Red Fish

Red Fish

 

Even though I work with technology in schools, I still try to limit the amount of screen time my kids get.  When they are doing something online, I want to make sure it is worthwhile, and Red Fish gets my vote.

http://www.poissonrouge.com/home.php

(www.poissonrouge.com will take to you a donation page)

As you can see from the url, the website is French, but one of the things that I really like about the site is there there is very little text.  The site is full of games, but there are no directions.  This lets kids explore in the same way they would physical toys.  What happens when I push this?  Pull that?  Move this?  Regardless of the game they play, there's value in simply exploring and discovering.

The initial screen presents something that looks like a playroom.  Various items lead to games when clicked on, other items lead to different screens that present more objects to click on...  that lead to more games.  There's tons to do and if I gave my kids unlimited time, they'd explore for hours.

 

Games is not really the right word though.  There's no shooting, no points, and lives, etc.  Again many of the activities are more like electronic versions of toys rather than typical video games.

 

What's the learning potential?  For kids new to computers, this is great mouse practice.  Not only do they need to click and move items, they also learn to recognize when something can be clicked.  Does it move, change color, does my cursor change?  We take that for granted, but kids need experience it to learn it.  Because Red Fish is language neutral, there are no Learn-to-Read activities.  There are some vocabulary activities in a variety of languages - which could be a nice intro to other languages.  Mostly the activities are just good clean fun that promotes exploration, curiosity, and discovery - all good in my book!

Turn Playmobil into a Board Game

Turn Playmobil into a Board Game

 

We are big fans of Playmobil in our house.  I love it, my kids love it, and they will play with it for hours.  But today we added a twist to keep things interesting.  Using a white board and some dry erase markers we created a game board and our Playmobil became the game pieces.  

 

Here's the setup and rules we came up with:

Draw a path of squares on the white board - straight, curvy, long, short - up to you.

Pick a few squares to put some "bad" items on.  We used pirate flags and skulls from our Playmobil pirate ship.  

Pick a few squares to put some "bonus" items on.  We picked some  transportation items - a bike, horse, and camel.  

All the other squares get regular items.  We just used any accessories - hats, magic wands, flowers, little animals, all those fun little pieces that come with Playmobil sets.

Each player picks a Playmobil figure and lines them up at the start of the path.  

We didn't have any dice handy, so we picked five little Playmobil objects, drew a circle in the middle of our board, and tossed the objects in.  Count up the number of objects inside the circle, and that's how many spaces you move.  If you want to use dice, they'll work just as well.

Anytime a player lands on a regular space, he takes the items found there.  The object of the game is to collect as many items as you can before reaching the finish line.

If a player lands on a "bad" space, she has to drop all her collected items in that space and move the "bad" item to any empty space.  If this happens to a player it creates a "really good" space with a whole pile of items.   

If a player lands on a "good" space, he can now move along the path in either direction.  That's why we used transportation type objects for these spaces.  This allows players to go backwards to collect missed items or avoid bad spaces.

The player with the most items when they cross the finish line wins.  

Variations:

The nice thing is you can pretty much make up any rules you want!

• We used Playmobil, obviously you could play with anything... Lego, Barbies,   etc.
• Don't have a big whiteboard - use blocks, sticky notes, or a large piece of cardboard or paper to create a path.
• Maybe transportation pieces allow a player to move double the number they roll?  Or they let a player choose how many spaces to move.  Example: roll a four and you can move one, two, three, or four spaces.
• Add a motivator at the end of the path to give a bonus to the first player to finish - a collection of items that will give their score a boost.  
• What happens if a player lands on an occupied space?  Maybe they have to give that person one of their items.  Or maybe both players are forced to trade their entire collection of items.
• Rather than a single linear path, create a path with multiple branches or simply a grid of spaces so players can choose their own path - adding an element of strategy.
• Change the game as much as you like, as often as you like, and HAVE FUN!

Too Cold to Play Outside

We have been getting some interesting weather in the DC area.  Unfortunately, none of it has been very good for going outside.  It has been cold, windy, wet, or all three.  The cold weather wouldn't be so bad if we had snow like last year, but any snow we've gotten so far has barely been worth a snow day.  Icy, not enough to cover the grass, and gone before you can even sift though the basement looking for your sled.

So what's a Dad to do while the kids are stuck inside on a snow day?  Since I don't think we'll be motivated to head out to any playgrounds in the near future, I will be working on some entries about games and activities to keep us busy while we're all waiting for spring.