Winners!

I have had two giveaways end in the past two days, and that means two new happy people!

For the Moe's Southwest Grill $25 gift certificate, the winner was Eve from Love Clothes, Makeup, and Contests.

The Math Blasters 6 month membership goes to MegRyansmom from Look It's Megryansmom.

Both ladies have 48 hours to get back to me before I have to draw another winner. Congrats to both of them - and to the rest of you, keep looking. There's plenty more coming, including a $35 gift card to DaySpring/(in)courage that's up right now!

Giveaway: Math Blaster Membership

The wee ones are in early elementary school - kindergarten and first grade - and don't yet have too much homework. There are still a lot of expectations over what they will learn and absorb, and we look for ways to help them and make it fun. We do math in the car, and we play games to help them learn. We've now discovered Math Blaster, a website that is another tool we're adding to our arsenal.

Math Blaster is a new math website filled with games for kids to play. It comes from Knowledge Adventures, which also runs the JumpStart website that we reviewed over a year ago. The cool thing is that a Math Blaster membership also grants you access to JumpStart, something the wee ones are very excited about.

This educational website isn't free, but there is a ton of content, and it has access to both sites. You can also have up to six children on a site, so you aren't paying more for each child in your family - and that helps me out a ton, especially as I think about all the different camps and classes and enrichment activities I do have to pay for! You can gain access to the stie for $7.99 monthly, $74.99 annually, or $149.99 for a lifetime. Plus, you can also download four other JumpStart games for free.

Much like JumpStart, you create an avatar to represent yourself throughout the game. This one is called a Blaster, and the wee ones had a blast choosing what it would look like from the skin color (alien) to the hair (wacky and brown) and more. That avatar starts out at the Blaster Academy before they become members of the Intergalactic Space Patrol and explore a futuristic world, voyage to strange new planets and discover wacky alien races, all while practicing math skills.



Even in the few weeks that we've been playing with Math Blaster (yay for something educational and entertaining to do while Mister Man has been home sick the majority of March), many new games have been added and the area has been redesigned to make it even more fun.

There are tons of different types of games and skill to practice from addition and subtraction to decimals and place value and more. With this game, I've been able to explain the concept of tenths and hundredths in place value as well as gaining a stronger understanding of division.

That said, Mister Man is struggling with his addition and subtraction math facts. While he understands the logic and problem solving behind those concepts - as well as many other concepts - he hasn't bothered to just go about memorizing the math facts. Instead, he calculates the majority of them each time. With these games, he's more compelled to start to memorize them so that he can get further in the games and score more points - and I'm all in favor of that!

While this isn't the only way that we're working on our math skills, I do like having this as another option. The more varieties of ways we play with math and use it, the more it sticks - and it keeps them from getting bored with it. And I do like how there are different ways to play the games from fast-paced type things in as fast as you can or you'll eventually lose to games where you can take your time and getting the answer is the most important thing.

Mister Man's favorite game so far is Oozami. He really likes the idea of caustic slime building up while he's searching for the right answers with his guy - trying to find where the 5 in the thousands place is or searching for the 6 in the hundredths place. This is the game that has really helped him solidify his understanding of place value, both what he's being taught in school now (tens, hundreds, thousands) and what isn't yet being taught but concepts he can figure out (tenths, hundredths).



These games are ones that Mister Man can pretty much play on his own. That said, he still does enjoy having me "help" him by moving the character and typing in the answers where required while he shouts them out to me. His fine motor and hand eye coordination still leaves a bit to be desired, and this helps him compete in the games more successfully - and I like the ability to work on them with him, both spending some quality time with him and getting a sense of what he does and doesn't understand in math so I know what to work with him on.

While most games are math oriented, there are some that are purely for fun. The B-Force Blaster game is strictly a target laser shooting game. The more targets you hit - except the good guys - the better your score. The Galaxy Grand Prix is also more for fun - a speedster game where you race your space vehicle around a track. Granted you can build your own tracks and use some geometry there, but it's not a strictly math game in my mind. Those are fun to keep interest in Math Blasters up, but they aren't the ones that I encourage Mister Man to spend most of his time playing.



Periodically, there is a red alert where all cadets are called to man brigade and help protect the space station from enemy forces and space debris. When the emergency alarm goes off, you head to one of the three Red Alert portals to play a shooting game where you earn points for each piece of debris that you prevent from hitting your ship in a timed play.



As with JumpStart, the graphics are simply amazing. The action is smooth, and there is so much detail that really makes it fun from the creativity of your individual Blaster to the fish that swim under the floor in the Training Academy and more. You can turn in all directions and see under or over or behind objects that move as they would in a 3-D world. It definitely makes the game more fun - and again, it's so much more advanced than the graphics of the games I grew up playing!

While the game is targeted at ages 6-12, this is something that Little Miss (5 1/2 and in kindergarten) is well able to play and enjoy, as well. I am pretty sure that Mister Man will be finished with this game before he's 12, however - but that's also partly because he is already doing division in first grade. I do love that Math Blasters allows the wee ones to choose what level and and type of math they're going to do so that it is appropriately challenging as they progress and learn more.

As I mentioned previously, Math Blaster is continually evolving, especially as it's only been live for a few months now. There is a Math Blaster Blog that helps keeps parents up to date on new additions to the game, which helps me know what to look for, and it explains a bit about what some of the various items are. While there are various tutorials within the game to help you find your way, some things need a little more explanation, and the blog has definitely helped out with that.

That said, the game isn't perfect. I have had a problem for weeks with the Alien Wrangler game. In this one, you are riding an alien in place of the stereotypical mechanical bull. As math problems flash on the screen, you type in the answer to keep the alien calm. If you don't answer quickly enough or if you answer incorrectly, the alien becomes more wild until you're finally bucked off. I am able to get the alien to recognize answers from me for awhile - perhaps the first eight questions or so - but then it simply stops allowing me to type in anything and Mister Man is bucked off as the alien becomes more wild because we "haven't answered" anything. I have yet to find a solution to that, and it's been frustrating to Mister Man, as it is otherwise one of his favorite games - or at least the concept of it.



This has been a great diversion for us while Mister Man was sick, and I definitely see us playing it - both Mister Man and Little Miss - over the summer to help keep their math skills sharp when they aren't in school. It's another way to make math fun and practice it, and I know they enjoy it!

So what do you have to do to win a six month membership to Math Blaster (which will also work on the JumpStart website) for yourself? First of all, let me stress that you must follow all the rules. If you do not follow the rules, your entry will not count!

This contest is open until Monday April 18 at 7pm CST. I must have a valid way to reach you, so leave me your email address in your comment or be sure your profile has your email address visible. No duplicate comments will count. This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected via random.org and must respond within 48 hours of being notified by me or I will select a new winner.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me: what helped you learn math growing up?

Bonus Entries (leave a comment for each entry - if you put it all in one comment, I'll count it as one entry):

1) Earn one additional entry for following me on Twitter and tweeting this contest with the following tweet: "Get your math on! Help keep your kids' math skills up with Math Blaster from @honestandtruly http://bit.ly/hkyGKr" (leave a link to your tweet as your comment and make sure you do all the steps!)
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Friend Connect.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Friend Connect.
4) Like my blog on Facebook and let me know what name you used to like it.

Good luck!

In the interest of full disclosure, I was provided with a membership good for Math Blaster and Knowledge Adventure at no cost by Knowledge Adventure in order to test the products’ abilities and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided. There was no compensation involved.

Winners!

A quick recap for you - I've had a few contests end while I was busy at BlogHer (yikes!). I've contacted all the winners below, and all have claimed their prizes already.

Congrats go to:

Amy Anderson who won the Spinbrush giveaway!

Joanna Jenkins who won the JumpStart Get Moving Family Fitness game for Wii giveaway!

Alicia who won the BusyBodyBook giveaway!

More giveaways and reviews are coming - just give me a chance to recuperate a little from BlogHer! Congrats to all the winners!

Giveaway: JumpStart Get Moving Family Fitness For Wii

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a copy of the Wii game for review purposes. I did not receive any compensation, and all opinions expressed are my own.

We have come late to the gaming world as a family. With Mister Man’s physical challenges, as well as his tendency to hyper-focus on certain activities – fun traits of autism! – we significantly limit television, computer and video game time. It makes it easier for him to then do the things he needs to do like playing outside and practicing riding his bike when he has free time.

As he’s gotten older, however, we have realized that for social reasons (yep, another of his challenges) it’s important for him to know what video games are and how to use them so that he can be a part of those conversations with his friends and know what to do when he has playdates where video games are involved.

Knowing that the Wii does have many games that focus more on physical movements and activities, that was our natural choice. When we recently received a copy of JumpStart’s Get Moving Family Fitness game, we were thrilled. The wee ones have been playing JumpStart on the computer for almost the last year, and we love how family friendly and educational it is. Our hope was that the Family Fitness game would take those same traits and include motor activity.



We weren’t disappointed.

The Family Fitness game for Wii involves fifteen different sports challenges to ensure there's at least something for everyone. The cool behind the scenes thing to me is that it was developed in conjunction with Brooke Burke from Dancing with the Stars and a kinesiology experts.

One of the things I really loved about it was that it started conversations with the wee ones about what it means to be fit and why fitness is important not just for me (they see me run and go to the gym on a regular basis) but for the whole family. We’ve talked about the effects of exercise and why being active is important – and why finding a physical activity they love so that they enjoy being active really makes a difference.

It has also allowed me another venue to talk about eating well and how good nutrition makes a difference in our physical fitness level. Throughout the game, Brooke Burke provides nutrition tips and little factoids that help reinforce the overall message of beign healthy. While we tend to eat fairly healthfully anyway, I love natural opportunity that allow me to reinforce this with the wee ones so that as they grow older, it’s them making the right choices and not something that they feel like I’m forcing on them so that they feel deprived and crave all the unhealthy foods they shouldn’t be eating.

So what did they think of the Wii Family Fitness game from JumpStart? They loved it. It started out being a little hard for them, as they still aren’t experts with the Wii (that whole limited video game thing), but as they continued to play it, they “got” it without me having to help them and explain the next steps every time. I also liked the fact that Brooke demonstrated what you had to do before each activity and that I was able to set the difficulty level for them (easy, medium, and hard). There were a couple games that we tended to skip though - like volleyball - because getting the right movements at the right time were hard for all of us, and it was a little too frustrating, especially for Mister Man.

Just like the JumpStart computer game we love, you create your own avatar or Jumpee and customize it to look well... almost however you want. There are all sorts of different looks you can go for customizing your face, clothes, hair, etc. The wee ones have a blast figuring out how to out-bizarre each other with their Jumpees.

The wee ones were always disappointed when I told them that their time was up, but that also means that this game is a great new incentive for me to ensure that they maintain good behavior. They are earning minutes by having good days, and the positive reinforcement of the system seems to be working really well.

We’ve also played with a few of their friends when we’ve had playdates, and everyone is fascinated since this is a new game that they haven’t seen before. We had some competitive moments, and it was hilarious trying to watch them best each other at dodgeball. This is a great game to play with playdates since up to two children can play at the same time - and anyone else makes for a great cheering section.

Our favorite activity is the flying race because ummm, you're flying. And it really made Mister Man think he was Anakin, plus you could fly through all sorts of different locales. Did I forget to mention that you can choose where each game will be based from Egypt to Atlantis to a farm! How cool is that?



Well, at least that’s the wee ones’ favorite game. I actually prefer the step aerobics because I can burn a ton of calories and have fun - and no one knows that I just fell off my Wii Fit board - again (this is the only activity that requires a Wii Fit).



Sound good? I thought so, too. The game has been officially released, so you can go buy it yourself. But one of you will be lucky enough to win your own copy of the Wii Get Moving Family Fitness game from JumpStart.

The game is rated E for Everyone with Comic Mischief. You can buy it at any major retailer or Amazon for a suggested $29.99. Or you could be the lucky one to win your own copy of Jumpstart Get Moving Family Fitness right here!

So what do you have to do?

First of all, let me stress that you must follow all the rules. If you do not follow the rules, your entry will not count!

This contest is open until Thursday August 5 at 7pm CST. I must have a valid way to reach you, so leave me your email address in your comment or be sure your profile has your email address visible. No duplicate comments will count. This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected via random.org and must respond within 48 hours of being notified by me or I will select a new winner.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me, what are your favorite healthy habits?

Bonus Entries (leave a comment for each entry - if you put it all in one comment, I'll count it as one entry):

1) Earn one additional entry for following me on Twitter and tweeting this contest (leave a link to your tweet as your comment).
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Friend Connect.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Friend Connect.

Good luck!

JumpStart Contest Winner

Congrats to Jennifer for having random integer #2 in the JumpStart giveaway. She won a 3 month subscription to the JumpStart website!

Giveaway: JumpStart Membership

I remember as a child playing some of the new technologically advanced games of the day -- Space Invaders on my Atari, the Smurf game on my uncle's ColecoVision, Oregon Trail on the Macs at school, and eventually Ultima III on my home computer with my dad. The wee ones? It's a whole new world. Literally.

I was given a membership to JumpStart to try out, and we are having so much fun with it. My only real experience with gaming today are WebKinz that Mister Man has and a little bit of an educational site called Starfall.

JumpStart is like a custom catered twelve course meal compared to the McDonalds of what I've experienced before.

When you start out, you create your own avatar called a "Jumpee" that is completely customized with hair and eyes and lips and clothing and more. It is incredibly realistic and moves so smoothly. They are so well done that it is almost too realistic for me in that there are too many variables to think about. We're adjusting though.

I love that JumpStart has educational component as well as just pure entertainment parts to it. When you log on, you start in the "village" and can choose to go into any number of different worlds from the brand new Future World (where you can earn coins by correctly answering math and language arts questions or play games visiting future or ancient worlds) to MarineLand to AdventureLand, and more.

Each world is labeled for the approximate age range, which helps me out greatly. StoryLand is the one that best suits Little Miss (ages 3-5) while Mister Man enjoys hanging out at AdventureLand or MarineLand (5-8 for both). The new FutureLand is aimed at the 8-10 year old set, and some of those questions really make me think. "What three digit number is between 400 and 600 with the second digit half the third?"

As you enter each land, you are given an introduction to the area by the character that inhabits it. This takes you into a little vignette and makes it clear what your goal is for each world. My one main frustration with JumpStart is that my personal computer loses the volume whenever we go into one of those vignettes. I can hear the background noises, and I can hear the movies that I've played there, but the character vignettes are inaudible. The engineers at JumpStart aren't quite sure what makes me so special, but when we play this on my dad's computer or my husband's, the volume is just fine.

Fortunately, there are great help buttons as part of the navigation, so I'm able to determine what we're supposed to be doing for the most part. StoryLand is a challenge, as it's designed for kids who don't yet read, so I have to do a lot of guessing and MarineLand has some verbal riddles I'm supposed to solve, but beyond that we've made do quite well.

Little Miss and I play it for a few minutes most morning while waiting for her bus to come. She can do StoryLand by herself, as it is purely mouse-driven, but she also really enjoys it when I "help" her with the more advanced worlds and the games within there. Granted, I'm not figuring out syllables or the times tables with her, but there are lots of things that just tickle her (and me).

Since we've been trying out JumpStart, there are a number of innovations that they've made, which really goes to show how they're ensuring that this will continue to be something that holds kids' interest. MarineLand and FutureLand have both been introduced within the past month. For Halloween, the whole town was decorated appropriately and also included a fun haunted house (don't ask how many times we went through it).

While JumpStart is a site that you can enjoy for free, the free portion of it is somewhat limited. You can access StoryLand, AdventureLand, Buggy Racer, and Ghost Town Grab, as well as buying some items from the Threadz Store, but you don't get full access to the worlds (and you don't get MarineLand or FutureLand, which are our favorites.

The paid membership also allows you to download programs to your computer that are appropriate for preschool through second grade. The cool thing about these programs (aside from just being cool themselves) is that you can track your children's progress individually on the software downloads so you can see what they're learning. I love that parent-friendly touch.

One of the fun features is that you can set up individual avatars for each person in your family once you become a member. Mister Man has his own coin earnings and star rating and dude, while Little Miss has hers. I love that there's no fighting over who something belongs to or what someone is doing because it's like they each have their own membership.

That also comes in handy as you start to adopt pets, another new feature that adds another layer of interest for kids. To be honest, there are so many facets of JumpStart that I haven't been able to explore them all. I'll keep working on that, and the wee ones are more than happy to help me.

The only other kind of odd thing for me was that there was no log off button. When you're done playing, you simply close the window. To me, I feel like that's missing something, but that is the way it's set up for now, and it works fine. I just like logging off.

So what about you? Are you ready to become a member of JumpStart? Head over to their site. You can try it out for free to access parts of the site. Membership is $7.99 per month for as many children as access your account.

Want to win it instead? I'm giving away a three month membership to JumpStart's website to one lucky reader. (And I do mean lucky. It's possible I keep playing JumpStart even after Little Miss has hopped on the bus.)

This contest will run until Tuesday November 10 at 9pm Central. The winner will be chosen by Random.org based on the valid entries received. You must provide me with an email address or the ability to contact you via your profile or you will be unable to win. The winner will have 48 hours from being notified to contact me, or I will choose another winner. Leave a separate comment for each entry to make tallying that much easier for me!

Mandatory Entry: What was your favorite computer game growing up? Other entries won't count if you don't do this one!

Bonus Entries:
1) Follow this blog. (one extra entry)
2) Follow Honest & Truly - my "regular" blog. (one extra entry)
3) Visit the JumpStart website, and tell me something new that I didn't mention above. (two extra entries)
4) Tweet this giveaway, and post the link below. (one extra entry)

That's it! Five easy ways to enter to win access to this oh so fun world. And if you'll excuse me, I have some math to go practice.



I did not receive any compensation for this review. I was granted access to the JumpStart website. The opinions expressed here are purely my own -- and my family's.