You What? uKloo!

Friday, 6 December 2013

uKloo (pronounced You-Clue) is a fun, engaging, early reader treasure hunt game for kids ages 4+. It was created by Doreen Dotto who has 2 boys that were reluctant readers and tried to avoid doing reading homework. She wanted to create a fun way to get them engaged in reading with a bonus of being active while doing it!

So what exactly is uKloo and how do you play it? The game comes with 4 sets of cards (3 reading levels and a set of blank dry-erase cards). You set the cards up in various locations throughout the house according to what is on the card. Once they find one card it will tell them where to find the next card and so on. The last hiding spot reveals their surprise.

The surprise can be anything you want it to be. A dollar store toy, a certificate to get ice cream, a sticker, a card from mom or dad, a lollipop, etc. It doesn't have to be complicated at all!

Examples of each level of the reading cards from early readers to more detailed readers:
1) Look beside the milk
2) Find it in your helmet
3) Search on the bed under your dad's pillow

For early readers there is also a poster of all the words that are used on the card. If a child gets stuck on a word they can refer to the poster that has a picture with each word to help them figure it out. The poster is also sorted by verbs, preposition, helper words, and nouns. The words in each category are also listed alphabetically.

My kids love this game and frequently ask to play it. Sometimes I use it as an incentive when Kayla is a bit slow getting ready for school. I'll ask her if she wants to play uKloo when she gets home and that usually perks her up! She even tried telling her aide as school about a game she was going to play at home, but he had no idea what she was talking about.

They both enjoy running around to the next spot and seeing where that card is going to take them ... and wondering when they are going to find their surprise!

Here are 2 quick videos of each of them playing the game.

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A short clip of Kayla. I had a couple more video clips of her reading her cards and finding her surprise, but they've mysteriously disappeared from my phone ... coincidentally after Kayla was looking through the videos!

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uKloo has won 9 awards (3 from Dr Toy categories), is available in Canada, US, and International, and available as a free app.

uKloo2 - Riddle Edition Treasure Hunt Game for ages 7+ was recently released and that is on my to-get list for Lucas's birthday. While Lucas does have fun with the Early Reader game, the Riddle Edition will be more challenging for him and I'm sure he would enjoy figuring out the riddles to find the next clue.

Disclaimer: I received a uKloo game for free to review, but all opinions on the game are mine and my children's!

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Put Some Wiggle in That Ziggle

Saturday, 16 November 2013

Thanks to House Party's Chatterbox feature my kids received an early Christmas present.

The Radio Flyer Ziggle is the fun way to get the wiggles out and provides for outdoor (and even indoor!) fun activities. 

When I first pulled it out of the box I sighed thinking it was going to be cumbersome to put together. By the time Joe got off the couch to help me, I pretty much had it all done. It really was pretty easy to assemble! The seat is adjustable to grow with your child, but unless I missed something, the only way I could see to adjust it was to unscrew it and put it on the next setting. It would be nice if there was something you could click together to move the seat forward/backward instead of having to unscrew it ... but other than that ... no complaints!

The suggested age is 3-8, but since Kayla is a little on the smaller size for a 10 year old she is able to comfortably use this too. Her legs are a little bit long for it, but for now she can still fit without her knees hitting the handlebars.

It doesn't take much for kids to figure out how to use it - you just move the handlebars back and forth and just wiggle!

It glides smoothly and easily and when you can gain some speed you can drift into 360 degree spins.

Joe and I both commented, as we were watching Kayla and Lucas try this out, that we wished there was one for bigger 'kids' because we wanted to try it out too!

Lucas' review, "That was amazing!" Kayla thought it was pretty easy to use and she liked it too.

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Impressed With Her Flexibility

Thursday, 24 October 2013

Kids with Down syndrome can be extra-flexible. I think this is a result of having low muscle tone/loose ligaments.

When Kayla was a baby/toddler people would often comment on her flexibility. I'm talking about being able to raise your legs straight up in the air almost touching your ears.

Lucas is impressed with Kayla's skills and has commented on this several times over the past few months. If he's trying to get by her in the van she swings her legs around and up for him to go across instead of bending her knees and bringing them to her chest.

A few months ago he was trying to find the words to explain this to me and he came up with: "Disability people can do something that not disability people can do! Watch Kayla, see how far her legs go up? Wow! Mine can't do that!"

(Before anyone says anything, yes, I realize that was not People First Language; however, he's 5 years old. He was trying to figure out the words to use to explain what he was thinking. The PFL will come with time. I modeled it for him by saying, "I don't think it's necessarily that people with disabilities can do that, I think it's more likely that people with Down syn can do that because they can be more flexible.)

I thought it was cool that he thought it was cool that she could do something that he couldn't, because she has Down syndrome.

My kids humored me and re-enacted Lucas trying to get by Kayla and Kayla raising her legs, so you can see that flexibility in action.

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This doesn't have anything to do with being flexible, or having Down syndrome, but Lucas noticed something else Kayla can do that he can't (yet!). She can pick him up and carry him, but because she's still taller than him, he's not able to lift her up. He thinks that's cool too. "I can run faster than Kayla and Kayla is stronger than me!"

And since Kayla had those Shoulder Buddies I mentioned in the previous post about sensory issues, I did a quick video of what she likes about them. 

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Just Like You - Down Syndrome

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

I shared this video last year, and am sharing again because the Down Syndrome Guild of Greater Kansas City did such a wonderful job with the Just Like You advocacy and awareness video.

It's nice to see the different sets of friends and hear them talking about their friendships.

I was thinking of sharing this video with Kayla's class - 4th graders. The video is 13 minutes long, do you think that age group will maintain interest in this video, or is it too long to show during my talk? I haven't yet talked with her teacher so I'm not sure how much time I'll even have in the classroom. I like to show a picture of Kayla's chromosomes and just talk about why she has Down syndrome and then a little bit about what that means for Kayla.

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Switch & Go Dinos Giveaway

Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Contest is now closed! Congrats to the winner of the prize pack: Heather! 

I have a 5 year old boy. 5 year old boys usually go hand in hand with dinosaur fascination. So when there was an opportunity for bloggers to review, and host a giveaway, of VTech's new Switch & Go Dinos I knew this would be something fun for Lucas to try out and give his review of the products.

We received Jagger the T-Rex and 3 assorted smaller dinos.

All of the Switch & Go Dinos transform from a dinosaur to a vehicle. They have an LCD screen for customizable animated faces; and in dinosaur mode the action buttons make dinosaur noises and state interesting facts about each type of dinosaur.

Jagger does all that and more. He is the only one that responds to specific voice commands in both dinosaur and truck mode.

I pulled T-Rex out of the box to get it all set up and figure out how to use it before I showed it to Lucas. In other words ... I played with it first!

It took me a little longer than I thought it should have to change the dinosaur to truck mode, but admittedly I didn't read the instructions first! Once I read through those I was able to quickly get the hang of it.

I tried out several of the specific voice commands that Jagger responds to (Roar with me! Make me laugh! Go forward! Go Back! are among several commands it responds to). After listening to the Jagger voice throughout all of this I tried the command for "Change your voice!" Even though I was alone in my house trying this out - it made me laugh out loud when I heard the voice change for the first time.

When Lucas came home from school I brought Jagger out. He was impressed with Jagger just as he was, but when I told Jagger to "Go forward!" and the dinosaur followed my command, Lucas was even more amazed. His eyes got wide as I tried out several other commands.

He also got a kick out of "Change your voice!" and "Go wild!" I think that one is his favorite.

Unfortunately Lucas thought Jagger would respond to anything he said and tried to get him to do other things. I gave him the card that comes with it that shows the list of commands and he was good with that!

I do wish that you didn't have to say "Hello T-Rex" and wait for a response before you give each command. It would be nice if there was a time limit for saying "Hello T-Rex" and you could do several voice commands one after the other, before having to say his name again. So far that doesn't seem to bother my kids when they've been playing with it - occasionally I have to give them a reminder to say "Hello T-Rex" when they say the command over and over and wonder why there isn't a response.

There are times when the response you get from T-Rex doesn't match the requested command ... but it is all computerized. I'm sure it has something to do with how slowly and clearly you're speaking and the tone of voice. If T-Rex doesn't understand the command he'll respond to try again later. Again, this doesn't seem to bother my kids when that happens. They just try again! And they laugh if he does something they didn't say to do. Kayla has been having just as much fun playing with Jagger as Lucas is.

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You have the chance to win the complete line of Switch & Go Dinos just by entering a picture of your child doing their best dinosaur impression on VTech's Facebook contest. (You have to 'like' the page first to get the contest details.) Contest ends on Sep 9 at 8:00 am ET.

You can also enter my blog giveaway for 1 winner to win a set of 3 assorted smaller Switch & Go Dinos. Just leave a comment on this post saying which of the dinosaurs (besides the obvious Jagger!) you think your child would like the most.Winner will be picked by Random.org on Mon, Sep 9. (Must be US resident).

Lucas kept thanking me for 'buying me this dinosaur!' and I had to explain to him that I didn't buy this one. We received Jagger, and the 3 assorted smaller dinos, from VTech to review on my blog. Then I had to explain what a review is and what my blog is! Lucas gives this 2 thumbs up!

Disclosure: "The VTech product, information, and additional gift pack have been provided by VTech." All opinions are mine and my children's. 

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