papa talks

Another whirlwind grandchild tour

2009-11-14T09:16:00.002-05:00

I just came back from a quick trip that included playing with the 3 grandchildren.

Max (who just turned 2) loves grandparent games and asks for it when he sees me. He is now speaking in real sentences and has become quite verbal. "Metro train" was all I heard when we started playing grandparent games. He can watch metro video for a really long time. This is a very weird gene that I seem to have I passed on.

Milo is over train videos but not over grandparent games. He asked for it at every moment, now mostly to see dinosaurs. He is obsessed with chess which he demanded be on grandparent games as well, so I am thinking about that.

Milosplace (http://www.milosplace.com/) is actually what we should be using on these visits since that is the site meant for kids on laps.

Mira appears

2009-11-05T17:14:00.002-05:00

Mira was ready for grandparent games today. She is amazingly cute. She loved the monkey and the duck made her smile. She likes the bells too, I hadn't seen her in a long while.

milo talks fish

2009-10-12T16:28:00.002-04:00

We have reached the point I was aiming for when I first thought of building grandparent games. Today Milo and I had a conversation about camouflage (because of an octopus video) and why having a shark eat other fish in an aquarium would be a bad idea (he was wondering why the sharks didn't eat fish in the video) as well as having a dinosaur discussion. This is when it gets interesting.

grandparent games is now free!

2009-10-11T10:44:00.003-04:00

I wanted more people to share in this experience. So I made it free. I never thought people should be paying for stuff on the internet anyhow.

max visits papa and plays ggames on my lap

2009-09-23T11:29:00.000-04:00

Milo goes beyond dinosaurs and trains

2009-09-11T11:49:00.002-04:00

Milo is beginning to act like a boy and not a baby. He wanted to see new things on grandparent games and was ready to talk about what we were seeing. We went to the market for the first time and explored the sounds a bit. He didn't want to read but he did want to draw. Our conversations are becoming more human, slowly but surely. No trains but lots of dinosaurs. He also tried to shoe the little kid stuff to Mira, who wasn't that interested. We are slowly reaching the point where he will be able to call me on his won and play with me on his own and talk about stuff together, which is, of course, why we built grandparent games. For now though, it has worked pretty well to have him comfortable with the grandparent who doesn't show up that often.

max follows the train tradition

2009-09-08T15:32:00.002-04:00

I tried dinosaurs on Max but to no avail. We went to trains, songs, and diggers and he was very happy. New grandson, same interests as the last one. There must be a train gene in our family. One difference worth noting. When Milo watches trains, Hana goes and does something else. When Max watches them, Joshua is just as interested. No surprise there of course. After my session with Max on ggames, I see he had one with his grandmother. Can't get enough I guess.

You mean the triceratops?

2009-09-01T16:14:00.003-04:00

Milo asked for more dinosaurs. So, courtesy of Bill the dinosaur hunter, we now have more. We watched one dinosaur hunt another and Milo asked what the first one was looking for. I said he was looking for something to eat, which is all dinosaurs really had to do. When another one came into view, I said I guessed that he was hunting the other one. Milo responded: you mean the triceratops? I meant the one with armor-like stuff on it. So, now we know I am not smarter than a 3 and 1/2 year old.

Milo needs dinosaurs (and rocket launches)

2009-08-26T08:29:00.000-04:00

For the first time, Milo has moved off trains (well he went back later on in our last session) to watching animated dinosaurs and looking at a space shuttle launch.(Again and again.) Then he wanted to see fish. We don't have enough. I think he went to some aquariums and museums recently. But also, he is almost 4 now. Time for the classic boy stuff. We will need to find more videos. Still don't cut it with him.

All the grandchildren appear at once

2009-07-20T16:22:00.002-04:00

I haven't been around to be able to play with the kids on grandparent games in case my readers are wondering what happened to me on this blog. Then there were 3 of them all in one day. First Max called, then Milo, and then Mira appeared. I forgot how cool this is. Milo and I played for over an hour. He wanted to see his favorite stuff, which this time included a fair amount of reading which he got right maybe half the time. Then when Mira appeared he wanted to show her what he thought she would like, which is of course, what he liked, but she was paying attention nonetheless. Having witnessed all three ages of the kids at once, (3.8, 1.9, and 0.5) I have to say that the best is yet to come. Today Milo and I discussed the preparation of octopus as seen when you visit Greece. Milo loves to eat octopus. Go figure.

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

2009-06-22T06:25:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-15T07:28:00.006-04:00

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

2009-06-09T09:34:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-05-25T06:13:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-25T06:07:00.002-04:00

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...

2009-05-19T07:58:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-22T15:51:00.002-04:00

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.

no ggames because we were all together

2009-04-14T10:04:00.000-04:00

Max talks; Milo still talking

2009-03-31T11:09:00.002-04:00

Max correctly named the duck, birds, airplane, and most of all Papa, many times today; I really hadn't heard him speak before; very exciting

In other news Milo was asked at a party for 3 year olds where he wanted to go; he responded "Nevada." That is, of course, where he always wants to go in the "see the USA" part of grandparentgames. (He likes the hot air balloon video.)

the always available grandfather

2009-03-28T11:44:00.003-04:00

Over time, my true niche in the lives of my grandchildren, because of grandparent games, is starting to make itself clear. I have played with Milo numerous times this month. While baby Mira nurses, Milo and I play. Today, while his parents were busy getting ready for whatever, Milo and I played. I have become the always available 20 minute babysitter. While Hana has never said this to me, it is clear that that is what she is thinking. Need to nurse baby, get Papa to deal with Milo for a bit. Its ok Hana, you can say it. It works for me. Kind of the modern day version of the live in grandfather. (Without having to feed me.)

Max calls by mistake

2009-03-22T06:54:00.003-04:00

I guess he was sitting on his mother's lap and pressed the Skype key with my name on it because suddenly he was on my computer looking at me. Nice to see Max but what do you do with a one year old besides yell "hi Max?" His mother was barely noticing all this. Eventually we launched the games and had a good time. This all reminded me of why I built ggames in the first place. Not much to do with a little kid after you say "hi" unless you provide it.

By the way, someone commented on my last post by saying that they couldn't launch the video. We just use Skype now. They have gotten very good at Skype. You can launch gg without the video and launch Skype as well. it works fine.

The phone rings... its Milo

2009-03-14T17:44:00.001-04:00

"I was wondering if you would like to play grandparent games with me..." says the small voice on the other end of the line.

Yea!!!!

Milo spells PAPA and almost spells Mira

2009-03-03T16:36:00.002-05:00

I haven't seen MIlo on ggames in a while. He still needs his mother to start it all up and his mother has been busy having a new baby. The nerve! Hello Mira.

But Milo did call today and ask me to play. I was tired from medical stuff so I said we would need to postpone a day or so. He then said he could spell PAPA and spell it he did. I asked if he could spell Milo and he said MLO, which isn't bad. I then asked if he could spell Mira. He started to sound it out in his head. He got the M and the I and then got stuck. I said rrrr to him and he said R. Then I said and now "uh" and he said U. Gotta love that kid.

Hook 'em Horns

2009-02-10T11:27:00.002-05:00

Milo was back mid-afternoon yesterday which initially caught me by surprise but Hana will soon disappear for a while I guess, so last shot for the time being. Milo opened with a request for trains -- shocker -- which I turned into a plan to hunt for trains in the USA game. He said we should go to Nevada first and there we got sidetracked by balloons. Then Milo said he wanted to go to Texas where we saw some calf roping and longhorn steers, and forgot about trains. I showed him the Texas band singing after a game and I taught him how to make the hook 'em horns sign which we did at each other for a while. Then he asked if we could type words by which I thought he meant writing MILO and such, but what he really wanted was to type randomly and have me pronounce what he types which he finds a riot. He had me saying AAAAAA and OOOOO and GNPBNKUT and such. Great fun for him telling by the shrieks of joy. He did type NO deliberately and asked me to type GOO and BOO for him. So it isn't all meaningless letters to him. I owe him a ride on the TGV however.

Still trains and songs

2009-02-05T14:08:00.003-05:00

Lots of interactions with Max and Milo via grandparent games but nothing worth writing about.

Milo still wants to see every train there ever was and Max still wants to listen to every song there ever was. I enjoy seeing them both. Today Hana said that Milo said, after playing with me yesterday, that he wants to go to Italy and ride trains and wanted to know when he would be big enough to do that. (We spent the whole time together in Europe seeing trains, ending with Italy.)

And, Joshua told me that when he said that he could talk to Papa, Max got himself up the stairs and walked into the computer room, ready to go.