Today’s Guest:

Katherine Reschke born in England, UK and originally trained as an elementary school teacher. She left the teaching profession to become a full time mom and has 3 children. She came to the States in 1999 and worked as a substitute teacher before training as a coach. Her ethos as a parenting coach is that her clients are the experts in their family and know the best answers once they are asked the right questions. She helps all her clients catch their children being good.

Her website is www.betterparentingcoach.com and her email is coach@betterparentingcoach.com

Today we talked about video games, the pros and cons and advice on how to moderate.

 

 Puddle People Hour Show # 13 [60:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Craft: Board Game

Unfinished Day at the Zoo Game

Materials:

• Large empty cereal box
• Scissors
• Paint, crayons, markers
• Stickers
• Brass brads (Metal Fasteners)
• Ruler
• String (to form a circle) 3 inches
• Push pin

1. Cut out one side of the cereal box to make one big rectangle.
2. Cut a small arrow from the remaining cardboard box, about 2 inches long and a quarter inch wide.
3. Use the push pin to put a hole at the flat end of the arrow.
4. Replace the push pin with a brad.
5. Use the Ruler to find the center of the big rectangle.
6. Use the push pin to create a small hole at the center of the rectangle
7. Tie the string to the pin on one end and to a pencil on the other end, try to keep the distance between the pin and the pencil about 2 inches apart.
8. Trace a circle around the pin, 2 inches radius
9. Remove the pin.
10. Use the ruler to create 8 even “slices” in the circle.
11. Push the brad with the arrow already on it through the center hole of the circle. Leave a space above the board and fasten the brad under the board.
12. Move the arrow to the top of the brad so it spins freely.
13. Use the ruler to create squares around the edge of the rectangle, as evenly as possible.
14. Use your new spinner to choose spots around the board for good and bad events. Ie. Spinner lands on 5, from your start point count 5. On that spot it could be “go back one space” or “go forward 3 spaces”. However you want to set it. Continue on to the next spot. (Try not to have too many special squares.)
15. Use the stickers, paint, crayons, markers, to mark off your special spots and your start space.
16. Continue to decorate the rest of your game. Come up with a theme. Our theme was a day at the zoo.
17. To create game pieces, either draw your own small picture on the remaining cardboard, or cut out a magazine picture or even use a sticker and paste it to the cardboard.
18. Cut out your game pieces.
19. Cut out strips that are ½ inch wide by 1 inch long. Fold each in half.
20. Use the scissors to cut a slit from the center of the fold down half way. This will be our stand.
21. Fit your game piece into the slit in the stand and pull the ends out to create a triangle.

Discuss the game with your child while you are making it. What kind of theme do you want? What are the rules? I would suggest writing down the rules on the last of the cardboard and taping or gluing it to the back of the game so it’s never lost.

You are ready to play your game! Have fun!

http://javascript.internet.com/ A Place to Get great Javascript Games Etc.

http://a.abcnews.com/Technology/GadgetGuide/story?id=4109365&page=1 Article about teachers modifying popular video games

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp Software rating board, and an explanation of the ratings

http://www.parentstv.org/ptc/videogames/main.asp Parent’s Television Council Video Game Campaign