Smelly Locker: Silly Dilly School Songs

Smelly Locker is a fun book for kids where the words for common kids songs are changed to humorous stories about a kids life at school.  We got this book a few years ago for our son, as a fun book for him to read.

Our daughters asked me to read the book to them for bedtime. Reading the book was hilarious.  I had a hard time keeping the melody with the differences in the lyrics from the usual song, but the kids really enjoyed it.

Massively Multiplayer Online Game for Kids

Our son loves Legos.  He loves building the sets, and then coming up with his own creations and playing with them.  Lego has really been marketing their Lego Universe massively multiplayer online game, and have been including fliers with purchases from the Lego Store.

Of course, our son wanted to sign up.  We don't feel comfortable with any of our kids playing online.  We want to make sure that we know who they are communicating with, and with a MMOG, there is a level of anonymity that the game provides, and I am sure that people take advantage of it.   (They do state that they will be moderating the online play experience to make sure that kids stay safe.)

We talked with him about our concerns, and he understands why we won't let him play this game.  Maybe when he is older we will let him play online.

Fatherhood and Expectations

Father's Day was this past weekend and I had a great time. Nothing really happened as planned, but I still had a good time.

We planned to take the kids to Toy Story 3 as a special treat for the kids. (Of course it was only for the kids, and I haven't been really excited about it since I heard that the movie was coming out last year. :-) ). We bought 5 tickets for the 3D version online so we would be sure that we could get in.

Because of nap time, and how long it took us to get out of the house, we didn't get there until 10 minutes before show time. The only seats that were still available were in the first two rows. The trailers were playing while we walked in, and they were a little loud. One of our daughters is sensitive to loud sounds, and she was very scared.  With the combination of the seating and the noise, we decided to leave the theater.

We then went to go for dinner, but every restaurant had about an hour wait. (We should have made reservations.) The kids were pretty restless, and wanted to go home or back to the movie.

We decided to go to a nice park instead. The kids had a good time. The older kids ran and chased each other, while I played with the youngest on the little kid playground.

When I was a new father, I would have wanted to have a "perfect" Father's Day, watching a movie and having a nice dinner. I may have been disappointed or upset that things didn't work out as planned. Honestly, I enjoyed the time that spent with them that day. We had a lot of fun at the park, and I am very lucky that I could spend it with my amazing wife. I can't imagine a better Father's Day.

RoboGames

I mentioned RoboGames last year.  RoboGames will be at the San Mateo County Fairgound next weekend.  I think that the kids would have a blast here.

Kissy Poo

Often our daughters get frustrated while playing video games.  The video games often require more manual dexterity than they.

Kissy Poo is an independant game that our girls loved.  Our 5 year old was able to use the controls.  Our 2 year old was able to use another controller to help make sounds.

Extremely Old with You

My wife and I have been married 10 years, this year.  I am looking forward to growing extremely old with her.

(Extremely Old with You is a great song by Paul and Storm.)

Get Game Smart

Microsoft, the Entertainment Software Association and others have partnered to create Get Game Smart. This website help education parents and children about the tools that are available to allow kids to be safe while playing video games.

I really like their focus on education about Parental Control settings, ESRB ratings, and finding family friendly games. In addition, this site has tips on how parents can talk to kids about cyber-bullying, and helping kids and parents creating balance with kids screen time.

I hope sites like this one will help prevent the FUD with video games, like stories like I mentioned before.