It’s always great to find something that the kids like and that you like watching too. Those old Monkees episodes really take me back. Smirk about The Monkees if you will, but in 1967, they outsold the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined. My little girlfriends and I loved singing the main theme song: “Here we come… walking down the street…” wherever we went. Everyone had their favorite Monkee. As a kid, mine was Davy (like 95% of girls, and the show clearly pushes Davy Jones as a heart throb to the exclusion of the others.) Aunt Judy’s favorite was Peter–she always did favor the underappreciated!

A big point in favor of taking The Monkees on vacation: all three of the kids, from little Jack-Jack (3 1/2) to going-on-jaded Violet (almost 10) really enjoy them. The Monkee goofiness works on several levels. Watching them now, I realize The Monkee’s most lasting contribution to culture is as a precursor of… Scooby Doo, another favorite of the niece/nephews!

We watched a couple of episodes of The Monkees each night. They are short, they won’t cause bad dreams, and they have absolutely NO sexual innuendo! (Have you watched some of the shows aimed at kids lately? Sheesh…)

(The Monkees, Season 1, packaging is also cool: it’s designed to look like the old compact record players.)

Aunt hack ratings:

Age group: 3 and up.

Duration of activity:The episodes are about 20 minutes long. There’s no commercials, but the final credits run with big boxes of Corn Flakes and Apple Jacks plastered next to the boys’ faces. Old school!

Cost: $78 for the set on Amazon. Also available on eBay, for less in most cases. I paid around $45.

Child/aunt fun ratio: 45/55. What can I say? It’s fun for the kids, but it’s a little more fun for me. Depending on whether you love the Monkees, your ratio may vary.

I described in an earlier post how the iPhone is an indispensable part of my savvy aunt’s toolkit. A good chunk of my trip preparation time was spent downloading the latest software for iTunes and the iPhone so that I could install some of the new third-party iPhone applications. (Of course, I backed up my computer completely before attempting to do any of this, with my favorite Mac backup utility, SuperDuper.)

Until the iPhone App Store was launched, there was no way to put games onto the iPhone. You could play them online using a wi-fi or AT&T network connection, but if you were without a connection… no games. I knew that our destination, the Oregon Coast, was not going to be well served by any internet service. I have often bribed Dash with a game of Bejeweled on the iPhone, and I didn’t want to be without this vital element of my aunt coping skills.

(I did learn that it was a bad idea to let Dash play with the iPhone Calendar.)

I loaded up a lot of free games from the App Store that looked like they might be fun for the kids. In the end, I did not download Bejeweled for the iPhone because it was priced at $9.99, and I think Dash was already starting to get tired of it. It took a little time to find good things to download: you can go to a page of the top iPhone free apps, but that will include lots of stuff besides games good for kids.

To save you time and money, fellow iPhone-owning aunts, here are the best ones I found. The links go to the iPhone App Store in iTunes, so if you don’t use iTunes, you don’t want to click on them. (and why aren’t you using iTunes?)

(Disclaimer: I’ve already documented. on this blog that I am willing to let my niece and nephews play with a $600 gadget. Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack are not particularly destructive and the iPhone is remarkably hardy. In the year since I bought the iPhone, we have had a few drops, but nothing has damaged the phone so far. As they say, YMMV – Your Mileage May Vary!!)

PhoneSaber (no longer available)
This will sound really silly to a lot of people, but trust me: this is one of the most fun apps. It turns your iPhone into a Star Wars light saber. When the app is launched, you can wave the iPhone back and forth, up and down, and it emits the appropriate sound effects.

Age group: 3 and up. Most adult geeks I know love playing with this too, so good for uncles/boyfriends…

Tip: You did read the disclaimer, right? Kids could easily get carried away and iPhones could go flying out of little hands. I use the Speck ToughSkin iPhone Case which gives more “grippage” to promote a firmer hold.

Update: Oh no! George Lucas has forced them to pull PhoneSaber from the iTunes App Store. The rumor is that a licensed version might be available. So far iTunes hasn’t deleted this from my phone, but lots of kids and adults are going to be sad about this.

TapTap Revenge
A little like Guitar Hero for the iPhone. Music is played, colored bubbles must be tapped in time with the music. Violet and Jack loved this.

Age group: 7 and up. Too fast and complex for the little ones.

Tip: There is a co-op mode where two players can play against each other. Try to imagine two children tapping on your iPhone simultaneously. Re-read the disclaimer. Put the iPhone on a table so they don’t have to hold it, and to decrease the chances of the iPhone being dropped.

PearMe
This is a matching game. It can use your photos to create a game over 3 to 42 card-pairs, which means you can set it to be easy for the little ones or more difficult for the older ones. It’s very basic. Tap one card to turn it over, then tap a second card. If they match, the pair gets put in your pile. If they don’t, the cards are flipped over and you try again.

Age group: 3 to 10. It can be customized to have as few as 3 pairs, and using your own photos makes it fun for older kids who have otherwise grown out of matching games. There is a timer and it counts how many tries you take, so there is a competitive element that appeals to the older ones (including Uncle Bob) as well.

Tip: This is 1000% more fun for kids if you customize it with photos of them and things they know, like your house, pets, toys, etc. Click the little “i” icon in the lower right corner to access the customization options and then click on “Available Photos.” By default, there are a bunch of photos of European locations and lusty young women. (Typical…) You can delete these and add photos from your iPhoto library or your iPhone Camera roll. It’s a little tedious, but worth it.

BubbleWrap
This provides a piece of digital bubble wrap that you tap on to pop the bubbles. It’s fun in a silly way that works for Jack-Jack (age 3), but it is also a game. After you’ve popped a number of bubbles, some of them randomly re-inflate and you have to pop them again. There is a timer and a score, which appeals to Violet (9) and Dash (8).

Age group: 3 and up. Adults have fun with it too.

Tip: As I might have mentioned, some of these games are potentially hazardous to your iPhone’s health. A good case and a steady surface on which to place your iPhone will help minimize your risk.

I’ve downloaded some others that look promising, like DizzyBeeFree and JirboBreak (which is not free, but only 99 cents). The kids have played with them briefly, and I’ll review them and more apps as we find them in future posts.

As this summer approached, I wanted to do something similar. There was talk that the Incredible Family might be moving back east, and I thought it would be a nice idea to have some bonding time with the kids. So I booked accommodations on the Oregon Coast and made plans. Besides Violet (age 9 1/2) and Dash (age 8), I also planned to bring Jack-Jack, who is 3 1/2.

(My sister and brother-in-law asked me at least ten times, “Are you sure you want to bring Jack-Jack?”)

In the meantime, Grandpa Bob (or, as I call him, “Daddy”) was planning to come out from Miami, so he was added to the Camp Jean contingent. As was my brother, aka Uncle Bob.

We spent three nights in Twin Rocks at the Ocean Rogue Inn. It’s a great place to bring kids. The ocean is right there. They have a play structure, horseshoes, buckets and shovels. There are picnic tables and grills, too. We had the one unit with 3 bedrooms, kitchen and dining room (#7).

I took lots of video, and will edit that into something later this week. I took all of these photos with my iPhone.

Per Uncle Bob’s request, we visited the Tillamook Air Museum and saw lots of cool planes housed in a World War II blimp hangar, the largest wooden structure in the world. (photo from their website)

For the next two nights, we drove down to Newport so that we could make a visit to the amazing Oregon Coast Aquarium. This is where Keiko, the “Free Willy” whale, was housed before being returned to Iceland. The tank where Keiko lived has been turned into a walk-through aquarium featuring LOTS OF SHARKS and other fish. (photo from their website) You can also see otters, seals and sea lions (Jack-Jack’s favorite) in their outdoor ponds. The kids were fascinated with everything for at least an hour and a half, which I considered good!

We came back by way of Corvallis, which gave us an opportunity to visit with niece-equivalent Anne (that’s her photo at the top of this blog) who leaves today for a whole year (gasp!) in Thailand on a Rotary International exchange program.

We got back to Portland late Saturday afternoon. Grandpa Bob and I went in search of some at least moderately healthy food, and ended up at Old Wives Tales. I went to bed and slept soundly until 10 a.m., which is highly unusual for me.

I think Camp Jean was a success, although not as educational (and certainly not as healthy) as Camp Judy. Of course, it’s not a competition.

I’ve got a lot of ideas for next year, what works and what doesn’t work. I will post more specific tips and advice in a series of posts on traveling with the niece/nephews.

Aunt hack ratings:

Age group: 3 and up. I wouldn’t have wanted to take Jack-Jack any younger.

Duration of activity:Six days/five nights (and 6 hours and 53 minutes…)

Cost: Lodging: $803; Gas: about $70; Food: about $350; Air Museum: $7 for kids (children under 6: free!); Oregon Coast Aquarium: $8.75 for kids (children under 3: free — I think the lady at the cash register was trying to give me the chance to say that Jack-Jack wasn’t 3 yet, but I can’t lie in front of the kids! I’d say he got $8.75 worth of entertainment, though.)

Child/aunt fun ratio: 60/40. It’s not always fun to ride herd on three kids of varying ages/interests/food dislikes/moods, but it was still a great trip. I was tempted to go for a 65/35 child/aunt fun ratio here, but on reflection, I’m sure there were definitely moments when the kids were not having fun either.

“Warriors” is the saga of four clans of cats, living in the wild, adhering to what they call (mew?) “the warrior code.” The cats hunt prey, patrol their territory, mentor their apprentices, take care of their elders and try to keep the fragile peace amongst the four clans. There are many skirmishes with rival clans and outside threats (dogs, badgers, foxes), as well as intrigue and drama within the clan.

Into the mix comes a nearby housecat (sneeringly referred to as a “kittypet”) named Rusty, who was caught hunting mice in Thunder Clan territory and then is invited to join the clan. Rusty becomes Firepaw (his apprentice name), and later Fireheart (his warrior name).

When I noticed my sister and brother-in-law (aka Mr. and Mrs. Incredible) reading the Warriors books too, I was really intrigued. So I read the first one, “Into the Wild” where Rusty becomes Firepaw and tries to live up to the clan’s expectation while being thwarted by a power-hungry cat nemesis named Tigerclaw.

I ended up reading all six books in the series. I just had to know what was going to happen to our hero and his clan. I can read one in less than two hours. They are all 200+ pages long, but the typesetting is very big and open. Dash, who is 8, had no problem finishing one after the other.

Then I read the second series, “Warriors: The New Prophecy”, where the next generation of apprentices play the starring role. Another six books with an interesting environmental underpinning. There’s a third series, and the only thing preventing me from reading it is that I feel a little embarassed about reading 18 books meant for young kids.

Best way to explain the story: it’s Harry Potter with cats! Four clans with special powers, into which a young male comes who must prove himself and save everyone from an evil genius cat bent on total domination. Sound familiar? Firepaw even has two best friends who help him get in and out of numerous scrapes and rule-breaking adventures. Check out the lineup:

Fireheart: Harry
Graystripe, his loyal friend: Ron
Cinderpelt, his female friend, very smart: Hermione
Bluestar, clan leader: Dumbledore/McGonagall
Tigerclaw: Voldemort
Thunder Clan: Gryffindor
Shadow Clan: Slytherin
Kittypet: Muggle

The books are an easier read than the Harry Potter series, shorter and less complicated. They are a bit graphic when it comes to killing and eating prey; the phrase “juicy vole” comes up a lot, and if you love bunny rabbits, well, you might not like some of the scenes. There are a lot of fierce battles, and cats actually die. (I even cried at the end of one of the books…)

Aunt hack ratings:

Age group: 8 and up; obviously, some adults can even get hooked

Duration of activity:I can read one book in less than two hours; maybe double that for kids?

Cost: $6.99 per paperback, but you might as well buy the whole set, which is $24.41 at Amazon. They also had them at the library here.

Child/aunt fun ratio: 55/45. Kids will enjoy them a little more because they won’t overanalyze them and they don’t have the embarassment factor of reading a kids book.

What is an indispensable part of the new homeowner’s tool kit that also makes a great plaything for the niece/nephews?

(If you answered “cordless drill,” I’m taking away your aunting license.)

Correct answer: masking tape. I had a whole roll of it on hand, as I am more or less repainting every room in the house.

I discovered this non-painting use for masking tape while the kids were playing with that other standard cheap repurposed toy: the cardboard box. I have a huge one from IKEA, after buying a little fold-out sofa (Solsta) for the upstairs den. It is literally big enough for all three kids to fit into.

Dash and Violet were in the living room, taking turns getting into the box and closing the flaps, when Dash comes over to ask, “Jean, do you have any tape?”

I do have packing tape, but my mind immediately jumped ahead to an image of one of them being sealed shut in the box while I wasn’t looking, panic ensuing, followed by tense moments with the utility knife.

I also have Scotch tape, but that didn’t seem practical: too ineffective in small quantities, and they could easily use up a whole roll.

Then I remembered the masking tape: secure enough, but easily removed, doesn’t leave a mark on floors or walls. Added bonus: my roll was purple.

They had a blast with it. The addition of masking tape easily extended the entertainment value of the cardboard box for another 30 minutes. And Dash found an interesting secondary use: removable face painting.

Aunt hack ratings:

Age group: 5-10

Duration of activity: 30 minutes each for tape and box

Cost: Masking tape: $3. (If you don’t buy the good stuff, it will stick and leave marks.) Box: free with a Solsta couch from IKEA ($129)

Child/aunt fun ratio: 70/30. It was fun to watch, and even better, easy to clean up.

Playing with the Calendar app. Ack! Visions of my schedule scrambled flew through my brain. Until now, his iPhone activities have seemed relatively harmless. His favorite thing to do is add obscure cities to the Weather widget. (It’s 46 degree in Usa=shi right now, btw.)

Me: “Um, what are you doing with the calendar?”

Dash: (engrossed, no answer)

Me: (Looking over his shoulder) “Oh, are you looking to see what day your birthday is next year?”

Dash: “No, I want to see how far in the future I can look. I want to go to 3000!”

- a minute or so goes by -

Dash: “Darn it! It only goes up to 2068. (Pause.) You’ll be dead then.”

So now I know what I’ll be doing in 2068. Apparently I still have some meetings scheduled, though.

(Original iPhone image from Lovely Fig Rolls on Flickr. Photoshop enhancement by me.)

When I was trying to decide about buying this house, I showed some photos to my friend Shonna, who said, “It’s such an aunt house.” “Oh no,” I said. “Don’t say that–then I’ll have to buy it.”

Which I did. I am very excited about moving, but it’s a total time sink right now. I will be posting updates on how the kids like the new house, but in the meantime, here’s a cute photo of Dash and Jack-Jack, who love the walk-through closet upstairs. Excellent prospects for building forts!

Aunt hack ratings:

Age group: All ages

Duration of activity: 30 years, according to the bank.

Cost: All your money. And then some.

Child/aunt fun ratio: 40/60. The kids are really enjoying playing in the empty house. The fun factor for me is somewhat mitigated by the work factor getting ready to move in. My fingers are covered in paint as I type this.

Now, Court (bro-in-law) says I only come over to play Guitar Hero, rather than to visit the niece/nephews. Not true. I come over to play *with* the niece/nephews. Violet and Dash are both better than me. Jack-Jack is a little young for it.

For those who don’t know, Guitar Hero lets you “play” classic rock and heavy metal tunes as part of a rock band. You choose your avatar (see mine at the right) and you pick a song to play. The game comes with a guitar controller that is a kind of miniature plastic guitar with five buttons on the neck and one “string” button to “strum” on the body. As the song plays, a series of color dots appear on a guitar neck on the screen. You have to press the corresponding buttons on the guitar and “strum” the note at the same time in order to score points.

Warning: the first few times you try this game, you will suck. And when you suck, the audience starts booing. Try not to take it personally.

Once you make it through a song, you’ll earn some money for the gig. It’s fun to go to the store and pick out new guitars or outfits. My avatar now has a sweet all-purple leather outfit. I’ve also bought a new guitar, but new outfits are more satisfying. Nobody said Guitar Hero was about the music…

Before you go judging me for leading Violet and Dash into Nintendoland, let me just say that I have tried to turn it into an educational experience. Dash is taking guitar lessons now (on a real guitar with strings, not buttons) and he has a cool teacher who is teaching them guitar riffs from Jimi Hendrix and Cream. So I’ve downloaded those songs (Purple Haze and Sunshine of Your Love) on the iPhone and let him listen to the real thing. We’ve gone to YouTube to look for videos of Hendrix playing Purple Haze live.

My biggest complaint about Guitar Hero is the small number of songs by female rockers available. But I’ve used it as an opportunity to show Violet some old videos of Heart, whose Barracuda is one of the most fun songs to play in the game.

I’m almost done playing my “career” through the Easy level. All that’s left is a guitar battle, a kind of competitive contest against a computer character, to the tune of The Devil Went Down to Georgia. Dash and Violet are already on the Medium level, and I might have to accept the fact that they will always be better than me. Unless I get my own Wii…

[2/15/08 Update: I'm a rock goddess now. I had to wait until the kids went to bed though, so I didn't get heckled for all my failed attempts. And Medium level is going to be soooo hard for me.]

Aunt hack ratings:

Age group: 7 and up

Duration of activity: 30 minutes minimum; if you’re not careful you could play this for hours. I recommend against that–it doesn’t set a very good example.

Cost: Nintendo Wii: $250; Guitar Hero III: $90. Guitar Hero is also available for PC/Mac, so you wouldn’t need to buy the Wii, although from what I’ve read, the Wii is more responsive

Child/aunt fun ratio: 50/50. Until it’s bedtime, and then it’s 100% aunt fun.

Macs come with an application from Apple called Photo Booth. Using the iSight camera in your Mac, you can take little snapshots that can be emailed or used as profile icons. I just discovered this 4-up “burst” mode that will take four shots in rapid succession. When I say “rapid”, I mean it. The shots are taken just a second or so apart. A real photo booth gives you time to prep for each shot, but with Photo Booth, you have to be fast.

In Seattle, I challenged Charlotte (11) to a face-making race. “Straight, sad, happy, mad,” I said. It’s really hard to do when the camera is going off so quickly. We probably did 20 takes before we got the one on the right that was satisfactory, with much hilarity. When Emily (18) and I got back to Portland yesterday, we played the same game with the same hilarious results.

Aunt hack ratings:
Age group: 7-18
Duration of activity: 30-45 minutes
Cost: none (if you have a Mac)
Child/aunt fun ratio: 50/50

I apologize to the non-Mac-owning aunts–I couldn’t come up with any Windows equivalent for Photo Booth. If you know of one, please share in the comments!

I decided to get everyone’s presents at Powell’s Books, our local book mecca. I did a surgical strike, going in on Tuesday morning and only giving myself 35 minutes on the parking meter.

Here’s how I did:

Jack-Jack: Bob: And 6 More Christmas Stories by Sandra Boynton

Jack-Jack just turned 3 in November, and I bought him a couple of books that he really liked. One was another book by Sandra Boynton, The Going-To-Bed Book. The “Bob” book seemed like a good one because a) Jack-Jack has an Uncle Bob and a Grandpa Bob, and he might even be about to “read” the title; and b) this board book has cute tabs down the side for each of the 7 stories, and I think that’s just fun.

Dash: Peanuts Treasury

I have fond memories of the hours I spent reading the Peanuts Treasury. Dash has gotten to be a very good reader. (His vocabulary has grown as well: he uses the word “precisely” all the time now, which cracks me up.) The language of “Peanuts” is sophisticated, which is good exposure for a young reader. Kids will not get all the nuances of the humor (I remember wondering what the heck is a “Van Gogh” and why does Snoopy have one in his doghouse) but there is plenty that they will relate to.

Violet: Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

I got Violet the first book in the series, “Peter and the Starcatchers”. It’s a very imaginative prequel to Peter Pan. The book is beautifully designed as well–nice compact trim size, gorgeous jacket, great illustrations. I met Ridley Pearson a couple years ago at the Portland Wordstock event (it was my volunteer job to shuttle him from/to the airport) and he really impressed me. He gave a reading and he was mobbed with young readers.

I’m also getting 10 crisp $1 bills for both Violet and Dash so they can put them in their new 3-part Moonjar banks, part of the Preschool Money Manager from The Tessy & Tab Reading Club. Now that they have the banks, it makes it kind of fun to give them money to divide up between the Spend, Save and Share sections of the bank. I think the recommended percentage is 70/20/10. So they should be able to figure out the math on $10.

Charlotte: Alphabet Rubber Stamps from Cavallini & Co.

Charlotte’s almost 12, and lives with her parents (my best friends from college) in Seattle. She is artistic and likes words, being an avid reader and a talented writer. I found a cool, kinda retro rubber stamp set with all the letters of the alphabet by Cavallini & Co. I would have fun playing with that, and I think she would too. They have some other cool-looking stamp sets (Paris! Butterflies!) but no e-commerce on their website, which seems bizarre in this day and age. Glad I found them at Powell’s.

I also bought a cookbook for my sister and brother-in-law: Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. They have been having organic vegetables delivered weekly by Pioneer Organics, and so they are always on the lookout for new vegetable recipes.

Today I realized that I still needed to have some little gifts for Emily and Anne. Emily’s in Portland right now, on college break, and we are driving up to Seattle together (of course, I will be doing all the driving), and her sister Anne is coming up from Corvallis, where she lives with her dad, to ride with us. I’ll drop them off at their mom’s house, outside of Seattle.

I headed to one of my favorite stores in the neighborhood, New Renaissance Bookshop. Besides books and DVDs on a wide range of spiritual practices, they have a lot of nice gifts: teas, essential oils, crystals, candles, chimes, etc. I found Matcha (Green Tea) Natural Eye & Face Masks which looked like it would be fun for the girls. I usually avoid giving people “things” that will take up space and need to be dusted, stored and eventually decluttered. I like the idea of this product, which they can enjoy and use up. It comes from a company called Muddy H20, located in nearby Vancouver, Washington.

–

As I mentioned, I’ll be heading up to Seattle for the Christmas holiday, and spending Christmas Eve with Charlotte and her parents, after spending a night with Emily and Anne and their mom. My sister Peg and her family are headed back east to spend time with her in-laws. I hope you are getting to spend time with the kids in your lives this holiday — and that they don’t drive you too crazy.

Or vice versa.

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December 26 | Update

It’s the day after Christmas, so I thought I should follow up with a report on how the gifts were received.

Jack-Jack unwrapped his book and exclaimed “Bob the Reindeer!” We all stared at him, open-mouthed: had he actually learned how to read that at age 3? Then Peg figured it out: “Do they have that book at your school?” Apparently they do. Which surprises me, because his previous Montessori school did not approve of books with animals that wear clothes and talk.

Dash and Violet were a little underwhelmed with their books. At least Dash didn’t say “That’s not a very cool present,” which he did say when I brought him an Empire State Building pencil sharpener from NYC. (At which point, Uncle Bob told him the entire story of King Kong to convince him that the Empire State Building really is cool.)

Dash and Violet were thrilled with the ten $1 bills though.

Charlotte did like her stamp set. I guess I will have to get my own…

Anne and Emily really liked the green tea mud masks. But mainly they were just grateful that I was able to fit their many big suitcases into my VW Beetle for the trip to their mom’s. I guess that’s one of the things you learn as you get more experience traveling: just because you CAN fit something into your suitcase(s) doesn’t mean you SHOULD pack it.