Best Board Games For School-Aged Children | Alphamom

Nov08

by Wendi Aarons

With the cold winter months quickly approaching, you?re no doubt looking for ways to keep your family busy when you?re all trapped in the house together. (By ?trapped,? I of course mean ?spending quality time.?) And what better way to entertain everyone than with a fun, challenging board game?

My two boys, Sam (11) and Jack (9) absolutely love playing games, so the three of us were very excited to test out a few and see what we liked the best. Please note that they beat me at every single one of these games, but I will not let my bitterness influence any of the following reviews because I am a mature person. (But couldn?t they have let me win at least one round of something? Is that too much to ask from your children?)

Here are the games we tried out:

MANCALA

Centuries old and played around the world, Mancala is a ?count-and-capture? game designed for two players. There are many versions of it, but the one we played was called ?The Game of Collecting Gemstones.?

Our Mancala was very simple in design; just a wood, foldable playing board with carved out holes to hold the ?gemstones.? The object of the game is to move all of your gems out of your small holes and into your large pocket (or Mancala) before your opponent does. It?s deceptively simple because, as we discovered, it actually requires sharp counting, strategy and planning skills to win. Sam really liked this one. Ages 6 to Adult. Price $9-10.

The Good: Portable, great price ($9-10), challenging

The Bad: Only two players, kids who aren?t drawn to slow strategy games might be bored

APPLES TO APPLES JUNIOR

I?m always leery of anything touting itself as a ?hilarious party game,? but we actually had a lot of fun playing this card game of comparisons. Players hold Red Apple Cards with words on them like ?Unicorn? or ?Ghosts,? then the judge (a position that alternates each turn) plays a Green Apple card with a one-word characteristic on it like ?Chewy? or ?Scary.? Players must then play the card they think is the best match and the judge determines who?s right.

The fun part is when the players try to convince the judge why their word works best. One of the best lines from our game was Jack telling me, ?Swamps totally works with Relaxed because alligators are never stressed out because they do yoga!? Well, maybe you had to be there. Ages 9+. Price $18-22.

The Good: Verbal, fast action, high potential for humor and laughs, easy to play

The Bad: A little pricey at $18-22 considering it?s just stacks of cards.

BLOKUS

This ?abstract strategy? board game has won every award in the book and I can see why. The kids and I were immediately engaged in the challenge of placing our colored, differently shaped pieces on the 400 squares of the board/grid so they touched at least one other piece, but only at the corners. The winner is the player who has the fewest pieces remaining.

Blokus develops logic and spatial perception because kids have to eye the board and figure out where their pieces will fit. However, they?re so wrapped up in doing so, they don?t notice how hard their little minds are working. Gotta love that. Ages 5+. Price is $16-$30 range.

The Good: Challenging, but fun. Easy to understand.

The Bad: A big pain to clean up if it?s knocked on the ground.

QWIRKLE

Another multi-award winner, Qwirkle is a game where players ?Mix, Match, Score and Win.? Consisting of 108 wooden tiles, each with a brightly colored shape on it, players score points by building lines of tiles that share the common attribute of either color or shape. It?s sort of like Dominoes.

Both boys liked playing this, but didn?t love it because it?s pretty slow and repetitive. It takes a long time to finish, considering players have to get through 108 tiles with only 1-2 tiles played a turn. Also, someone has to keep score and write down points on paper, and that kind of complicated what should be a simple game. Not a favorite. Ages 6+. Price $17-34.

The Good: Tiles are kept in a drawstring pouch, so very portable and can be played on any flat surface. Easy to understand.

The Bad: Not very challenging, time consuming, must keep score on paper.

SPOT IT!

This is a fun, fast-paced matching game that the boys really loved playing. (And they keep asking me to play it again.) Players are given coaster-sized cards, each with illustrations of eight objects on them. They then try to spot a symbol that appears on both the changing center card and their own card. (The instructions also include five different variations on this basic game.) Spot It! requires visual perception and matching skills and can be played almost anywhere. It also comes in themed versions, like MLB and NHL, animals and Spanish. Ages 7-12. Price $12.

The Good: Fast, easy, great price, can be carried in your purse.

The Bad: Kids might constantly bug you to play it with them.

SKIPPITY

This is an extremely easy game to learn and to play. Similar to Checkers, players cover each square on the board with ?skippers,? or little discs that come in five different colors. They then take turns making straight-line leaps with any disc over any other discs to capture the colors they need to make a complete set. The player with the most complete sets win.

The boys had fun playing this, but at ages 9 and 11, it was a little simplistic for them to really get into. Kids younger than they are would probably enjoy it more. Ages 5+. Price $20.

The Good: Easy, quick, colorful.

The Bad: Best for younger kids, flimsy and sort of cheaply made

SET

Sam and I were excited when we opened up Set, a ?visual perception? card game that?s won over 25 best game awards. However, try as we might, we just couldn?t?figure out how to play this game. Per the wordy directions, players start by putting 12 cards, each with a different visual shape, color, number or shading on it, on the table. They must then find a ?Set? of three cards that are either different or the same. Sounds easy enough, but the directions then show a picture of a green diamond, a blue outlined diamond and a red outlined diamond and note, ?All three cards have the same shape, different colors and the same number of symbols, but they are not all the same or all different in shading; two are outlined and one is not.? Huh? Instant headache.

But based on the awards given, I?m sure this game is worthwhile and we?ll definitely give it another shot. Wish us luck. Ages 10+. Price $13.

The Good: Portable, since it?s just a card deck. Award winning.

The Bad: Pricey for a stack of cards. Very hard to understand using the included directions.

If I had to pick one game as my family favorite, I?d have to go with Blokus. It?s one of those games that you know you?ll be better at each time you play it. But with all of these choices, you?re sure to find the perfect game to keep your family entertained this winter. Good luck and have fun!

Lastly, would love to hear what board games you enjoy playing with your family. Please share.

Photo source: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

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Source: http://alphamom.com/family-fun/party-play/best-board-games-for-school-aged-children/

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Judge to rule on Romney testimony: Staples' value may be key

CANTON, Mass (Reuters) - A Massachusetts state court judge delayed for a day a decision on whether to make public testimony that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney gave more than two decades ago in divorce proceedings involving the founder of the Staples Inc office products chain.

The testimony included a disputed June 1991 assessment by Romney of the value of Staples, according to a person who spoke with the founder's ex-wife.

Maureen Sullivan Stemberg, the former wife of Staples founder Tom Stemberg, appeared at a court hearing in Canton, Massachusetts, outside Boston, to say she had no objection to making public Romney's testimony in her divorce.

The testimony could become public less than two weeks before Romney faces incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 6 election.

The Boston Globe newspaper on October 15 asked the court to make the testimony public before the election. Its attorney, Jonathan Albano, argued in court on Wednesday that it was appropriate for the court to reassess the need to keep the records private now that Romney is seeking the presidency.

While there were no hints at Wednesday's court hearing about the contents of the testimony, an independent film maker said he had been told by Sullivan Stemberg that Romney testified that her holdings in Staples were worth very little.

"She felt that he devalued the stock. And what really kind of proved it was that one minute it wasn't worth anything at all and all of a sudden it was worth a whole lot," according to Edmund Druilhet from Dragon-Lion Media, who interviewed Sullivan Stemberg in 2008 for a movie on her life that was never completed.

"He was stating for his best friend to save money in a divorce that the stock was worth very little," Druilhet said in a phone interview.

Romney campaign officials did not directly address Druilhet's assertion. His attorney raised no objection to the testimony being made public.

"From the governor's perspective, the sooner we get at it, the better," attorney Robert Jones said during the court proceedings.

Staples had been publicly traded for more than two years by the time Romney testified. The company had a $264.4 million market capitalization on June 26, 1991 - the first of two days of Romney's testimony that the Globe is seeking to make public.

Over the next year, it nearly doubled in value, reaching $507.1 million by June 26, 1992, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Today Staples has a $7.72 billion market capitalization.

Sullivan Stemberg's attorney, Gloria Allred, said her client supported making the testimony public.

"We have no objection to the motion by the Boston Globe, because we believe the people have a right to know what Mitt Romney's testimony under oath was," Allred told reporters before the hearing, at Norfolk Probate and Family Court.

STRONG OBJECTION

Allred, a well known civil rights attorney, declined to discuss the contents of the testimony with reporters and declined to comment on Druilhet's assertion.

Tom Stemberg, who spoke at the Republican National Convention in Orlando in August, was not present at the hearing. His attorney, Brian Leary, strongly objected to making public the testimony, contained in two inch-thick bundles of paper that Allred produced in court and another volume she said she had.

"This is not an issue involving Governor Romney," Leary said in court of the former Massachusetts governor, whose private equity firm, Bain Capital, funded Staples' launch. "This is a private divorce matter."

Leary later declined to comment on Druilhet's statements.

Assistant Judicial Case Manager Jennifer Ulwick, who denied Leary's request to keep media out of the court proceeding, gave Leary, as well as attorneys for Romney and Staples, a day to review the testimony to see if it contained confidential information before deciding on whether to make it public.

She told the attorneys as well as Sullivan Stemberg not to discuss the case with the media prior to her ruling on whether to make the documents public.

An attorney for Staples asked for time to review the documents to ensure they contained no confidential information that would damage the office supply retailer's business interests.

Leary described it as expert testimony on investment matters, while Allred said it was unclear whether it was limited to that.

Ulwick granted a request to have a television camera present for Thursday's court session to rule on whether to make Romney's testimony public.

The Globe and Staples declined further comment.

Allred donated $2,500 to the Obama campaign in September, according to the OpenSecrets.org, a website run by the Center for Responsive Politics.

(Reporting By Scott Malone; Editing by Martin Howell and Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-rule-romney-testimony-staples-value-may-key-221500167--finance.html

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Clearing Up The Confusion: It?s ?The New Windows 8 UI? ? Not ?Metro UI?

Ever since we heard the first rumors about Microsoft dropping the "Metro" moniker for its new touch interface and its app, there has been a lot of confusion about what the new interface should be called. Is it the new Windows UI? Windows 8-style UI? Are they Windows 8 apps or Windows Store app? Is it still Metro and all the rumors were false? Even just a day before the launch of Windows 8, most people still don't know what to call it (and I just spent most of the day in briefings with Microsoft partners ahead of the launch). To clear things up, I asked Microsoft for its own official guidance today (because inside of Microsoft, people are using different names as well).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/A1wCvsfiqJ8/

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Ballseye's Boomers: Second Piece of Good News I Heard Today

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Source: http://ballseyesboomers.blogspot.com/2012/10/second-piece-of-good-news-i-heard-today.html

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T-Mobile drops 200MB smartphone data plan, 2GB now the new standard

T-Mobile silently killed off its $10 per month 200MB data plans, a leaked document reveals. A company spokesperson verified the news with Fierce Wireless. This decision is most likely due to the growing demand for mobile data as smartphone applications continue to evolve. Grandfathered customers will not be affected by this new policy, but will need to pay full price for a device and sign up for a "Value" plan when upgrading in order to maintain their existing service plan. T-Mobile now requires its smartphone customers to have a minimum data plan of 2GB or higher, which starts at $20 per month. While this change may make sense for most smartphone users, existing customers who are light on data and heavy on savings might have a different perspective when it's time to buy a new phone. Check out an extreme closeup of T-Mobile's document after the break.

Continue reading T-Mobile drops 200MB smartphone data plan, 2GB now the new standard

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, T-Mobile

T-Mobile drops 200MB smartphone data plan, 2GB now the new standard originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Scoop, Fierce Wireless  |  TmoNews  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/19/t-mobile-drops-200mb-smartphone-data-plan/

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Solar power is contagious

ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2012) ? People are more likely to install a solar panel on their home if their neighbors have one, according to a Yale and New York University study in the journal Marketing Science.

The researchers studied clusters of solar installations throughout California from January 2001 to December 2011 and found that residents of a particular zip code are more likely to install solar panels if they already exist in that zip code and on their street.

"We looked at the influence that the number of cumulative adoptions -- the number of people who already installed solar panels in a zip code -- had on the probability there would be a new adoption in that zip code," said Kenneth Gillingham, the study's co-author and assistant professor of economics at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. "Our approach controls for a variety of other possible explanations, including clustering of environmental preferences or marketing activity."

They calculated that 10 extra installations in a zip code increase the probability of an adoption by 7.8 percent. If there is a 10 percent increase in the total number of people with solar panels in a zip code -- the "installed base" -- there will be a 54 percent increase in the adoption of solar panels.

"These results provide clear evidence of a statistically and economically significant effect," said Bryan Bollinger, the other co-author and assistant professor of marketing at New York University Stern School of Business.

The study also shows that the visibility of the panels and word-of-mouth led to larger installations. "If my neighbor installs a solar panel and tells me he's saving money and he's really excited about it, it's likely I'll go ahead and do the same thing," said Gillingham. "Then there are others who'll install because they don't want to be one-upped by their neighbors."

The researchers found that white males between the ages of 45 and 65 who have a 30-minute commute and home repairs were associated with higher adoption rates. Gillingham suggested that a disproportionate number of engineers working in Silicon Valley may explain the result. In addition, larger households and people with longer commutes were more exposed to solar installations, thus more likely to adopt the technology, compared to people who carpooled and lived in smaller households.

"These findings have clear implications for marketers who are striving to reduce the high cost of consumer acquisition in the solar photovoltaic market," said Bollinger.

In January 2006 the California Public Utilities Commission established the California Solar Initiative, a $3.3 billion, 10-year rebate program encouraging the installation of 3,000 megawatts of solar infrastructure over the ensuing decade. These subsidies, according to the authors, have increased the number of solar installations to 17,000 in 2010 from fewer than 1,000 in 2001. The authors used the 85,046 requested residential installations during that time in their calculations.

"Our finding of an increasing effect of new installations in a zip code suggests that targeting marketing efforts in areas that already have some installations is a promising strategy," said Gillingham.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Yale University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. B. Bollinger, K. Gillingham. Peer Effects in the Diffusion of Solar Photovoltaic Panels. Marketing Science, 2012; DOI: 10.1287/mksc.1120.0727

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/STfXuwO0mB0/121018162213.htm

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