Flashtastic Phun

Okay, it's not Phun, and it's not Crayon Physics, and it's not even Armadillo Run , but it is free and you can play it over the internet without having to download anything (except maybe Flash if you do not already have it). It is called Magic Pen and it is an excellent way to kill your lunch hour. Oh, and the kiddies might like it too!

related posts: Free (but phun) science software and Phun creations


(via Kottke.org)

Mario Composer

Mario is fast becoming (or is he already?) a cultural icon, for better or worse. He seems to show up in lots of strange places in addition to the myriad console games they are characters in, although you don't hear or see as much of his more reticent brother Luigi, why is that?

Mario Composer is a downloadable software program that allows you to compose your own songs using the music from the original Nintendo console game. You can watch Mario run along and jump from note to note on the score to the music you composed. It is an interesting combination of nostalgic video game and a music composition program. The sound put out by the program is not the exciting part (it sounds like the old Nintendo game), the excitement comes from figuring out how to compose a new song or score together familiar songs that sound pretty cool in spite of the low sound quality. If you have a kid that is already interested in music, this might put him into the Mozart category (just kidding). Even if your kid is only mildly interested in music this game might enhance his music appreciation and creativity. At the very least it is a fun toy to play with for a while. Here are a couple of youtube examples:

Link to Mario Composer

(via Metafilter)

Lots of Mario Brothers kitsch at Cole's Amazon Store

Still more free paper crafts and toys

I have had lots of hits recently for the free paper crafts and toys, so I might as well put up one more...

allfreecrafts.com has instructions for making paper kites out of regular printer paper and some bamboo skewers. The instructions come from Big Wind Kite Factory. Allfreecrafts.com has a pretty good kids crafts page in general.

There are many many projects at enchantedlearning.com, browse for yourself.

Print and fold origami at tammyyee.com

Stay tuned for the next installment...


related posts:
More free printable paper crafts and toys
Free printable paper toys

More online printable mazes and puzzles
Finding puzzles online

and take a look at the new "free stuff" label for other stuff that is free (or almost free)

More free printable paper crafts & toys

If you are like me, your heart takes a little jump when you see the word "FREE". I'll write a little more about "free" at the end of the post. But first, here is a small round-up of some cool free printable toys and crafts for your printer to choke on:

mcguirezone.com has a few interesting printable toys, including an Italian villa, cars, a fish tank. These are more like good paper backgrounds while playing with other toys (hotwheels for example)

A link at the bottom of mcguirezone took me to the HP.com activity center which has some excellent toys and crafts. I especially like the Chinese zodiac animals. There is also free printable wrapping paper that could be used to wrap small presents. Gas if over $3 a gallon, save yourself a trip to the store.

The enigmatic sounding ss42.com has some excellent items as well, including Dracula and Frankenstein busts, a dodecahedron calendar, and a "paperang" (think boomerang meets that flying weapon thing in Krull)

dltk-kids.com is an excellent source for seasonal paper craft ideas. Looks like I missed Easter by a week or so, better start getting ready for... Memorial Day? Administrative Professionals day?


My blurb about "FREE" has to do with an book that I just finished called Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions that was not only a fascinating book (it is a lot like Freakonomics) but has an interesting section about the extreme gravitational pull of the word "free" in economic decision making. Dan and some fellow researchers sold two different pieces of chocolate for $.14 and $.01 respectively. Using this data as a baseline, they then decreased the price by $.01 each, making the 1 cent chocolate (a Hershey's kiss) free. Compared to the 14/1 cent group, the ratio of people gravitating toward the free candy was significant. This might seem understandable, but it actually is against traditional economic principles which says that since both items were reduced in price by the same amount the intrinsic worth of the items remains the same. If this sort of thing interests you, check out Dan Ariely's book, it was a though-provoking read. Incidentally, the author has a blog also.

edit (4/1/08): I got home last night and flipped open Money magazine while I was feeding the critter and guess who had a one page mini article?

More cardboard creations

Before anyone asks, no I do not own any stock in any cardboard manufacturers, distributors, or retailers. I do enjoy the ready availability and relative ease of using cardboard to build various things. The cardboard that I use is usually on it's way to the trash bin anyway, so making something out of it is potentially a good thing to do for the environment. That being said, the picture above is one example of a design by Swiss architect/designer/bike messenger Nicola Staubli. It is available for free online, although he gratefully takes donations. In addition to the chair he also offers plans for a stool and rocker. All of these items are designed for kids.

link


(via trucdesign.com)

More online printable mazes and puzzles

Mazoons.com has some good mazes for a little bit older kids, plus a good page on how to draw your own mazes.

Printactivities.com has mazes in alphabet shapes and other seasonal themes. The connect-the-dots are also pretty good.

You can make your own small maze online here at Jo Edkins' site, as well as learn a little about the history of mazes.

One more? Try allkidsnetwork, they have quiet a few mazes of varying difficulties.


Related posts:
Finding puzzles online

More Online Puzzles

Ready to move up to the big leagues of cardboard construction?

The building blog Supercolossal has this fantastic play house/lawn art with lots of pictures and the plans to help you build your own, assuming you can find some huge pieces of cardboard. You might want to think about building a slightly smaller one if not. The plans are detailed when it comes to layout and measuring, not so much on assembly, but you can figure that out right?

link

(via boingboing.net)

related post: Cardboard castles

Phun creations

I ran across these and had to share them. Let them spark some ideas of your own:








related post: Free (but Phun) science software

Free (but phun) Science software

Phun is a free software tool written by that lets you experiment with gravity, construction, destruction, you name it. You can view the trailer below. Free download of the software is available here.



An online toy/tool in the same vein (although probably not quite as cool) called Soda Constructor

"Sodaconstructor is a construction kit for interactive creations using masses and springs. By altering physical properties like gravity, friction, and speed, curiously anthropomorphic models can be made to walk, climb, wriggle, jiggle, or collapse into a writhing heap"

Want more? Crayon Physics Deluxe has only a prototype version available, but it looks pretty similar to Phun, but uses a touchpad and is more of a puzzle game than a free form world.



But wait, there's more! Armadillo Run is a construction/puzzle game, and is already released (for about $20) the game demo is available here



Credit: all of these were found at badscience.net

So you lost the instructions, huh?

Don't worry (much) there are a couple of sites on the internet that have that game or toy's instructions (assuming you couldn't find it at the manufacturers web site). Try these:

Toy Instructions (alphabetically arranged toy and game instructions)
Brick Factory (lego construction plans dating back to 1958- so pretty much all of them)

Free software for kids

A good collection of free software for kids, including mac software!

link (via kidsdomain.com)

10 ways to entertain young children for $1 or less (without the tv)

Good collection of free (or nearly free) toys and/or activities for young children. Some are obvious but forgotten in today's world.

These classic toys and activities can be created with stuff you probably already
have lying around your house. Plus, they will entertain your kids for hours and
when they are done, you can chuck 'em without feeling bad you spent your
Christmas bonus to get them. Plus, studies show a child will remember a toy you
both created far longer than a store bought toy.

link (via lifehacker.com)

Make your own toy (video roundup)

Toys don't have to be pretty and they don't have to be bought at the store, they just have to be fun to play with (and safe). Below are a few "make your own toy" videos.



Amazing Toy - video powered by Metacafe



Awesome Paper Toy .... - video powered by Metacafe


Making non-Newtonian Fluid is easier than it sounds


Not the best video, but here is a pdf version of the construction plans from howtoons.com: link

Science toys you can make with your kids

Sometimes the journey is as important as the destination, and sometimes making the toy is as fun as playing with it. Learning something along the way is just gravy

link

edit: Found another site with more science toys: link

Free printable paper toys

one afternoon Cole and I printed and cut out a bunch of paper armies and re-created the battle of Thermopolae (the battle in the movie 300). Did you know that the battle was not just between the Greek forces (lead by the Spartans) and the Persians, but there were also several dinosaurs involved too. In fact the dinosaurs won the battle, at least in our version.

There are several interesting free printable toys online, here are few. They are a good way to kill off a rainy day or a boring car trip.

http://papertoys.com/
http://www.thetoymaker.com/2Toys.html
http://ravensblight.com/papertoys.html (halloween/spooky theme)
http://www.juniorgeneral.org/index.html (build your own Spartan army here)
http://www.papercritters.com/

Finding puzzles online

Cole loves puzzles, and it is gratifying to me that he is curious and likes to solve problems. He started with simple ~24 piece jigsaw puzzles, now he occasionally does a 100 piece puzzle or two (if he can find all of the pieces). More recently he has dived into mazes and wordsearch puzzles. The mazes improve hand-eye coordination as he moves his pencil/crayon through the lines, and also works on his analytical skills by making him look ahead to consider the results of a "do I go left or right?" decision. Hopefully this will carry over into real world decisions like "what would happen if I jumped off the roof?" or "I wonder if it is a good idea to make my dad angry one more time?" and help him make wise decisions. We'll see. There are lots of puzzle books out there, but I would start with some simple free ones from the web first to see if there is even any interest. Here and here are sites with several free printable mazes of varying difficulty.

It is interesting that wordsearches are popular at our house, considering that Cole can't read yet. He knows his ABC's of course, and knows that letters are grouped together to make words, and he can even sight read a few words, but he is fanatical about wordsearch puzzles, especially if they contain words that he does not already know. I hope that he is learning a few new words, but more importantly, he is learning how to be methodical while he is searching for the words in the jumble. Assuming the word doesn't jump out of the page at him, I taught him how to start at the top and look for the first letter in the word, when it is found, then look for the second letter all around that first letter, etc... until the entire word is found. The methodical approach to what is otherwise a confusing situation is something that I hope helps him in his life going forward. There are several free wordsearch sites on the web, possibly the most useful is here, where you can enter whatever words you want and make your own puzzle. This way you can tailor the words for your kid's particular interests and level. I made one puzzle with breakfast foods, another with animals, and one with his friends names for example. The possibilities are as endless as your own vocabulary.

Assuming there is interest, try one of these books next:

The Giant Book of Mazes

Jumbo Puzzle Book: Word Searches, Hidden Pictures, and Wild, Wacky Puzzles! (Jumbo Kids' Books)

Online Games Part 1

Cole is pretty computer savvy, he's been playing on the computer since he was three. He picked up how to use the mouse pretty quick, after you get that everything else flows pretty quickly. Unfortunately there are not a lot of online games out there for three or four year olds. Here are a few that have worked out well:

Noggin (http://www.noggin.com/) has several games based on the shows on their cable channel, this includes Wonder Pets, Dora the Explorer, Franklin, Diego, Blues Clues, and Backyardigans. Cole's favorites are Dora and Diego, Blues Clues has some interesting games also.

Hot Wheels (http://www.hotwheels.com/) naturally markets their toys online via car racing games and they are worth checking out, although most of them are for older kids. You will have to help your little one find the games that they are ready to play. The site's background music is a little harsh for most little ones too.

Club Penguin (http://www.clubpenguin.com/) is a very popular online game, your kid is assigned and penguin avatar, and he or she can play mini-games, walk around and meet and chat with other penguins (not very likely before you kid can read), and use the "coins" awarded for the mini-games to buy costumes, decorations for their penguin's igloo, even get a pet "puffle" which needs to be fed and cared for. There is a seed of personal finance to be learned here, if you don't have enough coins to buy a particular item then you have to go get more. This may help your child understand "we can't afford that right now" a little better on your next trip to the toy store. Also, this site has a free version that does not have all of the functionality mentioned above. I'd suggest doing this to see if they are interested. If so, it about $6 a month if you are interested.

More to come...