Children | Page 11 of 40

Smiles Ahead: Cool Music for Cool Families is jangle pop perfect kindie

Pop quiz hotshot: you’re traveling in the car and need some kindie music for the family, but don’t want to purchase more than one release. What do you do? First off, keep planning that road trip and get your paws on Smiles Ahead: Cool Music for Cool Families. It’s a kindie greatest hits of sorts because the songs are all previously unreleased and from some of the biggest and best names in kindie today.

More importantly the songs on Smiles Ahead are new from the artists and do not feel like rejects from their individual full length releases. It’s the elephant in the room. You hear about a compilation of ‘new’ songs and expect it be the audio equivalent of belly button lint. This is the release that shatters that mold in a kindie way, smiling all the way through the process and introducing you to a great new artist (for the kids) or two.

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Great Pretenders Club by The Pop Ups is lush, power pop, pretend kindie

The problem with a great piece of work is that it has to be followed with something else. Audiences will expect-and want it to be as good as the previous work, but it rarely is. Witness the curse of Every Other James Bond Film for one example. I was expecting the new release from The Pop Ups in the mail and was giddy with anticipation when I opened it. About a minute into Great Pretenders Club I hit skip, then I skipped through every song and didn’t play it again until the kids got in the car.

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Voyagers is a multi-format book series that middle schoolers will love

Hey, we were provided with samples for review. Prizes for the #Giveaway are done by Random House Children’s Books. When is a book not a book? It sounds like that dopey riddle on the back of a bubble gum wrapper, the answer was always “when he turns into a store”; but in this case it’s a book that open up to more options. Voyagers is a book series that has a sister app with quizzes, games and activities on smart devices. It’s a logical extension of the publishing world that wouldn’t add up to much if it weren’t entertaining or well done.

Voyagers is a six-book series that puts Earth in an emergency crisis with all of its energy drying out within the next 100 years. The only solution is for a group of space explorers, who are under 12 years old to go to six different planets to look for the power elements that could save the planet. Eight kids are competing for 4 positions on the ship that will take them on the trip. They compete in a training program where their puzzle skills, leadership and team work are all tested in order to ensure that the best candidates are chosen.

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Quality children’s shoes, unicorns and how to tell if you have some

We have two boys, aged 4 and 6. When Jake, our oldest turned 6 he needed a new pair of shoes. He’s active, but not one of those super active, plays three sports a day active. Picture the average kid, running around the yard, throwing the ball, riding the scooter and you get an idea as to how much wear he puts on his shoes. Any shoe will do and he’s keen into the light up shoes, so we went with Pup Patrol light ups that we bought at Target for $24. Within 15 days the shoes were beyond recognition, the bottom tread was entirely gone and there were multiple tears in the shoe itself. Here is what we learned about children’s shoes.

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Cyber bullying & Facebook: How To Protect Your Child

If the internet is good at one thing, it’s allowing people to fake their identities. After all, with just a few clicks of the button, bullies can create an entire fake profile and completely hide who they are while attacking a victim…

…or can they?

In the last few years, Facebook has introduced a number of new features, and it’s easier than ever before to shut down anonymous bullies and force them to come into the open.

Taking Control of the Privacy Settings

Like many social networks, Facebook prefers to have users spread their content as widely and publicly as possible – but while things often start public, they don’t have to remain that way.

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Usagi Yojimbo#149 is the ninja, all ages anthropomorphic comic you need to read

If you listened to our podcast on the new all age comics this week then you know that we love Usagi Yojimbo. Even based on its description it’s a comic that appeals to us and anyone who is looking for a fresh, well written and perfectly drawn comic that appeals to all ages. A ninja ronin rabbit travels the country where he encounters adventure, friends and other anthropomorphic ninjas intent on doing their thing. Issue #149 of Usagi Yojimbo came out this week and I wanted to purchase it so that I can remind myself-and explain to you how much fun comics can be to all ages.

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Imaginary Fred is a child’s pretend friend you want to meet again

There is not an “I” and “N” missing from the title for Imaginary Fred. Parents of a certain age will certainly remember a fabulous movie by the name of Drop Dead Fred. That pseudo classic film and Imaginary Fred have their one main named protagonist in common, but the film goes into PG-13 territory while the book is squarely aimed at children aged 4-8. To be clear, Imaginary Fred is not based on the Rik Mayall character, but being a fan of that film and now this book, brings back memories.

Imaginary Fred is not what you think it is.

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Calls for the National Geographic Bee are open to schools

When I was in 7^th grade one of the smartest people in our class was Doug. One of his party tricks, for lack of a better term was his in-depth knowledge of world countries and their capitals. During one slow class I remember him talking about Togo and its capital, Lome. Everyone in the class had never even heard of Togo and here he was schooling us on things about this relatively small African country. The questions that I’ve seen in the National Geographic Bee aren’t all that difficult; but it’s something that Doug would’ve certainly been our school champion at.

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