Children's books for mobile devices: PicPocket Books » Creative play http://www.picpocketbooks.com Children's books for mobile devices Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:30:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 “Scrapstore PlayPods™” – bringing a new, old-fashioned idea for creative, open-ended play to schools http://www.picpocketbooks.com/scrapstore-playpods%e2%84%a2-bringing-a-new-old-fashioned-idea-for-creative-open-ended-play-to-schools/ http://www.picpocketbooks.com/scrapstore-playpods%e2%84%a2-bringing-a-new-old-fashioned-idea-for-creative-open-ended-play-to-schools/#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:43:30 +0000 Lynette http://www.picpocketbooks.com/?p=3107 The Scrapstore PlayPod™ provides a container full of materials and equipment (loose parts) that can stimulate, facilitate and enhance children’s play.

The video below gives an example of how access to materials like tires, cloths, crates, and spare, loose parts from the “Playpod” can offer children the opportunity to experience higher levels of creative activity and cooperation during playtime.

When I was a kid, my friends and I had “forget-to-come-home-for-dinner” fun building “forts” and other installations in empty lots using scraps of construction materials, fallen branches, leaves,…whatever we could get our hands on. Not only were we building with our hands, but we made up elaborate stories about our “village” as we went along. Watching the school kids play in the video below reminds me a lot of those magical playtimes!

]]> http://www.picpocketbooks.com/scrapstore-playpods%e2%84%a2-bringing-a-new-old-fashioned-idea-for-creative-open-ended-play-to-schools/feed/ 0 Are our kids spending too much time consuming digital media? http://www.picpocketbooks.com/are-our-kids-spending-too-much-time-consuming-digital-media/ http://www.picpocketbooks.com/are-our-kids-spending-too-much-time-consuming-digital-media/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:26:02 +0000 Lynette http://www.picpocketbooks.com/?p=1139 Are you concerned about kids spending too much time “plugged in” and not getting enough good old-fashioned unstructured, creative playtime? As a mom who works in the field of digital media for kids publishing children’s picture books to the iPhone and iPod touch, I have thought a lot about balance in my kids’ media diet. One of the reasons I developed PicPocket Books for the iPhone was to give parents and their kids an educational, kid friendly alternative to video games and movies on the mobile devices. Reading a story book on a screen is a very different experience from playing a repetitive video game on the same screen. It has the same educational, mind-opening benefits as reading a traditional print book: it increases vocabulary, improves concentration and focus, and expands horizons.

Creative play

Everyone loves a snow day!

Unstructured outdoor playtime

I also encourage year ’round outdoor play time for my kids.

They ride bikes, start pick-up soccer games, make forts in the neighborhood and engage in elaborate make-believe games with their neighborhood friends.

We do not allow them to watch TV or movies during the school week. That is just a hard and fast family rule and the kids don’t even ask for media time during the week – although election night is an exception – and maybe the upcoming winter Olympics, too!

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