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Apps for kids… Your take? February 9, 2012

Filed under: Parenting — rakster @ 2:24 pm
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So, we went down to Sydney the other day. And I have to say, travelling with the 2.5 year old is pretty easy. When you have the iCrack.

Yes, my son has his own “phone”. Albeit an old iPhone of mine that is now about 4 years old. And I wouldn’t travel without it. He has child-friendly volume-limited headphones, and knows how to work it.

I’ve worked out how to download stuff from our PVR (yes, I love you icetv recorder) onto the phone, so it comes with a ready supply of 2 year old tv addiction: current favourites include a number of Peppa Pig episodes (now the tune is going to be stuck in my head for the rest of the day, AGAIN. After only just writing the title.. Aargh), the old and faithful Play School, a Thomas or two, and a Charlie and Lola.  Then there is YouTube, which he watches on a wireless connection, but only things we’ve “favourited”… But I have to keep an eye on that usage, as one or two inadvertent button presses and hey presto some highly inappropriate content beams straight down to him (and I’m sure we’ll get to that at some stage in life, but 2.5 is just too young).

In addition to that, there are some games to play with.  Which I have spent all of 1 hour searching for and wanted to have some kind of educational component..

The current top hits at our house for games (which I happily pay for as it is the best bribery ever to have 10 minutes of game on the phone) are:

I don’t currently have any games that require you to “download” or “purchase” bits and bobs, but have set-up permissions just in case he inadvertently pokes a button to buy “gems” or some other virtual crap (see this handy guide on how to set permissions if you haven’t done so already).

Do you have any apps for your iPhone/iPad/Android perfect for toddlers that you’d like to share / recommend?

 

Sydney… yay… A zoo adventure. February 8, 2012

Filed under: activities for kids,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 1:47 pm
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We went to Sydney. It was great. Too busy doing stuff to actually post anything on the blog.

We saw friends, did a bit of work, saw more friends, ate great cheese, ate great bread, ate great stuff, saw some more friends.

And went to the zoo. Fun…

Lots of excitement.

elephant spotting at Sydney's Taronga Zoo

The monkeys were a hit. Baby monkeys playing.

I personally like the chimps. The fact that a school excursion group was throwing a banana or two into the enclosure made them (I suspect) somewhat more active than they might have been at that time of day otherwise… mmm..

elegant necks

It was a very windy day too, so the bird show had an added dimension of, “oh my god, do you think it will really miss my head” to it. We survived!

Love mum

 

Broken February 6, 2012

Filed under: Communication,family,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 2:57 pm
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“mum, why is there a trolley there?”

“Because we’re at the supermarket, honey.”

“That trolley is broken.”

“How do you know?”

“The wheels have fallen off!

The wheels have fallen off because somebody didn’t be careful with it.

They needed to be careful with it and they didn’t. Now it’s broken.

If I had it I would be careful with it.”

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Mmm. Great logic. Apart from the part about the trolley being a picture on a sign!