A MAGIC MESSAGE FROM SANTA FOR TOMMY

Magic Santa reveals the magic of Christmas to Tommy in a video (click this line to open it)

COOL GAMES TO TEACH ADDITIONS UP TO 10

To master additions up to 10 is among the most important arithmetic skills of first-graders. I have found out some great games online for Mew to practice this summer.

1. MATH LINES

In this game there will be lines of balls with numbers on them. You can shoot balls to add new balls to the line. When the balls you shoot and the balls beside it add up to 10, these balls will be destroyed. You can also destroy a group of same numbered balls with only one ball. When you destroy all the balls you can proceed to the next level. If the balls reach the hole, then you lose the game. Occasionally there will be coins that appear on the screen, you can shoot the coins to get the colours of the balls sorted for a while, it will be a lot easier. Use the mouse to control the direction of the shots and click to shoot. You can also press the space bar to swap between the ball to shoot and the next ball to shoot.

I have to honestly admit that I have eventually gotten addicted to this game, of which my current record is Level 11 and over 60,000 points accumulated. My next endeavour would be Math Lines X-Factor which involves multiplication, wow!

2. MAHJONG

Nice game requires kids to work out various problems of additions and subtraction using single digits from 0 to 9 with fun of matching tiles that yield the same number. There are 3 levels: easy, medium and hard. You can also play a timed version of game. Note that not all the time you will be able to clear all the tiles, just like any normal Mahjong games. You may need to seek the help of Hint function if you get stuck during the game.

3. NUMBER TWINS

Match pairs of balls that add up to 10. Balls can only be matched if they can be connected by a line that turns at most twice. An easy Pikachu-like game where your only challenge is time.

XMAS IS COMING! LET'S SHARE A PERSONALIZED VIDEO MESSAGE FROM SANTA

Don't you love to send a personalized video message from Santa to your little prince or princess? They will be so happy to see their own picture with personalized message to encourage them to make greater efforts for the coming year. It takes just a few minutes to prepare the message and above all, it is totally FREE. Let's start sharing Christmas joy with Santa Claus.

1. Portable North Pole (supports UNICEF)
http://www.portablenorthpole.ca/home
Santa Claus and his amazing PNP (Portable North Pole) console will be online during the entire holiday season. With just a few clicks, this technological marvel will let your loved ones receive a personal message from Santa Claus, sent directly from his village in the North Pole. Rediscover Christmas with this immersive and unique experience that brings the holiday magic back to life.


2. Magic Santa
http://magicsanta.ca/
Send a magical card to the North Pole on behalf of a child and Santa Claus will send back a personalized video. The video from Santa can be either in French or English.


To watch the message from Santa for Mew:
http://magicsanta.ca/gateway.html?code=EJOQPW
http://www.portablenorthpole.ca/watch/guest/JlUDvNggAZRlZ_D35pYZQw

HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE HELLO KITTY?

Want to share your favourite characters of Hello Kitty's theme with your friends? Simply want to brighten the day for another person? An adorable (and of course, completely free) ecard from Hello Kitty's post office can surely help you to convey your loving message to the recipient in an instant.

Create your own artwork: coloring a picture, writing letters, making paper dolls, swapping secret note, etc. - you shall find a lot of creative ideas and activities at Hello Kitty's Art Centre.

For young online game fans, what could be more interesting than entering Hello Kitty's arcade to solve jigsaw puzzles, to play matching games or to help Hello Kitty save a sunny day?

Don't forget to spare some moments to download free exclusive Hello Kitty's egoodies inclusive of wallpapers, paper craft projects, calendars and emoticons to your computer for later enjoyment.

Just in case you are not aware of Hello Kitty as the main character in cartoon series of the same name, it would be a good idea to check out these at Youtube and I am sure that regardless of your age or your nationality, you will soon fall in love with this lovable kitty. Now I am dreaming of buying Mew a Hello Kitty wrist watch in her future birthday (cannot tell exactly when, lol, since it is way too expensive for my budget just for a kid's watch however) or indulging myself with a Hello Kitty's pendant (well, perhaps I can expect it as a gift from Mew once she can earn her living - but then I will be too old to wear such a cute pendant, don't you think?)

FREEBIES AND MORE FREEBIES (MOSTLY DISNEY-THEME)

Very nice 2010 (and 2009) Calendar with Disney characters free for download in both Word and PDF formats at Free 2010 Disney Calendar. Best of all, there are no pop-ups, viruses or any other sort of baggage with the files.  Just a nice calendar with Disney pictures.  In the Word version you can add your own birthdays and special days.

At this site you can also find free colouring book and free ebook about Buzz-lightyear (the character in "Toy Story" movie of Disney/Pixar) - great for your little boys.

Free Ebook of Hidden Mickeys of Disneyland also in both PDF and Word formats.

Here is site that has a lot of Tinkerbell coloring

and another site with Disney Character Avatars

If you like craft projects, you can download the large versions of Cinderella collage 8"x6"  (1Mb) or Cinderella collage (13" x 11") (2Mb) or Peter Pan collage (2Mb)

Try to treasure-hunt in the champ of Disney-related sites including both official and non-official ones.

This site will allow you to read the full text of some of the popular Little Golden Books FREE

Little Golden Books Online. This is the list of books you can find there:
Golden Book: Mister Dog
Golden Book: The Big Little Book
Golden Book: The Adventures of Brownie and Puff
Golden Book: My Big Dog
Golden Book: Baby's Mother Goose
Golden Book: Corky's Hiccups
Golden Book: Doctor Dan, the Bandage Man
Golden Book: The Animals of Farmer Jones
Golden Book: Five Little Firemen
Golden Book: How To Tell Time
Golden Book: The Little Golden Book of Hymns
Golden Book: Numbers: What They Look Like and What They Do
Golden Book: Counting Rhymes
Golden Book: Little Black Sambo
Golden Book: The Lively Little Rabbit
Golden Book: Words
Golden Book: Little Red Riding Hood
Golden Book: Dogs
Golden Book: The Fourteen Bears
Golden Book: The Taxi That Hurried

YOOHOO! MEW EARNED HER FIRST AMOUNT OF MONEY IN HER LIFE TODAY!

Exactly, 20$ is the compensation amount for her participation in a one-hour lab experiment in the service of a study on the development of both auditory and visual attention and working memory in typically-developing children of 3-6 years. The testing battery involves fun and interactive preschool appropriate computer paradigms that are game-like by design.  Each task is comprised of analogous auditory and visual components to best understand how attention and working memory converge and diverge in these two systems. The stimuli used include cartoon images of animals (cat, dog, pig etc) and corresponding sounds (meow, woof, oink etc). Mew did enjoy the games very much and she acted very well today despite my absence in the lab (I sat outside of the lab and completed various questionnaires for parents). With the accompanying of the lab instructor, she scored rather high in the games and all instructions and answers were in English. We just had minor problems regarding her vocabulary component when given an English word and asked to identify the appropriate picture: even though I helped her with some interpretation for new words, either I myself did not know the equivalent word in our language or Mew did not understand the notion/concept of the words. Overall, we were however all impressed at how good she was today. She also received a small gift (a Disney princesses puzzle to be coloured) for her today performance with some stickers as well. I was really proud of my daughter! We decided to give the money to her to keep for her own future needs (however we changed the bill for toonies and loonies so that she could drop them into her pigbank excitedly). Mew was wondering how much 20$ was worth and whether she could buy a castle, dress, toys, teddy bears, puzzles, etc. with that amount of money or not, lol.

After the experiment, I also took Mew to Baskin Robbins for a special treat: a FREE 2.5oz scoop of chocolate ice cream thanks to my signing her up in Baskin Robbins Birthday Club. Mew was so pleased with her ice cream cone that she did not want to share with us any!

As I was in so good mood with Mew this morning, I decided to reward her with a beautiful Cindrella dress. She was undoubtedly very happy with her new princess outfit. And we were very happy too!

WANNA BE A MAGAZINE COVER STAR? TOO EASY!

Parenting Cover Model Maker Think your little darling's cute enough to be on the cover of Parenting? This Cover Model Maker can take an ordinary digital pic and turn it into the cover of Parenting. It takes just minutes, it's easy, and it's free! - Accept various file extensions including JPG, PNG and GIF - Headlines can be modified to your preferences - You can either print out the personalized cover or download it to your computer or email it to your friends!

Cannot resist the temptation of showing off your kids on the cover of Today's Parent magazine published in Canada? Simple use their online cover maker and voila, a real magazine cover with even a barcode is ready for you to proudly send to your friends or to print out right away.


American Baby magazine Cover Maker Who does not love the idea of putting her adorable baby on the cover of American Baby magazine? Plus, you can customize your cover with different layouts and personal cover lines. Cons: Only JPEG files under 1MB accepted. No option of download the file to your computer.
Parents offers the same Magazine Cover Maker to its website registered members. It takes you, however, 1 more minute to be able to access their free tool because you need to fill in a form to register your username, password. But this online cover maker allows you to upload up to 6 photos at a time to your album and choose among 3 magazine covers including "Parents", "American Baby" and "Family Circle" to show off your kids. Furthermore, you can even add add graphics, frames and text to your photos to make them more attractive and more professional. Be sure to click on the button "Want to be a cover model? Make a magazine cover" to get back to the Magazine Cover Maker after completing your album build-up and follow their instructions to view finally your cover.
A similar online cover maker with the same cons can also be found at Your Pregnancy.

You can even create your own magazine covers with the ready-made templates like "My Child", "Parenting", "Baby" or "Kid".

Somehow more complicated but more creative to make your own magazine cover from scratch, Big Huge Labs offer a free online magazine cover maker that allows you to upload your pics not only from your computer but also from your Flickr albums or Facebook account.

And, is it even more fantastic if you can have your freshly-made magazine cover printed and shipped to your door? Sure that you can. Print out your collection of magazine covers in the form of a FREE photo book offered by HotPrints and get free shipping - Yes, totally FREEEEE! No catch at all! One photo book (HotBook) every month for (free) registered member (This offer is currently limited to HotBooks to be shipped to addresses in the US, UK and Canada only).

A MARVELOUS FREEBIE SITE FOR DISNEY MOVIE FANS

If you want to surprise your kids with a personalized storybook with Disney-movie characters such as Cindrella, Nemo, Goofy, etc. you will find it super cool to print right at home that fully colored book without paying a penny. Thank Disney for offering us parents such a great freebie (and a big thumb up to sittingstill4 on SmartCanuck for sharing it)
Disney Magic Artist Online Storybook Maker

My kid love Disney princess collection and these printable bookmarks are so cute:
Disney Magic Artist Bookmark

Your kids may sometimes need some encouragement and you may get inspired enough to take advantage of this Disney Magic Artist Award Designer to create some ready.

Don't forget to browse this cool site to discover more fun games, create calendars, design greeting cards, colour pictures, and make play-sets with playdolls with lovely Disney characters.


Now, let's ready to enter the wonderland of Disney Magic Artist Online!

FREE NICE GAME SITES FOR KIDS

Chapmans Kids Club: www.kidsclub.ca/english/
Want to enjoy playing some nice (and easy) games while collecting points to redeem for free, yes totally free (without any charge on shipping or handling) cool prizes ranging from magnets, pens, highlighter, aprons, T-shirts, mosaic to lunch bags, toy trucks or big value coupons? You will find nowhere comparable to this freebie website. You, or your kids, can easily earn 600 points per day just for playing games, plus 35 points for logging in, to make it 635 points per day (You need however to find an appropriate moment to log in without earning 35 points first, then playing the games to max at 600 points, logging out and later logging in after the 12.00am but before your first logging in to earn the 35 points). Every month, by answering correctly their quiz, you earn extra 200 points. The answer can find in their free beautiful calendar.

Danino Kid Zone: www.danino.ca/en/kids/
I find the Profession game is rather interesting for kids (and adults) who love word games.






PBS Kids: http://pbskids.org/

A free site offers your kids a lot of fun with hundreds of games categorized by educational topics including reading games, letter games, literacy games, number games, math games, spelling games, vocabulary games, science games and with favourite characters such as Curious George, Clifford, Sesame Street friends, etc.; animated videos, and helps your preschoolers become Readers through playing reading games and enjoying various fun activities with popular cartoon/storybook characters while earning tickets to win prizes. Parents can keep track of their kids' literacty progress too.

Older kids may access another section on the same site: PBS Kids Go!