S-p-e-l-l-i-n-g b-e-e. Recently, I volunteered at the spelling bee at my son’s elementary school.
I read words to participating students of the bee. Those words ranged from “again” to “remember” to “basketball” and the most challenging word for students, “reservoir.”
Every student who participated received a Merriam-Webster dictionary.
As a writer, I love words and it’s exciting to see the next generation love words too!
How illuminating! I attended the media preview of Color in a New Light, the new exhibition at the Fleet Science Center and I was wowed. Interactive stations throughout the exhibit are full of color, design and imagination.
My sons and I enjoyed the whole experience, especially the walk-in kaleidoscope, mirrors, lenses and prisms, glow in the dark objects, a monochrome room with sodium bulbs, the light show DJ, and more.
The entertaining and informative exhibit was created by local scientists with a focus on how we perceive light and color including color that’s seen and unseen.
Color in a New Light will be at the Fleet Science Center until May 2024. The exhibit is included in regular admission.
This Halloween, we made a dessert that’s all treats, no tricks!
My kids and I had fun making Monster Chocolate Pops from tinyB Chocolate. The San Francisco based company gifted me the family friendly kit.
We made the chocolate pops at home in our kitchen using everything that was included in the kits: white and dark chocolate for the outside of the pops, two types of brigadeiro (Brazilian truffle filling) one in dark chocolate and the other pumpkin spice; popsicle sticks; and fun toppings including bright sprinkles, googly eyes and mini marshmallows.
We heated and tempered the chocolate before filling the popsicle mold shell, which is included in the kit. The kids decided to make two vanilla, one chocolate, and one marble pop.
We decorated them with the toppings and placed the pops in the freezer for 30 minutes to set. Then they were ready to eat.
This was a fun and tasty activity for the kids and it wasn’t very messy. A win-win! Order the pops by October 26 so you can make them for Halloween.
Having a family meal and trying out some dressings and sauces that are made for kids.
This new line of sauces and dressings called “That’s Mine” is making its debut. That’s Mine sent me some samples to try including organic cherry balsamic, organic Italian, organic ketchup, organic lemon-lime, organic mixed berry and organic ranch. The bottles are kids sized and the sauces/dressings are gluten free.
Our whole family tried the ketchup which has no refined sugars, as well as the Italian dressing. Both were tasty for the kids and adults. Picky eaters will likely want to try these sauces and dressings.
You know what’s cool for the summer?
The new Snow: Tiny Crystals, Global Impact interactive exhibit at the Fleet Science Center in San Diego. My kids and I got a preview of Snow, which opens today.
The exhibit, which focuses on the global impact of snow on climate and human culture, has 12 interactive learning opportunities.
Ours faves were a digital wall where you can “catch” crystals during different kinds of snowstorms; watching marbles fall down a mountain comparing the impact of rain versus snow and the impact that water has on climate at different times; solving a matching puzzle of snow crystals; making our own paper snowflakes; and building (and knocking over) a snowman.
The exhibit is open through September 5.
Need help managing kids’ challenging behavior? My Mediaplanet article introduces you to an app that uses research-based methods to help families effectively and positively respond to kids ages 3-12.
Here’s an excerpt:
A new collaborative app is helping parents and caregivers use research-based methods to effectively and positively respond to challenging behavior in children ages 3-12.
The Amira app helps foster kids’ skill-building and creates more meaningful and positive interactions for the whole family.
Read the full article here: http://www.modernwellnessguide.com/childhood-wellness/the-app-helping-parents-improve-child-behavior/
My sons and I attended the media preview of “Ron’s Gone Wrong” – an animated comedy adventure by 20th Century Studios and Locksmith Animation’s first theatrical release – about a socially awkward 7th grader, Barney Pudowski. The boy becomes friends with a B*Bot – a personal robot that walks, talks and is supposed to keep him digitally connected.
The B*Bot, short for Bubble Bot, was created by a company named Bubble, which seems to be a mix of Apple and Facebook. While the device is a digital friend, it’s actually tracking the user’s preferences and knows that person’s private information. While Bubble sees this as a business opportunity for marketing and sales, kids just see it as fun, and a chance to make friends.
“Best Friend out of the Box”
When we left the theater, my eight-year-old told me he would love a B*Bot. On some level, I think we would all like a personal robot. The B*Bot is billed as “Best Friend out of the Box.” It’s loyal to one person, it’s owner/user. Think about it, with a personalized robot, you always have a friend: someone to agree with you, someone who likes what you like and someone who will always do what do you want to do.
But even a personalized robot might not be all it seems. All of the kids in Barney’s school have one of these robots. He doesn’t have one and consequently he always feels left out. We see him struggling at recess to make a friend while his classmates are having fun with others and everyone’s robots too.
Barney, voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer, is desperate for a B*Bot, since it seems like a friendly sidekick. His dad and grandmother realize it’s all he wants so they scrape together money but there’s a long waiting list. All they can buy is a back-alley battered bot that is scratched. They didn’t realize it was malfunctioning too.
When Barney realizes his bot is damaged, he’s disappointed but he perseveres because a battered bot is better than none at all, or so he thinks. It turns out his robot, serial number R0NB1NT5CAT5CO, aka Ron, doesn’t know how to be an instant friend and it has different settings than a typical model. Comedian Zach Galifianakis is fun in this role as Ron.
Soon Barney finds out the malfunctioning robot can get violent. He’s amazed as Ron beats up the bully, a YouTuber-type who’s always picking on Barney. The bully’s live stream shows the whole incident and soon the hunt is on for Barney and Ron – since the Bubble team is concerned that a violent robot would be bad for business.
By then, Barney has been teaching Ron how to be a friend. The two have fun, even laughing and playing outdoors. They genuinely like each other and start to become real friends.
Meanwhile we see how these devices, which are always connected, can livestream users’ activities which can embarrass them. For example, a stunt goes awry and we see Barney’s classmate, a girl he’s known since kindergarten, get humiliated on camera.
Technology isn’t all bad though. This movie was made during the pandemic and every Friday, the the “Ron’s Gone Wrong” crew would get together on Zoom for their weekly production status meeting.
Real-life relationships
Ron is unlike other B*Bots. The B*Bot’s creator, Marc Wydell (voiced by Justice Smith) – a young developer a lot like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg – never programmed the device to laugh. He longed for friendship as a kid and seems to embrace this unexpected malfunction. Mark says his design was created for the purity of having a friend. But like real life social media, the original intent seems to get lost in a sea of sales and business opportunity.
The other B*Bot executive, Andrew Morris (portrayed by Rob Delaney) – a Steve Jobs-like character – emerges as the bad guy, who’s more concerned about profiting off the product, than customer satisfaction.
Andrew is the one who wants to literally crush the malfunctioning bot. But Barney and his real-life friends band together to protect Ron and restore their friendship. After all, they’ve all known each other since kindergarten and even though they’re doing different things now, they have a common foundation of friendship.
The movie is an eye-opener about how as a society, we’re all so focused on having the latest device, and at the same time, ignoring real-life relationships. It’s a good remind for adults and kids to look beyond screen time for interaction.
“Ron’s Gone Wrong” opens nationwide October 22, 2021.
If your kids are bored this holiday season, here’s a fun activity: making “snow” at home. Warning: this can get messy so I recommend doing it outside or in an area that’s easy to clean.
My son, who is in second grade, did this activity recently as homework. It only requires two ingredients – baking soda and hair conditioner. I recommend using cheap conditioner or even conditioner you’ve gotten while traveling.
Here’s the recipe: mix 2 1/2 cups of baking soda with 1/2 cup hair conditioner. Then let your kids smush it together. You can mold it into snowmen or simply use it as a wintery backdrop, which is what we did.
Enjoy your snow day!
Actor Cameron Boyce died last year of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) and now his family is continuing his humanitarian work. In my Mediaplanet article, his parents explain the 20-year old had a mission for good.
“He would most definitely want us to take care of each other and be loving to one another, and to be strong,” says his mother, Libby Boyce. “He would most definitely want us to continue working on things that make the world a better place.”
Read more about his epilepsy, #SUDEP and the projects he loved. This article ran last week in a Neurological Disorders report inside USA TODAY. Read the article here.
Get more information about Cameron Boyce’s Foundation.
Kristen Castillo 