American Idol - PKTR 21

UPDATE (5.1.08): David Cook is a star. Plain and simple. He far outshone everyone on the show this week. He had the best stage presence, the best vocals, and the most passion. And he played the guitar (something the producers were excited about introducing this year - having the contestants play an instrument). We would love to see him win.

UPDATE (4.1.08): At this point, we're rooting for Michael Johns and David Cook.

UPDATE: There are a few controversies brewing with some of the contestants: read about some here and view this:

Click here to see the photo shoot of the top 12 guys.
Click here to see how to get the seminfinalists' performances on iTunes.
Click here to see an article about the probability of judges' biases.

________________________

Those annoying auditions are over. We're down to the top 24 contestants and this is when, we think, the show really gets interesting.

You might be surprised that we actually watch Idol, but we do (not obsessively, but enough to have a lot to say about it!). So that's the topic for show #21. Download our show and check out the links on this post.

We're wacky and super talkative today; we tell you who we like the most and what we think about most of the top 24. Here are some of PKTR's faves:









And we're sorry to say that we completely forgot to mention another one of our favorites:


Let us know your favorites!

Thanks for listening!

Tune in again next week on Parents & Kids Talk Radio!

What are Strategy Games? - PKTR 20

Saturday, February 9, 2008

It was our 20th show and we were giddy. We called it Fun and Games. Download the show (or click on the play button over in the right sidebar) if you want to hear the co-hosts being silly and spirited.

In terms of substance...

Safari Rush Hour

You'll hear about a variety of games for your kids (and for you!), like Tipover, Safari Rush Hour, Rush Hour, and Quarto.

Quarto

We engaged in a rather spirited debate about this game (above). Please leave a comment (below) and tell us whom you agreed with. Is it like tic-tac-toe or Connect Four (or neither one)?

Midway through the show, you'll hear about a little known online game that will most likely start picking up speed with tweens (especially girls).

Finally, the co-hosts give a little shout out to a candy store they recently discovered that they would just love to visit some day.

Yum!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We hope you take some time to have your own fun and games.

Thanks for listening. Join us again Saturday on Blog Talk Radio for Parents and Kids Talk Radio!!

Choosing Childrens' Books - PKTR 19

If you've listened to our past shows, you already know how much we love Apple. I've even been told that I should've called one of our shows the "I Want to Marry Steve Jobs" show. I love that comment. It really does capture how passionately I feel about the company (with no stake in it, either!).


If you've listened to our show about Amazon's Kindle, then you also know about my obsession with books.

So when I heard that Mr. Jobs actually said, "Nobody reads anymore." oh, it still feels like a punch in the gut when I hear that...NNNOOOOO!!!

It was hard to hear.

When it settled in a little bit, I began to feel inspired to do something. But what? Well, at the very least I could help people find books for their kids more easily. Does any parent believe that it doesn't matter if the extent of their children's reading is limited to what they read online or in magazines?

Oy.

Good books will always be good for your kids and we're here to help.

Today's show provides great tips on how to choose good children's books for your kids, including a couple of websites that will check the appropriateness of the book. So, if you have kids who are ready to read young adult books, you can find out whether a book is filled with racy scenes and bad language or is just a great adventure or well written mystery.

Here are some of the links mentioned in the show (and a few we didn't have time to discuss):

PKTR's Three Top Picks - Best Websites to Help You Find Great Books:

Book Adventure - a great site to help you find books according to your child's interests, grade level, and reading level.

Having trouble finding something for boys? Check out Guys Read. Great source for all ages of males.

Guys Read screen shot

Kathi Mitchell - Handy summer reading reference full of links to libraries and other resources.

Other great resources:

Houghton Mifflin (Education Place)
New York Times Children's Bestseller Lists
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Capitol Choices
I Love Libraries
Kids' Reads
Scholastic Book Talks (and Discussion Guides)
Harper Collins Teacher Resources
International Reading Association
Newberry Awards

And to check the appropriateness of the content, try either one of these sites:

Common Sense Media

Common Sense Media screen shot

Kid Confidence

Kid Confidence screen shot

Thanks for listening! Join us again next week at 2:00 (ET) on Parents and Kids Talk Radio!

Rage in the Internet Age - PKTR 18

Have you heard about the school superintendent's wife who left a harsh message for a disgruntled student?

YouTube is not new, but what is new is its use as a tool to fight bullying behavior. Now students (and others) are using it to stand up to authority figures (or their spouses) who are, arguably, abusing their positions of (relative) power.

Download the show and listen to an interesting discussion about this topic.

Chicken Soup and TV for Tweens - PKTR 17

Can you identify the author of this quote?

"Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand ... Simplify, simplify."

Maybe this photo will help:

If some of us lived by his words, perhaps our lives would be more fun and less stressful.

Does all of this seem (as my daughter would say) off topic (from the usual topics found on this blog and on our podcast)? Well, tune in today to find out how it applies...trust us...it will.

The hosts started out a bit slowly on this episode, but eventually ended up being silly enough to sing a song from American Idol. You've got to hear it to believe it. Download the show now from BlogTalkRadio or listen by clicking on the "play" symbol in the blue button on the right.

Here's one of the books that the hosts mentioned on the show. We think it will help you by providing great parenting tips and words of encouragement:

The "Saturday Box" concept the hosts told you about is not in that book, so you'll have to listen to the show for its explanation.

Another series of books that will help you understand the phases and stages your children experience is written by Louise Bates Ames, Ph.D. Here's the example the hosts mentioned in the show:

Finally, the Chicken Soup story book was this one:


Thanks for listening.

Tune in again next Saturday at 2:00 pm (ET) on Parents and Kids Talk Radio.

Perfect Picture Books - PKTR 16

For a variety of reasons, the PKTR hosts felt motivated to do a show all about picture books. First of all, with the ongoing WGA strike, there's nothing on television (was there ever anyway?). Secondly, we've read about a decline in time spent reading and have heard that more and more parents are spending less time with their kids while at the same time we've read about how important reading is to our minds. So...somehow we put that all together and thought maybe in some small way we can help by providing a list of picture books that are good for kids, fun for parents to read and some of which you may not have heard about until now.

Listen to the podcast for detailed descriptions of each of these books (and a few more!).

So here it is:

Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

little blue and little yellow by Leo Lionni

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

When Sophie Gets Angry -- Really, Really Angry... by Molly Bang

Cows Can't Fly by David Milgrim

Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

You and Me, Little Bear by Martin Waddell

Good Job, Oliver! by Laurel Molk

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

Click, Clack, MOO: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

The Sneetches (and Other Stories) by Dr. Seuss

Duck for President by Doreen Cronin

Leave a comment for a chance to win a prize (listen to the show for details!).

Thanks for listening! Join us again next week on Parents & Kids Talk Radio.


__________________

Images from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Vote for this post on MomBlogNetwork: .

All Things Apple! - PKTR 15

UPDATE 1/17/08:
No post about Apple would be complete without mention of the keynote speech Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, gave recently at MacWorld 2008. To save you time, I searched around the web and finally found a great, quick recap in a video done by Veronica Belmont of Mahalo. She calls it "The Steve Jobs 90 Minute Keynote (in 60 Seconds)":



Better and better and better...

_______________________

Happy New Year!

Our holidays were full of all kinds of activities and events, but what do you think inspired us to devote a whole radio show to it? You might be surprised.

For whatever reason, we repeatedly heard people doubting that there was much of a difference between PC products and Macs. We then felt a sudden urge to explain that that's simply not true. We also heard things like, "What's the big deal about the Apple stuff?" That led us to start giving iPhone demonstrations, but then we decided to just talk about all things Apple (and Macs) on our show.

So, today's show was all about the beauty of the Mac and other Apple products. To hear the show, just click here.

Have you seen the ever popular PC vs. Mac commercials like this one (below)?




Well, we started to wonder whether the people we know have ever seen them. So, we decided to throw a few of those in (in part, to provide a little humor, too).

We also love the NBC show, The Office, starring Steve Carell. So we had to share our observation that some of the show's characters bear an uncanny resemblance to the Mac/PC guys. What do you think?

Here's Dwight from The Office (or is he the PC guy from the Mac ads??)

And here's Jim Halpert from The Office

And here's another one of our favorites:




Click here to go right to the site (which the PKTR hosts referenced for this podcast) that lays out the differences between PCs and Macs. On that site, you can also view more of the Mac vs. PC commercials (including that one where the guys look a bit like cartoon characters in the Rudolph the Reindeer movie).

Here's the very informative site by John Droz where he debunks many myths about Macs (and explains how a Mac can actually end up costing 36% less than a PC). He presents an impressive amount of research within the site.

We also mentioned Apple stores which you can read about here.

Or, if you want to see an Apple store that in and of itself is beautiful, look at this:

Apple Store in NYC

Thanks for listening!

Join us again next week on Parents & Kids Talk Radio.


__________________________

Images from the sites themselves (like The Office) and DigitalTechNews.