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.

HOW TO MAKE TRAVEL HANGMAN GAME

Do your kids always need something to entertain themselves, keep them occupied without boredom during travel, at the dentist's office or at the waiting room of the hospital or even while waiting for orders at the restaurant? What is more suitable than a travel set of a popular game such as HANGMAN that is compact enough to toss in your tote, self-contained (i.e. including as few as possible extra components to minimize the risk of lost pieces), being reusable (instead of wasting tons of pieces of paper), and finally costing as little as possible?

A lot of great products in the market offer the first 3 features, such as Hangman Flip-to-Win Wooden Travel Game by Melissa & Doug, Imaginetics Magnetic Hangman Travel Games, GO Magnetic Hangman Travel Game, Magnetic Game Tin: Hangman, but only a home-made product would satisfy the 4th crucial requirement of the lowest cost possible.

I reused the erasable memo board sent by 3 Amigos to advertise their restaurant for this purpose. That its size is only as big as a notebook sheet is perfect for a travel game. The board is heavier and more sturdy than a normal sheet of paper, thus no worry for creases, etc. You can try any erasable memo/fridge board available around.

The erasable memo board I got also has the marker attached to it so it made my project easier. However, you can be creative with attaching a dry-erase marker to the board by using adhesive pad, a flexible string, a chain, etc. If your marker's end tip has the eraser already, it would be a plus. If not, you can stick small piece of soft cloth (such as the kind of cloth for cleaning glasses) or sponge to the back of the board by a paperclip. Do not forget to toss in your bag  a pocket-sized pack of facial tissues and a small bottle of hand sanitizer solution. It not only serves to sanitize the little hands quickly but also helps to dampen the cloth or sponge to clean the marks left by the dry-erase marker as effectively as a whiteboard marker eraser.

Some sheets of Post-it could be glued to the back of the board so that your kids may scribble his words of the game, keep track of the game's scores, etc.

On the front of the whiteboard, to the left, use the permanent marker with a different colour to the dry-erase marker to draw the gallows where the hangman will be. To the right edge of the board, write all 26 letters of the alphabet in upper case in rows of 3 or 4 letters each with enough space between them so that your kid can use the dry-erase marker to circle any letter called in by the guesser. At the end of the white board, below the gallows and the ABCs, draw in permanent ink a row of dashes where the letters of the word would be written down in their appropriate places (usually 10 dashes in kids' game).

To play the game, the person who sets the word must announce in advance how many letters there are in his word, e.g. 6 letters so only the first number of dashes equal to the number of letters in the word (6 in this example) would be used in the game. His opponent (the guesser) then tries to guess the word by guessing letters. Once a letter is guessed whether correctly or not, the wordsetter will circle that letter by the dry-erase marker to show that it has been guessed.

If the guessed letter is included indeed in the word, the wordsetter would fill in the corresponding dash(es) with the letter. If the suggested letter does not occur in the word, the wordsetter draws one element of the hangman diagram as a tally mark, starting with a head. The amount of parts of the man can vary, affecting the number of chances of guessing. Usually the player guessing the word gets 6 chances (traditionally the head, then the torso, then the arms & legs one by one). Many players include a face on the head, either all at once or one feature at a time.

The game is over when either the guessing player guesses the whole word correctly or the wordsetter completes the diagram of a hanging man; whichever is earlier. In the first case, the guessing player wins the game. 

This Hangman game can be used to play in both English and French and is absolutely a great game for reinforcing and improving kids' vocabulary.

And do not forget to check out a very neat flash Hangman online game for English-as-a-second-language learners at www.manythings.org/hmf/.

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?)

"THE GAME OF LIFE" FOR A FAMILY GAME NIGHT

Last week I bought "The Game of Life", a rather famous board game, simply because I discovered that it was on sale. At first, I was not really keen on trying to play this game since the game set I bought was in French (the French version of this game is named as "Destins" - Le jeu de la Vie). Obviously I do not have enough confidence in my French, not alone the fact that the French level of my hubbie and Mew is even lower than mine. But well, Mew was asking me all the time to take the game out for a try. I guessed she got familiar with board games at the daycare. And I also remembered reading a lot of articles about the great benefits of family game nights for the children. So I decided to give it a shot: organize a family game afternoon (instead of night, too late for Mew) after having read and understood the How-to-play instructions.


It turned out great! We did enjoy the game - an exciting journey through life - very much. Mew caught up with us parents rather quickly in following the game rules. In fact we did not really care for the statements in each cell on the game board. I was in charge of translating the game and acted as the banker too. The most interesting detail of this game is that a lucky player when jumping onto a certain cell might exchange his low salary for a higher salary of another player. Mew was very excited with this option and she indeed exchanged twice her salary with her Daddy, lol. And all of us aimed at ending up at the Millionaire's Mansion rather than the Retirement Home. However, I have to admit that the simple object of The Game of Life that is to get through life and retire the richest sends a distorted moral message to children about the meaning of life success!

Since Mew's French knowledge was still too limited to read the game, our focus was to help her strengthen her counting skills, learn patience through waiting for turns and indirectly teach her about the benefits of pursuing a university path rather than entering the workforce immediately without any higher education. In the first game play, Mew chose without a second for thinking the option of launching herself into the labour market so that she could earn money right away rather than spending more time at the university. Although we tried to explain to her that a university diploma in most of the cases would lead to a higher salary, she apparently did not really understand the advantages of a university career. Her decision was quite consistent with her current attitude to studies: she was lack of interest in studying and she was also very impatient. However, after the first game play, with the result that Mew was the loser with the least money in pocket whereas we both with our university diplomas earned a lot of money, Mew saw the problem more clearly and she was totally convinced that a university education was a must to help her become a rich person. Just a note here: we understand completely that there are many paths to a successful life and career and a university degree is merely one of these paths. However, we also believe that with a university diploma, a person will normally have more choice and more chance to be successful in his professional life and thus we want to encourage Mew to pursue her study to the highest attainable level.

To confirm that a university choice is usually a better decision, this afternoon we played the game again. Learning from her own experience, Mew chose a university path while her Daddy this time changed his decision and chose to go to work instead. The result of the game: Mew won and became a retired woman with the most money at the end of life whereas her Daddy had only about one third as much money as Mew (Note: her Daddy was really unlucky in this game despite the fact his salary was among the highest and was also the most stable: he lost a lot of money along the way for payment of taxes, fees, and damages. Life is full of surprises, hein?). But, the most important thing we got from this evening game: a fun family activity and an affirmation to the benefit of a university career for our little daughter.

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!