Although December brings with it lots of hectic holiday chaos, our family has been fortunate to have some pockets of time together to do fun things. Thanks to Mom Central, the four of us sat down to watch "Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa" at our local theater. Then fresh off the movie enthusiasm with catchy tunes in our heads, we unwrapped the "Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa" Wii game.

My kids love Wii, and they especially love playing games that relate to things they've experienced in other media, such as with seeing the sequel to Madagascar before actually playing the game. The game itself has different modes: the story mode relates to the movie itself, whereas the "Africa Arcade" provides various quick games that are fun on their own or as part of a multiplayer tournament. Players can collect "monkeys" which they then use at the "Duty Free Shop" to purchase items.

My sons (aged 7 and 4) initially went through the story mode, but then decided they enjoyed the ability to pick and choose mini-games through the "Africa Arcade." My eldest son has probably played the soccer game at least fifty times. Both boys choose Marty the zebra. Watching zebras play soccer is quite a funny sight!

The movie is entertaining, certainly, but it also provides a great springboard to talk about environmental conservation. Since the game parallels the movie, it too can be a good starting point for discussion. The first scene of the movie shows hunters all too eager to lure animals off the protection of their reserve. The first movie depicts zoo animals escaping from New York to Madagascar. In the sequel, the animals leave Madagascar, crash land in Africa, and discover animals from their own species.

Initially they are awed to see the beautiful savannah, but soon the characters discover that a human-made dam cuts off water supply to the reservation. Of course the friends save the day by blowing up the dam, but in "real life," such simple solutions to man-created problems are not so easily accomplished.

Fortunately, the movie and game are entertaining, even if at the core they deal with serious subject matter. My boys laugh at the funny parts, love playing the game, but they are both aware of environmental issues. My eldest loves to scold me at the gas pump (my husband drives a Prius, so he applauds him.) My youngest likes to tell me to turn off lights when we aren't in the room anymore.

And both of them love to play soccer with zebras.

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Learn more about the "Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa" video game

Purchase Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa for the Nintendo DS at Amazon

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Read on for some kid-friendly tips from Conservation International:

Over the summer, Turner Classic Movies aired fabulous family-friendly movies every Sunday night, such as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Music Box, and National Velvet. I was lucky enough to receive - from TCM - The Best Old Movies for Families: A Guide to Watching Together , a wonderful book filled with suggestions for those great movies that many of us have forgotten, but that are still relevant and appropriate for kids. The book gives age recommendations, plot summary, modern-day tie-in, and a discussion of why it is a great choice for family fun.

Well, the fun didn't end in the summer, that is for sure. Today, December 7th, TCM Presents The Family Classics. The festivities will include Sunday movie showcases featuring more than 25 Disney live-action classics, plus an all-new original documentary entitled The Age of Beliving: The Disney Live-Action Classics, narrated by Tony® winner and three-time Oscar® nominee Angela Lansbury.

Today's line-up includes some of my favorites like Swiss Family Robinson and the original Parent Trap - show your kids the original so they aren't thinking about Lindsey Lohan's drinking and other current behaviors while they watch what is supposed to be a wholesome show. I remember fondly filling up my parents' VCR with all the Hayley Mills movies I could. Now I can fill up my TiVo with the same!

Tonight at 10:15pm Eastern (7:15pm Pacific) is Pollyanna. You know I'm going to watch that one. After all, I can't sing America the Beautiful without hearing Mills' cherubic warble and picturing her hot-dog-style in that fabric as a piece of the American flag. (But hey, isn't Mills British?)

Every Sunday starting today through December 28th, TCM will air Disney live-action classics from noon until after midnight. Please visit tcm.com for the complete schedule, as well as for their gift-giving guide for movie buffs of all ages. I won't blame you if you shed a nostalgic tear as I did reading through the list of my past-favorites like Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Escape to Witch Mountain, and Freaky Friday [the original, of course.]

The Age of Beliving: The Disney Live-Action Classics, narrated by Tony® winner and three-time Oscar® nominee Angela Lansbury will premiere next Sunday, on December 14th at 7pm Eastern (4pm Pacific.) This special will follow the studio's history as it ventured beyond its animation legacy to develop non-animated family fare. I am eager to see it!

If you fear that your kids are bored with the recent releases, perhaps it is time to take a look backward to remember all those fabulous movies that we loved as kids. Check out tcm.com and your local listings. Or just set your TiVo to record from noon 'til a little past midnight on every Sunday in December.

Pass the popcorn!

The upside of having an older brother is that things like homework suddenly seem very "cool," because it is something new! exciting! and most of all, something your older brother does. I certainly appreciate my youngest's desire to have homework and hopes he keeps that positive spirit into next year when he actually does have homework. The downside of having an older brother is that many of those "cool" things are still out of reach.

My youngest doesn't know how to read yet. He's four, and definitely Kindergarten-ready. He can identify all his letters, knows most letter sounds, and will be pleased to tell you that he can spell "cat," as well as his name and the names of his family members and friends. But no, he doesn't have the word-skills to play "Word Mole" on my phone like his older brother does. And he definitely can't do the same reading comprehension homework that his older brother does.

But thanks to Poingo, he can pretend pretty well. While my eldest son reads a book and answers questions using his pencil and paper, my younger son can "read" using the Poingo wand, and play comprehension games right on the page, using the same wand.

Poingo is an easy plug-and-play: just turn on the wand and go! In fact, my four year old was so excited he just started without any instruction from me. The actions are intuitive and are easy to figure out simply by exploring. This fosters independence in kids - they figure it out themselves and are happy to have done it "all by myself."

My youngest can choose to just "read" the book by letting the wand read the book aloud or he can touch characters or illustrations on the page to hear sound effects or learn more information. Playing games is intuitive, too.

Red-highlighted words can be defined by clicking on them. Touching little photos within the text will replay the sound effect. It is great to have this additional definition, but the downside is that the entire text starts from the beginning, rather than enabling the child to continue where he or she left off.

For example, in the book Cars, one sentence reads "In the lead is The King, followed by top competitor Chick Hicks." The word "competitor" is red-highlighted, so my son tapped it to learn the definition. But instead of returning to the sentence where it was defined, the wand began at the beginning of the page. This can be disorienting for kids, since they want to continue the story after the word definition, not listen to the entire page over again. The sound effect boxes should be used only after the entire text on the page has been read, for the same reason.

The technology behind Poingo is amazing. In similar systems, the user must touch the wand to each page to start. (Upon examination of these books, it is apparent that a different location of each "dot" signals a different page. Not so with this product.) For Poingo, once the wand knows which book is being used, it automatically senses the page or activity. For example, I touched the title page of Finding Nemo to orient the wand, but then jumped to page 22 and clicked on "Whale Tales," a box with four different whale graphics. The wand immediately defined whichever whale I touched. Other pages have illustrations, words, or graphics in that exact same location on the page, so it is amazing that the wand is able to distinguish between page 22 and any other page.

Given this amazing technology, there has got to be a way for the wand to resume the storytelling after a red-highlighted word if the user clicks the word immediately after. It is so important given kids' attention-spans to have the ability to pick up the story mid-sentence, or at least to the nearest sentence, without having to go back to the beginning of the page.

When the wand reads the book, the words are clear and spoken slowly. It is easy to understand, and thus easy for the child to follow along, viewing the written word as it is spoken aloud. This is so important so that the child can match what he is seeing with what he is hearing. Of course, this also means the child can read a book independently, just like his big brother.

Poingo can be connected to the computer to unlock additional content, such as music. There is no CD to lose; the device driver is embedded in the wand. Unfortunately, my particular wand was broken in this capacity. After I plugged it in, my computer declared that it was corrupted.

Fortunately, I was able to download the content management system at mypoingo.com after registering my device. Unfortunately, the download takes awhile, and the digital signature cannot be verified. Once I received the content management system, I attempted to log on using the credentials for which I registered, but it failed. The Poingo User Guide is a great step-by-step process for loading the content manager, but alas it doesn't mention the need to "log in" to the manager, so clearly something is wrong with my particular wand.

If everything had worked properly, it is the content management system that I would use to load new books onto my wand after purchase of those books.

Aside from this glitch, and my concern about the need to read the entire page's text all at once, Poingo is on its way to being a good product. It is still new, having come out just this autumn, so perhaps some kinks will be ironed out and some renovations made for further upgrades.

No mention of Poingo would be complete without acknowledging its similarity to LeapFrog's TAG system, which I reviewed this summer. TAG has more books, plus the "Learning Path," in which parents see what skills a child is working on, but Poingo will likely add more titles to their library as time continues. And let's be honest, as cool as "the Learning Path" sounds, I haven't been interested in analyzing my children's skills since I trust that they are developing at the right pace. And so, this particular feature is definitely optional, depending on your preference.

Both systems are educational. Both systems are fun. I urge you to take a look at both websites (MyPoingo.com and TAG headquarters) to see what product might be right for your family. TAG's product is $49.99, whereas Poingo's is $34.99. Additional books for both systems are $9.99 apiece.

It is a fun concept, and definitely a great idea for young kids who are on the verge of reading. The independence and extra emphasis on matching sight to sound are really wonderful.

Thank you to Poingo for giving my son such a fun toy!

Sigh.

It seems that something entitled the "Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act" will go into effect in two months.

I learned of this unfortunate piece of news via Cool Mom Picks' announcement of the issue. I look towards Cool Mom Picks for fun and unique toys and gift ideas. As they note in their post about the CPSIA, most of these cool finds are from smaller shops or parent-run businesses which simply won't be able to afford the licensing required under the new guidelines.

The gist of it is that in an effort to prevent unsafe chemicals (ie, lead, psychotropic drugs, and other things) that have been in the news as being unwanted components of [mass-marketed, cheap-o, usually imported] toys, the CPSIA will require thorough testing of products before they are allowed on the shelf. While the idea behind it is "good," the result is that only the large manufacturers will be able to comply with the law.

Ironic, since it is large manufacturers cutting corners that have created the unsafe environment in the first place. It is the independent and smaller businesses that take the time to use natural methods and high-quality components -- check out CMP's Safer Toy Guide to see some of those excellent companies that we may find missing in a couple months.

Will this cause a domino effect: small local businesses must shut doors, so communities lose sales tax revenue, so money that could have gone towards road safety, schools, and other community-bettering facilities will be less? My town doesn't have a Walmart. And I sure don't want us to have one!

Last week, I was pleased to announce that Turner Classic Movies launched their The Family Classics series. As a reminder, every Sunday through December 28th, TCM will air Disney live-action classics from noon until after midnight.

The Age of Believing: The Disney Live-Action Classics, narrated by Tony® winner and three-time Oscar® nominee Angela Lansbury, debuts at 7pm Eastern (4pm Pacific) tonight. This special will follow the studio's history as it ventured beyond its animation legacy to develop non-animated family fare.

While I received a press screener for this special, it did not arrive until late last night; as such, I must be honest and report that I haven't yet had the opportunity to view it. I am very much looking forward to sitting down for this trip down memory lane. Many of the movies on the The Family Classics series bring back terrific memories, so to get some "insider" information about the evolution and production of these movies is a real treat.

Tonight after the special, The Apple Dumpling Gang and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again both air. Next week, look out for favorite titles like Escape to Witch Mountain and Freaky Friday. (Please visit tcm.com for the complete schedule.) In case you miss it tonight, The Age of Believing: The Disney Live-Action Classics will play again at 11:45pm Eastern (8:45pm Pacific) next Sunday, December 21st.

In my next life I want to be a photographer. Sure, I dabble with taking pictures of my kids (it has been years since we've gone to a professional for portraits because mine turn out just fine for holiday cards and so forth.) But there are definitely more challenging subjects that I haven't mastered, such as compelling action shots, particularly during sporting events. Yes, our local ECHL (ice-hockey) team confiscated my camera because it looked too "professional," but they need not have worried.

Thanks to Mom Blog Marketing, I learned about Dick Druckman's Gold Medal Impressions Limited Edition Sports Photos. He has traveled the world to some of the most important sporting events (yes, including every Olympic Games including and since Barcelona in 1992.) His photographs are of many sports, at many levels, including high school and college games.

Amazingly, everything on the site is currently 50% off. Most prints start at $25 when regularly-priced, so they were already affordable before this incredible discount.

Everyone has a sports lover in their life, so this is a perfect opportunity to grab a unique, meaningful, and affordable print for them. While some of those poster-places in the mall might have cool shots of your favorite baseball team, it isn't likely that you'll find a real-life photograph of something like the two-man balancing team at the Olympic Trials (pictured above right.) And yes, there are photos of Michael Phelps out there, but how many of Rebecca Soni in action (pictured at left?)

My one criticism of the site is that it can be difficult to search for photographs. If I type in "gymnastics," only two prints come up. However, I know from browsing through the site that there are many, many gymnastics photos. Likewise, I caught misspellings in the athletes' names (ie Hortion for Horton) which makes searching more difficult.

Fortunately, it is fun to look through the prints for a given category since there might be something I wouldn't have thought to search for. Also, Mr. Druckman would be happy to help locate fabulous prints given the sports you or your loved ones are interested in if you phone the gallery at 609-606-9001.

The sale prices are not reflected on the website, so please call Dick Druckman at the gallery (609-606-9001 from 9AM-5PM Eastern) to receive the discount. Orders that are put through on the site will not get the promotional pricing - so please call for the 50% off special. This promotion ends on December 20th.

Please visit Gold Medal Impressions to get an idea of the prints available from Dick Druckman, and then give him a call so he can find that perfect print for you -- at 50% off!

Today is Autism Twitter Day: look for #ASD on Twitter, pointing to blog posts about a multitude of topics relating to the spectrum. RSVP and learn more by visiting Autism Family Adventures.

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Over on The Karianna Spectrum I've posted a "catch - [nearly] - all" of some of my archival autism posts representative of some of the "big topics" as well as a few (okay, more than a few) more thoughts on the issues swirling around public perception of autistic spectrum disorders: Autism is Not What You Think.

But then today seems like a good day to profile some books that might be of interest to the spectrum-interested person.

First up is Can I Sit With You, Too. This is the sequel to Can I Sit With You, naturally. Both books' proceeds go directly to SEPTAR, the Special Education PTA of Redwood City (SEPTAR.) People that I am "pos-autive" you know are included in both these books. In fact, I am in Can I Sit With You, Too.

There you have it. I have been published someplace other than a scientific journal. Yay Me! So buy Can I Sit With You, Too because I am in it. And because it is for a good cause. Yay, good causes!

Today the Cat's teacher emailed me the titles of two books she recommends: A Regular Guy: Growing up with Autism by Laura Shumaker and Ten Things Your Student with Autism Wishes You Knew (see also: Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew, by the same author - Ellen Notbohm)

She writes "I have recommended these books to all of the teachers I know!"

A book that I would recommend to teachers is Your Child's Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them. I reviewed it here earlier this year. The concept of playing to kids' strengths is one that is true for students with learning differences, but also for "regular kids" too.

Along those same lines, I was given a free-for-review copy of When the Labels Don't Fit: A New Approach to Raising a Challenging Child. It took me awhile to read because as I've noted before, I have a hard time spending my "free time" focusing on ASD-related matters (my blogs the exception, of course!)

But I felt this was a book I needed to read.

I was drawn to it because I am definitely against label bias and concern about using labels as a limiter or an excuse. This book isn't a philosophical discussion of this or a public plea to look at the child not the label, though. Rather, it is more of a parenting textbook, the type that unfortunately makes me feel a little ill because it ends up so overwhelming. That isn't to say the book doesn't have good ideas - it definitely does - but any parenting manual is going to have sections that don't "fit" with me.

This book is geared towards parents, but I would hope that educators would consider it as well. Many of the techniques within might already be used at home, but likely aren't being used at school. Some things won't work because by definition, the kids in question are pretty unique.

While the subtitle of the book is "A New Approach to Raising a Challenging Child," the temperament discussions contained within aren't "new." (And temperament categories are essentially yet another way of "labeling") Still, for someone not familiar with this approach, the book does a great job of explaining ways of adjusting our thinking to see things in relation to temperament. Alas, the Cat is one of those kids who exhibits different temperamental traits depending on the situation, so it is difficult to pinpoint the underlying "driving force."

What I wish would be that teachers and other parents and the public could adjust their thinking to consider that each child (ASD or not) has different strengths, different approaches to learning, and different ways of "coping" when things aren't presented in a comfortable way. Of course, that is selfish. But the truth is that there are so many different variables involved in a child's personality that it is limiting to consider that all kids must process information a certain way, such that deviance from that is necessarily wrong.

People tend to categorize. It is how we make sense of information. But that means that anything that doesn't quite fit in a category can be multiply confounding.

We need to support our kids: encourage their strengths, and find ways to introduce challenges in such a way that resonates with their talents.

One absolutely beautiful book that celebrates a variety of families who include people on the spectrum is Autism Heroes: Portraits of Families Meeting the Challenge by Barbara Firestone, with forwards by Teddi and Gary Cole. Husband brought this book home (autographed!) after a meeting he attended in which representatives from The Help Group were present.

I haven't read all the stories within its pages, but Autism Heroes has gorgeous photographs. I like seeing these families, children, and young adults portrayed in this artful manner. It makes them "celebrities" almost, because their faces comprise what we admire.

And certainly we can find plenty to admire about our friends and family members on the spectrum.

If you belong to my family, stop reading right now. I'm serious. Stop. It. Otherwise, spoilers ahead!

A few weeks back, I was in Target shopping for the Cat's class adopt-a-family. While I was purchasing gifts for the kids in our family, I also started throwing things in my cart for my own kids. Most of my shopping is done online because otherwise what happened that day will happen every day: I see something I know my kids will love, and in to the basket it goes! (And we go broke!)

Target's dollar aisle is pretty good for finding stocking stuffers: little slinkies (always a favorite!) tiny plush toys, stickers, magnets, those annoying little capsules that turn into foam creatures in water but somehow are incredibly entertaining to kids, and cool things like reindeer antlers.

Simple things like a deck of cards, (or Uno!) some dice, or some golf balls can provide endless hours of entertainment, yet cost very little. My kids are getting green (the Cat) and blue (Splig) racquetballs, plus Sponge-Bob golf balls.

I have a bazillion cousins with a million kids apiece, so this year I'm doing family gifts. Yes, some of you heard about how I had $200 worth of gourmet chocolate in my living room. While some thought this was rather disgusting, I assure you that s'mores kits are anything but disgusting. Paired with some of Rudoph's favorite hot chocolate* and some peppermint spoons, and you've got a pretty good collection for a cozy family night together.

But I wanted each kid to have a little sumthin'-sumthin' too, so was pleased to find mini venus flytrap kits from Solutions. Alas, I see they are sold out. (See another venus flytrap kit from EcoWise.) Probably it is my fault, because of the aforementioned bazillion cousins, thus, a bazillion gifts. (And yes, the Rudolph's hot chocolate appears to be suddenly-missing, too!) Sorry folks, seems my tastes were popular, eh? My cousins' kids will get the flytraps as little individual gifts. My kids will get them in their stockings.

Here are a couple other things from Solutions that aren't sold out: Micro-Eggs are fun: hard-boil an egg in your microwave in 45 seconds. While I've shown I know how to hard-boil an egg pretty well the conventional way, the quick way works nicely with my schedule. And then for the Cat's monkey-loving teacher, we bought a monkey bread mold. (I added some monkey bread mixes from Lollipop Tree, a great resource for organic, all-natural food products.

OK, so the mold and bread mixes aren't stocking stuffers -- I'll get back on track. In fact, why not get a set of bamboo kids' utensils from Branch? While "eating utensils" isn't the first thing folks think of when they hear "stocking stuffer," these are fun, and kids love things all their own, sized to fit.

You can't go wrong with Hot Wheels cars: simple, inexpensive, and universally-loved. My kids would probably like some Littlest Pet Shop Pets, too. (Sure, they are boys, but they love them all the same.)

Earlier this year, Crayola sent me a basket of products. Of course, with all the back-to-school craziness, I didn't have a chance to really mention their generosity until now. Along with my favorite 64-crayon box, they also sent Mix-Ems markers and Paint Brush Pens.

The Mix-Ems are pretty cool: The child decides how much to "mix" (how long to press) to create a dual-colored line of marker. Kids attempt this on their own using regular markers, but end up with messy results. Conversely, the Mix-Ems provide a clean line. If the pen is "mixed" briefly, the main color has just a small line of the secondary color. If the pen is mixed longer, the width of the secondary color is greater. A see-through "mixing chamber" shows the action as the secondary color is pressed against the marker-tip of the primary marker.

I am a big fan of the Paint Brush Pens. Splig is four and would love to play with paint all the time, but we all know the sum of the equation kids + paint. Thankfully, "mess" is not part of the Paint Brush Pens' equation. These brushes have the paint already inside: no glopping, dropping, and mopping involved. Splig loves his new pens and has created many masterpieces with them on paper, not on the carpet.

Both the Mix-Ems and Paint Brush Pens would make fun stocking stuffers or as part of an art gift basket. And both are washable. Yes, they will come out of your kids' clothing. Crayons themselves are also fun as stocking-stuffers. Some of those themed crayon packs from other crayon companies may look cute, but the quality is horrific. So no, I didn't get little holiday-themed crayon packs at the aforementioned Target $1 aisle because I knew the quality couldn't compare to Crayola.

Consider sticking a whole slew of Crayola crayons in a little pail - that fits into a stocking nicely! (We used these buckets as favors for the Cat's second birthday, so long ago.)

Good luck as you find your own little trinkets to fill up those stockings!
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* Point of Information: Chasing Fireflies' URL is www.chasing-fireflies.com. If you forget the hyphen, you'll find yourself in nudie territory... which is not indicative of a festive, kid-friendly site, yes? We got some fabulous personalized sleepwear for our kids at Chasing Fireflies - the kid version.

Husband and I typically end up with multiples of the same gift, like the year we both got each other America. Typically the duplicates end up because Husband will talk about how much he wants something, so I'll buy it for him. But days before Christmas, he'll go out and purchase whatever is already wrapped under the tree.

So I stopped listening to his first choice, figuring he'd get it for himself. I focused more on the "lower down" priority items.

Last year he kept talking about a slingbox. But I thought I knew better. I wasn't going to purchase something he'd no doubt buy on his own during Thanksgiving sales or Pre-Christmas sales or Friday Fry's sales.

The day before Christmas, Husband mentioned how excited he was that he'd be getting a slingbox for Christmas. He assumed that is what I had already bought. He was ecstatic.

Except I hadn't bought one, of course.

Not wanting to disappoint him, I quickly went online to Best Buy and did an in-store pickup order. While the store itself had long lines and packed aisles, the in-store pickup line was small. We were out of the store - coveted present in hand - in less time that it took us to find parking.

And so, my first tip to those of you who have waited too long to shop for Christmas (or the latter half of Hanukkah) is to see which big stores have in-store pickup. It is easy to browse online for that perfect gift, and typically is pretty easy to pick it up since most stores have separate lines for their online sales.

(The one exception I found to this was when I bought a camera at Circuit City - the closest store was sold out, so I purchased it at a store a half hour away. Guess what happened? That store didn't have it when I arrived, but discovered that my local store did! In the end I got my camera, but that particular excursion took a lot of driving and involved confusion.)

Another idea is the dreaded overnight shipping - yet for stores like zappos.com that already ship overnight, you're golden. Still, most overnight shipping options are pretty pricey, so you might want to brave the malls.

Or, you could buy something that is electronically fulfilled, such as an iTunes gift certificate or an Amazon.com gift certificate delivered via email.

Plenty of websites offer extended content for a fee. No, I am not suggesting purchasing "adult materials" for your preteen cousin. Rather, for kids there are sites like Club Penguin, a favorite of my boys. While the basic experience is plenty of fun, being a member allows the little penguins to accumulate coins to purchase pet puffles, buy snazzy new outfits, and deck out their igloo like budding interior designers would. In the Cat's case, that means purchasing as many toy trains as possible to create a "rug."

For older folks, there is Happy Neuron. I learned about this brain fitness website shortly after I had realized that I wasn't very good at the Brain Age DS game. (And don't even talk to me about Big Brain Academy.) "Mommy brain" is no myth: my brain is so filled with details of appointments, tasks, and managing other folks' lives that I don't have time to read or do puzzles to expand the other parts of my brain.

As we age, our brain "sags" just like our bodies do. Those who keep mentally fit by exercising their brain end up faring much better than those who don't. Plus, it is fun (until the computer tells you that you are mentally weak, that is!)

Happy Neuron is offering a 20%-off holiday special on a year's membership to the website. Members have access to 35 games (plus 5 beta Wii games.) The games fit in five categories: visual-spacial, attention, executive function, memory, and language. Each game has several difficulty levels, plus the program itself will recommend games based on the user's weaknesses.

I tried using the "coach" function whereby the computer is supposed to take me through an optimum combination of games based on my preferences, time available to "work out," and my past performance. Unfortunately, this feature didn't work for me (I was given a login free for the purposes of review, but perhaps this is a feature only available to full members, not reviewers.) And so, I tried out the five free games.

Does it surprise you that on the "split words" game that I was able to do the one about football but did horrifically on the "agriculture" one? (I can still hear my grandmother's tsk-tsk from many years ago when she learned I couldn't tell the difference between different types of cows. Sorry, I don't know anything about farming.) I thought I would do fantastically on "Catch the Ladybug" because after college I was a research assistant in a visual psychophysics lab. We did lots of "search" experiments, and since I had to program and test such things, I became very good at visual search. But my downfall in this Happy Neuron game was my trackball skills. I saw the ladybug immediately, but had a hard time rolling my way over. Perhaps a traditional mouse would be better in this instance.

There are other games that rely on time where an individual's ability to move the mouse becomes a limiting factor. This concerns me for the grandparent-set who might otherwise benefit from these mind-enhancing games. For these folks, those games without a time limit (but which will still record time) would be more accurate: as their time decreases with practice, the improvement can be attributed more to mental performance and less to mousing-ability. But for games that stop if the user fails to provide the answer, the individual wouldn't be able to practice the actual task unless the time required could be increased.

I love that there are a variety of games to "train" the user so the "workouts" are not boring. The site has a section on brain fitness science, plus has recommendations for other (sometimes offline) products. In addition to the aforementioned Wii games in beta, there is also a "Happy Neuron Junior" program in development. The Cat loves various games, particularly online. Although some of the games I've played through Happy Neuron are perfectly appropriate for him, I imagine the "junior" version will have aspects (such as in the "language" category) that will better fit his grade level.

Consider Happy Neuron for that otherwise difficult-to-buy-for adult. Grandmothers have enough perfume, bath oil, and lotion. And does Granddad really need another tie? Young(er) adults would like these games, too, so don't think your recipient needs to have grey hair. (I think my parents are sharper than I am at this point, anyway.)

Or maybe spend some time on the site yourself; it certainly wouldn't hurt! After all, the present I am getting for Husband is one that I hope to get myself at some point. This is one year where I'm actually hoping for a duplicate (but not expecting it.)

I loved The Middle Place. It hit me in ways I hadn't anticipated. Today, the paperback version hits shelves.

Kelly Corrigan's publisher made the below video in honor of the paperback release. It features an essay included in the book about women's capacity to support each other:

Be sure to check out other Kelly Corrigan You-Tube pieces. The book is meaningful and moving all on its own, but seeing Kelly read the words is powerful.

According to Eco Child's Play, an exemption for natural materials has been proposed regarding the potentially problematic CPSIA.

I've already noted how I am concerned that something well-intentioned but misguided such as these regulations might provide unsafe choices since our options will be limited. Of course, local commerce, small craftsmen, and unique items are all in jeopardy.

This latest report indicates that there may be exceptions to the laws which will go into effect February 10, 2009. But these are not a foregone conclusion. Please visit Save Homemade! on Cool Mom Picks for more information and how you can help.