PlayStation:: Talking Gaming with Dr Jason Fox (AKA Gamers gonna game)

A couple of weeks ago the smalls and I were invited by PlayStation for a morning of games and a chat with Dr Jason Fox. Well the games sounded exciting, but who wants to spend a morning listening to a middle-age podgy doctor banging on about something?

Oh how wrong I was, dear reader. 

We spent three blissful hours hopping across a range of PlayStation games - including an epic SingStar battle between Tiny and I (where she tried to sabotage me by covering my mouth) - where I leapt ahead to claim the title of SingStar champion with over 2 million points. WAY TO GO MAMA! 

And the middle-age doctor bit? Oh man. SO wrong. SO WRONG! I really, really loved listening to the good doctor. He was smart. He was funny. He had sharp threads. And a really good beard. 

As with many parents I am constantly worried about how much screen time my kids are getting, so I leapt at the opportunity to ask Dr Fox some questions. 

What's an ideal amount of time for children to spend gaming? 

Ah, what’s the ideal amount of time for children to be engaged in immersive, mentally stimulating puzzles and creative challenges (aka games)? A heap! 

Of course, like all things, this needs to be balanced. On a school day, one needs to ensure that kids are getting the right mix of time for homework, outdoor activity and indoor play. I’d suggest that 60–90 minutes is good for a weeknight, and something best done before dinner.

The key is balance. Another important question to ask is: what’s the ideal amount of time for parents to invest playing games with their kids? Again, it’s a heap. This is probably one the biggest opportunities modern parents have today — playing with their kids. Much akin to building sandcastles together, or kicking the footy — playing games is a wonderful shared experience parents can tap into with their kids.

Steve Jobs was once interviewed and talked about how his children weren't allowed much screen time - because he knows how addictive it can be. What do you think about this?

I’d tend to agree with Steve — but it’s important to make the distinction between passive screen time (simply watching tv) and active screen time (playing games, engaged in challenges). While it’s important that we’re all allowed time to ‘switch off’, passive screen time doesn’t convey the same learning benefits as active screen time. 

Making progress is highly motivating. We love seeing how our effort contributes to something, and it’s partly why screen activities are ‘addictive’ — we can see that our effort is making a difference. Rather than simply limit screen and game time, we also need to explore how we can bring the benefits of game design into the real world.

I've noticed my son goes red, and becomes pretty intense (read: obsessed) sometimes when gaming. What's that all about?

He’s probably entering a state of flow — that perfect balance between challenge and skill, where he is achieving something very complex or difficult, beyond his comfort zone. Here things become ‘autotelic’ — he is at one with the task, in the same way that champion golfers or surgeons get when doing their thing. 

Coupled with this is the perception of ‘fiero’ — an Italian word meaning ‘pride’. According to Dr Jane McGonigal (multiple TED speaker, and author), this is an important outcome of games. After periods of intense flow in which we are triumphing over adversity or epic challenges, we can experience a fiero as a powerful neurochemical high.

In her book, Reality is Broken, McGonigal also writes that “games not only gratify intrinsic needs for happiness, but also ‘do it safely, cheaply, and reliably’”. 

Our family really loves spending a couple of hours on Sundays playing Little Big Planet together. Is this a good thing? 

Yes definitely! You’ve got a real shared experience in which you are creatively and collaboratively engaged in the resolution of meaningful, story-driven challenges. It’s hard to think of anything better. The fact that Little Big Planet 3 allows up to 4 players to play together means that the whole family can be involved in this shared experience. And, you can create new levels too, opening up opportunities for you and your kids to create challenges for each other too (imagine: special birthday challenges). This gets them into ‘user experience design’ — an important new skill and industry in the modern world.

And do you have any other similar games you could recommend for us to play as a family?

Well, the PS4 now supports 4 x player Minecraft, and there are games like Singstar which are immense fun for the entire family. For younger kids, there’s Disney infinity, which is another open game like Minecraft. 

Do you game with your kids?


* This post is not sponsored. 

LEGO Celebrates 50 Years In Australia

Fifty years ago, a man named John Peddie landed in Sydney carrying a briefcase of LEGO. I don't know whether he brought any clothes to change into - Sydney can be humid, it's wise to travel with spare clothes. But nope - John arrived with a suitcase of LEGO to introduce us Aussies to the humble brick.


John, who is still a member on the Australian LEGO Board of Directors said: "The brand name LEGO comes from the Danish expression 'Leg Godt', which translates as 'play well'. When first arriving in the country, this was my mission, to encourage Australia to 'play well' and it remains the same today."


To celebrate the 50th anniversary, LEGO are hosting a series of events all inspired by the iconic LEGO bricks. There are loads of ways to become involved - which we will be doing our utmost to be part of! We live and breath LEGO. It's part of our daily routine - and that's about to ramp up! 


Did you know that every Australian owns an average of 70 LEGO bricks? We have much, much more. In fact we've probably got about 70 Australians worth of LEGO. That's a heck of a lotta LEGO.


Meanwhile, you should totes check out the website, because I just have the hunch something is brewing over there. Something good is brewing. 


This is not a sponsored post. I love LEGO. You love LEGO. We can all LEGO love together.

It's Me: Day 3

Day 3 reveals that yesterday I was wearing my very favourite tee (it's Genki). Again. It's easy to wear. I don't need to justify it. Right...? Right...?

Yesterday we spent a glorious morning at Balmoral with my sister and her little girl (that would make P-Bee my niece). The sun was shining. The seagulls were swooping. The babes happily played together in the sand. Tiny got a little too up close and personal with a wave.

Hello Spring - I've seen you around the traps lately. Let me invite you in. Stay awhile.

Nerdy Pursuits

I am a great believer in the thought that there's a bit of dork in all of us.

I am in touch with my inner-dork. In fact, so in touch, I have my inner-dork on speed dial.

Last night Matt and I sat down together and did a puzzle. We're tight like that. We can be dorky together. We embrace the dork.

Stuff That Mummies Do

It was a cold and blustery Winter morning. The rain was coming in steadily. It was cold. It was blustery. It was bunkering down weather. It was toe-freezing weather. Certainly not the time to be galavanting around town. Absolutely not the time to go swimming. But as a dedicated Mama, she packed all the stuff ready to roll and arrived, for once, promptly at 9am.

And there starts my story for today. Swimming. In Winter. Yuck. Walking into that aquatic centre is humid and stinky and - it's cold outside, and there's the mother who wants to tell me her daughter's at home quarantined with swine flu. And there's me steadily sliding down the bench away from her, a metre per minute - I'd give Thorpey a run for his money.

The Doctor went swimming. Tiny sat sidelined and ate yet another banana. Another sandwich. Everything in sight. Then we went home. In the rain. Quel surprise!

We then went to the Doctor. I know how to have a good time. Four year old immunisations. Yeeehaaaaar. Told you I knew how to have a good time.

And then home again, home again jiggedy jig. Do I have anything of interest to share with you? Do I? Do I? Ergh. In case you're interested, I mopped the floors. This is no mean feat. You can now eat off them. But anything of interest?

Well I was interested in building a gold mine with the Doctor while Tiny slept. We built some platforms, we shunted the trains around the track. We brought the animals out for a walk. It was fun to spend that time with him. Shut away from the computer, the TV, the phone - everything, and just hang. I love when we do that.

Autumnal Afternoon Walks

The smalls and I have been enjoying afternoon walks. We make our way, late afternoon, down to the park, in time for the smalls to play for a while, the Doctor scoots around the path on his scooter, Tiny goes crawling off into the crisp leaves. It's clear from her expression that she's having a hoot.

Tiny loves the swing, and it's usually at this time that Matt rolls in fresh off the train.

We've been enjoying the fresh Autumn air on our faces, watching the trees shift from greens into golds, reds, leaves crunchy underfoot. Sometimes the smell of someone's fire, the Doctor asks me why they have a fire. Conversations transpire, conversations evolve. The Doctor shows us his break dancing, begs to go and play leaf races. Alas, there's been no rain lately, so leaf racing is off the walking menu. But we make our way through the second park and watch the dogs prance around on their evenings walks. We greet strangers. And those who divert their eyes - as though we're imaginary - I make sure I say an extra jovial hello. What am I, cellophane??

I don't think I've ever enjoyed Autumn as much as I do now that I have children. It's like rediscovering each of the seasons all over again.

Back To Magical March: Day 12

I've missed a few days. Punish me if you will, but I needed to take some time out of trying to see things magically for a moment to push through the week.

Today is Magical Thursday.

After forgetting to attend a meeting with my accountant on Monday, I turned up to see him today, albeit it 1/2 hour late. He's a rad guy. He didn't mind. He didn't even blink an eye when he saw the state of disarray my tax/accounting is in. Man, oh man, did I mention I hate paper work?

I stayed up late last night continuing Magical Methodical March. Silverfish be damned because you're not going to be eating here tonight. Awright? I even just found an invoice I've been hunting for for the past 36 hours. Magical and then some. Turn it up!

Since the last time you saw me, I've become magically hooked on Twitter. My favourite for the moment is Diddy. My goodness, his updates have made me laugh. But then I decided that things were going Twitter-ific when Matt exclaimed, "PottyMouthMama, now you're twittering to me about Tweeters." It's true. I hang my head in shame. IN SHAME MY FRIENDS. My whole life has become one online par-tay that I must attend at all hours. Breakfast, count me in. Lunch, snore - already here. Dinner, what's Diddy eating? Shame on me.

This afternoon we're busting out of the house once Tiny decides to rouse from her beauty sleep. We're heading to the park. There's no dinner to be had (let's just get it over with and delete it, no one's interested, alright?!). We're busting up some bark chip and we're gonna get vertical on the slide. Awww yeah. Magical March. Ain't nobody like you.

Welcome Autumn:: Hello Magical March

So it's the first day of Autumn here. Thank goodness.

I got to enjoy some time outdoors with my smalls. Just me and them. It was calm. Beautiful. They'd both had huuuuge sleeps, their batteries re-charged. We played hide and seek. The babes giggled. We dug in the sand pit. Tiny sampled some. Delicious! Extra fibre! The Doctor and I dug roads and rescued trucks. I looked skywards - oh how I love to look skywards, through tree branches. It almost makes me giddy, those green leaves, that sky. Oh hello Autumn, we welcome you with open arms. We're waiting for the coloured goodness you're about to show.

Later the four of us went for a walk. A nice long walk. The Doctor rode his trike. We saw the black and white bunny again, but she hid because of the dog. Next time we hope to stroke her softness.

Welcome March, and welcome Autumn.

This is the start of my 'Magical March'. Each day I'm going to find something magical to blog about. Play along if you're feelin' it. Tell me too. (I might even go so far as to make a Magical March sidebar - I know, I know, amazing. But it is Magical March after all.)

I Think I May Be In Love. Again.

Is it too soon to fall in love? Surely not? I dumped the bin a couple of weeks back. I'm ready to move on from that garbage. Boom boom!

I have a new crush.

I've always loved Etsy. Since way back when. And now I've found a new favourite to flirt with. Roma Winkel.

To lust after. Check it out. Hand painted softies. So beautiful. So amazing. So cool. Discovered via here.

Anyway - found this one word meme over at allsorts. I'm playing. I'm that kind of gal.

Where is your mobile phone? handbag
Where is your significant other? work
Your hair colour? brown

Your mother? beautiful
Your father? thinker
Your favourite thing? family
Your dream last night? lost
Your dream goal? midwife
The room you're in? messy
Your hobby? writing
Your fear? spiders
Where do you want to be in 6 years? elsewhere
Where were you last night? here
What you're not? busty
One of your wish-list items? house
Where you grew up? Tamworth
The last thing you did? kitchen
What are you wearing? stripes
Your TV? quiet
Your pets? fish
Your computer? laptop
Your mood? tired
Missing someone? Choc

Your car? messy

Something you're not wearing? dentures

Favourite shop? bin
Your summer? verge
Love someone? hellyeah
Your favourite colour? yellow
When is the last time you laughed? bed
When is the last time you cried? today

-----------------------

Won't you play too? Tell me if you do.

Three posts in one day? Must be your lucky day. WOOP!

Something To Disturb-ya: The Lizard Man

nature lovers from way back, here's a friend we found in our house over the weekend, it's easy being green in our house - you just get tossed back into the garden.

First up, I've converted my two wee ones to love this song. Sick I know. Not that they've seen the clip. We've been indulging in a little bad dancing about the house. Well one obliges, the other merely surrenders in my arms. She is after all ten months and really has no choice. She squeals with delight though, so I'm guessing she digs it too.

I've been spiralling out of control this weekend. I keep driving past the bin. Can't stop thinking about it. I even take detours well out of our way to scope it out. I should be employed by the FBI, ASIO, someone even a private investigator could use me. I should certainly be earning points for stalking, or should I say, staking out my prey. I've been wondering what I'm missing out on. But each time I do succumb and do a drive-by, the bin is empty. They're playing mind games with me. Again.

This brings me to The Lizard Man. I caught a small lizard in our bedroom this weekend. This is a normal occurrence, we seem to have some type of reptilian museum going on in there. I often find them curled up near the doorway in Winter. I'm not such a mad keen lizard fan, but The Doctor is pretty well into them. I often look up to see him walking around the garden with a small lizard in hand. He must be quick to catch them, cause they are wiggly, squiggly things, but he loves it.

So The Doctor came in to remove the lizard for me. He took it outside, but I was pre-occupied trying to thwart my ironing pile from growing any larger, and Matt was otherwise occupied with the contents of the fridge. A few minutes later I asked The Doctor what he had done with the lizard, and if he had popped it back into the garden. He usually does and tells me they've returned to the 'Mummy wizard'. He told me he'd put it in his sandpit and that he'd play with it later. We were on the way to get new sand, so I figured - great the lizard will have time to escape from poking, prodding small fingers.

As we were getting ready to go out, The Doctor was toting a small gardening bag that he keeps his tools in. I asked him what he had in it. "Oh it's a secret." I was a little dubious, "Is the lizard in there?"

"No, Mummy, it's a secret."

Fair enough, I've got loads of secrets in my bag. But usually I call them C.H.O.C.O.L.A.T.E. Each to their own. The Doctor isn't at the age where he knowingly fibs. I trusted him and off we went to the nursery - where they have a small cafe. We had a drink, bought our sand and hopped back into the car - I then had the genius idea that we would just nip up to the sewing centre as I still hadn't picked up my sewing machine from being serviced. All was good in the world.

On the drive back I noticed The Doctor peering into his bag. "Is the lizard in that bag? What's in your bag?"

"It's a secret, Mummy. Just a secret. It's not a wizard."

I thought fair enough, I'll stop hassling the little dude. I then decided to shift the responsibility elsewhere. As all good managers do.

"Matt, do you think The Doctor has a lizard in that bag?"

"No, he doesn't have the dexterity to pick up a lizard."

Ah. That's clearly where he's wrong. I've seen The Doctor pick up more than just one lizard. And not just on slow, cool days when they're travelling at half the speed. No. I've seen him with lizards on steaming hot days. Wiggling in his hands. With tails still intact.

I gave up. But not for long. Once we pulled into the driveway, The Doctor peeked once more into his bag (the secret one) and then I saw it. The small lizard. The 'tired' lizard (as The Doctor once called it). I freaked. I told Matt to get The Doctor and the lizard out of the car, pronto.

If you've ever met my husband, he's a supercruiser. As titled by my sister. He is. I don't deny it. I don't even think he denies it.

To cut a long and slightly cranky story short, the lizard freed himself of the secret bag, and is now loose in our car. Matt and The Doctor left all the car doors open in a bid to release him back into the wild.

And now, while driving, I have complete paranoia that a small lizard is going to poke its head out. I even felt a phantom lizard crawling across my toes in the car.

"Oh yes officer, sorry, a lizard crawled across my feet while I was driving hence the rapid acceleration. Oops."

A likely story.

Let's just hope that when I next go driving, one of these doesn't pop out from under my seat.

Stuff and Things

Today I am kicking goals like there's no tomorrow. The house is undergoing a masterful makeover, and now you can almost see the floor. In places.

I have to make a confession. Pip, if you're reading this, I have been a bad, bad little walker. I missed yesterday. I could blame my friend, because it was due to meeting up with her that I arrived home late and had to dive straight into the dinnertime boogaloo, but really, it was poor planning on my part. Have I fallen off my 21 day road to a habit? No. No siree. I've planned my walk for today with my little family. At 3pm today, I'll be walking. Think of me, left-right, left-right. I'm going double time.

Anyway, confessions aside, my little dude and I have constructed a road from framer's tape on the road. That blinging doily that we used last week for lacework is now a pond - the white styrofoam things are ducks, swimming with the whale (I see that all the time at the park, don't you??). Over the road is the farm - blue bubble wrap masquerades as a river, some green fabric is the grass for the cow and the sheep. It's roadworks ahoy here at Chez PottyMouth.

I'm also set for a date with our kitchen, to whip up some more culinary delights for my wee babe from this book. It's got so many great recipes, and I'm even tempted to eat some of them (actually all of them). Last week one of the recipes I made was apricot, apple, pear and vanilla bean puree. Man it was good.

And my fabric from here arrived from here, so I'm fantasising about the day I amazingly just wake up and can sew (you might arrive at PottyMouthMama and think you're in the wrong place!). Today I'm auditioning fabrics from my stash for a little quilt I plan to make for my babe when she's bigger. Mmm. So candy it's almost giving me a toothache.

Hoppo Bumpo kindly pointed out the Deluxe Albert Einstein - and I have to say - sorry I forgot to mention that pearler. I also see the President Bush looks very similar to a cowpat... No?

Why I Need An Expensive Counsellor (also known as: If I Ever Have to Play Trains Again, Someone Order Me a Lobotomy)

My little man is train mad. I've established this. Some people think he might just be a wee bit interested in trains. How wrong can you be? Totally. This obsession is hinged on a permanent train track set up in our living area. Makes for great night-walking episodes tripping over bridges and treading on small train parts. Ouch. But we're not allowed to pack them away, because that's where the trains sleep.

I wake up in the morning and one of the first things I am greeted with: "Mum, want to play trains?"

Sure. The 18th of Never suit you?

But I can't be so rude to my three year old. He loves the trains. Lives, breathes, even sleeps with his favourites on his pillow at night. He's now even started asking me to shape his hair into a train when we do the shampoo ritual at night. Plus he's informed me that he's not a 'dude', "I'm a train driver aren't I mummy?".

Sounds kind of cute? Well multiply all of the above by about a billion and then multiply that again by the number of days in a week. I. Really. Don't. Want. TO PLAY TRAINS!

I've tried suggesting other things, other interesting projects, crafting sessions (where I get to draw trains or even make drawings for his favourite trains), dinosaur excursions, but no, the boy is stuck - a steadfast train devotee. The Rev. W Awdry has a lot to answer for.

So this morning took us on a happy, joyful, therapeutic (for me) path. He wanted to play with playdough.

We whipped up a fresh batch, actually two. I took my frustrations out on that playdough. Here's our beautiful colours that I thought were going to immediately be melded into one - but nope, he's kept them separate this time. There's nothing quite so good as moulding fresh playdough, it's a great stress reliever, and just the making of it is fun, and easy for toddlers to be involved with (though this is cooked playdough - so the stirring is strictly for the mama).

Here's the recipe for this playdough (and it works well as a half batch as well).

From the pantry:

1 cup salt

2 cups plain flour

4 tablespoons of cream of tartar

2 tablespoons of cooking oil (we had to use extra virgin and it's fine)

2 cups of water

non-toxic powder paint or food colouring

Making:

In a large saucepan add all the ingredients* (except the food colouring), mix well. Add food colouring. Mix. Cook on medium heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly until the mixture becomes stiff. Leave to cool for a couple of minutes. Store in airtight container in the refrigerator. You can add colour at the end, you just need to knead through, but makes a nice marbled effect.

* I suggest sifting the flour and salt to eradicate any bumps and lumps.

We've already made fresh pies this morning. Anyone want a sample?

Starting to Stitch Again

Design Collection for Kids - Jap embroidery book

Originally uploaded by Warm 'n Fuzzy

There's something so luxurious about a long, long weekend. Matt took an extra day off work so we could enjoy four days together. Bliss.

The sun has come out to play. We've been getting some odd jobs done, the house is a complete shambles (but I'm ok with that), and I have been able to indulge in a new stitching project (even though I am STILL not finished with the other).

It's so nice to have that quiet rhythm of stitching. I just sit and stitch, sit and stitch, sit and stitch. An occasional cup of tea. A thought floats through my head, but mostly I get to engage in doing something for myself. I know that's a rare thing for a lot of people, and I appreciate this time.

I've started to dream big about the kind of projects I want to embark on. About decorating our house. Decorating the children's rooms. Noah loves his cat pillowcase and asks for it sometimes. That's a good feeling.

For now, the boys have gone skating, Scout is asleep, and so I am going to continue to sit and stitch.