“Jon and Kate Gosselin's Kids Expelled from School: Too Much, Too Soon? - Associated Content” plus 2 more |
- Jon and Kate Gosselin's Kids Expelled from School: Too Much, Too Soon? - Associated Content
- Kids’ Music That Doesn’t Suck: The Flannery Brothers - Wired News
- Kinect and your kids: What works, what won't - msnbc.com
| Jon and Kate Gosselin's Kids Expelled from School: Too Much, Too Soon? - Associated Content Posted: 14 Nov 2010 06:27 AM PST Viewers of TLC's "Kate Plus 8" saw them prepare for their first day of school this year, going shoe shopping and book bag buying and looking cute as buttons in their private school uniforms. But now- before  According to an article in TV Guide, two of Jon and Kate Gosselin's sextuplets- Collin and Alexis Gosselin - have been expelled from their school and are now being homeschooled. This comes on the heels of Jon and Kate Gosselin's very public and very nasty divorce and a court battle between the Gosselin parents over continuing to have their kids lives filmed for TV. Meanwhile, Kate Gosselin's camp called the whole story "grossly overstated". Last month Jon Gosselin tried to convince a court that his 8 kids should no longer be on television, but he lost that battle. RadarOnline reported that Gosselin said that some of his kids were suffering from emotional and behavioral problems that he attributed to life on camera and in the public eye. So what does a 6 year old have to do to be expelled from school? You can pull up any elementary school handbook online and see that it takes a very serious offense to warrant expulsion. While bullying and harassment are often offenses that can lead to expulsion, sometimes repeated incidents of more minor offenses can warrant severe disciplinary action. The Gosselin kids have been on television since 2007, when the sextuplets were just toddlers. But long gone are the days of visits to Pennsylvania pumpkin patches and sunny days at Sesame Place. The final season of "Jon and Kate Plus 8" featured an announcement that the Gosselin parents were separating and a dismal fifth birthday party episode for the sextuplets. The show went on hiatus for a while and returned with Kate and the kids, sans Jon. Now, with two of his kids expelled from school, does Jon Gosselin have a good case for keeping his kids off of television for good? ***** Sources: This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Kids’ Music That Doesn’t Suck: The Flannery Brothers - Wired News Posted: 12 Nov 2010 03:54 PM PST  Flannery Brothers' The New Explorers Club As a rule, musicians hate it when you instinctively describe their sound by relating it to other bands or artists. Yet that is exactly what I am about to do. On their recently released CD The New Explorers Club, Maine's Flannery Brothers sound like a sonic pillow fight between Jonathan Richman and They Might Be Giants. There – I did it. And I did it with the added amenity of ham-fisted imagery. Go me. I parallel the Flannery Brothers with such eccentric pop luminaries because, like any good kids music act, it's easy to mistake their output for more traditional flavors of fresh-faced indie rock. I'd be lying if I didn't say there were times in recent weeks where a song like the island groove-heavy "Kitchen Floor" wormed its way into a random playlist and I unapologetically bobbed my head, only vaguely aware that I was listening to a track more specifically written for my children. The New Explorers Club is positively eaten up with perfectly relatable little musical moments like that. From the sultry shaker and punctuating horn hits of opener "Big Kite" to jaunty acoustic anti-ballad "Best Adventure," the album genuinely sounds like childhood. It manages to capture that wonder and innocence while still challenging the listener with its eclectic tastes. Like Sesame Street or a trip to the natural history museum, the Flannery Brothers engage audiences of all ages by reminding us that the most fun and fascinating things in life are also often the simplest. Tracks like "Swallowed a Bug" (which channels an almost ragtime danceability), the preschool friendly "Hi 5 Dance" and the jangly "Boots" excel as much by the group's own musical virtues as they do their blissful neglect of anything resembling the traditional educational slant of children's music. Even in songs that do purport more edutaining content – like "In the Middle," a beginner's lesson on the concept of relativity, or the particularly tuneful "The Elements," which catalogs the joys of outdoor play – The Flannerys approach such subjects coyly. Rather than saturate their music with tales of school day triumphs of warning against cavities, The Flannery Brothers instead seek to make music that inspires by elevating. It's feel good music of the highest order, and it should easily prove infectious to listeners young and old. Will the outright absurdity of "Pirate or Parrot?" teach your daughter to tie her shoes? No, but it will likely cheer her up after a tough soccer game or help her decompress on a long car trip, and sometimes that's more than enough. The New Explorers Club is another grand addition to your kids music library, and it's available from in both digital and physical formats to suit either taste. Those looking to try before they buy are also encouraged to check out the group's official site for a full album stream. At 13 tracks it's just the right length, and because of the obvious care taken in the writing and recording of this impressive collection it is certainly an easy sell. Flannery Brothers fans in the mood for an even more outrageous listening experience are likewise encouraged to check out the band's follow-up Dance Songs for Silly Kids. This 12-song collection remixes the band's 2009 release Love Songs for Silly Things in its entirety. With high energy electronic tracks about sunglasses and trips to the farmer's market, it's another highly enjoyable and easily relatable collection for the proverbial kids of all ages. And you can't beat the price. Which is free. Pick both up to share with your little ones during the enjoyable (if exhausting) holiday season ahead. And remember: if it's got wings – parrot, a peg leg – pirate. Hey, I learned something after all! This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Kinect and your kids: What works, what won't - msnbc.com Posted: 10 Nov 2010 04:33 PM PST When I first unpacked the Kinect, the new controller-free motion-capture system for Xbox 360, I thought how awesome it would be to play with my daughter. She's 2 1/2 (going on 14), so I figured Kinect Sports' rudimentary bowling and ball kicking would be easy. And it was, when it worked. The sad fact was that though my kid was definitely ready for Kinect, Kinect wasn't ready for her. When I spoke to Josh Hutto, on the Xbox Kinect team, he explained that there is a recommended height minimum of 40 inches, corresponding roughly to kids 4 and a half years old and up. "The [Kinect] camera needs a field of view, side to side and up and down," Hutto told me. "It's trying to get as many people into that cone as possible. Getting a small person and a tall person in the same space is a technical challenge." While my kid is probably going to have to sit out a couple of years of Kinecting, there are some good tips for anyone with small kids closer to the 40-inch mark who do want to give it a try. For starters, you should mount the Kinect camera box above your TV, as high as 6 feet if possible. Since game play has to happen 6 to 8 feet from the camera, raising it up closes the distance required between the TV and the players. At the same time, it makes it easier for the camera to track people of different heights, since it is looking down, and not across. This is also a good tip for people who find their quarters a little too cramped for Kinect. Even an average sized living room like mine could benefit from the tighter camera space, and for city dwellers, it's a must. "My sister lives in an apartment in Manhattan," said Hutto. "I told her the same thing. If you get the camera height up to 6 feet, it's going to make the play space as small as possible." As you might have guessed, there's already a bustling business in Kinect mounts. With Microsoft's blessing, a company called Performance Designed Products (or just PDP) is selling a Kinect wall mount for $15, a floor stand on a tripod for $30, and a special flat-panel TV clamp for $40. (PDP is also selling a 10-foot-long "officially licensed" USB cable for $50, which sounds awfully steep. If you do need a USB extender, try this one at Monoprice for $1.43 first.) A colleague of mine decided to skip the fancy rigging and instead screwed an L-shaped bracket to the wall, attaching the Kinect to it with doublesided tape, and securing the cable to prevent accidental yanking. It probably cost all of $2, and did the trick. Once you've got the Kinect up in place, run the Kinect Tuner with your kid(s) in the play space, and within that tool, manually adjust the camera to tilt down a bit. Don't just tilt the camera down by hand, because the system will just compensate by angling back up. Mind you, since you basically tweaked it for the smallest members of the household, you may need to re-tune it when the kids go to bed, and the grown-ups queue up to make fools of themselves. It's important to demarcate the play area somehow. The best advice I've heard is to set a yoga mat or some other floor mat down in the Kinect sweet spot. Everyone can get carried away playing Kinect, but kids especially get over excited and tend to lunge towards the TV, which not only screws up the tracking, but is a tad bit dangerous too. One dad I talked to set out a line of shoes, telling his son not to cross it. Hutto had one other tip for kids and Kinect: clear enough play space in front and back, and to each side as well, so that everyone stays safe during playtime. I don't think anyone assumed Kinect would be injury free, but it was a little surprising to see the accident videos hit YouTube so quickly. Maybe I should be glad my kid can't get involved. Aw, who am I kidding? If she doesn't grow into this thing soon, she's getting stilts for Christmas. Catch up with Wilson on Twitter at @wjrothman, just don't ever make fun of his Xbox Live Gamerscore. Only Todd and Winda can do that. © 2010 msnbc.com Reprints This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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