keeping summer reading fresh, fun, priority one

It's true--summer can be a slippery slope of 'un-learning' if parents don't play their cards right.

For so many of us, it's easy to just send the kids out back in the yard or to throw on the ole telly to pass time between trips to the pool or beach. And don't get me wrong, kids need a little bit of each. (And certainly their parents do too!)

But the reality is that it's up to parents to keep our kids' brains moving and bodies excited about learning even when temps outside make us want to melt.

Here are a few fun ways that we are trying to keep summer reading fresh, fun, and priority number one. It's not even July yet, so keep in mind that some things we've done this summer, some we've done in the past, and some things are on our list to do. . .

We are:

• Making a Habit Out of Reading: We move slower in the summer, no doubt, and daily until the end of July, Maddy and Owen have pre-team at the same time every day. So we do basically the same thing each morning.

We rock it out with our Everyday Name Books, we eat breakfast, and we spend about 30 minutes to an hour reading. Not the same way every day, but we read in some way, shape or form. And then we get suits on and walk, ride, or scoot up to the pool.

• Making Reading F-U-N: We'll try reading in microphones. We'll revisit reading on video. We sometimes read in silly voices. We read to Brady or to dolls or to each other.

• Keeping a Summer Reading Log:I am not a big fan of forcing an extension activity after every single book we read. But I do think kids find value in looking back and seeing a long list of books they've read over a period of a few weeks.
  

Maddy's school has asked her to keep a running list of books read over the summer, and our library's summer reading program has us doing the same thing.

So I devised my own Summer Reading Log that gives the kids biiiiig spaces for writing the book title and author and for either drawing a tiny picture from the book or jotting down a word or phrase about the book. The Summer Reading Log is here to download as a pdf if you'd like to use it yourself.

Owen's Summer Book List

• Finding 'New' Books: We are lucky to have a gazillion books in our house, and I really think we only read about 20% on a regular basis. So some days I send Maddy, Owen, and Cora on 'hunts' around our house for books we haven't read in a long, long, time.

Sometimes I give them ten minutes to really sort though each other's bookshelves or our living room or downstairs shelves, and other times, it's a two-minute scramble for books. Any way we do it, they always find either an old fave or a new-again-for-us read.

• Exploring Non-Books: Magazines, newspapers, comic books, poetry, greeting cards, anything with words is fare game when it comes to summer reading. We love pulling out an 'old' High Five, Highlights, or My Big Backyard, and my goal is to pick up a few easy comic books next time we hit the library. Owen loves the Sunday Comics, so I think he'd really appreciate a book full of comics, too.
  

Our playset is a fun place for the kids to read.
And check out our neighbors' yards.

• Reading in New Places: Whether it's out back on a lounge chair or everyone on one person's bed, if we mix up the reading location, usually the kids get a kick out of it. Some days we'll spread out a picnic blanket on the living room floor or read inside an indoor tent or all squish up on one chair or read on the playset out back--anything to liven things up a bit.

• Listening to Books on Tape: Perfect, in my opinion, for afternoon rest time or for a long car ride, books on tape still demonstrate for kiddos how fluent reading should sound, and it helps! Our library has tons of books available on CD, so Maddy, Owen, and Cora can all listen to their favorites.
  

• "Collecting" Books: It seems like every kid I know has a tendency to want to 'collect', and my family is no exception. When children want to collect--and read--all of the books by their favorite author or subject, it's awesome. There's nothing like being able to say you've read an entire series or all of the books by one author.
  

Over here, we've been on dog kicks, Fancy Nancy kicks, and we've been on poetry kicks. This morning, we began a Little Animal kicks. I'm wondering what's next. . .

Brady loves to hear books, chew on our toys, and sit on our blanket.

• Reading but Not Reading: Book Walks are great ways for kids to move through books while practicing story control, language skills, and memory. There's not a lot of reading involved here, since kiddos can literally talk their way through the pages of a book, but kids still look to the text for help when they need it.

The power of a Book Walk is not to be underestimated. Sometimes they're great for longer books, for time crunches, or for just handing over the reins to an emerging reader.

• Joining Others Who are Reading: Our library--and nearly every library in the country--runs a super summer reading program, and we are a part of it. There's something cool about walking into "your" library and seeing your name along with many, many others who are all psyched about reading. Incentives--whether it be a bookmark, a freebie book, or an award at the end--don't hurt, either.

Just this week, we registered Maddy for The Washington Post's Kid Post Summer Book Club. Kids have to be 6-13 years old, and they'll get a bookmark and their name in a special edition of the Kids Post at the end of the summer. FUN! (All you have to do is shoot an email to kidspost@washpost.com with 'summer book club' as the subject and your child's name, age, address, and phone number.)

• Making a Family Effort to Read: By setting aside family leisure time to read, kiddos are shown that reading is a pastime worth engaging in. Even if it's just a few minutes each day--while I read the paper or (try) to finish my own Book Club book, when Maddy, Owen, and Cora see me read, they see reading for pleasure in a-c-t-i-o-n. Like the old saying goes, A family that reads together stays together. Right?
  

fyi on the summer slide:
Research shows that middle class students "gain a couple of months worth of achievement each summer" while "low-SES students lose an average of two or three months" essentially because low-SES students just don't have the same access to books as their higher-SES counterparts (Stopping summer slide. (June 2010). Reading Today, 27(6), 1, 6, 7. These statements are really no surprise and show that we should all do what we can to support our reputable, local programs that provide summertime learning support for low-SES families.

However, I also know from reading research--and from my own classroom experience--that "too much forced follow-up or extension activities and too many must-do reading logs or reading journal activities can be over-kill. Dennis Kavanaugh's commentary in Reading Today, "Let's Stop Killing Reading", argues against the "skill-drill-kill world" of reading instruction where students are turned into "computer or worksheet zombies".

He advocates "self-selected, active reading on a consistent basis" as the best way "to raise test scores, teach habits that good readers have, and create a lifelong love for reading". He's not the only one who believes in this one-way, sure-fire ticket to reading success for students; he cites respected members of the reading research field--Richard Allington, Linda Gambrell, and Jim Cunningham--whose work proves this fact.

As a former high school English teacher, I can see both sides. Reading logs, journals, and extensions should, in theory, demonstrate a student's understanding of a text and are more thought-provoking and personal than basic comprehension questions. But really, who wants to interrupt their reading with a forced activity at the end of every chapter? Not me.

So what does this mean for our little guys? Why am I mentioning all of this reading-research jargon when my own kiddos are 6, 4, and 3? Because what we do now counts. We, as parents, have the power to shape our little ones' views on reading now--even when our kids are tiny, when they're still toddling around or just beginning to sound out words.

By keeping summer reading--or anytime reading--fresh, fun, and top priority--we can help to support our own childrens' reading and literacy development early on.
So let's get reading, let's keep it light, and let's keep it above all, F-U-N!

a big teach mama flop: fancy summer flip-flops

They look great, don't they?

So cute! So summery! So perfect for little feet!

We thought so, until one by one, the flips we took an afternoon to beautify started falling apart, one by one. Boo-hoo, boo-hoo.

Like our last biggie teach mama flop, our fancy summer flip-flops were another. Big. Flop.

Here's the skinny:

• Fancy Summer Flip-Flops: We love shoes over here--okay, Maddy, Cora, and I do. Owen doesn't give a hoot what he wears on his body or feet, but the girls and I love ourselves a little something fancy once in a while or every day.
  

I've had 'flowery flips' on the brain for quite some time, and one recent rainy afternoon, I thought we'd give it a try. I grabbed the few loose flowers I brought back from my parents' house last time we were visiting, and I brought out the hot glue (the big problem!), some pipe cleaners, and some beads.

Very simply, I cut the flowers from the stems, added a leaf, and secured to first Cora's little flip-flops, then Maddy's.

Cora's flips are in the works. . .

. . . and how cute are they?

Maddy's flips are almost there. . .

. . . and they turned out so pretty!

Owen worked his little fingers hard to put a few beads on a pipe cleaner in order to add some zing to his flops, and then I hot-glued it to secure them. But all for naught.

Within minutes of prancing and dancing and hopping around in their new, fancy summer flip-flops, the flowers and beaded-pipe cleaners fell off.

And I tried to poke holes in the glue and thread a string through and tie them on that way, but it was hard, and I got distracted.

And then super naughty-puppy Brady then grabbed Maddy's flower from my hand. And we all chased him around our back yard for what seemed to be hours.

And when we finally recovered the soggy, dirty, dog-slobbery mess of a purple flower, we were tired and sweaty and frustrated, so we tabled the whole thing.

And I haven't been inspired to come back to it since.

So that's that--another big teach mama flip-flop flop for your reading pleasure. Believe me, there are many; I just don't have the time to share them all. . . . but I should.

Any other ideas as to how I can make this work, please feel free to link back or comment to share your expertise. Crafty I am not.

new for us friday: kid-friendly beets

Kid-friendly beets? I think. Maybe.

I've searched and searched and believe I've found the most kid-friendly beet recipe around.

Actually, it was kid-friendly for one of my three kiddos, so does that mean this is an almost-kid-friendly beet recipe? A 1/3 kid-friendly beet recipe? I'm not sure.

But what I do know is that our CSA has provided us with yet another new-for-us veggie that added a bit of excitement to our week.

This New For Us Friday involves an ugly, purpley, rooty veggie: beets.

• Kid-Friendly Beets: I only remember pickled beets from my childhood, a delicious-looking dish but one that I could never acquire a taste for.

My hunt for an simple, quick, kid-friendly beet recipe came up short, so I got creative and came up with my own Kid-Friendly Beet Recipe which you can download here as a pdf and try for yourself.

Oooooooh, these ugly beets are preeeety inside.
Never judge a book by its cover, right?

I said, Okay, friends. This week we have a totally new-for-us veggie in our CSA box, and they're beets. They felt them, tried to squish them, and admired their ugliness.

And them I rinsed them and cut them. I know Maddy, Owen, and Cora were interested to see what was inside of these ugly-looking root veggies. When I cut them open, they were impressed. (And so was I).

We played with the hot-pink-purple beet juice for a while, and then Maddy and Owen ran outside and Cora hung around to help me with our Kid-Friendly Beet Recipe.

I sprayed olive oil on the aluminum foil pouch I made, and I placed each piece of beet flat inside. Then I sprayed a bit more olive oil on top, added salt, and threw it in the oven.

Cora and I mixed the three ingredients together so the sauce would be ready for our beets. A simple combination of balsamic vinegar, syrup, and brown sugar was all it took.

Cora prepares the sauce for our beets.

Once the beets were ready and had softened a bit in the oven, we placed them on a plate, drizzled the sauce on top, and gave them a taste.

I cut a few pieces and put them on our little boat plates--which make everything more fun--and put a toothpick on top of each beet slice.

our crazy beet-boats

The verdict? Cora loved the beets. She loved them from her first nibble.

Maddy and Owen? Not so much. Owen said they had a funny taste, and Maddy told us they made her tongue feel funny. Maybe because they were already bothered by me calling them inside for a little taste, maybe the sauce was too sweet, maybe the beets were too warm. Maybe they just don't like beets, and that's cool too.

Cora finished everyone's beets and asked for more, so she and I enjoyed the beets in peace and talked about other pink and purple foods we knew, other sweet foods we knew, and other kinds of sauces we like. And then as she popped the last bite into her mouth, she said, Mommy, I actually don't think I like beets anymore. I want to go outside.

I told her no problem, go ahead; I cleaned the purple juice off her face and fingers and watched her run out back.

fyi, for those unfamiliar with b-b-b-beets:

• Beets are high in sugar (meaning that this recipe was crazy high in sugar. . .yikes!);
• Beets can be eaten raw or cooked but too much heat may diminish beets' "anti-cancer activity";
  
• Beets are cousins of Swiss chard (for all my fellow CSA pals);
  
• Beets can store for up to two weeks in your fridge;
  
• Beets are rich in nutrients and high in B vitamin folate, which all pregnant women need for healthy bambinos;
  
• Beet juice may stain your skin, but rubbing lemon juice on your hands will take away the color--cool!
• Beet juice is powerful and can help with: anemia; blood pressure; prevent colon or stomach cancer; dandruff; liver, gall bladder, or kidney problemos; varicose veins! Wow.
  

Thanks to WHFoods: Beets for the majority of this info and Juicing For Health for the skinny on beet juice.

Thanks also to Jessica's post at Family Education BLOGS for the inspiration for our own Kid Friendly Beet Recipe. I also look forward to trying Disney's Beet Walnut Dip and Kate at Savour Fare's Beet, Blue Cheese and Bacon Dip. YUM.

The purpose of New For Us Fridays is to keep life in our house fresh, to keep us open to new foods, ideas, and activities, and to help us all to be excited to try new things. We've got a few cool things lined up this summer, and I'm excited to try them out and share what we find! Any suggestions for us, hit me with an email or comment!

our everyday name books

Books, books, books!

We're making books, reading books, and talking about books over here--between trips to the pool and bike rides, that is.

With our summer schedules in full swing, I know it will be hard to get my little ones writing every day, but I'm going to try my hardest.

Every little bit counts. So our easy, everyday writing focus will be names.

One thing I loved about Owen's preschool last year was that his teachers had the students focus on their names right when the kiddos entered the room each day. For the first few weeks, students simply found their name card on the chart and flipped it over. Mid-year, they wrote their first name on a card, and come spring, these little guys were writing (or trying to write) their first and last names on the card.

Even with our later-bedtimes and lazier mornings, our summer days will begin the same: our Everyday Name Books.

• Everyday Name Books: The premise? Simple: write their name on one page each day so that their little fingers don't forget the all-too-important tripod grip and so they can practice their name. That's it.

Small and simple is the word for these little Name Books, but the payoff (I'm hoping!) will be big. Maddy, Owen, and Cora each have their own mini-spiral notebook, each in their own color. Their names are on the front of their books.

Maddy's focus will be to write her full name.

Each person has his or her "special pen" with a name flag (masking tape with name on it!) but they can use any pen from the pen jar they'd like.

Maddy knows how to write her name; at 6, she's got that under control (phew!). But what she doesn't write regularly is her full name--first, middle, and last--so that's my focus for her. I want her to be able to write her beautiful, full name, 'Madeline' without thought.

Owen has his tripod grip! So proud of Owen!

Owen, at 4, still has a tendency to write his name with the letters scattered on the page. My goal for Owen is to make a habit of writing his name in a line and to write his name with the proper mix of uppercase and lowercase letters. Mid-summer, we'll move to first and last name for him.

I wrote Cora's name with a highlighter on top of the first few pages, so she can continue to see her letters each day and trace them if she'd like. (She was totally against tracing the first few days. . . )

We'll begin with a focus on letter 'C' for her, and we'll go from there. She just turned 3 years old in March. I'm really not worried.

And that's it. Just names. At the breakfast table. Every day that we remember. And if someone wants to draw a bird on their page or a snake or numbers 1-10, that's fine.

I am just hoping that we can keep it up and that they'll be proud of themselves when they can write their names (and read them!) without much effort, come September. Or at least they'll be proud of the progress they made in their Everyday Name Books during the short summer weeks. . .

Don't worry--our only writing won't be names this summer. We'll throw in some letter- and postcard writing now and again, story writing when we're moved to do so, and anything else I can sneak in when the kids are willing.

Need some more name-learning inspiration? Check out:

• Family Name Letter Connect
• Names, Names, Everywhere Names
  
• Family Playing Cards
  

And that's our teeny bit of sneaky summer learning for today. Happy writing!

father's day ticket book

Okay, so with our Relay for Life last weekend and our abrupt move from school to our summer pre-team schedule, I admit, I'm a bit behind the eight-ball.

So Maddy, Owen, and Cora's Father's Day gifts for their incredible, amazing, smart, funny, charming, patient, and overall completely awesome father came with (shhhh!) only a little bit of advance-planning.

But I do think he had a super day yesterday, and from the looks of his gift, he's got a great year ahead. . .

• Father's Day Ticket Book: I remember making these for my own dad way back when, and we were always so excited when he "cashed in" his tickets. Although now that I think about it, I'm willing to bet he's still got a few un-cashed tickets from us deep inside his dresser drawers.

Maddy, Owen, Cora, and I brainstormed the list of ideas for their dad's Father's Day Ticket Book. Then I typed the ideas onto cards, printed them on cardstock, and cut them out.

some of the cards from our Father's Day Ticket Book

I punched a hole in the top left corner of each card, cut out a bright green cover, and then the kids signed their names on the back. I used a metal book ring to hold the book together. (I really, really love these rings. . . )

Each card said, This ticket is good for. . . on the top, with things that we knew my husband would like beneath:

• a trip to the dog park;
• breakfast out with Maddy/ Owen/ Cora;
• coffee and newspaper in bed;
• a big hug;
  
• a bucket of golf balls. . .

Because it's been nearly impossible to find one (and I admit I started my search a bit too late), we also added a US Team World Cup shirt on one of the blank cards.

Our Father's Day Ticket Book is here to download as a pdf if you care to make your own.

I think it's a great gift for a birthday or any holiday, really. Add a few drawings for each picture, and it's really special. Now let's just hope that the dads out there will remember to use his tickets!

With home-made cards, breakfast in bed, and an afternoon spent watching soccer and hanging out with his fantastic family, it was a pretty darn good Father's Day if I do say so myself.

summertime fun cards--cool ways to fill hot days

Today was not the day we expected.

As Maddy's last official day of Kindergarten, our plan was to celebrate! Have fun! Relax! Hang out poolside for a little par-tay with our awesome group of walk-to-school friends.

Instead, we were stuck here at home almost all day, waiting around for the garage-door repairman who came hours late and stayed way too long. Grrrr.

So to pass the time and to put ourselves in a happier place, we brainstormed some cool things we could do with our summer ahead--on days when we were not stuck at home and when we really could celebrate the season.

Don't get me wrong--I am a big fan of letting kiddos roll solo occasionally, so they can figure out ways of occupying time on their own and even experience boredom once in a while (imagine that!). But I do know that summertime is fleeting, and I thought that if we wrote down a few fun activities we wanted to do, maybe we'll be more inclined to set aside time for them.

• Summertime Fun Cards: These fancy-schmancy Summertime Fun Cards began as boring little Index Cards but got all beautified by our big ideas and beautiful pictures.

We started our brainstorming for our Summertime Fun ideas at breakfast, when I said, You know what we have to do this week, since it's the official start of summer? We have to think about all of the fun things we want to do in the three months of summer and write them down so we don't forget. How's that sound? I know I want to eat crabs and go to the Splash Park before summer ends. What do you want to do?

Voila! Cora added a picture of corn on the cob!

We came up with a few really great ideas--Cora mentioned eating dinner at the pool about five times, Owen wanted to golf at the golf course with Daddy, and Maddy was throwing out ideas left and right. She wanted to have play dates, go to the beach, and eat lots of ice-cream.

I wasn't sure how we'd do it, but I knew after our conversation that we had tons of ideas to put somewhere, sometime in the next week or two.

Funny how things work out. As we waited and waited for our repairman to never actually arrive for his scheduled 10 o'clock appointment, I realized we'd be stuck most of the morning waiting for the guy. So we got to work.

I pulled out some Index Cards, and Owen, Cora and I got to work. As they gave me ideas, I wrote them down then passed them along to my two illustrators for some illustrations.

By the time Maddy came home, and our repairman missed his 12:30 newly-revised arrival time (seriously!), we sat back down at the table so that Maddy could add her ideas to the Summertime Fun Cards. She was psyched and came up with some really cool things for us to do.

Some of our Summertime Fun Cards, just hangin' around. . .

We talked about picnics and pool days and day trips and tie-dye. Our mouths watered at the thought of eating crabs, ice-cream, Italian ice, and our favorite pizza. We reminisced about fireworks and fireflies and eating breakfast outside, and we got more excited about the fun summer ahead.

. . . just waiting to be a part of our summer.

Then I punched holes in the card, threaded some yarn through the holes, and hung up our garland of Summertime Fun Cards on our railing--crossing my fingers that Brady won't notice them and eat them for a snack.

And that's it.

I used simple words that the kids would be able to read themselves (Maddy definitely and Owen maybe) and include a picture to support the sentence. Pictures usually help emerging readers work through tough words, and there's nothing wrong with using them.

I'm not sure if we'll just put an 'X' over the card when we complete it or put a smiley face sticker on the card once it's finished--we'll figure it out as we go.

But I do know that the garland is gorgeous. It's full of ideas, and it sure has given us a few things to look forward to in the upcoming summer months!

If you need a starting point, you can download our Summertime Fun Card Ideas to use as inspiration by clicking here. It's not perfect (and I know it's missing the good ole baseball game among other things!), but it's a work in progress. (And we were supposed to be at a pool party when we made it!)

If you think I left a summer must-do/ must-see/ must-have off of our list, please let me know!

And three cheers to summer!

our relay for life: in pictures

On Saturday and Sunday, we participated in our third annual
Relay for Life, where we rocked it as Team Scott.

In the brutal Maryland heat and humidity, our team walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked some more.

Along with our online fundraising efforts before the event, we also do face painting and sell tattoos and glow sticks to raise money (and have some fun!) during the event.

Katie is the best face and hand painter in the land!

This year, the uncertain weather had us on our toes. Although the heavy rains and 50 mph winds didn't end up showing up for our event, we did have showers scattered throughout the afternoon.

But lucky for us, our loved ones gave us a rainbow to celebrate our efforts and to send us a hug from heaven.

our Relay rainbow

Our team was established to honor our good friend, Scott, who left us--and many, many friends, family members, colleagues, students, soccer players, and of course, his wife, their 3-year-old daughter, and the daughter who was born three months after he passed away--waaaay too early.

We remember our friend, and we miss him so terribly.

But we Relay to honor and remember our many other family members and friends who battled this disease--cancer.

The Relay is also a time to celebrate our family members and friends who are currently fighting this disease. We can't imagine how hard it is for them or what they have to go through every day.

We think about their caregivers.

We think about their parents, their sons and daughters, their sisters and brothers, their nieces and nephews.

And no matter how challenging things may seem for us at the time--for me at least--the Relay always puts things in perspective.

When the sun sets and the luminaria light the track, emotions are heavy.

But the hope we feel lightens our spirits.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to Team Scott; we are proud to say that we are very close to our fundraising goal of $2500.00, but we're not quite there yet! If you are able to contribute, know that anything helps and that we are grateful for every penny.

Click here to donate to Team Scott's Relay for Life Team.

Please check out our friend, Neyal Ammary-Rische's book, In Mommy's Garden. It's an incredible, award-winning book designed to help explain cancer to young children. Thanks for coming by the Relay, Neyal!

For more information on the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life or to see if there's a Relay close to you, click here.

Thanks to everyone on Team Scott, the most amazing Relay Team in the history of Relay teams.

Want to see more?

• 2009 Relay for Life in pictures
• 2009 Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Fundraiser
  

• Virtual Science Fair for WhyMommy
• Virtual Science Fair Round-Up (thanks to Stimey!)
  

new for us friday: leapster explorer (and giveaway!)

I am always on the hunt for worthwhile, well-made educational products to use with Maddy, Owen, and Cora. It's sometimes hard to sort them all out because so many do exist on the market, and only recently have we invited the electronic learning devices into our home.

This New For Us Friday, we have a totally new-for-the-world device that's not even on the shelves yet. It's so new that it'll rock everyone else's world--like it rocked ours--on July 15th when it hits stores everywhere.

This New-For-Us device was sent by LeapFrog, and it's the brand-new Leapster Explorer. It has blown us away. Blown. Us. Awaaaay.

The kind folks at LeapFrog have also given me the opportunity to give one Leapster Explorer AND Toy Story 3 Cartridge Game away to my readers. Seriously. You'll get the Explorer on your doorstep on July 15, the very day the product makes its way onto store shelves everywhere. Your pool pals will be so jealous. Your long car trip to the beach will be that much easier because your kiddo will be totally engaged with her new device. Your only problemo? Working out a sharing schedule if you have more than one kid.

Here's the skinny:

• Leapster Explorer: The Explorer, like its cousin the Leapster, is a handheld gaming platform for 4- to 9-year-olds, but the Explorer takes things to a whole other level.

Considered a "best-in-class" mobile learning device, I immediately loved that the Explorer's screen was large, its graphics clear, colors bright, and that Maddy, Owen, and Cora could either use the touch-screen feature or use the stylus with complete ease.

Owen playing with our Explorer

The Explorer is a "portable hub for dozens of downloadable Leaplet (tm) Learning Apps, including e-Books, videos, game apps, and flash cards." With 12 games and 18 Leaplet Learning Apps, kiddos can play over 40 total games on this device. And by connecting the device to the computer, they can play in the online LeapWorld--"the safe, online learning playground" where parents can also access their child's personalized Learning Path.

Available this fall, a simple accessory, the Leapster Explorer Camera, will turn the Explorer into a single shot and video camera where kids can edit photos, make galleries, and port them into games or videos. (Eeeeee! Sounds so awesome, right?)

Our Explorer arrived loaded with several Leaplet Learning Apps, Game Apps, e-Books, Videos, and Cartridge Games. Our personal faves were:

• Jewel Train-- a logic game where kids have to connect railroad pieces in order to get their train from Point A to Point B. Owen and Maddy (and even Cora) are currently Jewel Train obsessed.
• Harmonies--players get to control four singers, turning their voices on and off and adding various musical sounds. Love it.
• Pet Pad--one of everyone's favorites, kids get to create, feed, bathe, and entertain their own little pet who will then be on their own screen each time they log in.
• Sugar Bugs--kids get to brush away bugs in teeth. They love it, and why wouldn't they?
• Mr. Pencil Saves Doodleburg--along with super-silly Mr. Pencil, players help rebuild Doodleburg and practice drawing lines, shapes, and letters along the way. Love, love it.
• The Penguins of Madagascar--this is the first game Maddy and Owen have ever played where they get to move their 'guy' with the arrows and make him jump, kick, and move. Big fans of the Madagascar movies, my kids love this.
• Disney*Pixar Toy Story 3-- all the hype right now, my kids have also fallen hard for this game, where they can be Buzz or Woody and (use their early literacy skills) to complete missions and save toys from the Caterpillar Room.

Everyone hearts our Disney Princess Explorer game.

• Disney Princess Pop-Up Story Adventure-- everyone wants to play this. Even Owen. This really is a pop-up story, where players hear the story and locate clues in each section of the story in order to progress to the next part. All the while, they are secretly learning early reading and music skills along the way. Awesome.

The Explorer is surprisingly easy for kids to navigate, even for those who don't own another handheld. I sat with Maddy and Owen the first few times they played, but before I knew it, they would come running to me, excited about something they figured out or proud about their progress. Some games and Apps did cause Maddy and Owen different levels of frustration, but the age range for the device is wide, so it seems only natural.

Cora, at 3 1/2 years old, initially needed my guidance, but she soon found that the Harmonies App, the Pet Pad, and Mr. Pencil game were ones that she could play with little to no frustration.

Overall, here's the skinny on the Leapster Explorer:

We like:

• that it is lightweight and sleek but extremely durable. This guy has (shhhh!) taken a few good hits already, and he's still kickin' with gas;

• the clarity and quality of graphics, the color-quality on-screen, and the size of letters and prompts. My kids have no idea how lucky they are to have this kind of quality on this small of a device, but I remember those teeny, dark screens with fuzzy graphics and tinny sounds;

• the fact that the Explorer remembers each player's skill level and progress and that even adjusts mid-game to meet the player's needs is, in my opinion, incredible. Especially when I have three kids who can all play on the same device, log in under their names, and pick up where they left off last time on any game;

• that we can connect and download interactive e-books from the Tag Library to our device. Interactive books on the handheld? Awesome.

• the Explorer plays videos. Learning videos filled with phonics and math and fun songs and the alphabet;

• that the Learning Path (although ours has not yet been set up) will keep track of each child's progress both on the Explorer and online in LeapWorld. I cannot wait to get it rolling because it will be really interesting to see areas where they are comfortable and areas where they need more support;

• that new content will be able to be added to cartridge games and the handheld device via downloads, starting in the fall of 2010. Really? Just seems so cool to me.

We wish:

• that the pets from the Pet Pad had bodies. Really. Kids get to choose a body for their pet, but the body never shows up, and apparently it's not supposed to. It's a happy little head, tail, and paws, but an empty space for a body. My kids, the pet-crazy kids they are, they wondered what happened to the body. And so did I;

• that the string to the stylus was a teeny, tiny bit longer. Maddy, my leftie, loves that it's placed on the top left side of the device, but Owen and Cora have to dance around a bit to put it in a proper, comfortable position to use;
  

• that I had two more Explorers so that I wasn't constantly practicing my active parenting skills by reminding Maddy, Owen, and Cora about polite sharing skills. I'm only kind of kidding. This is a good problem, really, and the holidays are right around the corner, right?
  

Want to win your own Leapster Explorer and Toy Story 3 Cartridge game and have it on YOUR doorstep on July 15th? Here's how:

• Leave me a comment telling me why your child, children, or you will love the Explorer, and you'll be entered. Include your email address, and that's it. Giveaway ends next Friday, 6/18/10, at midnight. Random.org will choose a winner for us to keep things nice and simple.

No worries if you don't win one here, though; you can order your own Leapster Explorer from the Leapfrog site in either green or pink for $69.99; the Game Cartridges retail at $24.99 each and packs of two Leapster Explorer Leaplet Learning Apps for $14.99. A handful of other cool accessories are now available on the site for pre-order and summertime delivery.

Just so you know, we are still big fans of our good ole desktop computer games, and LeapFrog's Tag and Tag Junior still rank high among our family's few electronic 'toys'. But New For Us Fridays don't get much better than this, and seriously, we're pretty darn happy the Explorer found its way to our home.

disclosure: Big thanks to the good people at LeapFrog for giving our family a fully-loaded Explorer to try out, along with several games. We are grateful for their generosity. In exchange for the free product, we were asked to share our complete and honest opinions. So here it is, my honest opinion, influenced only by my three little playas, Maddy, Owen, and Cora.