Posts About ‘kids’

Send Your Kid to Apple Camp

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

It is no secret that I’m a fan of Apple Products. One look around my house and you might think that you’ve stumbled into a suburban Apple Store.

Earlier this summer, I got an e-mail from them talking about the Apple Camps that they do. I had heard about these in the past, but for one reason or another had not given them much thought. But, as my daughter does a show called Emily Explains It and I never seem to have enough time to put them together for her I thought it would be great to have her learn the basics.

I wanted my son to also attend because I think video editing skills are something that would benefit anyone and I know he has posed an interest before, but he was away the week that they were holding it so only my daughter got to go.

The camps are two days of 90 minutes each and then a Saturday film festival where they show all the kid’s work. Oh and did I mention that it is free?

Day 1: Storyboarding & Garageband

The kids arrive at the store and are given a t-shirt, lanyard and some Apple Camp pins. They also are assigned an iPad for the day and given a storyboarding template.

Apple Camp - July 2011 - Storyboards

Apple Camp - July 2011

The instructors are great and really know how to interact with the kids. They go over the concept of laying out your story in order to help you focus your shots and think about how things are going to fit together later. It was fun to look at the variety of ideas the kids came up with.

Then they got an introduction to Garageband and each camper composed a piece of music on the iPads that they could use in their movies. If you’ve never sat down with Loops in Garageband, you’d be amazed how easy it is to come up with some simple music for your own use.

Apple Camp - July 2011 - Garageband

Apple Camp - July 2011

The homework for the night was to go home and shoot their video so that the next day they could edit it.

Day 2: Editing

Emily had grand visions of an epic squirrel adventure in the woods, but the downpour we had when we got home meant that it wouldn’t be. Instead she filmed hundreds of shot of her stuffed squirrel trying to find a place to hide his acorn. Heck, I even made a couple of cameos.

We returned to the Apple Store and they showed her how to plug in her camera and capture the footage on the mac and then walked her through the basics of iMovie and let her go at it. It was fun to watch her figure out how you can put together two completely separate scenes and make them work together. Then she discovered sound effects and really began to have a great time.

Apple Camp - July 2011 - Editing

Apple Camp - July 2011 - imovie

Suddenly the ninety minutes was up and here is the one part where the camp broke down for me.

Somehow they had planned that these little Spielbergs would finish their movies in that time, but never told them. Now, they were stuck not being able to finish the movies. This in my opinion is piss poor planning and you could see several kids a bit heart broken over it. They could fix this by letting them know up front and encouraging people if they have their own macs to bring them so that they can start work there and then bring it home.

We exported the movie and I knew we could make it work at home with some tweaking and that is what we did.

Day 3: Showtime!

Apple Camp - July 2011 - Premieres

Apple Camp - July 2011 - Watching the Premiere

Since there is more than one camp going on at anytime the store was packed when we got there. They had set up an area in the back of the store and of course were showing the movies on a big screen iMac.

Each kid would get up and introduce their film and then it would be shown. Lots of Lego and Barbies showed up, but there was only one stuffed squirrel which you can watch here.

So What Did I think?

If your kids have any interest in learning Apple software and there is a store near you I can’t reccomend this enough. The kids will have fun, you’ll have fun and you can’t beat the price. Emily walked away all excited about video editing and that is what I had hoped for.

It is also a genius move on Apple’s part because of course the parents get to play with all the fun gear while their kids are learning. They also did a nice job of on day 1 showing us the parental control features built into the Mac OS for those who didn’t know they were there. I saw more than one parent (myself included) walk out with a bag with some goodie in it before the end of camp.

Apple Camp is awesome and you should definitely consider it for your kids.

 

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Posted in Featured, Sons & Daughters, Technology | 5 Comments »

Father and Daughter Time

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

Hey folks, sorry for the bit of a vacation from Digital Dads TV , but between speaking engagements, vacations and summer time it was bound to happen.

But, this weeks show was a special one as my daughter Emily joined me in the studio for the first time and it was a blast. Of course, in addition to talking about all the cool projects she is doing she also sang a great cover of Lady GaGa’s “Born This Way” which is going to have me smiling for a very long time! Hope you enjoy the show.

Watch Digital Dads TV live every Monday from 2-3 PM Eastern on The Pulse Network . We’d love for you to be part of the live shows.

Links to everything shown or talked about in the show.

Have someone you think would make a great guest or a service, product or service that you think would be right for our audience? Please e-mail us to let us know about it.

 

 

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Posted in Digital Dads TV, Featured | No Comments »

Trick It Out Golf

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

The 4th of July is here with a bunch of upcoming summer weekends at home, the beach house, on vacation, or visiting friends & family.  This is the best time to enjoy yourself outside playing games while drinking your favorite beverage, barbecuing, or just hanging out.  It could be horseshoes, volleyball, frisbee, wiffle ball, or playing catch.  Now there’s a new game that will not only pit you against your buddies, but actually improves your golf game.  It’s called PGA Trick It Out Golf.

Trick It Out Sports is a company I created 3 years ago, that makes learning the fundamental skills of sports more engaging and fun by breaking them into measurable tricks.  Most recently we partnered with the PGA of America and designed our first golf product.

PGA Trick It Out Golf is a backyard skills game for any level of play.  Based on mini-skill competitions that are called “tricks”, and a virtual web based scoring system, you can conduct on-going competitions throughout the summer, wherever you are.

This unique and innovative PGA game breaks down all the fundamentals of golf into a series of fun tricks, in combination with a virtual web tool that measures each golfers improvement, while providing everyone the opportunity to compete and rank each of their trick performances among other golfers around the world.  In your own backyard!

All tricks are introduced and available on a member’s personal PGA Trick It Out Golf web page, via trick videos, and an illustrated pocket guidebook, that provides step by step instructions on how to set-up, execute, and score each trick.  After a golfer executes a trick they download their best score onto a virtual scoreboard that automatically shows where that performance ranks.

For this upcoming holiday weekend you can try it out and let PGA Trick It Out Golf know what you think.  All you need is 10 yards of open space, a pitching or sand wedge, 5 short flight golf balls (wiffle, foam, etc), 7 small disc cones (you can substitute with two jump ropes, rope, string, etc), 6 empty shoe boxes or pairs of different size buckets that form 3 different size obstacles approximately 6, 12, & 18 inches in height, an extra club or stick to lay on top of the shoe boxes or buckets.

See Trick Card for set-up and how-to execute

Then go to PGA Trick It Out Golf on Facebook and let them know what you think. If you’re pleased, and want to try more, log onto www.pgatrickitoutgolf.com and register for a one year membership.

Anyone can sign-up & join. You can sign-up your kids by age category, as well as register yourself to the open adult division.

A one year individual membership includes:

  • Access to 10 introductory tricks on video, with more tricks added throughout the year, including indoor tricks for the winter.
  • A virtual realtime scoreboard that ranks your trick performances among others nation & worldwide.
  • Tips from the pros.
  • Download video of your swing, or tricks performed, and link them to a certified PGA Teaching Professional for analysis (your local pro can sign-up and link to you anytime)
  • A calendar of upcoming PGA Trick It Out Events throughout the country.
  • All for just $9.95 per year

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Posted in Featured, Sports | 6 Comments »

WAKE UP CALL FOR FOOTBALL: It’s time for youth football coaches to be Licensed!

Sunday, February 6th, 2011

On the eve of the Super Bowl, football’s largest stage & most popular weekend in all of sports, I’m perplexed that very little has been featured in the press on this year’s most pressing issue, head injuries.

Helmet to helmet hits to the head. Our increased awareness of concussions. High school football teams forfeiting games due to rosters depleted by injuries. A college player left paralyzed from the neck down. The medical community warning parents that hits to the head may effect their children for the rest of their lives. Is that not enough for the football community to rethink the issue of safety at the youth level?

Yet every weekend in the fall millions of kids take to the football field, instructed to hit their opponent, separate the ball from the ball carrier, and take on a warrior mentality. Kids who have not yet reached puberty, and are stilled tucked in at night by their parents will take to the football field without the security and proper instruction of a many certified adult coaches.

If that does not make you pause to think, then let me pose this question. Would you take your child to a martial arts class, where the instructor’s only qualification was they enjoyed watching Kung Fu movies? Well, that’s exactly what you do when you place your son on a youth tackle football team. Most youth tackle football coaches qualify themselves to coach by the fact that they watch the NFL and college football every weekend on television.

As football parents, ARE WE CRAZY??? We allow our children to play a violent sport where you are asked to hit and knock someone over, with limited instruction on how to properly execute such a difficult physical task. Not to mention the fact that young kids below the age of 15, if not older, have not fully developed their bodies to appropriately execute complicated & coordinated movements in order to make a tackle correctly. Nor have they developed the neck strength to support the head when making a tackle.

The football community needs to quickly mandate coaches to be licensed and properly trained. Currently USA Football has an on-line test that certifies coaches. Anyone can pass that test without preparing for it! I’ve administered that test to people with no football background or knowledge that have passed that test. It’s time to follow the lead of sports such as soccer and require that youth tackle football coaches pass a comprehensive on-field test in how to properly teach all the fundamentals of the game, for every position. If the sport of ice hockey, including the NHL, USA Hockey, and Hockey Canada are now asking that youth hockey re-certify coaches and change their rules on contact before the age of 13, is it not time that football start certifying coaches, and rethinking how kids learn and play the game?

I applaud the sport of hockey for being proactive to protect the future generation of players and their sport. Football needs to do the same, despite their claims that they do, through posters and pamphlets designed to educate parents, players & coaches in regards to concussions. It all falls on deaf ears when you don’t require coaches to be trained to teach the game.

Wake up football!!

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Posted in Sports | 6 Comments »

National Geographic Kids Almanac 2010

Friday, December 18th, 2009

natgeo-2010-almanacI grew up looking through copies of National Geographic at the library and my aunt’s house. I’m sure for most of us, the signature yellow cover instantly pops in our head when we hear the name. I know even today I look forward to the arrival of the newest issue every month to our house.

That is why last year when we discovered they were now doing full color almanacs for kids we bought a copy right away. The kids loved looking through all the pictures and more then once would ask us, “did you know?” and then share some fact they had just learned about from the book.

National Geographic Kids is a whole new brand focused on the same teaching about the world we live in, but in a way that is much more digestible for kids. The site has games, videos, stories and more to keep kids coming back and learning at the same time. Their yearly almanacs are a great addition to any house that has kids in it. Trust me that you won’t be disappointed.

They sent me one of the 2010 editions and I was happy to see a lot of new information for the kids. I’m actually planning on giving this copy to some relatives for Christmas since I don’t think they have a copy in their house and I think they would really benefit from it. Shhh…don’t tell them.

One of the great things about when I got contacted by National Geographic is that they are allowing us to give away a copy to the readers of Digital Dads. I don’t think it’ll get to you before Christmas, but it’ll make a great birthday or just because gift as well.

All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on this post and we’ll pick a winner at random.

If you want to learn a bit more about the 2010 Almanac watch this video to get the full flavor of it.

Disclosure: cmp.ly/2/h0ljuj

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Posted in Books | 2 Comments »

Raising Gatejumpers

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

I have always hated whenever someone told me “you can’t do that” or “that isn’t how it is done.” I never understood either of those concepts. Sure, there are rules in place to keep people safe and kids out of trouble, but beyond that if I want to do something and no one is going to get hurt by me doing it, I’ve always pushed to make it happen.

Now that I have children of my own, I’m trying to pass this mental approach along to them. It isn’t always fun because they openly challenge me on things and then I find myself in an interesting whirlwind that I know I helped create. But, part of me loves it when they do it and these situations always lead to great discussions and learning experiences for both of us.

Strong EmilyAlong with this, I don’t hand my kids anything on a silver platter. They have to work for it. Just the other day my daughter was complaining to me that she couldn’t accomplish a task correctly and was crying about it. I told her that she first needed to stop crying about it and try again. The only way she was ever going to learn how to do it correctly was to keep trying it until she mastered it. I believe that it is crucial that this be done because otherwise children will never learn that they have to keep pushing forward to be successful.

I recently listened to a conversation and was shocked to hear how held back some people are. Held back by themselves which is a concept I just don’t understand. It is a moment in time that has reminded me that the way I’m raising my children and the way that I hope other parents are raising theirs is the right way.

Parents need to make sure that they are raising children who know that they control their destiny more then anyone else. That there is no dream that is unattainable if you work hard enough at it. Years ago, I was told point blank that there was no way I’d get into Bentley by my guidance councilor and on the day that I got my acceptance letter I slapped it on her desk and walked out. When I first heard the phrase “that isn’t how a marketing agency works” I laughed and started my own agency. I’ve never been able to just sit back and not push forward if I want something bad enough. It just isn’t in my genes.

What I’m getting at is that you need to make sure that your kids realize that the only way to succeed in life is to always work hard, to be strong willed and be the best you can be at whatever it is that you are passionate about. Yes, there are going to be plenty of people standing in your way, telling you no and gates set up  to block them. But, I hope and pray that everything I’m doing with my kids is raising them to be a gatejumper who chases their dreams with every ounce of their soul.

“I can’t do it” is a phrase that is not allowed in my house. My children know that the world is theirs if they want it.

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Posted in Everything & Anything | 105 Comments »

The shoe cables a repent reward near the visible.