Learning already

It's only been a week and a half into the new year, and I'm already learning things! Things like:

1) It is coooold in January even when you go as far south as Patagonia, Arizona. But we had a nice trip anyway.

the dry desolation of southeast Arizona

Yes, that's snow on the ground.

outside our cabin window at Ramsey Canyon Inn

2) I should have kept in touch with the professional artists who thought very highly of my art skills because they would have made me feel guilty for mostly wasting the last 25 years of my life and not working harder at honing my skills (yes, I'm thinking of you, Bill Mammarella and Rick Ortwein).

3) Root veggies like kohlrabi and rutabaga are versatile, tasty, and keep well.


There are a few more things, but I won't bore you with my list. How about you? Learn anything new or deep in the first week plus of January?

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Great learning app for young kids!

As some of you may or may not know, my younger son has mild autism and it was always hard trying to find appropriate and helpful things to help him learn when he was little that would also be fun and keep his interest. Flash cards are so 1950s. ;) I wish this app was around 12 years ago when he was a preschooler.

Busy, Busy Farmer Brown, at a thoroughly affordable price of $2.99, is so sunny and adorable, I just want to play Level 1, where the narrator reads the sweet rhyming story and you can click on the art to hear the vocabulary words, over and over again.

Level 2, Vocabulary Matching, first offers a look at pictures paired with the vocabulary words, and if touched, the word is said aloud so that the child will know if his/her guess was right. The child can then move on to the Quiz portion where he/she can match the choice of three words with the one shown along with a picture of the word.

Level 3, Barnyard Sorting, presents a spread that shows which animals live on a farm and which live in the wild. After the child processes that page at his/her own pace, he/she can move on to the next portion where s/he can sort the animals, jumbled on the bottom of the page, to the appropriate habitat -- farm or wild.

The app is a terrific blend of fun and learning! I love the cheerful art and music and would have gladly let my son play with this when he was young.

Once your little one has mastered this game, he/she can move on to another terrific app offered by Brainy Day Apps: In the Deep Blue Sea. It's sure to appeal to the fishy wishes of your preschooler!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams