Comments (12)

By Mom Unplugged, April 5, 2009 9:50 pm

First of all, I want to send a HUGE thank you to Lynn of Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile for doing an excellent job of hosting the weekly Unplugged Project last week while I was away on vacation. I really appreciate it and I hope it was fun for you!

We had a lovely time in Mexico. The kids ran around on the beach and swam in the pool non-stop. This was our first vacation with my youngest in tow where I was actually able to relax a bit. My three year-old was finally independent enough to allow me to read two and a half books. What a luxury.

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Surprise! We finally got to the Unplugged Project this week. Although I hadn’t picked the theme words for any particular reason, it actually fit in perfectly with what we have been doing lately: learning French.

I haven’t blogged about this yet, but this summer we are all going to France for three weeks where my two oldest children (6 and 8) will attend a language class. I used to live in France, and am determined that my children learn French. This is step one. I’ll write more about it another day.

Anyhow, inspired by this wonderful French bingo game by eeBoo that we bought and love, I decided to make our own version. I designed our own, changeable bingo game for learning lots of French words.

We gathered up some heavy cardboard, card stock, scissors a ruler and some old nature magazines.

First I cut the cardboard into three equal squares, one for each of my children. My squares ended up being about 8 in. by 8 in. (about 20 cm by 20 cm). It doesn’t really matter how big they are, as long they are square.

Using the ruler, I penciled a grid of nine approximately equal squares on each piece of cardboard. These became the bingo cards.

We cut strips of card stock that were the same height as our rows of three squares, and slightly longer.

Next we cut some narrow ribbon in lengths just long enough to be slightly wider than the cardboard squares.

We put one piece across each vertical line on each card (two per card):

Then we taped the end securely onto the back of the bingo card:

Finally, the really fun part. We searched the nature magazines to find some common animals to cut out, making sure that each animal photo would fit inside one of the nine squares on the card.

We pasted three animals on each strip keeping enough space between each animal for the ribbon.

Finally, we slid the strips under the ribbons to fill in the bingo board. The strips pass easily underneath the ribbons and the slightly longer length makes a nice tab for easy insertion and removal.

When the boards were done, we cut pieces of card stock into squares that were close to the size of our animal squares. I wrote an animal name in French on each card.

Play proceeds like this:

The cards go into a bag. The caller pulls out a card and says the name of the animal. Whoever has it on their card says “moi!” (me) and places the card on top of the corresponding picture. They also must say the name of the animal in French. The winner is the first one to fill up his or her card and must then say the name of all the animals on their card in French.

One thing that is really fun about this is that you can rearrange the strips so the cards change combinations.

You can also make new strips for other categories of study. We did animals, but you could do words having to do with the home, the body, school - whatever you want! As vocabulary knowledge increases, you can mix the categories or words to make play more difficult.

The picture finding and cutting is fun and also provides an opportunity to learn the words before play.

For more advanced players, you could even do verbs and conjugations.

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For those of you who did a word Unplugged Project this week, here is the linky. Please link only if you did a word Unplugged Project. Please link to your project post rather than simply your blog (I am trying build up an easily searchable archive). If you did not do a word project, but want to learn more about how to join in, please read about it here. We’d love to have you!

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be:

Transportation

Have fun!

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Comments (8)

By Mom Unplugged, January 3, 2009 9:18 pm

For me, the New Year inspired many diverse hopes for a better 2009 and beyond. However, it was also the official start of my Selecta Mourning Period.

As I mentioned in a previous post, German toy company Selecta is the first casualty of the overly broad new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). Unable to afford the additional testing required by the CPSIA, Selecta ceased the distribution of its toys in the US market on December 31, 2008.

My prediction is that Selecta is simply the first of many high quality European toy manufacturers who will eventually succumb to the new burdens placed upon them. As for the lovely homemade toys currently available from Etsy sellers, or lesser-known “Mom and Pop” toystores such as Wood Toy Shop, Quiet Hours Toys, Down to Earth Toys, or many other favorites from my Unplugged Toystore list - their future is very uncertain.

Honestly, only mega-manufacturers such as Hasbro or Mattel and their Chinese mass-produced toys will be able to afford to jump through the added hoops. Although these toys might be deemed “safe” at the end of their journey, for the most part, they are not what I want to offer my children.

Since my newly 3 year-old daughter has a January 2nd birthday (so close to Christmas, poor thing!), I decided to buy a farewell Selecta birthday gift for her. I chose the Stellina Star Sorting Puzzle. She really likes puzzles and this is a puzzle and a sorter combined. Put the arms of the star puzzle together, choose an awake face or an asleep face for the star in the middle, and then add the pegs of assorted sizes and colors.

She loves it! At this time, there are only three left at Amazon and I don’t know about other stores. So hurry up and Google Selecta to stock up before all these wonderful German toys are gone.

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To learn more about the new CPSIA and how it affects small and foreign toymakers, read more here: Help Save Handmade Toys in the USA from the CPSIA.

For some suggested improvements: Possible Solutions to Improve the CPSIA.

What can you do to help? Write to your Congress Person or Senator to request a change to the CPSIA which would exclude toys made in the US, Canada or Europe. Here is a sample letter, or compose your own.

Useful links:

Find your Congress Person

Find your Senator

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Comments (3)

By Mom Unplugged, December 14, 2007 12:29 pm

I had one of these as a child and just loved it. Even my mother had one as a child! My daughter has had one since the age of six and enjoys hers too.

This easy-to-use knitting contraption lets children simply knit long “snakes” that can be coiled and sewn together to make any number of projects.

There is something so calming and zen-like about knitting and this is a great way to introduce this calming activity to your children. Plus you the parent can also experience peace of mind because, although there are less-expensive plastic versions of this out there, this one is made of wood in Germany by well-respected European toy-maker .

I have also found that it makes a wonderful travel activity since it is very small, light, and easily packable in a carry-on toy/activity bag. It would fit in a Christmas stocking too!

Are the “snakes” piling up with no purpose? Then here is also a link to a great book that has lots of fun and easy craft ideas for using all these little “snakes.”

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By Mom Unplugged, December 1, 2007 9:06 pm

We had a family game night tonight with a card game (by Cranium) that my 7 year-old daughter got last Christmas from a friend. It is a game that we had not really focused on before.

Zigity is such a cool card game! It is supposed to be for ages 8 to adult, but my 5 year-old, 7 year-old and two adults played happily together without problem (the 5 year-old enjoyed it, but needed some assistance though).

The play is a bit like Crazy 8′s or Uno, but instead of just matching cards, players must complete certain puzzles at each turn. Puzzles involve either matching images, completing a visual puzzle, forming words, or adding numbers.

It is really quite educational and fun (and challenging) for adults too! Always a HUGE plus in my book. The cards are made of a transparent plastic which adds to the “wow factor.”

This is a game that is very unpredictable. It involves just the right proportions of skill, strategy and luck to make it interesting and fun for all ages. A player with one card left really has just as much chance of winning (ie. getting rid of all their cards) as one with 6 cards left!

If kids can’t spell simple words yet or do addition, then they will need some help. But we had no problem playing with my kindergarten-aged son. I just looked at his cards and helped him when he needed it. And once, he actually beat us all!

I highly recommend this card game. It would even make a great stocking stuffer, which is always nice.

Comments (0)

By Mom Unplugged, November 14, 2007 8:19 pm

This is one that I don’t have yet, but that I am planning on buying for my almost 2 year-old for Christmas.

I like these wooden cube puzzles and we have had several of them, but usually the pictures are simply paper that is glued on to the block (including one that was a Melissa & Doug, I was very disappointed). Trust me, that never lasts long. Selecta doesn’t glue the image on, they use some sort of a transfer that doesn’t seem like it will ever come off (we have a few Selecta games with images on wooden tiles so I know how they do it and that it lasts).

Do the math, and you will find that these four cubes can make six different cute pictures. If you want to see them all, then click on the Amazon link.

Plus…Selecta toys are made in Germany. Need I say more?