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CommentsThe gift of Education
Keeping the brain in shape is just as important as keeping one’s body in shape
Keeping the brain in shape is just as important as keeping one’s body in shape. Latino Perspectives offers holiday ideas for giving the gift of education:
The Allowance Game
$16.95
Lakeshore Learning Store
www.lakeshorelearning.com (2 Valley locations)
If your kids enjoy playing “Monopoly,” then “The Allowance Game” is the perfect educational holiday gift. The game helps kids add and subtract and identify money values. The idea of the game is simple: Wash the car earn $1.30, but if you forget to do your homework you lose a turn. Players (2-4 youngsters may play at a time) race around the board doing chores and earning an allowance. They then get to spend their allowance on the things they want.
Edutainment games
Game cartridges $14.99-$29.99 (Games systems sold separately).
Most Valley electronic stores
Here’s a way to make those Nintendo PSP and DS hand-held computer games and Wii systems help put brain power to work. They’re called “edutainment games,” and are geared for people of all ages. “Big Brain Academy Wii degree,” a game primarily for young people, can be played at home or on the go. It offers activities from 20 categories in five genres. For DS players, there is “Flash Focus,” a vision training game. Other edutainment games are “Go!” “Sudoku” and “Practical Intelligence Quotient 2” (for PSP), and “Mega Brain Boot” and “Brain Age” and “Brain Age 2” (for DS).
Arizona Science Museum membership
Individual membership: $40 (general admission for one all year long)
Basic membership: $70 (admission for two all year long)
Basic Plus membership: $85 (admission for four all year long)
This is a cool educational gift for any youth, but don’t forget the teenager or adult on your holiday shopping list. The Center offers everything from scientific demonstrations performed by the Science Center staff to special movies in the IMAX Theater (separate admission). The Center is at 600 E. Washington in Phoenix. It is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and open every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Boyce Thompson Arboretum membership
Dual membership: $45 (unlimited admission 364 days a year for two adults)
Household membership: $60 (free admission for children/grandchildren)
Membership services (520) 689-5248
Here’s what you get with a membership to Boyce Thompson Arboretum just outside of Superior: 100 acres of botanical gardens lined with arid land plants; more than three miles of nature trails; a haven for the greatest bird diversity in central Arizona; and more butterflies and dragonflies than you can imagine. The Arboretum is at U.S. 60 milepost No. 223 near the copper mining town of Superior, about 55 miles east of Phoenix. The only day the Arboretum is closed is Christmas Day.
Youth books
George’s Secret Key to the Universe, Stephen and Lucy Hawking, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, $17.99 (available on Amazon.com; local book stores can also order it)
Who Pooped in the Sonoran Desert, Gary D. Robson, Farcountry Press, $9.95 (available at local book stores; may be ordered online at www.farcountrypress.com)
These are two wonderful books that will educate your children about the world around them. In the first book, through popular children’s character Curious George, Stephen and Lucy Hawking explain the universe to kids. It’s a natural partnership as Curious George’s author, H.A. Rey, was an amateur astronomer. He also was a friend of Albert Einstein. And Stephen Hawking has been called this generation’s Einstein. Written for ages 9-12.
We live in the Sonoran Desert, but do we know the critters that live among us? And could we identify them by their tracks and their … uh … poop? In the second book, brother and sister Michael and Emily learn that the Sonoran Desert isn’t barren and are amazed by its abundance of animal life. Fun to read, yet very educational. Also available from Farcountry Press is Who Pooped in the Park, a kid’s guide to animal tracks and scat in the Grand Canyon.
