Last weekend I got the kids the Cranium Cadoo game (found it at Thriftown for $1). I've loved Cranium games so far, but I found this one to be disappointing.

The concept of the game is pretty fun and straightforward. You have a gameboard with four rows of four spaces. Each player has tokens of a color, and she needs to get four of her tokens in a row to win the game. You get tokens by answering the questions or doing the activities shown in the cards.

The problem is that while the game requires kids to be readers - so they can read the cards -, which means that they must be at least 6 if not 7, years old - the questions are really, really, really easy. I played the game today with my 5-year-old daughter and her 6-year-old friend (I did all the reading), and they pretty much got all the questions/activities immediately. They enjoyed themselves, but there wasn't much of a challenge, and I doubt the game would be much fun for an older child.

So alas, this is one game I cannot recommend.

A couple of days ago I got (in my professional capacity) a kit titled "Bringing Human Rights to Life", published by United for Human Rights. According to the introductory letter the kit is designed for teaching human rights to students in secondary and post-secondary educational institutions. The kit consists of a DVD titled "The Story of Human Rights" (which I haven't watched and probably won't) and two pamphlets on human rights which basically include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and some contextual text on the current state of human rights - somewhat informative and rather innocuous stuff. There is also a fact sheet, a non-specific "action" letter, a coupon for joining "United for Human Rights" (at a $40 annual membership) and an order form for getting more copies of the DVD (at $15 a pop) or the cheaply-made, rather useless booklets (at $1.50 each). The Educator's Guide, whatever that is, costs $37.50.

What I find interesting is that nowhere in the kit, there is any mention of "United for Human Rights" being a non-profit organization (I rather guess they are a for-profit "publishing" company), or that they are associated with Scientology, the pseudo-religion invented by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. However, a visit to its website shows that "United for Human Rights" is associated with Youth for Human Rights (YHRI), a non-profit organization founded and mostly staffed by Scientologists and which coordinates most of its major activities with the "Church".

The "Church" of Scientology is well known for its interesting "theological beliefs" - namely that an inter-galactic dictator named Xenu brought his people to the earth millions of years ago, then proceeded to kill them and now their "essences" go around infecting people and causing them harm. In order to rid yourself of those pesky spiritual invaders, you have to pay the "Church" of Scientology many, many, thousands of dollars.

But it's not just money that the "Church's" followers/victims have to part with. They are forced to give up control of their lives, give up contact with any relatives/friends who are antagonistic towards the "religion", perform slave labor, and even have unwanted abortions. And this is just the tip of the iceberg (Time magazine had a very interesting article uncovering much of the coercive practices of the "church" leadership).

It may seem ironic that an organization that has been faulted for its inhuman practices against its devotees would show interest towards promoting human rights. My take is that there are three main reasons for this. The first is that since its beginnings, Scientology has been trying to portray itself as a religion - not just to get tax-free status (and as a mega-corporation I'm sure that's a big part), but also to portray itself as the victim of religious persecution. It behooves Scientology, therefore, to foment the human right of religious freedom, hoping that in the eyes of the people this will envelope them as well.

The second is that Scientology has been very smart, and very good, at introducing itself into educational institutions by providing them with free or cheap educational materials. They use this access to push their "message" on unsuspecting children. It worked for them with drug education, so it makes sense they would try human rights education next.

Finally, I think that Scientology wants to clean up its image by associating its "work" with that of well-regarded international human rights organizations. Their literature contains links to the major non-governmental, governmental and international human rights bodies, and Youth for Human Rights claims partnerships with organizations such as Amnesty International South Africa and the Mexican National Human Rights Commission. I wonder if these groups know of YHRI's Scientology connections.

In any case, my primary motive for this posting is to clarify the connection between "United for Human Rights" and Scientology, so that other human rights activists and educators who receive the kit I got, will known whom it's coming from.

Mika, my 8-year-old, got the Project Runway Fashion Design Projector Kit from her step-grandmother for Xmas. She played with it when she just got it, then put away for several months, and got it out again this morning. I have to admit that it was quite fun.

The kit comes with a projector and a slides with sample shirts/pants/skirts/shoes/bags/etc. You place the projected images on top of pieces of papers with lightly drawn body figures (these come with the kit), trace over the images and then decorate the clothing as you'd like. There are a few more things on the kit to make it more fun - as well as a "challange" game, in which each player spins a wheel to find out what piece to design, in what style and in how much time - while competing against other players. Of course, the competition aspect is not great when you have sore losers in your family, but it would be fun for more mature players.

This kit is perfect for an 8-year-old girl or older (I even enjoyed it), but I think it wouldn't work so well for a younger girl.

It's not cheap, but if your girl is into fashion design, this is probably a great way for her to pass her time.

Everyone who knows me, knows that I'm a devout atheist - but, after much soul searching (yep, at least half a second worth), I have found religion. As of five minute ago, I'm a Pastafarian - a just-as-devout worshiper of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I haven't quite decided what branch of pastafarianism I'll be joining. Is the Flying Spaghetti Monster just one being - the being - or is he indeed, just the sum of the spaghetti, the meatballs and the holy sauce? Is it even up to us humans to ponder the sacred mysteries?

In any case, I've decided to go as far as changing my religion profile on facebook and worshiping my new-found God by serving spaghetti and meatballs (maybe even with homemade sauce) once a month or so.

Everyone who flies (in commercial airplanes, at least) knows the ridiculousness of so-called "airport security". While innocent passengers are harassed and prohibited from taking the most necessary and inoffensive items into the airport, while letting actual guns and ammo through.

TSA rules as to what you cannot get passed security have really been going beyond any notion of the ridiculous - not only are they banning Disney souvenirs, but they now are scared shitless about the dangers of snow globes. WTF?

The real story on this, however, is the fact that we, the citizenry, allow the government to impose the most stupid, arbitrary and capricious rules on us without complaining. This one may be a relatively trivial one, but it gets us used to the intrusion of the government into our private lives.

Everyone who knows my 8-year-old daughter Mika, knows that she is quite amazing. She's incredibly smart, has an uncanny ability to connect seemingly disparate concepts (for example, she just equated the way recipes and cooking methods evolve over time, to the way folktales change as people relate them to each other - forgetting parts and adding new parts), she has exceptional social skills and is a great kid. I love hearing how her little mind works - what concepts she takes to, and which ones she rejects.

At this age, she strongly identifies with me and is, therefore, a profound atheist (I'd even say a virulent atheist, but that's something we're working on). She is very much into science and the notion of "evidence", rejecting beliefs when there is not evidence to prove them (thus her rejection of god/gods). BUT, she's still a kid and wants to hold on to some magical beliefs. In particular, she believes in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy and unicorns.

With respect to Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, she has evidence of their existence. After all, she gets presents from Santa for Christmas and money under her pillow when she loses a tooth (enormous amounts of money, the tooth fairy never seems to have change when needed). Who can argue against that? She has postulated the notion that we might be the ones leaving the presents/money - but she has never asked outright, which makes me think that she wants to hold on to the fantasy. As for unicorns, she thinks nobody has ever seen them because they are very shy :-)

Mike went away to a conference for a few days last week, so the girls spent at least part of the night sleeping on my bed. Saturday morning, Camila (who is 5) and I awoke to Mika's excited voice "Look, Camila, there is something under your pillow". It was an envelope - addressed to Camila from the Tooth Fairy. Inside there was a dollar, some stickers and a Hello Kitty writing pad! Camila had not lost a tooth, but she was super excited all the same!!! To be finally be visited by the Tooth Fairy! Mika was so cute, making gestures to let me know it had really been her and making sure I wouldn't say anything :-)

She did give herself up later on when she mentioned that she had no money because she had given it all to Camila. Camila figured out that the money she got must have come from Mika, not the tooth fairy (she's smart too!), but I can't imagine a sweeter action than to bring a little bit of magic to her sister.

Despite how much the two of them fight (mostly because Camila is an attention monster, and she becomes annoying/mean when Mika doesn't pay enough attention to her), it's amazing just how much they love each other - and what a great big sister Mika is.

We're in the middle of summer vacation, and one of the ways I prepared for it was by getting lots of kits, crafts, games and activities so that the kids would not be bored to death and they wouldn't spend all day long watching shows on netflix (not that they don't anyway).

Today, for example, Camila and I spent the morning making soap and doing fun, gross experiments from the Scientific Explorer's Disgusting Science kit (which I will review in a couple of weeks when the cultures we are growing are ready). We had lunch, watched some TV (of course), read books, hugged a lot, and decided to finally open the Wrist Pix Kit which I got on listia a few months back.

This kit (an older version of the one linked above) was surprisingly fun. What you do is either draw tiny pictures on stickers or color the stickers included with the kit, stick them on rectangle metal beads. Then you put a transparent thick sticker on it, and you're done with the beads.

Actually using them to make jewelry is a bit more difficult. The kit comes with a bunch of nice 4mm plastic beads and very, very, very cheap elastic cord. The problem is that it comes apart very easily, making it difficult to thread - but not impossible. The other problem is that my girls apparently don't want to do the actual beading - making the picture tiles is more fun :-)

Anyway, this is a fun kit all in all.

Mika, my 8-year old, is very much into ancient mythology (among many other things). But this is an interest I'm particularly happy to encourage not only because it helps give her a balanced view of religion, but because Greek mythology in particular is so fundamental to the understanding of Western art, literature and culture in general. Indeed, the more I learn about Greek mythology, the more I realize where so much of Christian beliefs come from.

Mika and I started reading Greek myths a few months ago out of the book Mini Greek Myths for Young Children, a small book I got at the British Museum years ago. We went on to learn more about Greek mythology by watching the History Chanel series Clash of the Gods (which I love). But recently we started reading D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, which I got on listia for a ridiculously low amount of credits. This particular edition, on hardcover, appears to be from 1962 but it's in great condition. The person who "sold" it to me told me that he had read it to his children for many years. I'm sure I will do the same for mine.

I love the book. I love how it's organized - both chronologically and by order of godly importance (it starts with Mother Earth and Uranus, continues with the Titans and then goes on to the Olympians, before focusing on the minor gods and other supernatural beings) -, how each chapter relates to the preceding one, and how thorough it is in recounting the mythology. I also appreciate that it uses pretty sophisticated language but it cleans up the stories for the children (Zeus' lovers are portrayed as his wives, for example). The one problem I have with the book is that it does not cover the possible metaphorical significance of the myths. For example, according to my brother at least, when Cronus , the titan ruler of the universe, eats his children in order to avoid them overthrowing him, he represents "Time" eating the days away. I couldn't find any support for such theory online, but most myths were invented so as to account for natural phenomena.

But, all in all, this seems a very minor fault of what is otherwise a great book.

I am now planning to get D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths, as Norse mythology is definitely one basis for English literature, and I know absolutely nothing about it.

Today Mika and I had a great stay-at-home day together, about which I hope to blog later. But now I'm taking a break to write about two new (to us) products we used today that we enjoyed.

One is the Cranium Balloon Lagoon game, which I got at Thriftown for $2, seemingly with everything it originally came. The game seems to not be available anymore - it's about $100 at Amazon marketplace - but you may also be able to find it in a thrift store.

Mika and I played it today and it was a lot of fun. It has 4 stations. In one you have to flick toads into a pond, in another fish letters to form words, in a third push levels to get the correct parts of a pictures, and in the last one throw pictured dice through a chute until you get the correct picture. Pretty simple things, but fun nonetheless. Of course, Mika won, I'm not sure it'd have been as fun for her otherwise :-) In any case, well worth $2.

Another item that we used today was the Conair Quick Wrap Styling Kit which I got on listia.com for the equivalent of $4. It also seems to be out of production, but I'm sure you can find it somewhere. It worked surprisingly well. You just put a spool of thread inside it, thread the hair and some thread through the whole in the machine, and then press a button and slowly push the machine down as it wraps the thread of hair. My only problem has been being able to make the wrapped threads be straight, I think the key is to be pulling down on the hair stiffly as you wrap it. In any case, Mika liked the results. I'm hoping that the machine will work with regular thread, as I have a lot of that.

Anyway, time to go back to pay attention to my girl :-)

I picked up Clue Jr. The Case of the Missing Cake at a thriftstore a couple of weeks ago (for $1), and today the girls (who are on summer vacation) and I finally played it. It was a big success - they both liked it and it was neither too boring nor too challenging.

It's been years since I've played Clue (though I also picked up a used set of this at Thriftown), but I imagine the rules for this one are much simpler. Kids do need to know their numbers, but the game is really best suited for kids 5 yo and older, so that shouldn't be a problem.

One of the things I like about clue is that while some strategy helps, it's also a game of luck, which means that the younger players are not at too big a disadvantage.

Anyway, if you can pick it up for cheap, make sure to do so.