A Great Resource and Paper

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop - Advancing Children's Learning in a Digital Age
http://joanganzcooneycenter.org/
Specifically, this article: http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/upload_kits/ilearn_1_.pdf

Impressions on DIY game tools

Hi, girls,

I've played some more with Game Star Mechanic and finally got to install Kodu on the XBox. Here are my thoughts on them:

- GSM is really simple to use. Going through the tutorials in order to win all the stuff you need to use in your own games may get boring at times, but it assures you already know what to do with them when you start creating a game. We can definitely make a game with it, but so far I don't think it would allow us to customize the avatars to have our Bavarian Cow and Cat Unicorn :-(

- Kodu has much better graphics, but I didn't like to use the XBox interface for the game creation process. And we are also limited to the elements provided by the game, so I don't think it is a good option. Besides, I fell asleep while playing one of the demo games.

I'll try to use one of the more complex tools to see how it goes. Has any of you tried them yet?

Best,

Julio

Tentative List with Some Other Possibilities

Considering these Games for the Playlist:
Lego Harry Potter**
Plants vs Zombies (9+?)**
Super Why!**
Fish Guardian**
Cut the Rope**
World of Goo**
Paper Toss free (also, world tour version)**
Sneezies**
Fruit Ninja **
FS5 Hockey (air hockey)**

Other really popular possibilities to put into the ten:
Jelly Car 2*
skee-ball*
Chicktionary*
Preschool Arcade*
Can Knockdown*
Pocket Frogs*
WackaMonsta *

And a few more ideas:
Toddler Teasers: Shapes
Memory Match: Child Development Edition
Checkers
Push the Button
Tic-Tac-Toe 4 Two Players
ibowl
Soosiz
Doodle Jump
Pac-Man for iPad

Unicorn Cat

Our second character...

Bavarian Cow

First "concept art" for our game design: the Bavarian Cow!

Some Useful Links

Here's a nice article from Children's Tech Review. I wasn't sure if we were thinking of having a section on games for preschoolers, but some of these are pretty interesting for this age group.

http://childrenstech.com/blog/archives/3659#more-3659

Here's a recent article from the NYT. It has game suggestions for preschoolers, tweens, teens, and everyone in the family.

http://www.nytimes.com/external/gigaom/2010/12/22/22gigaom-8-ipad-apps-to-keep-the-kids-busy-on-that-long-dr-26855.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Also, when I was trying to find our blog, I stumbled across this handy iPad blog:

http://ipadforkids.com/

Apps for Kids

Hey guys!

I googled "best apps for kids" and these are a few of the sites which came up. Many of these are clearly aimed at a very young audience, but there are apps for older children as well.

Parenting.com

25 iPhone apps for kids

More apps for kids

Travel Savvy Mom

iPhone and Kids

Apps4Kids

Best Kids Apps