Naturally, I answered: “*bleep*! and finally finish all of those video games.”

This post, however, is not the same, but rather, talks about how the iPad can make education fun for kids. While my kids love school, the iPad (or any tablet for that matter), can supplement the education they are getting in school.

Here’s how:

At the very basic level, kids, as young as 2 or so, have an eagerness to learn their ABCs. The ABC Animals app helps you do that.

After kids start to learn their alphabet, they want to start spelling. It’s part of their curiosity scale. They are like sponges and want to continue to learn and after ABCs, spelling is next in line. The Word Magic app can help kids with their spelling curiosity.

Kids are also visual and audio learners. The interactivity of some iPad apps really help kids soak in the knowledge. The Spell and Listen Cards app is a cool way for kids to become the sponge.

Want to teach your kids about the history of the US. Check out the Manual for the United States of America. Believe me, you’ll learn a couple of things too because you were probably falling asleep in history class.

How about Astronomy? Pocket Universe: Virtual Sky Astronomy is pretty bad ass.

Another great way to learn, though the industry is dwindling, is newspapers. Keeping them up to date with world events is a great educational experience. Newspapers is good app to check out.

What about tunes? You gotta teach your kids about music. The Preschool Music app is fantastic. You’ll find yourself playing this one for sure.

There’s a slew of other apps I’d add to this list. What would you add?

My oldest is the one that plays it the most and she’s seven. My youngest, of course, wants to do what her big sister is doing. As a result, I succumbed to pressure this morning and got her an account to the tune of 60 bucks for the year.

Now they are both happy, doing their own thing on Club Penguin, but I have to ask myself, is it too much? Should I limit their computer time or let them explore the digital world as much as possible? It’s a tough call because I’m a gear head and love technology. But there’s something to be said about playing and using your imagination?

How do you limit your kid’s technology in-take?

Don Martelli is just a dad, moonlighting as a PR exec, photographer and civilian journalist. Known on the social web as “The Big Guy,” Don is a former journalist for the Boston Globe, long-time PR executive, co-founder of Every Other Thursday and the lead digital strategy writer for the PR Finish Line, the blog for his agency, MSL Boston. Connect with him at www.donmartelli.com or @BigGuyD via Twitter.

I love story telling and video really helps you do that. Throw in some music, pictures with a Ken Burns motion effect and you got yourself a winner.

Now, with the release of iMovie ’11, you can create some cool slideshows with presets. Check this one out I did of our vacation in sort of a theatrical release trailer way:

Then I did this one without much use of the new iMovie features, but still came out pretty good in my opinion:

How do you capture your family memories from vacation?

Don Martelli is just a dad, moonlighting as a PR exec, photographer and civilian journalist. He’s the executive editor for Technorati, a co-founder of Every Other Thursday and is a contributing writer for Shamable and the PR Finish Line. Connect with him at www.donmartelli.com or @bigguyd via Twitter.

It would be great if my daughter can learn two or three other languages. That diversity can help her get a long way personally and professionally.

I barely got through French in high school and basically ignored any language requirements in college. Things were a little different back then. If I was in school today, I’d understand the need to learn different languages (not that it’s ever too late to do so).

Regardless, when I see things like this I realize that my daughter is growing up fast and is a human sponge, soaking in everything she’s learning in school.

Life has a way of splashing cold water on parents’ faces every so often to remind them our kids’ childhoods are fleeting. As we prepared to send Molly off to her first day, I found myself suffering from sleepless nights and daydreams. When I looked at Molly I was seeing images that predate her 6 year-old self. It was a flood of memories from the time she was born and through all the other “firsts” I’d watched her experience along the way. We’re fortunate to live in a digital age where these moments can be preserved in photos and video. So with the help of a great online service called Animoto, I created this slideshow which I hope will describe what I was seeing in my head as we sent Molly off for that big first day:

If you have any “first day of school” photos/videos/tributes/etc. that you’d care to share, please add them to the comments!

I love the part when she gets eaten by a ghost and she think she wins.

How do you encourage your kids to be creative?

My wife and I tried just about every trick in the book. Sticker charts. Water coloring (to change the water color when she pees). Candy. Toy store trips. You name it, we tried it.

This weekend, however, we had a breakthrough due to two things: diligence and the iPad.

You see, my wife and I were militant this weekend with throwing her little butt on the potty. While it worked, the only thing that kept her on it was the distraction of the iPad. Yea, the iPad is now a potty toy. It’s no longer daddy’s commuting companion. It has a permanent place in the John right next to the Cigar Aficionado and People magazines. It’s funny what triggers kids to do things. Whether it’s to go potty or eat string beans, there’s always a tactic you can employ. However, these little battles are indicative of parenting overall. No matter their age, negotiations are always in play. Eating dinner. Going potty. Be home at a certain time. Cell phone use. Homework. They are all negotiable pain points as a parent and we need to figure out how to get through them, around them or come to an agreement because none of it is in the parenting handbook.

It’s up to us to out-think the little Jimmy Hoffa’s in our house because as much as you get frustrated and want to bury them in New Jersey, you just can’t.

It’s doesn’t work. Trust me, I tried it. ?

image from Gamestop.com

This is undoubtedly going to be part one of my reviews of EA Sports’s NCAA 11 Football for the XBox. I got the game on Friday night for my birthday and have had about 6 hours played on it thus far (hey, busy dads have things to do!) and will continue to build on this review as I explore more features, functions and options added to this year’s edition. Yes, there are that many changes to cover and rather than half-ass it I’ll go through them in a methodical, timely manner. So, onto my review:

First impression

Tim Tebow on the cover. Huh. Being a Big Ten guy I’m more interested in someone who’ll actually play in the NFL, but I understand he sells boxes. And jerseys. I do have to point out that EA decided to put a picture of the him in the Florida jersey with the weeds (or wings? fingers? what the hell are those things?) on the cover versus the traditional Gators jersey. That’s the first sign to me that they were taking a risk and that this game’s going to be different.

The game loads with an intro video to the new game. After that you never see it again and get a different video — again, right from the get-go you know this is a different experience. The graphics, imagery, game introductions and gameplay have all been massively upgraded. If you stop reading this post now I hope it’s to run out and buy the game — it’s that good. Here’s the trailer for the game in case you haven’t seen it:

New features

I’ve played the game for about three days and haven’t even come close to scratching the surface of new features. How do I know this? Because all of the new features are labeled as such with the word “NEW” across it. There’s a new dynasty mode that can also be played solo or with folks online, there’s the ability to reorg conferences (I remade the WAC using the top 10 teams from various conferences), there’s a ton of new detail including displaying player numbers on the side of helmets (Roll Tide!) to name a few.

The gameplay is also filled with new features, like acceleration being added to the game engine, team-specific entrances (Michigan players slap the “Go Blue” banner, Notre Dame players do the same “Play Like a Champion Today” sign), gang tackling, on-field referees that get out of the way but are present – and that’s just the beginning from what I’ve seen. Needless to say they took this game to the proverbial next level and made it more realistic than ever.

Graphics

Graphics upgrades were made across the board, especially in the post-play/replay modes. The on-field play, which everyone knows is never shown in the ads, is improved greatly. And you saw the video above — the post-play highlights look real; even the conference logos got a makeover and look terrific. The overall look of the game has changed as well to be identical to ESPN’s coverage of college football; Touchdowns are called out within the in-game scoreboard with ESPN’s TV graphics, the in-game scoreboard looks like ESPN’s College Football coverage. Even the menus and fonts are different but much better.

Because of this it feels like they went back to the drawing board and re-thought the entire experience to make it feel “bigger”.

Commentary

It’s the same cast of characters from NCAA 10 Football sans Lee Corso. Brad Nessler and Kirk Herbstreit return for the play by play and color commentary and Erin Andrews, who for some reason is propped up as being a sex symbol once again (personally I’d rather see Rachel Nichols), does the sideline reporting. I’m actually glad that Corso isn’t in the game as his commentary didn’t add value to NCAA 10. I mean, how many times can you listen to “Yo!” and “Not so fast!” during one game? It would be cool to see them throw in other ESPN personalities like Chris Spielman, Dave Pasch and Mike Tirico for regional or national games but I understand it would cost EA more to do so.

Game play

In a word, I’d say “realistic”. The acceleration engine that’s built in means your kick returners can build up speed as do your running backs when they’re tossed a pitch. The gang tackling feature is also something new and brings a wonderfully realistic dimension to the game. It’s also much more comparable to the real thing when a player may break one tackle but breaking four, as possible in the previous versions, doesn’t happen.

Overall they added in shortcuts and several upgrades. Play calling, for example, is better as you’re able to hop between plays and modes much faster than before; after scoring a touchdown you can press the “Y” button to get right to the special teams plays, which defaults to an extra point kick.

Offensively your wide receiver’s routes are displayed and changing routes happens at a much quicker pace. During hurry up mode, you’re given a visual display of available play calls as well. This goes back to the redesigned user interface mentioned earlier, which makes the game much better to manage.

Defense has also been improved via shortcuts. I’m still learning to use one in particular, which is the ability to hit “B” and point the right stick in a direction to select that player. This is obviously preferred to cycling through each player to get to the one you want to control. I’ve also noticed that making defensive plays, especially on passes, is greatly improved and more realistic; a good corner can easily swat a bad pass and potentially pick it off as well.

Any downsides?

Yes, actually. One is that I can’t seem to connect to the EA servers to save my game. I downloaded the most recent update so I should be good to go, but my victories for Boise State aren’t adding to the online playing totals for some reason. Also, the Coke Zero and Reese’s ads are a bit sickening. Seriously, I just dropped $60 on a game and my reward is to have to watch ads? Please don’t throw that crap in my face every time I make a great play, learn who the player of the game is. I know they’re trying to simulate the TV experience but ads are the one thing I would love to cut out.

Summary (Thus far)

I’ve barely scratched the surface of this game and am already in love with it. It’s a much more realistic experience and as I mentioned above it just feels “bigger”.  I can’t wait to try the customization features when I create my own player and go through the Road to Glory mode, which was carried over from last year’s version. If you’re on the fence about whether or not to buy the game my advice is to run out and get it  - or wait for my next review.