Rhythm helps learning.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Top 10 Shows for Preschoolers
Reasons for being popular - fun, music, interactivity, bright colors, and imagination
1. The Backyardigans (Nick Jr.)
The Backyardigans are five adorable friends who put their imaginations together to turn their backyards into fantastical settings as they sing and dance their way through epic adventures.
2. Between the Lions (PBS KIDS)
Characters from books come alive, letters sing and dance, and words play in the world between the lions.
3. Dora the Explorer (Nick Jr.)
A pioneer show in the realm of interactive cartoons for preschoolers, Dora the Explorer characters enlist the help of viewing kids, as Dora and her friends complete educational adventures. Kids learn about colors, numbers, shapes and more as they help Dora solve riddles and puzzles along her way.
4. Blue's Clues (Nick Jr.)
The show’s educational focus covers skills from colors and shapes to numbers and letters, but the greatest focus is on helping kids learn problem solving skills.
5. Sesame Street (PBS KIDS)
Each new season of Sesame Street brings a new area of educational focus along with funny parodies
6. Imagination Movers (Disney)
The characters make music and solve "idea emergencies." If a problem needs solving, the Movers are up to the job. After a little brain-storming, they come up with some possible solutions and test them out.
7. Super Why (PBS KIDS)
The brightly colored characters make letters, spelling, and reading fun for preschoolers.
8. The Little Einsteins (Disney)
The Little Einsteins series was created for preschoolers and incorporates classical music, art, and real world images to entertain and educate.
9. Sid the Science Kid (PBS KIDS)
Always wondering "why?" or "how?," Sid's inquisitive nature and zeal for learning are contagious to kids.
10. Pinky Dinky Doo (NOGGIN)
Pinky Dinky Doo may be a little girl, but she has big ideas and an even bigger imagination.
1. The Backyardigans (Nick Jr.)
The Backyardigans are five adorable friends who put their imaginations together to turn their backyards into fantastical settings as they sing and dance their way through epic adventures.
2. Between the Lions (PBS KIDS)
Characters from books come alive, letters sing and dance, and words play in the world between the lions.
3. Dora the Explorer (Nick Jr.)
A pioneer show in the realm of interactive cartoons for preschoolers, Dora the Explorer characters enlist the help of viewing kids, as Dora and her friends complete educational adventures. Kids learn about colors, numbers, shapes and more as they help Dora solve riddles and puzzles along her way.
4. Blue's Clues (Nick Jr.)
The show’s educational focus covers skills from colors and shapes to numbers and letters, but the greatest focus is on helping kids learn problem solving skills.
5. Sesame Street (PBS KIDS)
Each new season of Sesame Street brings a new area of educational focus along with funny parodies
6. Imagination Movers (Disney)
The characters make music and solve "idea emergencies." If a problem needs solving, the Movers are up to the job. After a little brain-storming, they come up with some possible solutions and test them out.
7. Super Why (PBS KIDS)
The brightly colored characters make letters, spelling, and reading fun for preschoolers.
8. The Little Einsteins (Disney)
The Little Einsteins series was created for preschoolers and incorporates classical music, art, and real world images to entertain and educate.
9. Sid the Science Kid (PBS KIDS)
Always wondering "why?" or "how?," Sid's inquisitive nature and zeal for learning are contagious to kids.
10. Pinky Dinky Doo (NOGGIN)
Pinky Dinky Doo may be a little girl, but she has big ideas and an even bigger imagination.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Lessons of Sesame Street Letters, numbers and TV
"Kids are adaptable" Yes, they are!!! Let's believe in their ability.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Interview of a trilingual kid's mom
Preschooler children’s Parents Survey
-Maya is 9 and a half now
- She liked dora before, not anymore
- Slavic, Greek, English
- English became the primary now
- She wasn’t forced to learn. It was a natural way of learning. It contrasts with K-American friends who were taught in English more. Jilly taught writing and reading but didn’t sent Maya to school or anything.
- She understood languages before the way that she reacts but start to really speak when she was three
- She wasn’t confused among those three
- Learning language earlier is better because when you grow up you are conscious about many other things e.g. how people would think of your pronunciation, etc
-Look at what’s popular out there. Clubbing and https://www.ganzestore.com
- When she travels to Greek, she gets back to the mode pretty quickly
- Suggestion for my project: may be more interaction, give time to respond more, less on reading ability(chat, word recognition system), listening and speaking is more important
-Maya is 9 and a half now
- She liked dora before, not anymore
- Slavic, Greek, English
- English became the primary now
- She wasn’t forced to learn. It was a natural way of learning. It contrasts with K-American friends who were taught in English more. Jilly taught writing and reading but didn’t sent Maya to school or anything.
- She understood languages before the way that she reacts but start to really speak when she was three
- She wasn’t confused among those three
- Learning language earlier is better because when you grow up you are conscious about many other things e.g. how people would think of your pronunciation, etc
-Look at what’s popular out there. Clubbing and https://www.ganzestore.com
- When she travels to Greek, she gets back to the mode pretty quickly
- Suggestion for my project: may be more interaction, give time to respond more, less on reading ability(chat, word recognition system), listening and speaking is more important
Specific Teaching goals
• Helps teach vocabulary and other oral language concepts
• Summary page at the end to recap and instruct
• Helps kids get ready to read
• Helps develop phonemic, print, and numeric awareness
• Large bright colorful pictures to keep kids engaged
• Rounded corners for children s safety
• Laminated to protect from spills
• Great size for little hands
• Simple but engaging text
• Useful for beginning Spanish at any level
• Useful for beginning English at any level
• Summary page at the end to recap and instruct
• Helps kids get ready to read
• Helps develop phonemic, print, and numeric awareness
• Large bright colorful pictures to keep kids engaged
• Rounded corners for children s safety
• Laminated to protect from spills
• Great size for little hands
• Simple but engaging text
• Useful for beginning Spanish at any level
• Useful for beginning English at any level
Monday, November 16, 2009
Mock-up grocery shopping game
This is a grocery shopping game I might want to create as an actual game. Before that I tried it on the paper. Each aisle has different stuff so it will help kids to learn many useful, everyday vocabulary words.
This is the basic setting - commanding phrase, cart, monster's hands
You will see "I want something" in three different languages.
Use monster's hands to wander around and get the right object. If you got it wrong, then try it again.
This time you are supposed pick banana and put it into the cart.
This is the basic setting - commanding phrase, cart, monster's hands
You will see "I want something" in three different languages.
Use monster's hands to wander around and get the right object. If you got it wrong, then try it again.
This time you are supposed pick banana and put it into the cart.
Bilingual games
There are bilingual games with famous characters like Dora(Amazon.com Sales Rank: #774 in Toys & Games), Diego and Sesame Street in the market. And there's scholastic game bilingual game series. I will need to see how effective it is.
Apple store in SOHO
I went to the Apple store to check out the kid's game section. There were games like Dora sketch, Lego Batman adventure, Barney sing along with me, etc. Barney was popular for both girls and boys whereas Lego Batman was for boys and Dora was for girls, mainly. This observation helps my character design because my game will target both girls and boys.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Chicco Bilingual Teddy Count With Me Plush
Chicco Bilingual Teddy Count With Me Plush
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3511903
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Little Pim
I watched Chinese-English Bilingual DVD.
What I observed:
- Teaching via eating and drinking
- Repeating vocabulary and phrase
- 3 min per episode
- Panda character is cute
- Flash animation + reality
- Many more selections of DVD: Hebrew, Spanish, French, German, Italian...
I learned "Shwei" is water. It's hardly forgetful because it's us repeated many times.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Note from "Tipping Point"
Tipping point Chapter 3: The Stickiness Factor: Sesame Street, Blue's Clues, and the Educational Virus
- Importance of Interactivity, Daniel Anderson who worked with Nickeolodeon designing Blue's Clue's says, Blue's Clues was created with philosophy to give opportunity to have children behaviorally active. "Steve spends almost all hist time on screen talking directly at the camera' (123)
-Human's eye is capable of focusing on only small area at one tine - a perpetual span - Usually centered (108)
- Nickelondeon's Blues clues is stickier than Sesame street because it purely targeted young children whereas Sesame Street had adults' element to have parents watch together (112)
- Blue jump through magical doorways, play puzzle game with Steve -> more fun (122)
- Strangely, Sesame street didn't stick with the idea where they want to hear kids' response (123)
- Anderson," the driving force for a preschooler is not a search for novelty , like it is with older kids, it's a search for understanding and predictability. For younger kids repetition is really valuable. They demand it. When they see a show over and over again, they not only are understanding it better, which is a form of power but just by predicting what is going to happen. I think they feel a real sense of affirmation and self-worth. And Blue's CLues doubles that feeling because they also feel like they are participating in some thing. They feel like they are helping Steve!(The children responded to the show in a different way with each repeat viewing becoming more animated and answering more of Steve's question. (126)
- Blue's Clues succeeds as a story of discovery only if the clues are in proper order. The show has to start out EAST - to give the viewers confidence- and then get progressively harder and harder, challenging the preschoolers more and more, drawing them into the narrative. (129)
- Adding Big Bird made difference (132)
- Importance of Interactivity, Daniel Anderson who worked with Nickeolodeon designing Blue's Clue's says, Blue's Clues was created with philosophy to give opportunity to have children behaviorally active. "Steve spends almost all hist time on screen talking directly at the camera' (123)
-Human's eye is capable of focusing on only small area at one tine - a perpetual span - Usually centered (108)
- Nickelondeon's Blues clues is stickier than Sesame street because it purely targeted young children whereas Sesame Street had adults' element to have parents watch together (112)
- Blue jump through magical doorways, play puzzle game with Steve -> more fun (122)
- Strangely, Sesame street didn't stick with the idea where they want to hear kids' response (123)
- Anderson," the driving force for a preschooler is not a search for novelty , like it is with older kids, it's a search for understanding and predictability. For younger kids repetition is really valuable. They demand it. When they see a show over and over again, they not only are understanding it better, which is a form of power but just by predicting what is going to happen. I think they feel a real sense of affirmation and self-worth. And Blue's CLues doubles that feeling because they also feel like they are participating in some thing. They feel like they are helping Steve!(The children responded to the show in a different way with each repeat viewing becoming more animated and answering more of Steve's question. (126)
- Blue's Clues succeeds as a story of discovery only if the clues are in proper order. The show has to start out EAST - to give the viewers confidence- and then get progressively harder and harder, challenging the preschoolers more and more, drawing them into the narrative. (129)
- Adding Big Bird made difference (132)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
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