and some other family members. He immediately got the concept and went right to work trying to guess the arrangements. While he wasn’t always successful (my training in computer science led me to use an effective sorting technique for my guesses), he did have a lot of fun. Even JSL and his cousin S, both of whom were too young to really understand how to play the game, had fun pretending to play or helping out (e.g. helping to choose my initial tower arrangement). This is definitely a game that I would recommend to help build your child’s problem solving skills.
Giveaway:
Thanks to Pressman Toys, one lucky winner will receive Mastermind Animal Towers. To enter, simply leave a comment below answering this question: What board games do you like playing with your children or did you play growing up?
You can also earn bonus entries by doing any (or all) of the following items. Just be sure to leave a separate comment for each item that you complete. (Don’t just leave one comment listing everything you did.)
To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today, November 4th and ends at Noon EST on November 18th, 2010. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. I will select the winner using random.org and contact you via e-mail. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. only.
Disclosure: I was given this game by Pressman Toy for free to review and I get to keep the game at the end of my review period. No other compensation was given. The opinions expressed above are my own. Pressman Toy is also providing the giveaway item to my readers.
