yes, There is a WebKinz Day.
I have been hearing about ti for WEEKS now. I have promised and re-promised that I will take my daughter to 3 of our nearby retailers who are celebrating and check out the Webkinz Day Extravanganza goings on.
The gist of it is- if you spend 10.00 ( easy to do) you get a free Webkinz. Just what our home needed 
If you have a 6+ old girl her your home you all ready know what these things are. The unschooling mom in me celebrates her love for them- she actually created a spreadsheet of how much money she has, how much she expects to receive and the Webkinz she will buy with said money.
Here are some details- you can vist the webkinz site to find your nearest retailer that will “honor” WebKinz Day.
From Webkinz Site:
Webkinz Day Extravanganza promotion available in U.S.A. and Canada only.
Visit a participating Webkinz retailer on April 25th, 26th or 27th
and you’ll be surrounded with great Webkinz activities,
contest and promotions!
It’ll be a full day of Webkinz fun!
Posted by Lisa - Unschooling Mom as Fun Activities for Kids at 5:04 PM EDT
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One of things I got the kids was a webcam. Not for chat or anything- but for video capture. It can take some work to film something with our video camera and upload it to computer- but a web-cam captures straight to the hard drive. I bought one on sale for 20.00. They have spent HOURS daily with it doing things I never would have imagined. recording TV commercial of their own, doing recitals on piano and guitar and making short films and TV shows. When friends come over they do the same. My daughter (10) also takes time and edit them- using software that came with the camera. We got a Creative Labs webcam but I am sure anyone one will do. She likes adding special effects, credits and music to her films.
It has been a hoot. I was quite surprised as I thought the novelty would wear off after a few days but they have thoroughly enjoyed it. We bought a Wii and Playstation 3 over the last few weeks and it has been this item that has been the most used.
I do not have it configured in any way to use on any kind of live chat , etc .
Posted by Lisa - Unschooling Mom as Fostering a Love of Learning, Fun Activities for Kids at 6:06 PM EST
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WebKinz - The new Beanie Babies?
Not since the Build-A-Bear Winter of 2005 has something hit our household with such massive force. If you have a daughter who can work a mouse you probably know what they are. They are THE gift to give or receive at a birthday party.
Webkinz have taken over my home and computers. My kids are constantly on any available laptop or computer hooking up with webkinz friends, buying virtual clothes and planning their next purchases, My daughter- at last count- had 9 of these furry things. How they work is you can buy the stuff animal called Webkinz or smaller version, lil’kinz. They come with secret code that lets you register your pet online at Webkinz World. There they live a virtual life.
You can noy buy cloths for your Webkinz. E. just spent 12.00 on a tiny set of pajamas. My son’s had sleepers that cost less.
From an unschooling point of view they have a had good value she chats with her friends, she calculates how much she will need for more stuff- and play with virtual money online. You can buy and trade things- also earn money to buy more virtual toys/food cloths for your pets ( by doing “homework!” )
I missed the neopets rage but I think they are similar in the way you can learn from them.
On the other hand- they are driving me crazy!!! It has been non-stop Webkin talk for about three weeks. I had a conversation today about which Webkin looked better in th polka dot pajamas (!) . She got her first Webkin about 6 months ago and the frenzy has been slowly building. I also HATE they way these kids are marketed at. They had Webkinz body spray for 6.99!!!
I really never thought I would long for the Build-A-Bear days….
webkinz site: http://www.webkinz.com/
This is what a Webkinz looks like:
Posted by Lisa - Unschooling Mom as Fun Activities for Kids, Fun Stuff at 11:01 PM EDT
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Net Jet Online Video Games System
We were at Wal-Mart yesterday and I was in a buying mood and it was also allowance day in our home . Near the electronics/toy section 2 unusually pretty girls were promoting video game thingy I couldn’t really figure out at first. It was called Net Jet Online Gaming System
You basically plugin a remote into usb on computer or laptop ( does not work with MAC) and game pops up. You do need t be connected to Internet. The girls told me dial-up was fine but box says Broadband ( I was hoping to use at homeschool group we go to were there is only VERY slow dial-up) .They had two computers set up so kids could test them.
It was pretty easy and I did like that no pop ups or downloading. The drawback is that remote comes with 1 “main” game and then you can choose 3 games once hooked up. There is no way to buy games other than to get another Main game then the 3 games again. Pretty irritating. Of course my daughter picked the first 3 games that caught her eye and hated them.
The remote cam with Bubble Blaster and bother she (10) and her brother (4) are enjoying it.
I bought them the remote with game and she wants to back and get another game key Monday. The remote with 3+1 games was 27.98. To buy another game key was 14.98.
I am not sure of play value but I don’t think Nintendo and X-box have anything to worry about
Net Jet Looks like This:
Extra Game Keys:
Posted by Lisa - Unschooling Mom as Fun Activities for Kids, Online Games and Game Downloads, Video Games at 12:49 PM EDT
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At risk of repeating myself, we recently moved.. during the unpacking I came across some stuff we haven’t seen in while. One of things was a great big box of cuisenaire rods. If you don’t know what they are- they are wooden (or plastic) rods of varying colours and lengths that help with math skills and are used as math manipulatives and used with the popular Miquon math . They are also used to teach parts of the language but that’s another post…
My daughter didn’t have to much interest in them but both she ( 10 years) and my son (4 years) have been playing with them for almost 2 days straight… It is intersting to see how they both come at it differently. My sone has spent HOURS trying to exactly math the pattern on the box they came in… my daughter is very interested in oderring them and coming up with ways to group
them.
What can you do with these colored wooden rods?
A few years ago I had trouble finding things related to cuisenaire rods didnt cost a fortune or involve lots of book work. So I am compiling a list of GOOD cuisenaire rod sites/links and ideas. If you have one- please share!
Article on ways to use cuisenaire rods to explain verb tense : http://assoc.orange.fr/une.education.pour.demain/articlesrrr/sw/vts.htm Be patient- it may hurt your head a little but worth the effort
This is kind of cool : http://cdsearch.britannica.com/lm/mathclub/activities/school_3/product.html, online game using the rods to add and subtract, featuring the female magician ( points for that alone! ) “Gordalina” .
Some other ideas:
Counting Pictures. Student makes a picture out of rods. It can even be a 3-D construction (build a house, fence, etc). When he’s finished, he sells it back to me for 10-rods. i.e., he gives me a 6 and a 4, and I give him a 10-rod. When he has all the 10-rods, he sells them back to me for a 100-board (a 10cm x 10cm piece of cardboard works fine). When he has sold everything back to me, we count how much his picture was worth. i.e., he may have three 100-boards, four 10-rods, and a 2-rod and 3-rod. Therefore his picture was worth 345 units. We write that number down to reinforce how place value works. Benefits: get familiar with the rod numbers, learn what adds up to 10, understand place value principles, have fun building pictures.
Mystery Tube. Cut a 3×5 card to 10 cm long, roll it into a tube, and tape it so it’s wide enough for a 10-rod to slide through easily. You slide two rods which add up to 10 into the mystery tube. When you show the student one open end of the tube, she figures out what the hidden mystery rod is. i.e., student sees that one end has a 6-rod, so the mystery rod must be a 4. Benefits: what adds up to 10, addition and subtraction principles. Of course, you can use mystery tubes of different lengths, and you could even slide three rods into a longer tube, let the student see both ends, and have her identify the middle rod.
How Much is a Million? A thousand is 10 x 10 x 10. So if you use cardstock to make a block (or buy one) that is 10 cm on a side, that’s equal to a thousand one-rods. Likewise, a million is 100 x 100 x 100. So in a corner of a room, measure 100 cm (ten 10-rods) in each direction to form an imaginary cube. That’s the volume of a million one-rods. It’s ROUGHLY the size of a card table. So how big would a BILLION one-rods be?
Excellent pre-miquon Cuisinenaire Rod resource : Cuisenaire Discovery Booklet & Cards. You can download the Acrobat (.pdf) files here: Booklet, Cards, and print your own copy. If you don’t have a colour printer, use this link for B&W Cards and get out your pencil crayons.
however you spell them: cuisinare rods- cuisenaire rods - quisonare rods (!) they are a great tool/toy !
Sizes and Colors of Cuisenaire Rods
White rod = 1 cm.
Red rod = 2 cm.
Light green rod = 3 cm.
Lavender rod = 4 cm.
Yellow rod = 5 cm.
Dark green rod = 6 cm.
Black rod = 7 cm.
Brown rod = 8 cm.
Blue rod = 9 cm.
Orange rod = 10 cm.
Do you have an idea or use for cuisenaire rods? Is there a site you would recommend? Please let us know! Just post in the comments section.
Posted by Lisa - Unschooling Mom as Fun Activities for Kids, Math Skills and Homeschool Math Sites at 9:03 PM EDT
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