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IDEA Design Awards: Stuff For GeekDads Included
What do dusty old perambulators and modern design have in common? The Industrial Design Society of America’s International Design Excellence Awards (that’s IDSA’s IDEAs to you) has the answer, and...
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Family Review of Settlers of Catan
Photo by Veronica Belmont Board games are great fun for families as well as excellent Christmas presents for friends. So here is the first of our beginner guides to board gaming for families. Although...
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What If You Can’t Say You Can’t Play?
“You can’t play.” “We already have enough people for this game.” “You don’t have the same dolly as us, otherwise we’d let you play.” “Maybe you can play next time.” Some kids hear these type of words...
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Ikea’s PlayReport Sends Us a Message: Our Kids Want To Play With Us
A few months back, I was asked to provide input in the planning phases for a global survey on the play patterns of kids, funded by the folks at Swedish retailer Ikea. To an extent, Ikea sanctioned the...
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IRL Lessons: Declaring Recess From Screen Time
Image: Kay Holt “Mom! I can spell your name!” Look at him: Only four years old and fearlessly riding the wave of the future. Given my druthers, he’d be running around outside with other neighborhood...
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GeekMom’s Education Week: Reading Readiness Has to Do With the Body
CC BY-SA 3.0 via Flickr Joe Shlabotnik Today’s children sit more than ever. Babies spend hours confined in car seats and carriers rather than crawling, toddling or being carried. As they get older...
View ArticleGames We Play
This video totally explains my childhood. And by “childhood,” I mean my entire life. The Floor Is Lava was always a favorite at our house. My riding in the car game was imagining the world as a giant...
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‘Hello Ruby: Adventures in Coding’– Thinking Like a Computer
This post is from a series sponsored by Macmillan, publisher of the Hello Ruby children’s book. You can also read Part One (Thinking Like a Programmer) and Part Two (Learning Through Fiction). When I...
View Article“Wind and Mr. Ug” Get Non-Euclidean
Gather up the kiddies because it’s storytime! Meet Wind, a lonely triangle living on a flat, yet mysterious world. Watch as curiosity compels her to unravel those mysteries and change her world...
View ArticleChange the Subject – I Dare You!
Many of our daily conversations are dominated by some combination of these four topics: Our homes, our partners, our children, and our appearance. This is particularly true for women, as social...
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Education Week: Reading Readiness Has To Do With The Body
CC BY-SA 3.0 via Flickr Joe Shlabotnik Today’s children sit more than ever. Babies spend hours confined in car seats and carriers rather than crawling, toddling or being carried. As they get older...
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Education Week: Educating Too Early
CC BY-SA 3.0 emilygoodstein Flickr Look at promotional material for preschool and daycare in your area. Chances are, there’s an emphasis on math, pre-reading, and other academics. And why not? We’ve...
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Chronic Pain And Toddler Play
Pooh has a migraine (Image: Mandy Horetski) For nearly a decade, I have suffered from daily chronic headaches. Basically I have had the same headache for that whole time so I am in constant pain. But...
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Outdoor Summer Fun: 30 Ideas for Your Geeklets
Summer rocks, does it not? (Image CC by 2.0 D. Sharon Pruitt) 1. Throw a BYOB party. This is cheap, imagination-driven fun. You wield cutting implements and supply lots of tape. Guests are charged...
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Screen Free Week: The Wrong Conversation
My son plays one of his favorite puzzle games. Photo: Amy Kraft As someone who makes games for kids to play on screens, I’m not a fan of the Center for a Commercial Free Childhood’s Screen-Free Week,...
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Confessions of a Loser
Image By Luke Maxwell I learned early on not to play games of chance. My name was never picked from the hat, the dice never rolled in my favor, I rarely picked the good cards. I wasn’t oddly unlucky;...
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Russian Caravan Fantasy
Image By Lilianna Maxwell I fondly remember being with my nephew, sitting around a campfire under the stars on a Russian plain with colorful people singing songs, sipping dark tea… …in our...
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Making a Reader Out of My Son With The Minecraft Essential Handbook and The...
Minecraft Essentials and Redstone Handbook Image: Dakster Sullivan Like many kids these days, my eight-year-old son is obsessed with Minecraft. He has it on the computer and his iPad so he can play it...
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Engage in Counter-Tourism
My kids staged a revolt after one too many visits to historical sites. We were touring a restoration village; you know, the sort of place featuring a blacksmith shop, one room schoolhouse, mill,...
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Get Outside for Some ‘Recess’ With Your Kids!
Image: Chronicle Books It might still be cold and snowy where you are, but here in northern Arizona, we are having an unseasonably warm late-winter. Some days bring 70+ degree weather, and many of our...
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