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.

So I was curious to see how they would approach a program specifically targeted at children.

I put my testing panel (Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack) to work. They love trying out new software. Also, it was TV Turn-Off Week, and they may have been a little starved for any kind of screentime. My sister Peg (aka Elastigirl) said it would be OK if it was something educational.

Doozla is a drawing program with four options: freehand drawing, coloring pages, backgrounds you can draw on, and webcam snapshots for drawing. The choices are presented in a very clean and simple way. Violet and Dash (who are 9 and 8 years old) had no problem navigating to what they wanted to do. They played a bit with the coloring pages, but found them too easy. What really sparked their interest was the webcam option. Provided you have a built-in camera, Doozla will snap a photo which you can then decorate with the drawing tools.

Jack-Jack, who is 3 1/2 years old, was more interested in the coloring pages and backgrounds, but he doesn’t have the mousing ability to actually use the tools. At first, I was disappointed, because I thought it would be so much fun for him. But then I realized that he found it very entertaining to watch me do the coloring according to his instructions. (His personality has become a bit imperious of late…) We also took a web cam shot, and I colored him in as I prompted him, “What color do you want your eyes to be? Do you want a blue beard? etc.” So Doozla will keep a toddler entertained, with the caveat that you might have to be part of the entertainment.

The tools are very easy to use and there are a lot of fun elements, as befits a product from plasq. When you click on a tool or a color, a little voice says the name with a kind of squeal that is hilarious. We clicked numerous times on “bright yellow” just to hear it. I really like that they’ve included semi-transparent colors, which makes it more fun to draw on the web cam pictures. There’s a control panel so you can prevent kids from printing (boy, would that cost you a lot of ink!) or quitting without you entering a password.

By default, Doozla opens in full-screen mode, which means that kids would not be able to move out of Doozla and into, say, an internet browser. A password could prevent them from quitting the program, so in theory you wouldn’t have to worry about them using other programs or accessing other files. But the full-screen mode can be toggled on and off without a password, which would circumvent that protection. An option to prevent kids from leaving full-screen mode would be a great enhancement.

The little ones, like Jack-Jack, are going to need your help anyway, so its unlikely that you’d be leaving them alone. A 4- or 5-year-old could probably entertain themselves with Doozla. At first I thought the older kids would not be interested, but the next time I came by the house, Violet showed me several more drawings she’d made in the meantime. It’s fascinating to watch her learn the program, and then learn its limitations. She started thinking of things she’d like to do, like patterns and copying, that are beyond Doozla. I’m going to get her copy of Photoshop Elements soon. I think she and Dash are ready for the challenge.

Doozla is a great introduction to computer use for the toddler/preschool set. They’ll learn basic drawing concepts (color selection, line tool, paintbucket, etc) and develop mousing skills in an easy and fun virtual environment. And with a developer like plasq, you can be sure that it will be interesting to watch this software evolve from its v.1 state.

Aunt hack ratings:

Age group: 3-7; older kids will play with it, but not for long

Duration of activity: 30 minutes

Cost: $24.95 (Download and buy at plasq’s site.)

Child/aunt fun ratio: 60/40. It was fun to color in Jack-Jack’s web cam photo.

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.

I talked about how you can use DiscLabel to make fantastic packaging for your nieces’ and nephews’ favorite music, and how the iPhone is the ultimate aunt tool.

I brought along The Preschool Money Manager Kit from The Tessy & Tab Reading Club. Megan’s kids are trying it out the magazine now.

You can check out the podcast on iTunes or at the TWiT website.

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.

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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.

The Tessy & Tab Reading Club was born. Together with our good friend and illustrator Rosie, we put out two issues per month with titles like “Bedtime”, “Airplane Trip”, “At the Zoo” and other fascinating topics for 3-year-olds.

I left the company a couple years ago to pursue a great opportunity with a small but growing Mac software company. So I cannot take an iota of credit for the latest brainstorm: The Preschool Money Manager.

This kit has everything that you’d need to get your preschooler ready to deal with money. It comes with an adorable bank from a company called Moonjar, which has three parts: Save, Share and Spend. Chores charts and allowance calculations are included. It also comes with two adorable issues of The Tessy & Tab Reading Club: “Spend, Share & Save” and “Yard Sale”.

This would make a great present for preschool kids. It’s only $19.95. (Remember: wealthy nieces and nephews will come in handy when you’re a little old lady…)

A subscription to the magazine is also a great gift. It’s $48 for 24 issues (1 year), and each issue comes addressed to the child with a note “Happy Reading From Aunt Jean” (or whatever your name happens to be). If you use the coupon code AUNT2FREE, you’ll get two free issues added to the subscription.

From his website: “Once the lead singer of celebrated roots rock band The Del Fuegos, Zanes has found his calling creating truly age-desegregated folk music.” I love that term – “age-desegregated”. Like the Violet’s Faves CDs that I’ve made with my niece, it’s music that grown-ups can also really enjoy.

Go check out Dan Zanes’ music and videos on iTunes. I dare you to watch “House Party Time” without smiling. At $1.99, it’s cheaper than Prozac. (BTW, Uncle Bob “hearts” the keyboard player!)

You can also catch his tour. I would suggest finding a niece or a nephew to bring along so it’s not so obvious that you have a crush on Dan Zanes too…

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