So you don’t think a four piece puzzle could ever present a challenge? Then you have obviously never played Safari Undercover by Educational Insights.

A recent happy find before our last big trip, Safari Undercover is a wonderful logic game!  The goal of the game is simple:  use the four differently shaped pieces to mask out certain wild animals while leaving others exposed according to the challenges illustrated in the booklet.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?  The challenges are organized from “Starter” to “Master” and most of them really require a lot of thought, even for an adult!

The “Starter” level has hints to get you started if you need them.  After that you are on your own.  Each puzzle has only one answer and the solutions are included in the booklet.

What I like best about the game is that it has only four fairly large pieces and a booklet (not much to lose).  The pieces and booklet store neatly in a drawer under the game’s top.  Perfect for travel.

We played it for hours on the airplane and I was as eager for a turn as my kids were!

The game is also available with pirates.

The recommended age is 7 to 9 years, but I say 7 to 99 years!

PS: This is not a paid review (none of my reviews ever are). I am simply sharing my thoughts about a game that I bought myself and like.

First of all, I want to send a HUGE thank you to Lynn of Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile for doing an excellent job of hosting the weekly Unplugged Project last week while I was away on vacation.  I really appreciate it and I hope it was fun for you!

We had a lovely time in Mexico.  The kids ran around on the beach and swam in the pool non-stop.  This was our first vacation with my youngest in tow where I was actually able to relax a bit.  My three year-old was finally independent enough to allow me to read two and a half books.  What a luxury.

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Surprise!  We finally got to the Unplugged Project this week.  Although I hadn’t picked the theme words for any particular reason, it actually fit in perfectly with what we have been doing lately:  learning French.

I haven’t blogged about this yet, but this summer we are all going to France for three weeks where my two oldest children (6 and 8) will attend a language class.  I used to live in France, and am determined that my children learn French.  This is step one.  I’ll write more about it another day.

Anyhow, inspired by this wonderful French bingo game by eeBoo that we bought and love, I decided to make our own version.  I designed our own, changeable bingo game for learning lots of French words.

We gathered up some heavy cardboard, card stock, scissors a ruler and some old nature magazines.

First I cut the cardboard into three equal squares, one for each of my children.  My squares ended up being about 8 in. by  8 in. (about 20 cm by 20 cm).  It doesn’t really matter how big they are, as long they are square.

Using the ruler, I penciled a grid of nine approximately equal squares on each piece of cardboard.  These became the bingo cards.

We cut strips of card stock that were the same height as our rows of three squares, and slightly longer.

Next we cut some narrow ribbon in lengths just long enough to be slightly wider than the cardboard squares.

We put one piece across each vertical line on each card (two per card):

Then we taped the end securely onto the back of the bingo card:

Finally, the really fun part.  We searched the nature magazines to find some common animals to cut out, making sure that each animal photo would fit inside one of the nine squares on the card.

We pasted three animals on each strip keeping enough space between each animal for the ribbon.

Finally, we slid the strips under the ribbons to fill in the bingo board. The strips pass easily underneath the ribbons and the slightly longer length makes a nice tab for easy insertion and removal.

When the boards were done, we cut pieces of card stock into squares that were close to the size of our animal squares.  I wrote an animal name in French on each card.

Play proceeds like this:

The cards go into a bag.  The caller pulls out a card and says the name of the animal.  Whoever has it on their card says “moi!” (me) and places the card on top of the corresponding picture.  They also must say the name of the animal in French.  The winner is the first one to fill up his or her card and must then say the name of all the animals on their card in French.

One thing that is really fun about this is that you can rearrange the strips so the cards change combinations.

You can also make new strips for other categories of study.  We did animals, but you could do words having to do with the home, the body, school – whatever you want!  As vocabulary knowledge increases, you can mix the categories or words to make play more difficult.

The picture finding and cutting is fun and also provides an opportunity to learn the words before play.

For more advanced players, you could even do verbs and conjugations.

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For those of you who did a word Unplugged Project this week, here is the linky.  Please link only if you did a word Unplugged Project.  Please link to your project post rather than simply your blog (I am trying build up an easily searchable archive).  If you did not do a word project, but want to learn more about how to join in, please read about it here. We’d love to have you!

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be:

Transportation

Have fun!

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For me, the New Year inspired many diverse hopes for a better 2009 and beyond. However, it was also the official start of my Selecta Mourning Period.

As I mentioned in a previous post, German toy company Selecta is the first casualty of the overly broad new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). Unable to afford the additional testing required by the CPSIA, Selecta ceased the distribution of its toys in the US market on December 31, 2008.

My prediction is that Selecta is simply the first of many high quality European toy manufacturers who will eventually succumb to the new burdens placed upon them. As for the lovely homemade toys currently available from Etsy sellers, or lesser-known “Mom and Pop” toystores such as Wood Toy Shop, Quiet Hours Toys, Down to Earth Toys, or many other favorites from my Unplugged Toystore list – their future is very uncertain.

Honestly, only mega-manufacturers such as Hasbro or Mattel and their Chinese mass-produced toys will be able to afford to jump through the added hoops.  Although these toys might be deemed “safe” at the end of their journey, for the most part, they are not what I want to offer my children.

Since my newly 3 year-old daughter has a January 2nd birthday (so close to Christmas, poor thing!), I decided to buy a farewell Selecta birthday gift for her. I chose the Stellina Star Sorting Puzzle. She really likes puzzles and this is a puzzle and a sorter combined. Put the arms of the star puzzle together, choose an awake face or an asleep face for the star in the middle, and then add the pegs of assorted sizes and colors.

She loves it! At this time, there are only three left at Amazon and I don’t know about other stores. So hurry up and Google Selecta to stock up before all these wonderful German toys are gone.

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To learn more about the new CPSIA and how it affects small and foreign toymakers, read more here: Help Save Handmade Toys in the USA from the CPSIA.

For some suggested improvements:  Possible Solutions to Improve the CPSIA.

What can you do to help? Write to your Congress Person or Senator to request a change to the CPSIA which would exclude toys made in the US, Canada or Europe.  Here is a sample letter, or compose your own.

Useful links:

Find your Congress Person

Find your Senator

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This week’s Unplugged Project theme (fluffy) was not premeditated, it just popped into my head.

I wanted an adventure this week so I thought long and hard all week about what to do. Cotton balls? Ordinary. Dryer lint? Flammable. Pom poms? What does one do with pom poms besides add some googly eyes? Not in the mood.

But then I found this: Pom Pom International!

Amy Lamé has a vision.  She is trying to bring people of the world together.  But how?  With music?  No.  Art?  No.  What then?  Pom poms!!  What could be less politically charged and more fun and appealing to humans everywhere, than the humble pom pom!  As Amy puts it:

Dealing with differences is much easier with a stress-busting pompom in your hand.

This is what it is all about:

Pom Pom International travels to areas of conflict around the globe. Together, we create whimsical,
non-political, creative balls of fluffy yarn in a gesture of peace and reconciliation. All pom poms are tagged, tracked and sewn together to make the biggest pom pom in the world.

Why not?  I love this idea!!  A peace pom pom!

If you can’t make it to a live pom pom making event, then you can create your pom pom at home and send it to Amy.  Email her a photo of you and your pom pom and she’ll add it to her online gallery.

I remember my mother teaching me how to make pom poms and I have a distinct fondness for them, so I was quite excited to make pom poms for a higher purpose than merely a place to stick googly eyes.

Pom poms are surprisingly easy and fun to make.  All you need is some sturdy cardboard (corrugated is best) and leftover yarn:

Cut two matching circles out of the cardboard. Next cut matching circles out of the middle of the original circles so you have a doughnut shape. (NOTE: Our cardboard was from an extra heavy box so I ended up using a dremel tool to cut these, but you really don’t need cardboard that is quite that tough!):

The width of the “ring” portion of your doughnut (distance between outer edge and start of inner hole) will determine the size of your pom pom (bigger band=bigger pom pom).  Also, I would advise making your donuts a bit bigger than we did so that the middle hole can be bigger.  A larger hole makes it easier to pass the yarn through.

Place your cardboard rings together like a sandwich.

Choose your yarn and cut a length that is several yards/meters long.  Roll it into a small ball so that it can easily pass through the center hole.  Pass the loose end of the yarn through the hole and hold on to it with your thumb.  Wrap yarn tightly around the doughnut like this (once you start wrapping, you can let go of the loose end):

Keep wrapping all around the circle as many times as necessary to completely cover it.  Keep going until you can no longer fit any yarn through the hole … or you run out of patience, whichever comes first!  The more yarn you use, the thicker and puffier your pom pom will be.

When you finish your first small ball, you can easily add on more yarn by simply threading the loose end through and holding it with your thumb, just as you did before.  You can change colors this way too, as I did with my blue and purple pom pom.

When you are through wrapping, cut the strands all the way around the edge of the doughnut with the scissor tips between the two cardboard pieces.

Now wrap a long strand of yarn around the pom pom, between the two sandwiched sections and tie tightly:

And finally, the really exciting part:  gently pull apart the two cardboard rings to reveal your completed pom pom.  Trim and fluff as necessary, and there you have it!  A nice, fluffy, pom pom for peace!

In order to have your pom pom be a part of the giant peace pom pom simply print out a tag for each pom pom from the Pom Pom International website, take a photo of you and your creation for the website’s gallery (send it via email), then ship your tagged pom poms to Pom Pom International in London, England!  Full instructions, tag and addresses are here.

Tomorrow after school we will be off to the post office to send our peace pom poms to England.  The children are very excited!

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LINKS:

Amy’s explanation and diagram of making a pom pom – very helpful!

Pom Pom International

Pompoms Can Save the Planet – May 6, 2008, The Scotsman Newspaper

By the way, Amy also gratefully accepts donations of any leftover or recycled yarn balls and bits.  Send all “orphaned or previously loved yarn” here:

NEW Pom Pom International HQ
106 Lower Marsh
London SE1 7AB
ENGLAND

It will be used for the free pom pom making events.

If you are feeling really enthusiastic, she also seeks Pom Pom International Ambassadors.  Can you volunteer to organize a pom pom making booth at a crafts or art fair?  How about a club event?  The more pom poms, the better.

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Did you do a fluffy Unplugged Project this week?  If so, then please post a link to your project post (not just your blog) in Mr. Linky below.  If you didn’t participate but would like to learn more, then please do not link, but read about it here.

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be:

Curly

Have fun!

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Today, along with a visiting friend, we finally got to do this week’s kitchen Unplugged Project.  We used cornstarch, a common kitchen ingredient, to create a non-Newtonian fluid.  The other name for such a mixture is Oobleck, from the Dr. Seuss book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

It was SO COOL!!  The kids and I found it fascinating!  I was so enthralled that I felt that the mess (and there WAS mess), was actually very worthwhile.

I set out four small mixing bowls and spoons, one for each child.  I also set out water, cornstarch, and measuring cups.

The kids each put about one cup of cornstarch into their bowl.

I had them add water just a bit at a time,

and stir until we got the “right” consistency.

It was probably close to about a half to two thirds of a cup of water, but the “right” consistency was quite obvious.  When the mixture starts to feel hard to stir although it looks like liquid on the top, then it is probably about ready.

Test it by dipping your hand in, lifting out some fluid, and squeezing it into a ball.  It should feel like a hard, dry ball in your hand but when you open your fingers, it will turn back into a liquid and run back into the bowl.

Here is a fleeting picture of it as a solid:

Adjust your mixture by adding a bit of water if too dry, or a bit of cornstarch if too wet.  You’ll know you have it right when the oohs and aahs begin!

This was so much fun to play with and was a very weird sensation that is quite hard to describe.  The children (including my 2 year-old) and I played for maybe an hour:  squeezing, stirring, punching, and even hammering!

My favorite trick: If you roll it between your two palms as if you are making a ball with clay, it makes a nice solid ball, but as soon as you release the pressure, it all runs away!

Also, put a finger gently into it and it will slowly and strangely be sucked under as if in quicksand.  Jab the finger in quickly, and it will hit a hard surface.

The Science:

As I understand it, when you squeeze the mixture, or compress it quickly in some way (hammer, punching, etc.), the molecules compress and become a solid.  When the pressure is released, the molecules spread out again and the mixture becomes a liquid.  As my oldest daughter said:  “Oooo!  I can feel it changing from a solid to a liquid!”

Here are two good explanations of what a non-Newtonian fluid is:

“Oobleck is often referred to as a ‘non-Newtonian’ substance because it does not behave as Newton’s Third Law of Motion states; for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Applying this principle, you would expect Oobleck to ’splash’ when you ’smack’ it with your hand. (Smacking is the action, splashing is the reaction.) However, when you try this out Oobleck does not splash, in fact, it becomes a solid substance for a few moments.”

(from Oobleck – a Non-Newtonian Fluid)

or

“Isaac Newton defined normal liquids as having consistent flow behavior affected only by temperature or pressure; so fluids that change their resistance to flow (viscosity) under stress are not ‘normal’. Some of these fluids get runnier when stress is applied, like paint, toothpaste and slug mucus. Some get thicker, like quicksand and Oobleck.”

(from Science in the City – Bullet Proof Goo)

As to why it behaves this way, it seems that this is actually a matter of some controversy, but here are some links that are more knowledgeable than I:

Oobleck -  a Non-Newtonian Fluid

More About Liquids: Thick and Thin

Fun:

You can actually walk on this stuff!  My son wanted to try it after seeing this You Tube video.

(There are a few other walking on cornstarch videos out there if you are really into this!)

Tips:

1) I STRONGLY recommend that you either do this outside in an area that you can just hose off afterwards, or use a vinyl tablecloth that you can remove and hose off afterwards.  Why didn’t I use mine?

2) Be sure to add the water a bit at a time, it is easy to overdo it.

3) If you do forget the tablecloth like I did, you will find that non-Newtonian fluids can be difficult to clean off a table.  When you try wiping what looks like liquid, it turns into a solid and sticks.

When you stop scrubbing it returns to a liquid state!  After a bit of frustration I used my science brain and poured water on the table.  I was able to wipe the now runny cornstarch liquid into a trash can.

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Although I suggested it humorously yesterday, I have actually had several votes for an Unplugged Project theme next week involving “sort, trash, junk, donate.”  Well, why not??

As Captain Jean-Luc Picard would have said (see, I haven’t always been without a TV!):  “Make it so.”

Let’s call next week’s theme:

Sort-Junk-Donate

Remember, the theme can be loosely interpreted if you don’t feel like cleaning your house this week.  Just be creative and have fun!

I have 50 (yes 50!) drafts underway, but all I have ready for tonight is a wonderful link for those of you who are interested in children’s books.  Please head on over to this great blog – Children’s Books: What, When & How to Read Them.  Tanya is a book-loving mother PLUS she works in a book store.  What more could one want?

Thankfully she somehow discovered Unplug Your Kids and left a comment on my first Chapter Books Suitable for Extra-Young Readers post.  That’s how I found her blog.

Here is Tanya’s blog tagline:

As a lover of children’s literature, mother and bookseller of 13 years, I want to put good books into kid’s hands. I share my philosophy on what makes a book good as well as book reviews and lists of great books for every reading taste and ability with a focus on new readers. I also highlight to some wonderful books that are not always on the shelf at bookstores, but might be at your library and can definitely be ordered. All books mentioned are available in paperback unless noted.

Book reviews are searchable alphabetically, or by type (for ex. Books for Boys, Book Lists-Advanced Readers, Beginning Readers, Book Lists-2nd and 3rd Grades, etc.).

I look forward to exploring Tanya’s Children’s Books blog further!

PS.  I really hope to have another chapter book post of my own up tomorrow night.

I am officially procrastinating. Instead of packing for our big trip tomorrow (Phoenix by car, then East Coast by air on Friday) I am writing a Very Important Post about…well, hmm…beans?

Perhaps I’ll share a quick idea of what I came up with to help my 2 year-old be entertained during dinner preparation.

I have some wooden trays that some good French knives and serving utensils came in. I kept them because they were so nice, and also because I am a pack rat.

I have never really known what I would do with them, but tonight I brought out my big container of dried beans (that I keep exclusively for play purposes) and the wooden trays, and let my 2 year-old put the beans in the hollows in the trays.

She enjoyed it so much that my other two (6 and 7) arrived on the scene to see what was so fun. Much to my surprise, they asked if they could play too. So all three put beans in different shaped openings in the trays.

Maybe it is the Montessori “training” that makes them love this sort of thing (they have been attending since they were 3). But whatever it is, I was grateful for a bit of peace while I cooked.

Now, what else can I write about? Oh dear, I guess I must go and pack. I may be offline for a day or two while I am in-transit, but I will write when I can, and I will certainly be back for this week’s Unplugged Project (the theme is sky)!

My first real foray in to the world of blog capitalism is open for business. No, I am not plastering Unplug Your Kids with ads for cheap narcotics, online casinos, and get rich quick schemes. It’s just my store!

All my life I have secretly wanted to own a toy store and a bookstore and fill my stores with all the toys and books that I like! (“Mines, mines, MINES!!!” as my 2 year-old would say). As a child, my toys were very meaningful to me. I am a packrat who kept many of them. I guess I just haven’t grown up yet.

Since owning a real “brick and mortar” toy or book store isn’t very practical in this day and age (especially in my small town), and there are plenty of wonderful online stores already, I decided to try setting up my own store through Amazon, just for fun. Besides, the toys and books that I like probably aren’t mainstream enough to ever be profitable anyway.

I have been fooling around with my store for over a year now, so it is finally time to try it out. I am quite proud that I managed to figure out how to fit the iframe reasonably well into my page. I feel like quite a techie!

As with all my Amazon links, I’ll earn a small percentage of any sale, even if someone enters Amazon via my store (or any Amazon link on my blog for that matter) and buys something else.

I don’t expect to become the next Donald Trump from this. My goal is very humble: to fund the purchase of a new book every month to review on my blog. I figure that in this way, I would be passing some of the goodness back to others. Of course I will feel that I have really hit the big time if I can cover the monthly cost of my web site hosting too!

This blog originally started out, long, long ago as a “shopping blog,” inspired by my friend Wishy who liked the gifts I bought her daughter. I guess my store is also a way to preserve that aspect of it, while I delve into other topics on the blog itself, as I have been doing for over a year now.

This leads to my last point…and if you have made it this far in reading my post, I am grateful! In addition to the more monetarily-oriented goals that I have mentioned above, I really hope that my store can help people cut through some of the toy and book junk out there. Having only a Walmart and Kmart to shop at for toys has made me an expert online shopper. I would like to pass along the good finds to others. Most of what I recommend, we have and love. The rest is stuff I would like to have and love!

So, I hope you enjoy the Unplug Your Kids store. If you like it, then check back from time to time because I will add new things as I find them. I also have a seasonal section that I plan on changing every so often. Knowing me, I will be tinkering with the store for quite some time.

The link is the “Shop Unplug Your Kids” tab in the upper right sidebar.

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(Photo thanks to photographer Kevin Rosseel and morguefile.com.)

Since my 2 year-old is obsessed with puzzles at the moment, I am always on the look-out for fun, educational, high quality puzzles that she might be able to do. A recent surfing expedition revealed these totally cool layered, life-cycle puzzles. They are made of wood and feature five separate puzzle pictures to complete. The mini-puzzles fit on top of one another in layers to show the life cycle of a butterfly (or frog, or duck).

The recommended age is 4 and up. As much as I’d like to claim that my genius 2 year-old could do these, she probably could not without assistance.  The big photo makes it look deceptively easy, but there are actually thirty pieces, five puzzles, and five layers.  Her older brother and sister might enjoy them though. Hmm…we’ll see. (It’s times like this that I really wish I homeschooled so that I’d have an excuse to buy these slightly pricey but really amazing-looking puzzles!)

These Beleduc puzzles are made in China of birch wood and meet or exceed “Specifications of European (EN-71) and American (ASTM) Toy Safety Standards:”

This butterfly puzzle is also made of wood, but the description offers less information (it costs less too):

Santa gave the 4 Way Countdown Wooden Game to my 7 year-old daughter because he was hoping it might be a fun way to work on memorizing math facts.

The board consists of a simple square wooden box. Each side has ten wooden numbered bars that flip up and down. The object of the game is to be the first to flip up all your numbers. Players take turns rolling two dice. They can add, subtract, multiply, or divide the two numbers appearing on the dice in order to equal a number on one of their bars. They then flip up that bar. To make things a little more interesting, if you roll and eleven, you can of course flip up the 1 (6-5=1) or, instead, make another player flip all their bars back down. Fun, but beware: if you roll a twelve, then you must flip down all your bars!

This makes for a surprisingly entertaining game. What I like best about the game is how it can grow with your child’s abilities. Younger children can play by simply adding and subtracting. Multiplication and division can be added later as math skills progress.

I must also mention that even I like playing this one. Since many games aimed at children are deadly boring for grownups, I am always excited to find one that is at least tolerable, at best fun.

So, did Santa pick wisely? Yes! This game makes basic math facts easier to memorize and is way more fun than flash cards. Thank you Santa!

4 Way Countdown is also fairly practical as a travel game. The box is about 10.5″ x 10.5″ and 1.5″ thick, doesn’t weigh much, and the only loose pieces are the two dice. Dice are rolled inside the box, so are unlikely to escape during play.

Great math practice for 2 to 4 players (or you could even play alone). It would also be a great addition to a homeschool classroom.

PS. My daughter just saw me writing this post and wants to play 4 Way Countdown now.  I’ve got to go so we can get in a quick game before dinner!