Brawl!!

Okay, the odds of someone caring about this post are slim at best, but I can't help it. Here is a link to the "Official Super Smash Brothers Brawl Website." I have been anticipating this game since before I bought the Nintendo Wii (November), but they haven't even slapped a release date on it yet. Now Nintendo has produced this site, which will at least keep little geeky gamers somewhat satisfied, as they reveal new Brawl details daily.

If you don't know anything about Super Smash Brothers, this is a great chance for you to read up on it! I promise you, it'll be big when it comes out-- this is the third iteration of Super Smash Brothers, and it's a game with a huge following. Can't wait!

Jungle Girl

Oops, almost missed this one! Vicki sent this out last week but I just got to dig through my inbox today... Steve 'Croc Hunter' Irwin's daughter has her own show, debuting on Discovery Kids! Read about it here.

Mentos Breaks a World Record

Last night was an awesome time to be in Cincinnati. Because Perfetti Van Melle (Mentos' parent brand) is based out of Erlanger, KY, they chose our remodeled Fountain Square as the place to make history. Unbeknowst to me, there was a world record for the most simultaneous Diet Coke & Mentos fountains... and we were going to break it with 500.Mentos did a great job of getting word out through billboards, painted buses, radio support, etc. I heard about it through their site, which outlines the challenge.After standing in line for an hour, we were allowed to turn in our waivers and take our designated place. We were equipped with rain ponchos, goggles, some Mentos swag, two tubes of Mentos, a 2-liter of Diet Coke and a page of instructions. We still had a sweaty hour to go, but Mr. Redlegs and Gapper came in to entertain the crowd.Eepybird presented some of their choreographed fountains right at 6pm, then instructed us on how to do our own. Finally, the countdown came and 500(ish) fountains rained disgustingly hot Diet Coke everywhere. There was an official from the Guiness Book of World Records, so while we watched the replay on the jumbotron, he made sure we did in fact break a world record and announced it from the stage while everyone cheered.
It was a fantastic event, and very fun. Keep an eye on GetFreshWithMentos.com-- they should be uploading video(s) some time today.

Summer School?

Here are some really cool educational(ish) sites for you to check out, in case the kids are bugging you for something to learn about this summer. ;)

--Quizlet. This is a study tool that I would have really appreciated in school-- I was horrible when it came to straight memorization of things.

--The Encyclopedia of Life. Fairly self explanatory. (Thanks for passing it on, Jared!)

--How Stuff Works. This well-established site has a ton of great information about... well, how stuff works. Great to just dive in and explore.

--United Streaming. This one is more for schools, but with a 30-day trial you can check out Discovery Education videos.

--Hackety Hack. Wanna hack like in the movies? If you have a young geek ("let's say, 13 and up") at home, this site has tutorials on coding and programming.

--Scratch. In a similar vein to Hackety Hack, Scratch is "is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills." Imagine, program and share from home!

--Instructables. Users share the step-by-step process to create... anything. It might be a stretch to throw this into this "education" post, but these do-it-yourself projects are engaging and the database has something that will interest everyone in the family.

--PurposeGames. (Thanks, Ried!) "Learn to play-- play to learn!"

Feel free to comment with your own favorite edutainment sites!

One Laptop Per Child

Have you heard of the One Laptop Per Child initiatives? Evan passed on this 60 Minutes clip (via Google Video) which talks to computer scientist Nicholas Negroponte about the obstacles that the project has faced, as well as the small changes that he is already starting to see as a result of One Laptop Per Child.

Friday Reads

Keeping up with the Webkinz and Club Penguin trends? Here's an article from CNNMoney.com that answers some questions about these virtual worlds for kids ("What makes their sites so sticky?").

And just because it amused me, here's an article from WSJ.com entitled "You're Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well." In the article they talk to a woman who didn't want her child's name (or her own) to get lost in the vast interwebs, and they discuss the popular practice of Googling one's name. "About 7% of all searches are for a person's name, estimates search engine Ask.com."

Happy Friday!

The Dangerous Book for Boys

I haven't had a good kid book to review in a while, so I wandered through the book store a couple days ago. I ran across the newly-published Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden.

The Dangerous Book claims to be "The perfect book for every boy from eight to eighty." In its 250+ broad, colorful pages are all the things that a growing boy ought to know about. Some of my favorite lessons:

*Timers and Tripwires
*Making a Go-Cart
*Navajo Code Talkers' Dictionary
*Making Cloth Fireproof
*How to Play Poker

Between the lessons about tree houses and table football, Iggulden has interlaced stories about famous explorers, battles, etc... bite-sized history lessons full of testosterone. He also answers "Questions about the World" (How far away are the stars?).

The premise of the book is really cool, and it's very well-done. My favorite thing about it, though, is how it looks-- it looks like something a Boy Scout would carry. The cover is red with old fashioned gold letters, and photographs (the common wasp! Rocky Mountain National Park!) are faded and antiqued. Much of it is hand-drawn (examples of pirate flags, the Brachiosaurus).

All these things come together to create a very accessible book for boys who might otherwise be holed up in front of their computer all summer (notice there was nothing about web navigation or hotkeys?). Very cool and worth checking out.

[update] I found the book's British site, if you want to explore the book more!

Friday Linkage

I'm back with a couple of mom links.

Here are Caress FairyTales. Remind you of anything? (Perhaps Dove's Calming Night campaign, with Felicity Huffman?) Still worth a viewin'.

Have you heard about In the Motherhood yet? Another uber-branded (Suave, Sprint) mom attempt, but Leah Remini brings such a great energy to the concept. Love the girl. In the Motherhood treats the "real stories by real people" very authentically, which takes a lot of effort but can pay off really well. Plus, it's pretty funny to people who aren't moms (ahem).

Taking podcasts to a kid-level, here are some free audio stories for the little ones (it MUST be for kids-- there's Comic Sans).

Here's another resource for family internet safety: "Industrious Kid’s age-appropriate products, services and destinations strike a unique balance between the fun and stimulation that children desire and the safety and guidance that parents demand."

The Price of Mom

An interesting article that Ashley passed on evaluates the "price of a mom," based on the jobs that she manages on her own. This year, a stay-at-home mom is worth a whopping $138,095. Read more about where this figure came from here.