Tripp Fenderson

Just finished playing LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures on the Xbox 360. What a fun game!!

The gameplay is very similar but more polished than the 2 previous LEGO Star Wars titles. Hats off to Travellers Tales, the developers, for bringing yet another great, family-friendly title to the Xbox platform.

With the exception of 2 grinding achievements ("How we say goodbye in Germany” and “Trouble with her is the noise"), the achievements were easy, most of which could be picked up during normal gameplay or in Free Play mode.

Co-op is similar to the Star Wars titles, letting players drop in or out at will. The control mapping is simple and intuitive—my 7 year old daughter picked it up in an instant and we enjoyed playing though several levels together.

If you’re looking for a fun summer title, definitely consider picking this one up—especially if you play with your kids.

Weeding the garden is always easier with a pair of helping hands—and all the more so when those hands are only 1 foot off the ground. This afternoon, Ayn helped me weed the bed of garlic we planted last October. She dug right in, pulling up only the weeds.

All 60 plants look great and have us wishing for warmer days ahead (and homemade pasta sauce).

Ayn recently caught on to the meaning of the word “kiss”. Last night, she was enthusiastically practicing her technique with Anitra.

The wonder on her face as the snow fell for the first time in her life made my morning. She cooed, she pointed, she even stuck out her tongue to taste them. Funny. For her, the entire world is something to taste, to experience. May she never forget that.

Matthew Homann’s [non]billablehour posted some information from Eide Neurolearning Blog about the benefits of family dinner:

According to a Harvard study, family dinners were more important than play, story time, or other family events for building vocabulary. And “families that engaged in extended discourse at the dinner table, like story telling and explanations, rather than one-phrase comments, like ‘eat your vegetables,’ had children with better language skills, said Dr. Catherine Snow, a professor of education at Harvard and the researcher of the study. Parents should be encouraged to use adult-level vocabulary and encourage back-and-forth conversation with their kids. It also helps social skills. Today, 65% of families with kids under the age of 6 have dinner together 5 or so nights per week, but that drops to 50% if a family has kids age 12 to 17.

How true. We routinely have discussions at our dinner table and include our daughter in them at all times. Recently she and I had watched both The Incredibles and the first 3 Star Wars movies together. Some people would argue that those films may be a little “old” for her - but they didn’t hear our dinner conversation either…

I’ve posted a printer friendly version of Dr. Overall’s complete Protocol for Introducing a New Baby and a Pet here.

Courtesy of the ever-lovely Dr. Karen Overall.