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Baby Explorer was a real winner with my neighbor’s seven-month-old grandson, Elan. The App features brightly colored activities that are virtual representations of the traditional “busy box”. Elan could choose from wheels to spin, butterflies to slide, buttons to push and sounds to change. Although putting the iPad in his mouth was something he found really appealing, it is not recommended. 😉
The bright and attractive colors got his attention immediately. Many of his movements were random, but since they produced interesting sounds and visual changes, he was encouraged to keep swatting away. Soon he began to purposefully go for particular activities. The spinning wheel was easy for him to do and produced a satisfying melody. Random pokes at the objects on the central display caused eggs to hatch, frogs to leap and flowers to explode, depending upon what was selected. He had a little more difficulty making the rings move along the virtual rod. They seemed to hang up a little even when I tried them, as did the spring loaded butterfly. I was actually surprised by the length of time this App held his interest. After seeing Elan’s reaction, I have no doubt that this App will appeal to babies from about 6 months to perhaps 1-1/2. My 2-1/2 year old granddaughter, Leah, played with it for a while and then moved on to something more challenging.
Baby Explorer is well designed to stimulate the curiosity of tiny tots and does a good job of encouraging the development of hand-eye coordination. This app would make a useful addition to a parent’s toolbox of worthwhile activities to entertain and stimulate the development of baby.
Baby Explorer: $2.99*
*price at time of this writing.
What would you do if money was no concern? I don't mean take a permanent vacation on a deserted island. (Quite frankly, after awhile I'd get bored anyway) I mean, what
job would you do if you didn't have to worry about insurance, mortgage, family commitments?
I know exactly what I would do. I would do the same thing I'm doing now. And I only know this because after only a few months of what was to be the beginning of my "stay-at-home" mom life, I started messing around online again, playing with HTML/CSS, PHP, and WordPress. I started doing freelance work, then more, then more and more and more. It still can get very stressful and at sometimes downright annoying - but I know I love what I do, and I choose to do it because this is where my passion is.
Sam is a different case. He's been driven more by the desire to "provide for his family" - and I'm not sure if he even knows where his passion is career-wise. He's never had the luxury of taking a few months off to see what he would gravitate towards. I find this incredibly sad. Unfortunately, we still don't have the luxury of allowing him to take that time off. Without his job, our income gets slashed by 3/4 and our insurance premiums more than double for as long as we can stay on COBRA (and then we have NO insurance. ...Yes, I will need to find out what options there are for small businesses but from what I've heard they're not great). It's certainly not an environment conducive to creative personal introspection.
More than just finding another job - I'm hoping he can find something he can be passionate about. (I just hope he can do it quickly)
Unfortunately, I do not yet have an iPad. I do plan on buying one within the next year or so - probably waiting until version 2 is released and my husband is employed again. Heh. However, I've gotten a few requests to review iPad games, so I have enlisted the help of an official iPad app tester:
My mother! 🙂 Since she often entertains grandchildren aged 3 to 13, she'll be able to see how an app appeals to a wide range of ages. Here is her first review of My Numbers.
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Review by Esther Makower
My Numbers is designed to help a preschool child master numbers from 1-10. The visuals are slick and beautifully crafted. The buttons are big and easy for a child to navigate while having a very satisfying three-dimensional, tactile quality, seeming to actually depress and click realistically. A color wheel allows the child to change the colors of the buttons on the screen. A number of pleasant melodies (even to the ears of an adult) can be selected to accompany the game as well. Another set of buttons provides a choice of objects to count (fish, birds or flowers) which appear on the screen when the corresponding number button is depressed.
As each of the ten number buttons is pressed, a child’s voice calls out the number and an object appears on the screen. A child can also press on the objects that appear on the screen to elicite the vocalized number.
Although My Numbers is rated as 4+, my 3 year-old granddaughter, Leah, enjoyed it immensely. She delighted in changing the colors and music, calling out the numbers as she pressed each button. My grandson, Joey, 4 ½, said it was “cool” but wanted to “turn off the voice” so that he could show me how well he could count all by himself.
The overall appeal of My Numbers would be best for a toddler who is just beginning to learn numbers. Its exciting visuals, fun sounds and music with voiceovers are designed to aid in the development of hand-eye coordination and to spark an interest in math basics.
Perhaps in another version, it would be nice to see some additional features that would provide more of a challenge for the older preschool child.
You can see a
YouTube video of the app here.
My Numbers:
$2.99* Price has dropped to $0.99!
*price at the time of this review.
Today he was told that previously, job postings that would attract about 150-200 resumes - in this economy, are currently attracting in the range of 2000 resumes.
Ugh.
I can't even begin to express my frustration and worry right now. I honestly have no idea what's coming next, and I'm becoming more and more afraid to find out. I'm desperately trying to hang on to that little glimmer of hope that "something good is going to come from this" but when faced with a statistic like that... I don't even want to tell you what's going through my head right now...
Not me obviously - being that I work for myself. Unfortunately, no, I'm referring to my husband, who, even though I make a fair living doing what I do - he was the main "breadwinner." His job will be no more in just a few weeks - blamed on a "
reduction in force due to contractual obligations" - which is a nice way of saying the company is looking to save money by doubling the workload of the people left behind and letting go the rest of the team that is
required to actually get everything done.
We saw the writing on the wall as people have been let go at a rate of almost one or two every week. The situation there is not good - and I don't envy the people that still have their jobs. If anything, I'm glad Sam isn't one of them! If any good can come out of it, I'm hoping that this will spur him on to find another job where he'll be happier. For too long he's been tolerating a lot of nonsense there and it's been a long time since he enjoyed what he was doing.
The other good that can come out of it is that this is the signal to me that it's time to move on - as it's been a long time since I enjoyed living where are, in case my
recent posts weren't clear enough about that.
Nothing is ever simple though:
Life is what happens while you're making plans. (The alternate saying is:
People make plans, and God laughs) We had plans for Rachel to attend a different school this year, we had made arrangements in the fall to take our first vacation alone, just me and Sam, since our Honeymoon 13 years ago. (That was to be my 40th birthday present) At the moment we're still planning on going, but we have no idea where we'll be living (I have no idea how all that will work - we'll have to change all our flight info if we move before then), and I have no idea what our money situation will be.
I have a great deal of hope that something better is on the other side of this current mess. Sam is freaking out as you can imagine - and I feel like I'm keeping everyone's sanity together. That is quite a task. Mainly because when I feel like my sanity is falling apart, and I start to freak out - there is no one to support me and help me keep it together (except for my parents - but I hate feeling like a burden to them).
So that is the fun that is going on in our house at the moment. Life is certainly an adventure.
I
Up With a Fish: $0.99*
*price at time of this writing.
I
Oh! The Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss, then it's no surprise. The story is great for children as well as adults - an inspiring view of life's various adventures. The advice and encouragement the book gives is timeless. Released in time for Graduation, the ebook has three options: read the book yourself, have the book read to you (and you manually turn the pages), or put the whole thing on autoplay and have the book read to you and pages turn automatically.
Oh, The Places You'll Go!: $3.99*
*price at time of this writing
My name is Jennifer and The Working Mom is my online journal. I'm very bad about updating it regularly. I like writing, but not as much as I 
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