Clara loves her 20 Questions game. I'm not a fan of electronic couch-potato-makers, but I am okay with this mindboggling contraption. Basically, you think of a thing, it asks you yes or no questions about the thing, and then it magically guesses what the thing is! How does it do it????? I can't imagine the programming that had to go into creating something that could deduce so well. But it makes perfect sense that I can't imagine it, because I know zero about programming..... Come to think of it, this was probably a snap for some computerish person to create...but I still think it's amazing. The last few things it guessed correctly were asparagus, an octopus, and a CD player. Very cool. And good for the kid who gets a kick out of reading sentences like, "Do you need specific skills to operate it?" and "Are there several varieties of it?" Clara loves to repeat the questions to herself, and discuss it with herself to decide whether to answer 'yes', 'no', or 'sometimes'. If someone is in the room, she'll explain her rationale, give examples, prove her case. I swear we have a lawyer in the making. If you've never played this game, go and pick one up at Target. It's worth your ten bucks in coolness alone, and it has some educational merit.
Trevi is a jigsaw puzzle guy. His interest kind of came out of nowhere, but now jigsawing is a daily activity. For the first couple of days, I talked him through the process of looking critically at each piece, and now he just
gets it. It's funny, because I always tried jigsaws with Clara at that age, but she just couldn't look at the void and see what was missing. She never seemed to be able to use corners, edges, colors, or even the picture on the box to help her. For Trevor, it's as if he can picture exactly the piece he is looking for, and he reaches right for it. I love to watch him at work. This train puzzle is particularly awesome, because he can drive it around the house after he's done putting it together.
Despite her lack of early jigsaw prowess, Clara is one organized girl. This is the library up on the landing of her loft bed. She carefully categorized all of the books by author, series, or subject, and then she used sticky notes to label each category. In case a new category springs up, she has piles of sticky notes at the ready. A place for everything, and everything in its place. And she rocks at Jigsaw Puzzles now, too.
And, on an unrelated note, here is what happens when we don't shut Trevor's door all the way at night. Bernie, affectionately known as Berbers, inspires a new book, "The Cat
is the Hat."
Clara loves her 20 Questions game. I'm not a fan of electronic couch-potato-makers, but I am okay with this mindboggling contraption. Basically, you think of a thing, it asks you yes or no questions about the thing, and then it magically guesses what the thing is! How does it do it????? I can't imagine the programming that had to go into creating something that could deduce so well. But it makes perfect sense that I can't imagine it, because I know zero about programming..... Come to think of it, this was probably a snap for some computerish person to create...but I still think it's amazing. The last few things it guessed correctly were asparagus, an octopus, and a CD player. Very cool. And good for the kid who gets a kick out of reading sentences like, "Do you need specific skills to operate it?" and "Are there several varieties of it?" Clara loves to repeat the questions to herself, and discuss it with herself to decide whether to answer 'yes', 'no', or 'sometimes'. If someone is in the room, she'll explain her rationale, give examples, prove her case. I swear we have a lawyer in the making. If you've never played this game, go and pick one up at Target. It's worth your ten bucks in coolness alone, and it has some educational merit.
Trevi is a jigsaw puzzle guy. His interest kind of came out of nowhere, but now jigsawing is a daily activity. For the first couple of days, I talked him through the process of looking critically at each piece, and now he just gets it. It's funny, because I always tried jigsaws with Clara at that age, but she just couldn't look at the void and see what was missing. She never seemed to be able to use corners, edges, colors, or even the picture on the box to help her. For Trevor, it's as if he can picture exactly the piece he is looking for, and he reaches right for it. I love to watch him at work. This train puzzle is particularly awesome, because he can drive it around the house after he's done putting it together.
Despite her lack of early jigsaw prowess, Clara is one organized girl. This is the library up on the landing of her loft bed. She carefully categorized all of the books by author, series, or subject, and then she used sticky notes to label each category. In case a new category springs up, she has piles of sticky notes at the ready. A place for everything, and everything in its place. And she rocks at Jigsaw Puzzles now, too.
And, on an unrelated note, here is what happens when we don't shut Trevor's door all the way at night. Bernie, affectionately known as Berbers, inspires a new book, "The Cat is the Hat."
1 comment:
The Cat is the Hat... love it!! That's quite a cat, too. :)
The 20 Questions game amazes me too. It has guessed the most obscure things, often in less than 20 questions.
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