Abalone

As much fun as it is to play board games with the whole family, sometimes my 6-year old wants to play games that really challenge him. For these occasions we have a few 2-player strategy games. The easiest to learn was Abalone, a game played with beautiful black and white marbles on a hexagonal board. It was invented in France by Michel Lalet and Laurent Lévi. It quickly won prizes like the 1990 "Mensa Select", or being runner up in the 1989 German "Spiel des Jahres" (Game of the Year). The rules are really simple. Push your opponent's marbles if you have more marbles lined up in a specific direction than him. The first one to push 6 of the opponent's marbles off the board wins. 

Starting position

That sounds like it is easy and boring, but since it is played with 3 axes instead of two, things often take sudden and surprising turns. We usually pretend to command opposing armies. My son calls it attacking my troops when he pushes my marbles, there is retreat, sacrifice, encircling and out-flanking each other, sieges and break throughs. 

It can be hard to keep the troops together

While world class players can drag out a game for hours, playing with kids is a fairly quick experience. We often take the travel version of the game to a restaurant to play a round while waiting for food. Another bonus of the game when playing with younger players is that you can let them take some of your marbles, or let them win, without being obvious about it. But watch it, all of a sudden they will take a marble from you that you didn't actually intend to lose. Don't forget to yell "I've lost my marbles!" on those occasions.


Other ways to start the board:

 






 

















Geek factor: 4 out of 5

Fun factor: 4 out of 5



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CIA Declassified - Spy Exhibit at the Franklin Institute

With fall just around the corner, it is time to review some great indoor places to take the geeks in training. One of our staples is the Franklin Institute, which until October 5, 2013 has a great special exhibition: "SPY: The Secret World of Espionage". The exhibition features actual spy equipment from the CIA, FBI, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and private collections, spanning the time from WWII until the end of the Cold War.

German Enigma machine

Many items look as if invented by Q, such as a poison-tip umbrella, microfilm hidden in a hollow nickle or a prototype of the insectocopter, a flying mini-robot in the shape of a dragonfly.

Poison-tip umbrella

Carrier pigeons

Although this exhibit is not as hands-on and interactive as the regular exhibition, it still provides opportunity for smaller kids to open hidden dead drops or crawl a secret tunnel. The laser maze that required to jump and crawl without setting off the alarm was definitively a favorite.

Clock wall with all world time zones

Geek Factor: 4 out of 5
Fun Factor: 4 out of 5


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Teach Fleet - Lego Flotilla at the Independence Seaport Museum

Every proper geek-to-be should know how to handle his or her Legos. Short of visiting Legoland, the best chance to show them that there are no limits to what you can do with Legos will be tomorrow (9/7/13), when the Teach Fleet sets anchor at the Independence Seaport Museum.

By Norbert Schnitzler (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Not only is Teach Fleet one of the world’s largest collection of Lego ships, what would already be awesome all on its own. But it it also aimed at increasing awareness for and supporting STEM, diversity and Environmental Stewardship. Like a STEM-Happy-Meal, the kids are lured in by the colorful toys, and leave with a brain full of rich content. Each ship is named after a STEM contributor who also had to overcome obstacles due to his or her gender, race or heritage.

In addition to the Teach Fleet, tomorrow also features Coast Day, with knot tying courses and a regatta at the museum (visiting the submarine Becuna is included in museum admission), and additional activities on Penn's Landing. 

The weather forecast for tomorrow is sunny and balmy, so go enjoy one last day of summer at the Delaware!



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A Blob of Horror - now on Geekadelphia.com

I got picked up by THE Geek Blog for the Phili area - Geekadelphia.com!

"Do you love sci-fi horror movies, want to pass your passion along to your children, but are worried that starting with “Alien” might scar them forever?

Fear not! Start them off with the 1958 classic “The Blob” featuring Steve McQueen ... "

Read the rest at Geekadelphia.com! 

Geek factor: 5 out of 5

Fun factor: 4 out of 5

Darth Vader - the unappreciated Geek Dad

Darth Vader did not get a chance to spend much quality time with his children, but if he had, I have no doubt he would have been an awesome geek dad. Playing dress up with a cape and mask being second nature to him and all that.
  

Jeffrey Brown explored the idea of what kind of father Darth Vader could have been a bit further. The result are two books that mix Star Wars classics with the reality of fatherhood. What could possibly go wrong, right?

Good for a late Father's day present - or just because.


Geek factor: 5 out of 5

Fun factor: 5 out of 5


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She's got a Ticket to Ride

I love board games. I grew up with dozens of them stacked into my shelves, and every birthday party or gathering with friends ended up with a board game being played sooner or later. Being German, that did not even qualify me as a geek, because Germans take their board games really seriously. It is the unknown third national passion after soccer and beer. Germany hosts the world's largest international board game expo, a 4-day event where 149,000 visitors test and play new board games every year. That is almost more people than there are breweries in Germany. Did I mention Germans take gaming seriously?

 
Our newest addition at home tested by my Geeks 2.0 is called "Ticket to Ride". It is a great combination of strategy, geography and building trains. It won "Game of the Year" 2004 in Germany and the 2004 Japan "Best Advanced Board game" prize (the Japanese are another nation who don't fool around when it comes to games). "Ticket to Ride" is also highly popular with the board game playing community. Fewer than 300 of over 16-thousand raters on boardgamegeek.com gave it less then 5 out of 10. I have decided these 300 people must simply hate both geography and board games and thus aren't worth listening to anyway.




The game is played on a large map with cities connected by colored train routes. Players have to collect a matching set of colored train cards to be able to claim a route for themselves. Building trains earns points, which are tracked by markers on the side of the board (built in math session on two digit addition). Players also get secret tickets. If they manage to claim the routes between the two cities on their ticket, they score extra points. If they fail to claim a ticket, these points get subtracted at the end of the game. The fun part is that the tickets are kept secret until the end of the game, when the first player runs out of trains to build. So you don't really know who is ahead or behind, or who will win or lose until the end of the game when the ticket points are added and subtracted. 

Officially the game is labeled for children 8 or older. But by simplifying the rules, like not keeping tickets secret, allowing trading, or waiving special rules around tunnels and ferries, it can easily be played by 6-year olds as well. 

There are stand-alone editions of the game and map extensions. The stand alone editions are "Ticket To Ride" (USA map), "Ticket To Ride: Europe", "Ticket To Ride: Maerklin" (map of Germany), "Ticket To Ride: Nordic Countries" and "Ticket To Ride: Switzerland". If you are like me and vowed that your kids will know where Luanda and Durban are, you can then extend the game with an add-on map. These map extensions are available for "Asia", "India" and "Heart of Africa". If you plan to give those as a gift, make sure to add one of the stand-alone editions as well, since the map extensions do not include train game pieces. 


Still not sold that this is a great game? Then play it with the matching "Ticket to Ride" sound track, courtesy of The Beatles ("Help!", from the same album, is another song that applies to a board game sooner or later), and give an extra point to the player with the best fake Liverpool accent. Two if they can find Liverpool on the map.

 
Geek factor: 4 out of 5

Fun factor: 5 out of 5

Price: approx. $38 for the stand-alone editions and $30 or less for the map extensions


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Col. Chris Hadfield - a name your kids should know

Do your kids know who was the first man on the moon? How about the second? Or the third member of the Apollo 11 mission, who stayed behind in the command spacecraft? I'd venture to bet that in our generation everybody knew who Neil Armstrong and his crew were. But over 40 years later, for a 6-year old he is a historic figure as ancient as Lincoln, Washington, or Genghis Khan.

I found it futile to create excitement with my kids for the Apollo missions, or even the Space Shuttle. The best they can offer is grainy old TV footage with mostly incomprehensible sound. So instead we made a fresh start and followed Col. Chris Hadfield into space.  

Col. Chris Hadfield had previously been part of several Space Shuttle missions, but he just completed a 5-month mission of being in command of the ISS. (Thanks to my Canadian friend who pointed me his way!) Col. Hadfield is going with the times and has a Facebook page with amazing pictures of Earth taken from the ISS. On the Canadian Space Agency's YouTube channel he covers topics kids are actually interested in. 

How do you command the ISS? Do astronauts have to eat their vegetables, and do they get dessert? Do the five senses Taste, Hearing, Smell, Sight and Touch work differently in Space? Can you cry in space? Where do astronauts sleep? And of course the most important question of all: how do you go to the bathroom in space, and what does that have to do with shooting stars?

He also posted (and keeps posting) many pictures and stories from his mission preparations and post-flight check ups, in case you or your kids are also interested in the 95% of being an astronaut that are not space-riding cowboy but literal blood, sweat and tears.

So, long story short, I think every little geek should grow up with a role model who has made the trek to space and back. Don't let the large number of pilots, scientists, mission specialists and commanders that have been and will be up in space be an excuse to not get to know one of them closer and make them the childhood hero of your kids. Or even rekindle your own interest in what they actually do up there on the ISS, other than creating shooting stars. (Answer: renditions of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" while hunting down dark matter)

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Following the Evidence

You have probably already come across Carl Sagan’s words that “every child starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them”. Watching my 4-year old picking up hands full of sand and experimenting with the distance the wind carries it if he blocks the wind’s path completely, partially or not at all, I am bound to believe that. (Let’s forget for a moment that this happened in the second inning while he was supposed to be guarding First Base, and that he was almost flattened by the base runner.) The good news for me here is that my job to raise scientists just became a whole lot easier. With the spark already there, I only have to keep alive that wonder about how the world works, encourage them to never stop asking more questions or looking beyond what is known. As long as they keep enjoying the process of discovery they will always be scientists at heart. 

My favorite tool for that is the phrase “Follow the evidence” (raise your hand if you just pictured Gil Grissom in his lab surrounded by bugs). I used to just answer questions such as “Why do the peonies in our front yard always bloom 2 weeks after the ones in the backyard”, “Who ate the last piece of cake” or “Why does that bird swoop over our heads every time we leave through our front door”. I was stuffing my kids with facts, but it left little room for them to do the exploring. So now my answer is always “Follow the evidence”. And follow they do. It makes them go closer. Look longer. Collect more details, make hypotheses and check them against things they already know to be true. Sometimes they groan, because it is work to find out for yourself instead of being fed the answer. But once they have followed their evidence and come to a conclusion, their satisfaction more than makes up for that. Especially when I can verify that they got some things right. Plus, the stuff they come up with is often just so innocently sweet. My 4-year old decided the peonies in the backyard feel more loved because we spend more time with them, which makes them bloom earlier.

Of course with everything in parenting, no good deed goes unpunished. Easter Sunday evening my 6-year old walked up to me and said “I think the Easter bunny is not real. I looked at the evidence and it makes no sense that he would be real”, then proceeded to present three minor errors I had committed while covering my tracks. He did not even ask “if”, or give me a chance to explain away anything. He was certain he had gotten it right. A month later out of the blue, he was wondering out loud if Santa might not be real either. He knew he had no evidence against Santa, but extending the logic of the Easter Bunny, why would Santa be real?

Oh, what to do? Create more fake facts that make Santa sound plausible? Or congratulate him on completing this quest of following the evidence and arriving at a logical conclusion? I chose the latter; I just did not have the heart to crush his accomplishments under a mountain of lies. And judging by the evidence of his smug grin, I think it was the right decision. I totally made his day. For those of you worrying about the Santa magic, he said it’s okay that I turned out to be Santa, as long as he still gets the same presents (yes, the priorities of a 6-year old ...). So there. For my budding scientist following the evidence and learning the truth is more satisfying than believing in something beautiful, but imaginary. And it is my job to keep it that way.



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Nurture Shock – Using science to raise children

The most infuriating moments of being a first-time mother were when my husband would defer an important decision to me with the words “you are the mother, you have motherly instincts, your common sense will tell you what to do”.

Trained in making decisions based on data, I was reading every piece of parenting advice I could get my hands on. My assessment: most are subjective, unscientific, contradictory (if you have ever come across an article covering “attachment parenting” and “Ferber sleep method” in the same paragraph, you know what I mean), and as uncommitted as the smoothest candidate for public office.

I don’t know about you, but I have a degree in Statistics and Economics, and “Motherly Instincts” wasn’t part of the curriculum. And yet being in charge of nurturing the minds and bodies of 3 little humans without any special training is something you are allowed to do unquestioned until law enforcement needs to get involved. So I basically make it up as I go along. (You should start wondering now, if common sense is supposedly working so well, why is our world in the sorry state it is in?) 

So imagine my relief when I came across “Nurture Shock” by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. They thought it would be a good idea to check which of the midwife tales, common wisdoms and fancy new parenting approaches are actually supported by real scientific data. Which in 2009, when the book was published, was apparently a rather novel concept. (You can stop wondering about the world now, and facepalm yourself instead).

The book spans topics from toddler to teenager, discussing speech development, lying, confidence building, the importance of sleep and more. The real eye opener for my husband and me was the chapter discussing how to raise children that are not racists (or any type of being discriminating, you can substitute race for any other attribute society might or does discriminate others by). Well-meaning parents trying to raise “color blind” children might actually reinforce the opposite (read an excerpt here).

For an encore check out the website www.nurtureshock.com, where new studies are regularly posted, discussed and interpreted into scientifically proven parenting advice. Your future geek will thank you.

Price: currently $15.63

Geek factor: 4 out of 5

Do you know another good parenting book that uses scientific data? Leave a comment!