Little Kids and Right Brain Learning Techniques

As a parent of a young child I am continuously astounded by the new things my son learns every day. This last year I have been spending time reading about how children learn while my husband has been working on a series of right-brain learning apps with a business partner. I thought it was about time to blog about these learning techniques after recently having a discussion about Western vs Asian approaches to learning. Right-brain learning is a fascinating topic, especially when discussing it during a 3 course fondue dinner with an expert. ;) 


The right side of your brain, often called the image brain, absorbs information instantly and automatically. Most of us have well-developed left brain functions but an underdeveloped right brain function in key areas. Memory linking and photographic high-speed imaging (rapid flashing) are right brain functions that children can do very easily. In fact, everything we see is instantly stored in our subconscious right brain mind. The problem is, most of us don't have the ability to bring those image memories out to our conscious left brain at will; we haven't developed the right brain left brain connections that enable it. Dr. Makato Schichida is a pioneer in the development and success of right brain accelerated learning methods. He founded over 400 Child Academies in Japan and has written more than 100 books on the subject of right brain education. Basically it all comes down to practicing how to make these connections between the two hemispheres of your brain. The learning apps we just released use these right-brained learning techniques, such as rapid flashing, to make the connection between right brain left brain learning in children ages 6 months to 12 years. 


We have 5 new iPad apps with hundreds of images and flash cards included and did I mention they are free in the App Store, currently available for the iPad. There has been a lot of hard work and research that has gone into these apps and for all the parents I know I hope they try these out, my son Sebastian is 2.5 and he loves them. You can't go wrong when something is free, educational, and entertaining for your child. Would love any feedback on these apps either in the form of a review on iTunes or via email/comment. 
Thanks for reading!

Our Return: 29 days in Cabo

A tired cranky toddler at Cabo's airport

Wow what a trip.  Spending a month in Mexico may have been one of the highlights of my life.  I am so blessed to be given this opportunity and I thank my lucky stars that we only had a few hiccups along the way.  I have been reiterating some of my favs and cons to my friends and family now that I am back, and just being able to speak to everyone through a reliable internet service and hearing their voice once again on the phone has been such a treat.  Having a new smart phone (iPhone 4S) and not being able to actually utilize the features while in Cabo was a bit of a pain....I know I know first world problems and all.

We came back to a bunch of slushy heavy snow and one FAT cat.  Seriously our cat got really fat even though we used an electronic cat feeder that measures out the food.  Maybe he got some extra treats from our friend who was house-sitting, or maybe not being chased by a toddler all day long for a month left him lazy.  I missed our kitty so it is nice to see him again.

We were delighted to have met so many people down in San Jose del Cabo from the Minneapolis area.  We even had a few friends sitting up in 1st class with us on the flight home.  Now that I am back I miss eating our meals outside and having the doors and windows open all day long, the fresh air and sunshine was definitely a mood boost.

We return to plenty of work for our business Wood App Developers which is always something to be grateful for.  We were asked to speak at the Mobile March conference next week here in the Twin Cities and my husband is preparing a topic on our app Awesome Ninja for the 3d Gaming Session.  Not only do our own apps continue to sell but more people are hiring app developers globally to see their ideas come to life in the app store.  Currently, it is an exciting industry to be in; maybe this is how employees of AOL felt during 1996, that they were in the right place at the right time.  In that light I will leave you with this internet meme recently submitted to Rate This Pic.

So True

Mountains and Cowboys

Local Baja California Sur cacti varieties

We made our trek to the mountains in a half day trip and it was a great time.  Seeing the cacti and the long stretches of sun-bleached rocky land reminded me painfully of my summers spent mapping parts of Dillon, Montana for my geology field camps.  We had to hit the brakes a few times when we would come around a curve and see cows grazing a few inches from the road.  There are no barriers or railings of any type on these cliff roads and Graham was astounded by the dozens of crosses and memorials we saw along the side of the road.  We had planned a trip to Miraflores which was only 10km or so from some natural hot springs in the Sierra de la Laguna mountains.  Because our car rental agreement states that we may not take our car off road, and because the reviews of the "roads" to the hot springs seemed a little sketchy we decided to waive the hot springs visit.  I was pretty bummed about that but I don't think a toddler would have allowed me time in the hot spring anyhow.
We made it into Miraflores with a sleeping kid in the backseat.  We got out to stretch our legs a bit and Sebastian woke up and decided to join us outside.  It was a hot day and the local ladies of this village were walking around in flowing skirts, with flowers in their hair, and carrying umbrellas.  We walked across the street and played on the steps of an empty plaza that looked as though it was used for festivities for the town's patron saint the Virgin of Guadalupe.  In fact, every single tiny house had a shrine for the Virgin Mary, or the Lady of Guadalupe, standing at the entrance to their house.  I was amazed that so many of these homes were basically shacks or perhaps simple cinder block cubes, but that the owners of these houses had put so much care and money into their beautiful shrines even going as far as purchasing paint and decorations to adorn them.  While we stretched our legs in the plaza a bit I noticed that a half-dozen ladies with umbrellas stood at the edge of the square and had a morning chit-chat session.
We left Miraflores and decided to head back home and try to make it in time for lunch.  On our way back we ran into hundreds and hundreds of cowboys (both male and female) on horseback riding along the shoulder of the road.  This caused a traffic jam and raised so many unanswered questions for us.  Where were these cowboys going?  I thought they were hired by the local ranchers to round up the cattle we had seen but why were there hundreds upon hundreds of them?  Also, they were dressed rather nicely in starched button-down shirts and spiffy cowboy hats, also none of them had packs attached to their saddles so they could not have been going out for long.  They were not decorated to the point of a horse-show though, and we were in the middle of nowhere at this point with no buildings or arenas in sight.  I told Graham I wanted to google it and try to figure out what was going on but he reminded me that there would be nothing online about this event.

Also this past weekend my husband and I were lucky enough to hire a babysitter for 3 hours and have a nice dinner together at 7 Seas in San Jose del Cabo.  After a month of just the toddler and myself for every moment this was grand.  When I am back in MN my son frequently has time at play groups, with family, and at various activities we attend and we have missed all of those.  When we come back next winter I will look for some sort of preschool that he will hopefully be able to attend for the month or two.  While my husband and I had dinner at 7 Seas watching whales and surfers we were able to eat quietly and uninterrupted at a nice slow pace, and in one sitting!  These simple pleasures really make the whole eating deal a much nicer process.
I can't believe we are now on day 28 of our adventure and preparing to come back home.  Luckily we have still managed to work and release apps while we were here and had a banner day yesterday with the amount of downloads of Rate this Pic.  Also my husband's newest learning app for children with another business partner is being well received in Asia and the press release just went out this morning. I will plan to blog on that soon because it deserves it's own entry.  Thanks for reading!

Our newest free app Rate This Pic is being downloaded everyday on the app store, make sure and get a copy for yourself.  Send in your pics that you want to see uploaded and rated on the app.  Think "Hot or Not" premise, but for any image cute/scenic/funny etc.  We have been getting a lot of de-motivational style posters that have been cracking me up like this one. 

Traveling with a Toddler

I am going on my first "real" vacation with my toddler next week and never before has my list-making been so obsessive as it has been these last few weeks.  My husband and I have decided to spend the month of February living it up in sunny San Jose del Cabo.  This plan, everyone assures is, is pure gold.  Spending the beginning part of this rather mild winter in MN and taking off for Cabo right when things start to feel bitter was our goal.  Lately I have been slightly anxiety filled with the thoughts of all the toddler stuff I may encounter.  What if his eardrums burst on his first plane trip?  What if we contract some horrible parasite.  What if something goes wrong with my pregnancy.  What if what if....  I am just ready to just get this vacation GOING.  My extensive online research using tripadvisor and several other forums have prepared me for most of what I will encounter but still I wonder.

My husband and I once had everything, I mean EVERYTHING stolen from us while lunching in Bratislava, Slovak Republic.  When we found our first set of cops thinking that they would help us and fill out some sort of a report they took my husband into the back of an unmarked van for 20 minutes while I freaked out and then proceed to ticket us for lack of proper permits on our rental vehicle.  That's all they did!  No help, no assistance contacting the US Embassy or US Consulate even though we had no passport, no money, no laptops, cellphones, etc and they were the most unhelpful people I have ever encountered besides Comcast Customer Service.  After that encounter we proceeded to still spend the rest of our month in Europe with very little clothing and a renewed attitude.  Traveling light was adopted and embraced after that incident.  We literally wear one pair of jeans and pack a few shirts, undies, and out the door we go.  Why now am I packing an entire suitcase of toys for my tot just in case?

Along with packing and list-making we just released our newest free iPhone app called, Rate This Pic.  After viewing so many hilarious and memorable pictures that our friends and family have shared on facebook we thought why not have an app where users can upload their most enjoyable pics to be viewed and rated by others.  Please download and enjoy this app.  :)    We are looking for more pictures so if you have some to submit do it!  Here is the press release announcing the deets.

Extra Extra

This week Wood App Developers (meaning DH and I) have had our hands full with new client meetings, press releases to the media, and editing our youtube videos.  I have never had this much chance working with local media since my Raspberry Festival days.  It's been kind of fun talking to reporters.  I will link up the news articles with our interviews in just a few short weeks (fingers crossed).  Here is our latest press release and a short video of our gaming app, Awesome Ninja.

Tonight DH and I are pumped to be taking a break from work and spending our evening at the State Theatre.  I am somewhat excited to be taking my 2 year old son Sebastian to his first live showing of Yo Gabba Gabba (a ridiculous children's show).  We are a little obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba and REALLY obsessed with watching our toddler's reactions to everything.  I can't imagine being 2 years old and seeing someone that you watch on TV in REAL LIFE right in front of you.  Should be grand.  :)

The Perfect Laptop Station

My DH and I purchased another Macbook last night.  That brings our home pc/mac count to an obscene amount not to mention our iPad.  I have spent a good part of my day reorganizing cords and ports.  I have decided our two macbooks (13" and 15") need a new home.  On top of my geek chic lies a domestic diva begging for sleek charging stations or a gorgeous hidden laptop shelf.  I despise cords.  I have begged my DH to purchase a variety of hidden cord covers, charging stations, media organizers and the like.  We have our pc in the studio all organized and squared away.  The laptop pc lies sadly underneath the couch with the cord obnoxiously sticking out and every so often getting stepped on.  Now I need to get these macbooks under control and I am seriously considering these Henge Book docking stations. 

 Only problem is it's a little overkill seeing as I am only interested in finding a nifty place to discreetly charge these.  I don't need another workstation or a desk.  I have a penchant for clean surfaces.  My dining room table has to be cleared off at the end of every night.  I know from experience that when stuff has a home my house looks better.  Needing serious suggestions here.

Awesome Ninja - The Game

Get ready for the upcoming release of Awesome Ninja, my husband's addicting game that is available for the iPhone/iPod/iPad.

Our initial concept of the game was designed around the keywords ninjas, pirates, and chicks, and has evolved into 9 worlds of awesome-ness.  My husband has over 13 years of programming experience so the playability of this game is truly amazing.  Along with writing the code and creating the animations he also composed all of the original music for the levels and created some hilarious sound effects.  My contribution to Awesome Ninja was designing the graphics, though my favorite part of developing this app was definitely the testing process.  We spent hours playing the game over and over trying to beat the levels and high scores.  Stay tuned for the release of Awesome Ninja, should be in the App Store on iTunes shortly.

Movie Filmed on my Block

My neighbors pointed out to me last week that my house was in the 1996 movie Beautiful Girls.  I have not seen it yet but I was able to find this blog posting about using the duplex across the street from me for one of the longer more notable scenes in the movie.

Apparently there is a scene where a snow plow driver played by Michael Rapaport, plows all the snow in the driveway up to the duplex garage so that the renter played by Martha Plimpton (of the Goonies) can't open her garage door.  This weird little bit of trivia makes me like this quirky working class neighborhood just a touch more than before.  I have since added this movie to my Netflix queue.

On another note, my husband and I have updated our Wood App Developers website due to the high demand for iPhone and iPad apps.  We have had back to back projects lately and are incredibly excited to be working daily on iOS projects.  Here's a screenshot of our new website.

iCloud excitement and park shenanigans

So I watched Apple's keynote address from the WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) last night with my husband.  The keynote showed a rather frail yet compelling Steve Jobs explaining the upcoming release of Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud.  Three things which most mac users and iOS device users should be pretty excited about.  I had planned on only watching 5 minutes to find out WHAT exactly was iCloud.  Well an hour later my husband and I were so enthralled with the Apple video I had to tear myself away to get ready for bed.  What I really took away from this keynote was that Apple is actually aiming for a "pc-free" world.  Where one can do everything on their iOS devices such as iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches without ever having to plug their darn device into their mac to sync, sync, and sync yet again.  Should be exciting when iCloud is in place come this fall.
On another note this Minnesota humidity wave has put my 2 year old son on a park strike.  He  adamantly declines each time I ask him if we should go to the park, or even onto the swing-set in our backyard.  After the last few days he has decided that everything that gets hit by the sun is "hot" and therefore he wants nothing to do with it.  After a couple of hours of him moping around I decidedly packed him up and told him we were checking out a new park my Mom's Club had told me about.  After finding the parking lot deserted (which is odd for a park on a Tuesday at 11am) I walked him around showing him all the cool stuff and even riding the plastic horse on a spring to show him that the plastic seat while warm, was not too hot and rather fun.  I even pointed out the ironic "North Mpls for life" graffiti in this yuppie Minnetonka neighborhood park.  He did not care and just wanted to go back home.  Which we did.  I guess we'll attempt a new activity when he gets up from his nap.

Just Another Manic Monday

My head is full of images this morning.  Spent a couple of hours walking through VERY recent F2 tornado damage in North Minneapolis with my husband.
We happened upon the site only a couple of hours after the tornado struck and the neighborhood was literally in shock.  People sitting on their front steps of their damaged homes with trees uprooted and a shell-shocked look to them.  Everyone that we encountered was physically ok, but unfortunately there was no help for these people at first.

After nearly 90 minutes climbing around the damage and checking in with folks we finally saw our first police car and the beginnings of the city clean up crew.  Power lines were down all around us and people finally started clearing brush and trees mostly by themselves.  So sad, I have been thinking about it a lot today.

This did NOT happen in my neighborhood, but we were only a few miles away and all we got was the tornado siren and a large storm.

Thankfully the city is in clean up mode and it sounds like everyone is getting help at this point.

I have also completed drawing two more illustrations for my husband's iPad game he has been developing for months.  This is really his baby as he has a bit of a gamer geek past and has been coming up with ideas for as long as I have known him.  I just helped a bit with the creation of the sprite sheets, which were actually rather challenging!  I don't dare post them here as my husband is very hush hush about his game until we actually get approved by Apple.  I can say it is very similar to a casual game like Angry Birds but minus the design assistance of a large scale Finnish team.

Google IO and Hello Kitty

Can someone help me settle a nightly debate that I have been having with my husband regarding the realistic uses of the recently launched Android Open Accessory.  So what is this thing?  Well Google IO had it's fancy-pants annual conference a week ago in which it launched a whole bunch of awesome stuff that developers and techie geeks go nuts for.  At this conference Android folks announced the ability to create your own accessories using the Android Open Accessory Kit (ADK) which includes an Accessory Board.  This means you can use your Android device to control any electronic you may have, once you develop the app of course.  I have been developing iOS apps for Apple devices since last year with my husband, and we have been considering developing on Android platforms and the like.  My husband is really excited about this new launch but my question is what electronic device do I need to operate with my smartphone that I can't already operate by some other means.  Oh and did I mention that at this point it is not wireless?  I mean TVs already come with remotes.  HVAC systems have thermostats.  The example given by Google shows a Hello Kitty device of some sort hooked up to an Android device.  Gee thanks for the example Google.  I have been racking my brain trying to think of REAL uses for this and I am drawing a blank.....