Rescue me from Angry Birds! (need some learning games instead!)

[Guest Xapis10]

My kids get to play Angry Birds on my husband's iPad maybe once a week, for less than half an hour. This is enough to make them talk about it non-stop! Ack - please tell me what games we can download (and then use without internet), which will entertain them without making minds numb! : D

Also, my oldest is getting to a stage of needing ideas of what to play a lot. What ideas do you give your boys? (new things to do with legos, cars, trucks, tools, etc) There should be a blog about this :) Is there one you know of?

[blondeviolin]

Dragonbox, TeachMe for the younger grades, Stack the States, Stack the Countries, Geomaster, Presidents vs Aliens, Rocket Math.

 

My kids also like Where's My Water, Cut the Rope and Cover Orange, though there's not as much educational value with those beyond problem solving.

[Um_2_4]

amazing alex? (I have this on a droid tablet, so not sure about ipad, but i assume it is available)

[texasmama]

I have Elevens on my iphone. It is good for building math skills. :)

[Guest Xapis10]

Thanks all - this should keep us busy for a while : )

Still hoping there's a blog with 1,001 ideas for sparking new imaginationa and life into "old" toys.

[prairiewindmomma]

Ticket to Ride is popular with my elementary aged kids.

[4Kiddos]

Pinterest! There are a ton of Lego ideas on Pinterest.

 

Also, check out these educational ideas with Legos:

 

http://colintgraham.com/mathematics/activities-and-resources/101-manipulative-lessons-with-lego/

 

http://www.examiner.com/article/five-fabulous-ways-to-use-legos-for-learning

[Farrar]

I second Cut the Rope and Where's My Water as having more logic educational value as Angry Birds yet being just as addictive.

[duckens]

Lego has things to build on their site:

 

http://club.lego.com/en-us/building-steps/

 

I know there's another source, too. I'll see what I can find.

[duckens]

More legos:

 

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/MiniBuilds;jsessionid=Di87Xru5twUrK1HBXYrYYg**.lego-ps-1-4?ShipTo=US&_requestid=1237616

 

...but that wasn't the site I was thinking of.

 

The Lego Idea book has ideas, but it is too old for us in our house (age 6).

 

http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Ideas-Book-Daniel-Lipkowitz/dp/0756686067/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356877521&sr=8-1&keywords=lego+book

[Critterfixer]

Sorry, if your chickens have been up as long as mine with this latest cold weather, you are going to have angry birds and must rescue yourself.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

 

But the post made me giggle, because for Christmas a young cousin wanted "Angry Birds" and my two boys couldn't stop laughing. I know they were getting a visual of our big red rooster tearing around the hen yard in a hopping fury. :laugh:

 

I don't think I've ever had to suggest something new be done with old toys beyond sort and go to the thrift store. They usually find something to do with them, and it's nearly always something I never would have thought of. I sometimes feel that the very best way to spark creativity is to just get out of the way.

[Dmmetler]

Legoquestkids.blogspot.com. They don't do new challenges anymore, but there are a couple of years worth of prompts for monthly builds. I wish someone else would pick it up-but I'm not willing to go to the work myself, so I guess I can't complain. My DD LOVED doing these.

[*Lulu*]

There are certainly some better logic/problem solving games out there than Angry Birds, (we love most of the games pp listed), but I am going to go the other direction and let you in on my sneaky school secret.

 

When my kids (at that age) become obsessed with something I turn it into an educational opportunity. With pre-K to grade 2 I use sensory tubs and c-rods for the majority of our math; if Angry Birds was the flavor of the month I would make an Angry Birds sensory tub and use it for math, fine motor skill practice, pre-reading skills, etc. Sister went through a stage where she was resistant to working on certain skill areas, but when I pulled out the sparkly princess sensory tub she was eager to get down to business.

[celticmom]

:lurk5: Some of these ideas sound great.

[Terabith]

We've made a live action Angry Birds game. We tied surgical tubing to chair legs and those little plush Angry Birds. Turn chair over and use as slingshot. Stack all the cardboard boxes lying around the house from Christmas, add some other stuffed animals to the tower of boxes, and attempt to slingshot the bird into the tower.