Dr. Tanya Byron’s report was published today, and rather predictably the journalists/comment makers have started to froth. Shame really, as it seems that it’s a well thought through and balanced report from experts in the filed… perhaps that’s the problem. It’s not slammed computer games as satanic spawn corrupting the minds of the young, but - in the briefest of summaries - has come to the conclusion that they should be treated just like films, and the internet akin to going out to play.   So we should have just one system for age rating here in the UK, rather than the funny Euro/UK mish-mash that we’ve got at the moment.   (Full report).

I’ve a little smug moment here, back in December I wrote about the startling revelation that 43% of parents didn’t know there were age ratings on games which seems to be what the report is getting at. So to quote myself:

Here in the UK, a big green U for universal means its soft and cuddly; jam it in and let them play. A yellow PG (parental guidance) means play it before or with your kids. 12 means be 12 for rude words, 15 means lots of cleavage for mid-teens and 18 means too much blood ‘n guts. Stick to the numbers and you can’t go far wrong.

Perhaps the boys will get hold of a game that is above their age, like we did with the old VHS around Halloween; and yes, they well see something that freaks them out a bit, like we did with Mr F. Krugar (I went three days without sleep). I escaped fairly unharmed from my childhood viewing habits because I loved watching films with my folks. So with any luck my kids will love gaming and films with daddy; and with just us much fortune, they’ll still want to game/watch/go online with their old man as the years go by.

In the meantime I’m going to continue to tell them that PG is for Parent Gaming.

You want well rounded children, do two things. Love ‘em and play with ‘em.

tag... playpeople, play, gamer, philosophising

The pen is mightier than the sword… but only if held by a very strong hand.

Like his Daddy, No1 child has squiggly writing. It’s not easy when you’ve a had full of ideas, yet a single word takes so long to write that by the time it’s done you’ve forgotten what comes next. So I’m very lucky to see him getting some extra help at school in a thoroughly playful way (Thnx E, welikeplay is indebted).

The rational goes like this: writing - and in particular penmanship - is not purely a cerebral activity, rather it is the body doing what the brain wants in moving a pen through the arcs and loops on a piece of paper in front of you. If it is so much to do with the body then perhaps exercise to build up the writing muscles will help. I’ve a hunch that the link between early walkers and later dyslexia is due partly to the lack of crawling and the building up of muscles around the upper body.

So, to build up strength and coordination to allow children to sit at a desk and grip a pen with less hassle here are a week-ful of playful exercises to introduce.

Stair slithering. Ok, you’ve spent the last 5-7 years teaching them to go down stairs, now its time to let them slither down on their tummy. Explain that you’re all to use your arms stretched out in front of you to hand-walk down; and when they’ve got that, to hoist them selves up again.

Putty squashing. Mix up a pot of Homebrew Snot to squish and stretch obsessively whilst watching TV for big strong fingers.

Tunnel your house. For a day or two take the cushions off the sofa, grab all blankets, clothe-racks and pegs, play tents and old cardboard boxes and create a castle/fort/warren inside your house that everyone has to use. Take tunnels from the kitchen through to the living room and even to the loo to encourage an awful lot of crawling.

Be mermaids/men. Visit a charity/thrift store for a too big pair of tracky-bums (that’s englandish for track suit trousers); tuck one leg in and down the other to make a tail. Add shells and flop around the house all day. If you’re feeling brave/playful, get a pair for every member of the family. Hang shredded kitchen foil from the lamps and have an underwater tea-party.

Hang off the sofa for a bedtime story. Together stick your shins/thighs on the cushion of the sofa, place hands on the ground either side of the book for a story time. To take it further a bed time snack can be chopped up in a bowl to be eaten from the floor.

Do the ‘Hand-wash only’ laundry. Fine, less of a play and more of a chore, but I’m constantly surprised at how much kids enjoy inclusion in mundane tasks. And with the added benefit that wringing clothes out and pegging them still heavy with water on a line really exercise those grippy muscles.

Find a grassy hill, roll down. Rolling down hills teaches, very quickly, the art of not ploughing a furrow with your forehead. This is done by using tummy muscles to keep the head up at the right time… and it’s good fun for grown ups too; last time we did it we got an audience.

Do not let these exercises become a chore, reward enthusiasm with attention, reward success with praise. Don’t let the above become limiting, invent your own (and leave them in the comments below). Join in, giggle and get it wrong, let your kids stumble upon you doing them by yourself… and above all

…enjoy.

tag... play for today, play, 3up, 5up, be healthy, be helpful, enjoy and achieve, stay safe

Yesterday was World Book Day, but we at welikeplay central have been at it all week. And along the way I’ve come across some fabulous young-reader stories to recommend.

No1 child has been an avid fan of the most excellent and increasingly surreal Captain Underpants for a couple of months now. And he’s kind of gone and got me hooked too; I curled up after the mites bedtime with the latest instalment the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People snorting through my nose as the plot lurched into unfathomability with an alternate-universe evil Captain, the transformation of Sulu into the evil-hypno-ringed giant Bionic Hamster alongside the usual potty powered giggles.  It’s not often you find a kids book that you can read when there’s no kids around, and when you find them, get them. (recommended for 6 to 10 year old boys in particular)

No2 child introduced me to Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs: Missing Treasure! a book which has our two favourite narrative elements rolled up in a great picture book.  Yes, it has both pirates and dinosaurs; what else could a boy need, aside from a pirate hat with which to sit and smile in. (recommended for 4 and up children of both species… girls need to be pirates too)

tag... review, play, books

In a master-piece of programming CBBC (that’s Children’s arm and channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation) have put on Brian-Jitsu on and left a good twenty minutes to walk to school after it’s shown. Now it’s not often I endorse the goggle-box - preferring my own kids to play rather than veg - but this is different. As a program it inspires rather than sedates.

The premise is a game show in which children get through to the next round by completing mind-games (similar to some the Brain Training on the DS activities but on a bigger scale).  The offshoot being that kids are thinking about focus and mindskills on the way to school.  CBBC gets my hearty thanks.

So No.1 child learnt his spellings today whilst being spun upside down… whether this helps or hinders is beyond me; but the point is he wanted to learn them, which is where it all begins.

tag... play, enjoy and achieve

Yesterday I was left in a quandary by a very interesting post was passed my way by the good algorithms at del.icio.us.  Asha Dornfest of Parent Hacks has a guest post at Zen Habits; there is a parent hacking mentality that seeks to make life easier by taking the philosophy of ‘take it, break it and use it to your advantage’ and applying it to life.  These good men and women who taught me, among other things, to use ice-cube trays as paint easels.

Asha writes about getting organised as a backbone of ‘optimised’ parenting, along with a top list of other bits to read.  But it’s a sentiment that I’m in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with while at the same time finding it gives me the chills.

Now I’d be about 6th in line to admit to an inner geek; behind wife, kids, parents and dog. It’s those little things like hoarding broken computers or - more practically -being I’m awfully proud of syncing my phone via Plaxo with Mrs. Welikeplay’s pda so we can share diaries and get some time together as a family.  But I’ve been in child centred work for a long time now, and if I had a penny for every child I’ve met who’s been subjected to too much organised parenting I’d nearly be able to buy myself a coffee.  Organisation in a parent is all well and good as long as it doesn’t get in the way of getting things wrong in the messiness of living.

I’ve a hunch that one of the most useful skills we can impart to the kids in our care is the ability to, when needed, surf the crest of chaos.  Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying ditch the diary ,and the piano lessons, and the hockey club, and the ballet, and the museums; rather I’m extolling a middle way which allows for hanging out and doing little but creating space for imagination to arise.  Being organised enough to allow for disorganisation.  Being structured enough to alow for structure to crumble.

How to? It’s been some time since I’ve let my own monkey-boys be ‘boss for the day’.  It’s an unparalleled act of chaos and empowerment… which ain’t going to be happening too often to become routine, ‘cos that’s the point.

tag... playpeople, play, running wild

Over at KrazyDad the ever-creative Jim has put together some slitherlink puzzles with a twist.  For the uninitiated, Slitherlink is like suduko with a line; the goal is to draw one continuous line through the grid making it snake round 1, 2 or 3 sides of every square making the numbers match.  KrazyDad has a huge collection of puzzles which can be grasped by kids from 6 or 7 upwards, with his new collection of some 100 oddprintable pdf books of his new Penrose Slitherlinks, which puzzle away a 3D Q-bert style grid.

tag... play for today, 8up, printable

… what!!

Yes, according to a recent study on physical activity with kids, which also finds that over half of us use the TV as a baby-sitter so that we don’t have to run around. Granted the survey was funded by a Health Club to berate parents into doing more exercise - preferably after having paid the Club a premium to be able to do so - but still.

Though if you like play there’s good reason to feel smug. You’re more likely to have kids are better behaved and who won’t drive you crazy. On top of that you’re more likely to sleep better, and think that your home life is ‘happy’.

So I’m going to shamelessly plug my feed. Subscribe by RSS or email - who knows, it might make you’re life better.

tag... play, be healthy

Boys are on holiday and it’s time for a toy cull. But rather than my usual 2 box - 2 bag trick, I think its time to get the kiddywinks motivated. And as I’m feeling a little sleep deprived and surly I’m bring out the big guns of kidnapping and blackmail.

There is a truly excellent ransom note generator which is spot on for jobs like this, now all I need is the right phrasing and to kidnap some stuffed toys;

If you wish to see Big Ted, Flip and Ducky again, you must leave a pile of old toys outside your bedroom door by the end of this morning.

These will be collected by Daddy ‘the Fence’ Dad who will take them to the charity shop for recycling. Only leave toys you can be parted with. In return BT, Flip and Ducky will be sitting on your beds come teatime.

—

Update
This afternoon we’ll sit together and sort the toys because it didn’t work. Boy’s thought it was like a convoluted game of hide ‘n seek; now they think kidnapping is cool. So I’m off to hide my laptop.

tag... play for today, be helpful, toys

As an upshot of cbbc’s Chin-Mas song and a current obsession with chin-heads, we’ve been messing around with any web-cam/PSeye/video-cam we can get our hands on. And we’re not alone.

Chinheads are easy and can be done a couple of ways. First take a bandana, piece of frabic, or a baby sized t-shirt stick and tie/fit over nose covering their real eyes and forehead. Then glue googly-eyes on to chins, a dab of fake eyelash glue is the best but a spot of prit-stick non-toxic does the job - just. If no googly-eyes are to hand, draw with eye-brow pencil. Unless you happen to have children blessed with an Abe Lincoln beard, find some fuzz or felt or perhaps a small cowboy stetson to finish off the look. Then the filming begins.

Filming can be done either with your stars hanging upside-down from a sofa or bed or by inverting the camera itself. Go for whatever’s easiest. Get a background sorted so that kids can insert their chin-heads and hide their real bodies. Sort out some decent lighting, then hit play and let them babel to their hearts content.

Should you and they be really keen it might be worth editing the clip together. Windows own XP Movie-Maker does a reasonable job, as does the PS3’s EyeCreate, but I’ve a special soft spot for Kino on my Ubuntu box. Kids of 8 or so start to use these kinds of programs at school; so with any luck they’ll be able to show you the ropes, and then you’ll have your own chinny-masterpiece. And as it hides their identities, stick it up on YouTube… and in 10 years hence when they’re feeling all grown up, attach it to their Facebook page/hologram to show them who’s still boss that you care. read on »

tag... play for today, 5up, 8up, enjoy and achieve

I’m a bad man; though not as bad as when I misplaced Valentine’s Day entirely. This year I just was a bit slow on the getting some sort of wrapping paper for Mrs. Welikeplay’s prezzie. So I got the boys to make some that, as well as looking good and costing mere pennies, gets extra bonus cute points.

You will need
to be in a state of mild panic
brown wrapping paper or that kids colouring paper that comes in huge rolls
a potato
pink paint
a sharp knife

Now for the children and knives bit. It’s good to bear in mind that the Inuit let their children use knives from a young age; they’re given little versions of their parents eating knives. The boys use a long knife whilst the girls get a curved all-purpose ulu. Kids are going to be ok with knives as long as you teach them how, what’s more if you teach them how then they’ll be safer than having to experiment when they’ve got their mits on an illicit pointy objects. I use the maxims ‘cut away from you’, ‘pass the handle’ and ‘blunt knives jump’. I’m sure you have you own, if not it’s time to put that parenting brain into gear.

To make the wrapping, the boys carved potato halves into hearts, dunked them in thinned out pink paint and printed away until our attention wandered. The only reason the paint was thinned was to ensure it dried in time. Which it did.

…and should you ever misplace Valentine’s Day completely, I found a let-out clause in a swift promise of a private not-V-day - complete with spontaneous choccies in heart shaped boxes - sometime in mid-March.

Enjoy

tag... play for today, 5up, 8up, enjoy and achieve, makes, money matters