You are here: Home / Archives for Kids

Zillio Mini Mountain-Math Games Made Fun!

October 23, 2009 By

edited to add: I found a short video on YouTube of a demonstration of Zillio, I hope watching it helps explain how it helps kids understand multiplication!

My youngest son is in the 5th grade this year. He has a learning disability that makes it extremely difficult for him to learn math. He can understand individual concepts, but applying them is difficult. For example, he can tell you what 4X7 is, but not 40×7, even though he’s been taught to just add a zero to 28 to get 280. Nathan just doesn’t see that connection.

And then I got a press release about Zillio, a 3D math game that helps kids see the relationships between math concepts, and I pretty much begged the company to please send me one in exchange for a review. Which it has taken me months to write, and I sincerely apologize to them for that. Because in my opinion, everyone who teaches math at any level should have a Zillio game on hand.

Zillio

Shown in the image is the Zillio Mini Mountain. It measures 18” in diameter, 8” high and 36″ at the highest peak. It also rotates! It comes with 3 dice and 12 foam cards with punch out tokens, and the games can be played by up to 4 players.  The Zillio website has a TON of FREE, downloadable math games that can be used by parents, teachers, tutors, anyone who wants a fun way to teach math to kids.

I highly, HIGHLY recommend Zillio. The Mini Mountain is the most affordable, at $99.95. As we were playing “Mountain Goat Scramble”, I kept thinking that it seemed like an awesome addition to a homeschool classroom. It’s big, but light enough to pick up and put away on a shelf when not in use. And it’s FUN. Kaitlyn can spend hours with her little toy animals, jumping them up and down the steps while telling herself a story about whose chasing who. Nathan is still reluctant, because math really is hard for him, but it does seem to help him understand how addition becomes skip counting becomes multiplication becomes division.  I hope I’ve helped those of you reading this who want a fun, hands-on math activity to consider getting a Zillio!

Filed Under: Kids

Scholastic Storybook Treasures DVD Where the Wild Things Are

October 19, 2009 By

Introduce your kids to the original story of Where the Wild Things Are and five other classic stories with the Scholastic Storybook Treasures DVD Where the Wild Things Are…And Five More Stories by Maurice Sendak. Featuring charming hand-drawn animation and music by Carole King, this DVD collection also contains In the Night Kitchen, Alligators All Around, Pierre, One Was Johnny, and Chicken Soup with Rice (my favorite!).

Where the Wild Things Are is the classic story of Max, sent to his room without supper, who dreams about sailing to a world inhabited by friendly monsters. They make him his king which seems like fun until he misses his home.

In the Night Kitchen is, well, odd. A boy dreams of rising from his bed, clothes falling off, and landing in a giant mixing bowl full of cake batter.  The three mustachioed bakers are oblivious to the boy and prepare to bake the cake in the oven. Rising up from the batter, he constructs an airplane from bread dough and flies up to a milk bottle, falls in (bread dough “clothes” disintegrating), then pours the milk into the bowl for the bakers.  A controversial story because of the nudity, Sendak said in an NPR interview that he was making a statement about the holocaust.

Alligators All Around, Pierre, One Was Johnny, and Chicken Soup with Rice are from a series by Sendak called “The Nutshell Library”. The music heard on this DVD is from Carole King’s TV special “Really Rosie starring The Nutshell Kids”. Her music is a terrific accompaniment to these four clever stories. Alligators All Around teaches the alphabet, One Was Johnny teaches counting forward and backward, and Chicken Soup with Rice teaches the months of the year. I have to admit to being puzzled by “Pierre”, it’s part of this collection but doesn’t teach a specific skill, rather, it deals with a boy who answers “I Don’t Care” to every question he’s asked until he’s eaten by a lion. Doesn’t really fit.

Anyway, please pick up this wonderful Storybook Treasures DVD for your kids and share with them the fascinating world of Maurice Sendak! Sold on Amazon.com for $12.99.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Filed Under: BLU-RAY and DVD Reviews, Kids Tagged With: , , , ,

Scholastic Storybook Treasures DVD – A Very Brave Witch

October 13, 2009 By

verybravewitchdvd

I am a huge fan of Scholastic books, and now I can share even more Scholastic classic stories with my kids through their Storybook Treasures DVD collections. We received A Very Brave Witch…and more Halloween stories from Scholastic to review, and it’s become one of Kaitlyn’s most-requested DVDs.

Despite the fact that five of the eight stories in this collection deal with the subject of witches, ghosts, and things that are spooky, Kaitlyn was not at all scared while watching. I’d say the scariest story is “A Dark Dark Tale”, which does build up a mild amount of tension before bursting it with a silly ending that invokes a smile. Watch this one with older kids.

Four of the stories are full animation, and four are still images with the camera moving and panning in and out. It doesn’t replace reading to your kids, but watching Scholastic DVDs does help with reading, since the dialogue for each story is shown on the screen in transparent letters that turn orange as each one is read. These are the eight episodes on this DVD:

The Very Brave Witch – Did you know witches are afraid of humans? Well, one very brave witch overcomes her fear when she sees human kids having fun trick or treating. Kaitlyn says it’s “funny”, and “not too spooky”.

By the Light of the Halloween Moon – What can you see by the light of the moon on Halloween? This poem will tell you, with each new line being added to the previous lines.

A Dark, Dark Tale – This one is kind of scary, it’s a “ghost” story you may have heard before. It’s a journey through a “dark, dark” hall, stairs, passage, room, curtain, etc., getting closer and closer to something, while a piano plays ominously. However the twist at the end relieves any fear that something truly scary is coming. Still, maybe not for the littlest viewers.

Georgie – I loved this book when I was little! Georgie is the ghost living with a family who lets them know it’s nighttime by pretending to haunt the house. What will Georgie do when he can’t make the stairs creak or the parlor door creak anymore?

The Witch in the Cherry Tree – A witch smells freshly baked cakes and flies in for a closer look, perching in the cherry tree. David knows he needs to protect the cakes from her.

The Three-Legged Cat – A three legged cat is mistaken for a hat in this funny story of mistaken identity.

The Three Robbers – Three scary robbers hijack carriages for gold and take it back to their hideout, until a little orphan girl shows them how they could spend the gold to help others. The narrator contributes his own sound effects.

Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain – Little Tim lives in a house by the sea and very much wants to be a sailor. His friend the boatman rows him out to meet a big ship, and Tim stows away.

A Very Brave Witch…and more Halloween stories is only $8.49 on Amazon.com which is a great deal! Pick it up for your Halloween DVD collection today!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Filed Under: BLU-RAY and DVD Reviews, Kids Tagged With: , ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »