Milo calls to say happy fathers day; Max calls to say "bye"

This has nothing to with grandparent games, at least not directly. Milo called to say "Happy Father's Day." He was in the car at the time. We had a long chat about a party he had gone to and what he was eating and such. It was an actual conversation and went on for a while. I was impressed.

Earlier Joshua called with Max nearby. Max was mostly interested in saying BYE to me. They were in a hotel and Max has discovered the elevator. He told me, in his less than articulate way that he was ready for his father to stop talking to me so he could go push elevator buttons.

Both conversations were pretty good father's day presents.

Sibling Rivalry: Milo deals with Mira's existence

I completed the grandchild tour of the northeast with a visit to Milo and Mira. Milo asked me to play Elmo games with him on my computer when I opened it up on arrival at his house. I asked him if Elmo games were better than Grandparent Games and he said "no." Good answer Milo.

Milo and I did the usual reading and train watching but this time we went to the museum as well as he seems to have developed a keen interest in Dinosaurs. He even knew their names.

Hana suggested that we try Mira on grandparent games (because she is hoping to help Mira focus on seeing things to help with her apparent vision problems.) So Mira and I watched the little kid pictures. Seconds later there was Milo, sitting on my other leg, fascinated by bouncing kids and toys.



Then, for the rest of my visit, Milo insisted on looking at little kid pictures. I was able to induce him to read Max Had a Sax which he actually did quite well at, but it held no equal to the thought of being a baby again. Ah sibling rivalry!

max is beyond cute

I am on the grandchild tour of the northeast. First stop was Max.We had many nice conversations about what dogs and cats say and other exciting topics. The kid is so cute you almost can't stand it. We played grandparent games and then talked about what we saw. Max loves the computer. He hopped on my lap every time he saw me opening my laptop.

Milomax produces Iphone app!

for 99 cents little kids can play with the alphabet animations we have on grandparent games on their parent's iphone. They can shake the phone to get the next letter:

http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=CMWzV4SDlTs&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252FviewSoftware%253Fid%253D316457688%2526amp%253Bmt%253D8

You can't talk to a 3 year old

Milo called and said he wanted to play. But, there was a bug in my version of grandparent games yesterday, so all we could do was talk on skype. I showed him some pens and asked him to count them, and asked him to add and subtract as well. He did very well. But really, it is very hard to have a conversation with a 3 year old. Ask him what he did today and he looks at the screen blankly. What's new doesn't work. Hana tried to help by discussing the joy of eating weird food (a trait he seems to have inherited from me) but really he isn't able to reflect on his own tastes. I created grandparent games for exactly this reason. If you are not doing something together with a  3 year old there isn't much to talk about.

It's been a month or so...

and I am sure grandparent games fans everywhere have been wondering why they haven't heard from me. I was in Europe most of that time and didn't bring a microphone with me, although the time difference alone would have made it hard to see the kids (not to mention the miserable available internet connections.) But, in addition, there has been a problem detected with the newest grandkid, Mira (albinism and probable resulting vision issues) that dominated my interactions with Hana and therefore Milo.

Anyhow I was back on with both of them on Monday. Max is seriously cute and remembered most (but not all ) of the words describing the little kid pictures. Milo was again wanting to read three letter words, but he too had forgotten a lot of what he knew about how to read.

Of course, I say this over and over when I speak about education, but it is worth re-iterating here. The one key word in education is: "practice." And, consequently,  why school is an awful educational experience: very little of what is learned is practiced later in life (e.g algebra, chemical equation balancing, even reading and writing (in the way that both are taught in high school.))

Max Returns

Or, more accurately, Max seems to walk by the computer at his house and constantly say Papa, judging by the number of missed Skype calls there have been lately. We finally connected yesterday, and not only did he say Papa about 50 times, he also correctly identified every "picture for little kids" that we have on grandparent games, which, considering he was barely speaking when I saw him in Florida 10 days ago, is quite the accomplishment.

In other news Milo appeared with his back to the camera which is his latest trick when logging on to talk with me. He thinks this is a riot.