Cool Cat Kid Blog

Cool Links 4 Kids 04/11/2008

2008-04-11T13:30:00.001-04:00

FunBrain.com - The Internet's #1 Education Site for K-8 Kids and Teachers
I love this website for kids educational games and my kids do too!
tags: education, coolcatkid, games, edu_newapp

Great place to play games

2006-04-27T16:15:00.000-04:00

We love to play games at popcap.com. We really like typershark, it is a lot of fun.

Happy Easter

2006-04-24T23:44:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter: "

This is a great photo from Jeff in the Phillipines!

New Life...New Beginning with the Lord.

Photo taken at Sacred Heart Novitiate the neo-regents' retreat 2006 "

We love our robosapien, should we upgrade?

2006-04-05T11:13:00.000-04:00

Brother and I were looking at Gizmodo after our trip to Disney and found out that we can get a new brain for Robosapien.

In the Gizmodo article Robosapien Gets New Brain: "
...Manufacturer WowWee's deal with Evolution Robotics provides their Roboraptor and Robosapien programmable robots with more sophisticated navigation and pattern recognition systems. So now instead of merely frightening your pets, it can ruthlessly hunt them down.

WowWee hints at future deals with other companies, but offers no details yet. Self-awareness, powered flight and crushing human skills underfoot are probably next on the list.

We'll definitely look into it!

Kewl Kid Pick this week: the Ruler Pen

2006-03-29T16:30:00.000-05:00

Hats off to Gizmodo for this great item! I definitely want to find this for my kids. I know $40 is a bit but it would be so very handy. (Unless you needed to make tick marks AND measure at the same time!)

Ruler Pen: "This one goes to eleven! Who needs a ruler, measuring tape, stylus, pencil, and pen when you have this magical conglomeration of classy coolness? It costs a mere $40...

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Family Calendaring Made Easy: Cool Cat Kidcast #2

2006-03-10T16:58:00.000-05:00

Our family has been testing a new service on Airset for managing our family calendar. In this kidcast, we talk about :

How the family calendar works
How mom synchronizes it with her Palm pilot
How it reminds us over cell phones and e-mail when we have appointments
How kids and parents can put things on each other's calendars

Mom rates Airset a 10+. It is the first thing that can synchronize my palm, remind my husband over e-mail and cell phone for me and he can put things into the family calendar and check the family calendar without having to find me. We love how it e-mails the kids their schedule every day and automatically appears on their google start up page when they log in the Internet.

We hope you'll enjoy the Cool Cat Kidcast Volume 2.

If you want the details, I'll write how I set it up on my cool cat teacher blog.

Cool Cat Kidcast Edition #1 -Gmail

2006-03-10T16:31:00.000-05:00

Today we have learned how to podcast. The easiest way is to use Odeo.

We had trouble getting the "studio" to load, so we set up a free account and then dialed into it using our telephone to record our podcast. We talked about gmail in our Cool Cat Kidcast Edition #1.

We use gmail as the way we e-mail. Gmail stands for Google Mail. In today's podcast we discuss:

What we like about Gmail.
Our experience today with Google Text and the results of our speed experiment! (Which reaches the office first, Princess or the text message?)
Making G-mail appear on our startup page
Some technical notes from Mom.

We hope you enjoy! If you do, leave us a comment!

How to customize your design

2006-03-06T11:37:00.000-05:00

Anne at one of my favorite teaching blogs today wrote about cool cat kid and my cool cat teacher blog. I was so honored! Here is what she says about cool cat kid:

Isn't that the coolest thing! Check it out. It is fantastic.I love the design. The kitten is adorable. I want some lessons on how to design like that. As soon as my grandkids are a little older , I will jump in that arena. I know Vicki will blaze the trail!

So, Anne, here is your lesson on how we created the design for Cool Cat Kid:

1) My daughter and I searched for free blogger templates.

http://blogspottemplates.blogspot.com/ - Aman from Singapore does a great job.
http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/
http://spiderman.sonypictures.com/bugle/weblogs/downloads.php - Spiderman blog templates
http://not-that-ugly.co.uk/index.php?id=viewall

2) When we found the one she liked, I downloaded and copied and pasted the code into the blogger template page. (Each one has their own set of instructions, I printed it out and followed it as I checked it off. This modeled the behavior I want to show to my children.)

3) I set up a free account on photobucket and uploaded the free photos that came with the template.

4) I customized it some with that old HTML knowhow (but not too much!). I added a counter from statcounter and claimed the blog on technorati to add those links.

All this is with one caveat: Do this before you customize your template. If you have already made changes to your blog and added technorati tags, bloglines, etc. you will want to set up a new blog or be very careful with your changes. I suggest doing this first on a test blog or a new one. I wouldn't attempt one of these with one of my existing blogs and I've been HTML coding for a while!

To learn more about blogging read my Ten Habits of Bloggers that Win. It will get you jump started!

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Online Websites for Kid Internet Safety

2006-03-02T15:37:00.000-05:00

Myspace and Xanga are not inherently evil just as books or computers or paper aren't. It is not the medium that is the problem but what is done with it.

When I was growing up the issue was "the mall." Kids were getting 'snatched' from "the mall." What a bad thing "the mall" was.

It wasn't the mall that was bad, it was the fact that kids were hanging out at the Mall unsupervised. Neither is Myspace or Xanga inherently evil. The fact that parents allow their kids to have accounts without providing any oversight -- that is the problem. Go to myspace or Xanga and search for your child. Ask them to show you what they are doing.

Predators lurk wherever kids congregate. Parents who love their children supervise their children.

In the meantime, I've compiled a great list of resources for Internet Safety for you!

Wired Safety
http://www.wiredsafety.org/

Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use
http://csriu.org/index.html

Playing it Safe
A webquest about Internet Safety for 6th Grade Computer Literacy
http://coe.nevada.edu/slefevre/playsafe.html

NetSmartz Workshop
http://www.netsmartz.org/

SafeKids.com
http://www.safekids.com/

CyberAngels
http://www.cyberangels.org/

FBI Publications - A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety
http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguidee.htm

The Police Notebook - Kid Safety on the Internet
http://www.ou.edu/oupd/kidsafe/start.htm

KidsCom - Tips for Internet Safety and good manners!
http://www.kidscom.com/games/isg/isg.html

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Zathura

2006-03-01T19:45:00.000-05:00

My rating is ten on Zathura!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The movie is about two brothers one is Danny the other is Walter. Walter [the oldest] who doesn't want Danny [the youngest] around anymore. The boys can't lay off their father for one second!

So their dad goes to a meeting and Danny hits Walter with a baseball. Danny hides in a square box that leads to the basement and Walter lowers him down to the basement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then Danny finds a game called Zathura and Walter doesn't want to play the game.

But Danny won't listen he turns the key and presses go then a card pops out and Walter reads the card to Danny. The card said METEOR SHOWER GO IN THE FACE OF ACTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soon meteors came falling in the living room.

So they went to tell Lisa to tell her what happened to the living room but Lisa doesn't belive it. Later they meet an astronaut from the game they were in. He helped them with the Zorgons by setting a couch on fire. But they come back and have the game and the living room. The astronaut tries to get the game but there were to many Zorgons in the basement.

They decide that Danny will go to get it but that wasn't the right one! Danny finds out it is in the Zorgon ship and is about to be burned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Danny has to get it before that happens. On the way to the rescue he saw a goat with four eyes and stepped in Zorgon poo which glowed and gave him tracks to be found by Zorgons. Danny escaped though and they started again and Walter got a shooting star and wished for a football signed by a famous football player. But Danny won the game and they found out that Zathura was a BLACK HOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lisa and Walter fell in it but everything came back to normal and Lisa and Walter came back home too. The brothers got along and they lived happily ever after.

I recommend this movie for kids five and up. There is a robot that is a little scary for my four year old brother.

The Chronicles of Narnia

2006-02-28T21:18:00.001-05:00

The Chronicles of Narnia is a great series for all ages it leaves you hanging and you don't want to put it down.

It is a 9 out of 10. It is both depressing and happy at different points. It also loosely describes the crucifixion of Christ.

There are 7 books: The magician's nephew, the lion the witch and the wardrobe, the horse and his boy, prince caspian, the voyage of the dawn treader, the silver chair, and the last battle.

The best one is the voyage of the dawn treader. It is a 10!

Fun things for kids to do on the Net!

2006-02-25T16:50:00.000-05:00

I love to teach the elementary kids. Here are some things I recommend to use with children:

funbrain.com -- The math facts drills using math baseball are great. All homeschoolers should use this website for fun reviews and practice. I use them to practice for first grade and up.
Yahooligans - I love their search engine. This is where I teach kids to search. The Google safe search is pretty good, but not perfect at all. Yahooligans is the best search engine for kids, in my opinion.
Barbie - My daughter loves Barbie.com. It is a good introduction to the Internet and you can get B-mail from Barbie. Supervise her as she sets herself up. Have your sound on because Barbie will talk to her!.
Educational Games by Age and Objective - If you're looking for activities to use with your child, look at their indexed list. They have screenshots and outlines of each game.
4kids.org - A Cool website with some kid quests that you can use to help kids learn how to search on the Internet. This is called information literacy. Kids need to know how to find things, if the source is credible or not, how recent the information is, etc.
Bible Kid Fun Zone - If you work with children in your church and need coloring pages - here is the perfect place to go!
edhelper - If you are a teacher or homeschool mom or dad - I love edhelper. I use this for reproducibles in my classroom. They have everything. I also use the online gradebook which is pretty good.

Oh, there are so much more, but these are just to get you started. Let us know if you have any that you like!

Tips for the RA and boyscouts pine wood derby

2006-02-25T13:45:00.000-05:00

You should always have some weight in the front of the car to make it pick up speed better than cars without weights in the front.

BUT DON'T HAVE ALL THE WEIGHT IN THE FRONT or it will beat the car down the slope but then it will slow down on the straight way and the other car will pass it.

But remember never put all the weights in one spot. you can't win a race by following a book, I tried it once and I came in last.

Why blog with your kids?

2006-02-22T18:20:00.000-05:00

My children and I have been blogging for a couple of days. A parent asked me, why should I want to blog with my kids? Here are the reasons:

It is their future.
Some people are being promoted at work because they are blogging and calling attention to themselves. Writing as well as blogging are important to them.
It gives us an opportunity to discuss important things.
Internet safety, how the Internet works, privacy, how to write effectively, how to promote a website, and what do they like and dislike. I am the computer science teacher at their school and I know they will get these things in high school. However, I believe I should start now while they are in elementary school.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a house where my father introduced me to computers at a very young age. He gave me a book on BASIC at age 8 and I was writing adventure games. It has served me well ever since!

I taught them touch typing last summer. They are proficient at it. We began using the mouse when they were one!
It is fun.
Writing is fun! It is great to discuss things we love. We laugh and talk. It gives us planned interaction times!
I can monitor it.
Kids are going to post and collaborate. I want their first experience on the Net to be guided and seen by ME! The problem with myspace is not that kids are posting. The problem is that kids are posting UNSUPERVISED and UNMONITORED.

Parents should look up their kid's info on Myspace.com and tell their children they are reviewing it. They should have them remove information that will compromise their safety. Be involved!

Wherever kids congregate unsupervised there will be predators. We wouldn't send our kids into a tiger infested forest without us guarding them with a gun! Why would you let your child post something on the Internet without keeping a watchful eye. You are asking for problems!

Good kids aren't happy accidents. They are the result of hard work, hard praying, time, effort, love, and the grace of God. Don't leave your kids to be raised by the Internet because you will end up with problems!

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Milo and Otis

2006-02-20T20:24:00.000-05:00

My rating is ten!

The movie, Milo and Otis, is about a cat named Milo and a dog named Otis. Milo hides in a box and the box unties on the post and sails of in the rushing river!

Milo thinks it is fun but, he goes through a lot of danger on the trip down the river. Then he meets a cat named Joyous and falls in love with her deeply. Then, Otis the dog decides to go to the mountains and on his way he meets a lovely dog named Sandra.

Milo and Joyous find the river that took Milo away and found a shack near the river. Otis and Sandra found a cave to live in. Soon Sandra and Joyous get pregnant and have puppies and kittens.

Otis,Sandra,and the puppies ran out of food one day and Otis went to find some. But he got stuck in a blizzard and got lost. Then he found the shack Milo and Joyous lived and Milo gave Otis some fresh fish and they promised to meet in the spring with their puppies and kittens. When it was spring the puppies and kittens were suprised and they all became best friends and they all lived happily ever after.

I loved this movie but my brother did not like when the animals had their animal babies. He said it was gross!

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Civilization III will rock your world!

2006-02-20T13:36:00.000-05:00

I enjoy playing Civilization III.

My rating is a 9 out of 10. The only draw back is that it makes you retire at 2050 AD.

This is a good game for 10 and older. It takes strategy and you have to know when your stronger or weaker than your enemies or, when to attack or, when to sign a peace treaty.

The more technology advances you make the better units you build. Don't forget to build curtual achivement or the people will rebel against you!

Cats

2006-02-20T07:29:00.000-05:00

Cats are the best pets ever!

They first need to trust you. You always have to be aware for they are very picky with their food and water. If you have a cat inside you have to clean out the litterbox everyday!

Here are some tips about cats' feelings. If they lay on their back that means they are happy. If they have their eyes are half closed that means that they trust you. I learned this in a book about cats that my Mom bought me for Christmas.

I have found a kind of neat website that helps me with my math called math cats. I am going to try it out and let you know what I think!

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Roller Coaster Tycoon

2006-02-19T21:45:00.000-05:00

I love Roller Coaster Tycoon!

My rating is a 10.

In this game you own your own amusement park and you build your own rollercoaster rides!!!!!!!!!

You can buy your own rides. You make food courts. You put in walkways. You can buy land. You hire people like mechanics, handymen, bodyguards, and entertainers.

I think this is a fun game because you build your own rides. You can see how the park guests feel about the rides and make changes.

My most successful park I made $150,000! (Pretend money.)

It is not too hard to start. It is important to figure out if the guests like your rides. You have to make sure that the rides are not dangerous because they can crash and kill people. You will find this out when you test the ride.

I recommend this for boys and girls because my older brother who is 11 likes to play it too!

Mom's Comments:
I like this game's entrepreneurial bent. It also has a customer focus as kids have to watch what people think. My kids love this game, this is one that actually gets played!

Who are the contributors to cool cat kid?

2006-02-19T21:00:00.000-05:00

This blog is a place for the family of the coolcatteacher to learn to blog and experiment.

We have a 11 year old boy named Big Brother, a 9 year old girl named Princess, and a 4 year old who will be blogging through his Mom -- Little Bro.

We also have Cool Cat Teacher a/k/a Mom and the King a/k/a Dad.

We couldn't find a good blog for kids to go that would have kid friendly links and info. We need a place to trust that has good old fashioned family values but fun stuff too. So this is our family project.

Welcome to the Cool Cat Kid Blog!