DJ Electric Daddy

Last week The Sprite and his Kindergarten class of 2011 had the annual Jog-a-thon. They had to run laps around the school field for 30 minutes. This was to raise sponsorship for the schools PE dept. as each runner was sponsored by the lap. It was pretty good fun and the kids really got into it. Our jogtastic little runner managed 16 laps. Not bad considering the mornings cloud cover broke and it was close to 80° at 11am when the kids were running. At the start line on Flickr Grinin like a madman on Flickr Putting everyting into it on Flickr All sweaty now on Flickr The finish line on Flickr Technorati Tags: kids , kindergarten , school , fitness , fundraising , jogathon

A few weeks ago I received a request from the local school district to fill out an online survey that was focused on the use of technology in our elementary schools. This followed an event at my son's elementary school that was an opportunity for parents to see how the school planned to make use of modern technologies in it's educational curriculum. Elementary Learners Using iPads Image courtesy of Fancy Jantzi on Flickr . The evenings presentations were orchestrated by Ted Lai, the Director of Technology and Media Services for Fullerton School District, who had been guiding several programs that had children as young as Kindergarten and First Grade creating media as part of their education. Of course, this appealed to me immensely. As a media creator myself I totally appreciate the value storytelling has in society, and am very excited kids are getting a chance to discover this for themselves. The fact that they are getting hands on with visual media and the technology used ...

A few weeks ago I wrote about the tendency for The Sprite to concoct elaborate scenarios in his game play, and his emerging talent of using his creative imagination for storytelling. This tendency has continued to blossom, and the expanded scope of some of his recent storyplay has been really fun to listen too. I'd like to share one such event, it was so imaginative and spontaneous and brilliant. On a recent trip to Laguna Lake, where we often go to take an evening stroll, The Sprite created a new character that had us wondering if our son had taken a bump to the noggin. There is a small bridge that spans a small shallow stream that flows over some rocks and stones. The stream connects the main lake to the series of small ponds that are an integral part of the water filtration system. At that bridge it is pretty routine for us to stop and play Pooh Sticks for a while, The Sprite using some of the many twigs fallen from the plentiful tree's surrounding the lake. On this day, h...

The Sprite had a little celebration for passing his 100 Word reading test today. Mommy recognised this achievement with a CONGRATULATIONS balloon and a delicious huge chocolate cupcake. Over the past few weeks he has been tested on several lists of ten words each. List ten makes a hundred, which is the guideline for kindergartners to be reading. But there is no stopping. The lists continue to come home and we continue to learn more sight words - words that are instantly recognisable and dont need to be sounded out Technorati Tags: kids , kindergarten , school , reading

Today marks the 100th day The Sprite has been in school. To comemorate this epic acheivement the teachers had them prepare a 100 Day presentation for the class. The kids had to collect 100 Things and do a show and tell in front of their classmates. Our little petrol-head predictably chose cars as his 100 Things and ElectricMommy printed out 95 cool NASCARs and HotWheels cars from the internet and The Sprite cut and glued them to a sheet of poster board. We then added 5 real HotWheels cars to the board for effect.Of course, being the designer, I could not let the poster board go simply decorated with printed out cars. I added a yellow and white racing stripe motif to the flourescent orange board, and added a 100 racing number for good measure. We then prepped The Sprite on what to say for his presentation, and here he is running through it, trying to remember his words and not get nervous. Well, I managed to stay and watch all the kids do their presentations today and it was very cute. ...

Well, dear T-Mobile, after more than 6 years of loyal patronage it's time we parted ways. I used to proudly state how T-Mobile treated their customers fairly and for that good service, some loyalty should be rewarded. When the iPhone was released my excitement was tempered by my sense of loyalty to T-Mo. My reluctance to change carriers spanned the years between then and now. I even went to the length of buying a used 1st Gen iPhone that was jailbroke/unlocked to use with my T-Mo SIM. As newer versions of the iPhione were announced and released I stuck loyalty to T-Mo. As my old 1st Gen phone got more and more beat up I continued to resist the urge to leave the company who had provided fair and honest service, and jump ship to AT&T and a nice new iPhone with a faster processor and better battery life. Over last few years I have noticed more calls getting dropped by T_Mobile. In my home office I cannot even get a signal, I have to step out into the front lawn to make calls or ch...

The Sprite has shown signes of creativity since he was able to move and talk. Lately he has displayed an increased level of conceptual creativity, making up highly elaborate stories and scenarios. He has always had a strong creative streak, look at who his parents are, two artists, so its only natural. Painting, playing piano, singing, writing. Making up stories seems to be at the root of much of this energy. I myself was an avid storyteller as a child. I had a legal hard cover pad of lined paper that I filled with stories about characters I invented; chubby ghost, spiders, posinis fish. Also characters were based on books I had at the time; Hectors House, Andy Pandy, Bill & Ben. My imagination was running riot over the pages of that notebook. I'm hoping it is still in the attic of the home I grew up in, safely covered in cobwebs, and not lost to the landfill somewhere. In the past, bathnight games involved Sesame Street character Bernie - an amalgam of Bert and Ernie - was hit...

Click to Play Todays VLOMO moments are a snapshot montage from The Big Turkey Day here in the US of A

Click to Play Todays VLOMO moment was spent fooling around exploring the California desert outside of Quartzsite, CA. With the family looking for a way to burn off some post-turkey day calories we rounded up a convoy of 4x4 wheelers and took it out to the dirt.

Click to Play Todays VLOMO moment comes from the strange iconic monument on California Highway 62 known as show wall. Here, travelers passing through the desert stop and hang a shoe, or other item, on the fence surrounding the burned out foundation of an old building.

Click to Play Todays VLOMO moment was found yesterday. Once more along California Highway 62 on route back to Fullerton from Havasu, we stopped at the railroad siding where a large number of tankers are parked. I'm fascinated with the railroad, the engineering feat of constructing these immense vehicles, the massive cast iron components, always makes for interesting photographic subject matter

Click to Play Todays VLOMO moment is brought to you by Hot Wheels and Danica Patrick. The story goes like this. Some months ago The Sprite and I were in Costco where we saw a really cool large scale Ferrari R/C car for $30. Determined to own said item to add to his Jay Leno-esque car collection The Sprite set about saving his allowance. Weeks passed and when he finally reached the appropriate amount of savings we went back to Costco to make his purchase. Sadly once there we found all trace of the Ferrari was gone, they had sold their entire stock of that car. Not to be deterred we head home and to the power of Google and the Internet. After 3-4 hours of searching for large Ferrari cars in the $30 price range The Sprite had made his online purchase. Only now he was getting a Danica Patrick Indy car. Why? Who knows. We've never watched Indy racing, he has no idea who Ms Patrick is. But who am I to deny the boy to invite t...

Click to Play Todays VLOMO moment was found walking the streets of Fullerton where I encountered three lovely ladies who gave me cause to rant. And thus ends the thirty days of VLOMO 2010. I can go back to a normal lifestyle once more. Thanks to all who watched and especially to those who played along and took part in the ongoing experiment that is Video Blogging Month. See you next year.

Click to Play Todays VLOMO moment finds me ranting about SunChips and a noisy packet.

Click to Play Todays VLOMO moment finds me losing my grip. Work, family, holidays, and the pressure of keeping up with VLOMO are taking their toll on my sanity. Have you seen my marbles?

Click to Play VLOMO stops for no man. Todays VLOMO moment is pretty much filler, just trying to keep up with the game.

Click to Play Todays VLOMO moments were spent on the California freeways 91, 60, 1-10, 62 and Arizona Route 95. Our annual pilgrimage out to Lake Havasu City for the family Thanksgiving gathering. This has been the downfall of my VLOMO productivity in years past. I'm determined to shoot every day and edit when I return. We shall see.

Click to Play Sometimes The Sprite likes to spend his days off playing Gran Tourismo on the Playstation all day. Others, like today, he prefers to remove his trousers and destroy our house in his under-garments. While I was busy in the office, I could hear all kinds of cacophony out in the living room. When I finally went to investigate, this is what I saw.

Click to Play Todays VLOMO moment was spent with The Sprite's kindergarten class as they enjoyed their Thanksgiving Feast on the final day of school before having a week off. Dressed in paper costumes as either Wampanoags or Pilgrims they filed out into the cold damp autumn day to shiver and eat the apple sauce, corn bread and pumpkin pudding they had made in class the past two days.

Click to Play Todays VLOMO moment is brought to you by The Sprite's kindergarten K2 class. I volounteered to help in class. Tomorrow is the big Thanksgiving Feast, and today we were making costumes and preparing the home made apple sauce. I helped all the kids peel their apple and put it in the pot. An added bonus was when the music teacher showed up after and I got to witness their little singalong