Learning through play games

Lately we discovered a nicely done Flash based website for
toddlers and preschool-kids. The gloomy ambiance made us
think about a kind of "Addams Family" and let us wondering
what this website is about.

Screenshots of website

The main-page introduce five eccentric characters: Bodmin, Looe,
Mena, Polperro and Gampa. These are the members of the weird
Fungooms family. The characters have different hobbies and invite
you to help and assist them. Click on a character and you will
find different funny games, music and stories.

Screenshots of website

Help green-fingered Polperro, a kind of New Age person, with
his gardening. The wise Gampa will teach you famous sights
and you can assist him taking photos of animals.

In the Atelier you can be creative while helping the artistic Looe
with painting and sculpturing. Bodmin, the little one, will teach
you the numbers in a funny rubber-duck game and will let you
drive his sporty buggy.

And last but not least you can relax with Mena and listen to
some bedstories in her big library. You will see, the land of the
Fungooms is full of surprises and originality.

Screenshots of website

The games are very simple to play and are focused to use
the computer-mouse efficiently. Furthermore they have a very
educative effect on children. Also the levels are easy to pass so
that children are not getting frustrated. Older kids may already
enjoy the challenge of collecting all the stars.

Screenshots of website

 















Interactivity and games are today a part of children's culture
and we appreciate that there are people who are supporting
children in a good way. According to new studies games can
give useful skills like team-work, strategic thinking, creativity,
imagination and innovation.

The Fungooms are a good possibility to explore and discover
together a new world and the games give you an occasion to play
with your child and talk about all the things which are appearing.

Screenshots of website

Quite recently the "Junior Magazine" awarded the Fungoomes
as "Website of the Month". Behind these games is the independant
computer games company "Upside Down Games", which is based
in the South West of the UK. The Fungooms are their first
official release.

http://fungooms.blogspot.co.uk
http://www.upsidedowngames.co.uk

Speaking of games: Don't miss our weekly radio program for
all the geek families and movie freaks out there:

"Trilllingo's Heroes & Heroines"

Our music program about childrenhood memories and
contemporary music from TV-shows, movies, series and
computer games for the whole family.

Every Thursday: 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. CET

In the meantime we are back looking for new adventures in
the Fungoom Land!

Children and Nature

Springtime is finally here and also Family Trilllingo is more
enjoying time outdoors than working on music play-lists for
our audience. We apologize for that, but you may understand
how nature is important for children as well. It's so exciting to
get dirty all over and to make all this experiences with water,
sand, mud, wood, stones, shells and leafs.

© 2012 by Trilllingo

Some people call this "Land Art" and the possibilities of being
creative with nature materials are boundless. Lately we heard
about the technic of doing a "Green Graffiti". Family Trilllingo
just collected some moss out there, to start it. We will keep
you informed about our first steps and our progress very soon. 

http://wildstylemag.com, Graffiti by Anna Garforth

In the meantime let's be inspired by some great Land Art
projects we found in the internet:
Land Art for Kids

And here comes also the right music while playing with nature
materials: We discovered lately the band "Marco & the Elfenbande".
It's still a very young band, who is doing music for children since
almost 3 years. The ambition of their music and lyrics is to develop
more sustainable habits and a higher ecological awareness of children.
Their debut album with the name "Mit Elfenpower die Erde schützen"
(Protect the earth with elfpower) is about renewable energies.
Geothermal energy, biomass, sun and wind have their own songs. 

http://www.press1.de

 

 

 

For their engagement to having a more sustainable future, they
were awarded by the UNESCO and the United Nations Decade
of Education for Sustainable Development. In the year 2010 they
also attended the 3. European Songcontest for children and won
with their multilingual song "Welcome to Europe". Radio Trilllingo
is impressed and says: Keep it up!

 

 http://elfenbande.de

Metalmusic for children?

In Finland no question of age! The band Hevisaurus is performing
already for very little metal-heads. The debut album "Jurahevin
kuninkaat", which means "Kings of  Jurassic Metal" peaked No. 5
in the Finnish Charts and was nomitated for the Emma Award 2010.

Last year they released their third album called "Räyh!" where they
worked again with some famous names from the metal-scene.

http://www.lastfm.de/group/Hevisaurus

Metal Music in Finland became socially acceptable since a long
time. It's omnipresent. The music scene in Finland is generally
nostaglic and melancholic, coming from a big influence by the
traditional tunes of Kalevala and Pelimanni music.

Finland is known for their different sub-genres of Metal Music.
There has been some famous exports in the last decades like
HIM, The Rasmus, Apocalyptica, Waltari, Amorphis, Finntroll
or Nightwish. Since Finnland won the Eurovision Songcontest
with Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah" in the year 2006, everybody
in Europe knows that this country is a Nation of Rock!

http://www.youaintnopicasso.com

Metal Music is an integral part of the finnish culture and this
explains the success of doing Metal Music for Children. This
lead us back to Hevisaurus. The band was founded 2009 by the
Metal drummer Mirka Rantanen, who played with Thunderstones.

He was inspired by his son who asked him as he looked on a old
albummcover of his father "Did they do this when there were still
dinosaurs?" This was the start of the idea to do a Metal Band for
kids with dinosaurs costumes. They play dressed up as four
dinosaurs and one dragon.

http://buckorama.wordpress.com

Their concerts are just one hour in the afternoon and have a
maximum of 85 decibel. After the concerts children can meet
their heroes in a signature session. The lyrics are made so that
children have something to relate with.

In 2011 the band split because of some disagreement with
Sony. Rantanen found with three other members a new band
called Sauruxet. The old singer stayed with the Label under
the old name.

Radio Trilllingo greets all our finnish readers out there with
a "Mano cornuta".

www.hevisaurus.com

Here is the Video  "Räyh!". Take a look!

Hurra, hurra, der Pumuckl ist wieder da!

Pumuckl is 50 years. Happy Birthday little Klabautermann! Pumuckl
the red-haired hero from a german serie called "Meister Eder und
sein Pumuckl" is celebrating his birthday. The character was invented
by Ellis Kaut. They also produced Radio-Plays, Stories, three movies
and a musical with Pumuckl. He is the most popular character in
german children-entertainment for several generations.

Source: pumuckl726orf.jpg

Pumuckl is a little undutiful fella driven by his mood swings and
doing a lot of monkeyshines. He is sometimes like a mischievous
child and from time to time very selfish as well. So no wonder that
children relate to him. The carpenter Meister Eder, an old man living
alone, find one day the little kobold who is stuck on one of his glue
pot. Thus he sees Pumuckl although Klabautermänner are invisible.
From this day on Pumuckl is bonded to stay with him – so say the
Klabauter law. Pumuckl gives him a lot of troubles and is singing
his pesky poetries.

But hey, what the heck is a "Klabautermann"?

We had to do a little research on this. According to some information
sources a Klabautermann is a kind of ship-ghost or a water-kobold.
The vocable is related to an old german word "klabastern" which means
"poltern" or "rumpeln" (to rumble). The word "Poltergeist" is coming
from this and you can see it in the word "Rumpelstilzchen" (in english:
Rumpelstiltskin).

Other sources imply that there is a relation to arab roots: "kalfatern"
or "kalfaten". In French the word is known as "calfater", while English
is using "to caulk" or "to calk". It's an old handcraft to repair the
boats with a Kalfathammer. According to maritime superstitions the
Klabautermänner are living on boats. They like to hoax the sailors- and
fishermen, give the captain a warning of dangers of the sea and they
are knocking when the boat has a leak.

On this Pumuckl Fanpage you can find interesting informations
about the little guy and Klabautermänner.
http://www.pumucklhomepage.de

Special note: Keep your eyes opened, Sunday's children.
Klabautermänner are not invisible to you, you ought to
see them...

Awake your inner child with Windosill

You wanna play a game, but your children don't let you? If so play with
them! There are plenty of nice games to play with your little toddler or
baby, without risking a childrenhoodtrauma. And they amuse Papa and
Mama as well!

Here our tip: Take a look at the Online-Puzzle-Game "Windosill".
It's playful little Flashgame.

"You" are a little locomotive going through different worlds (or "boxes").
To pass every level you have to complete a riddle. You have to consider
all the influencing factors and the answer is never the same.

The world there is very irrational and bizarre. The goal is always to get
the little white cube to pass the next level. It's not as simple as that.
You have to try different things and click on everything that seems like
it can be clicked on and see what happens. Expect unexpected suprises!

When you don't wanna embarrass yourself in front of your kids, look at
walkthroughs on Youtube - we are sure they will help you when you are
stuck. Take as long as you need because the game has no time limit.

Togehter with your child you can train your "creative problem solving"
skills. You will see, also your little baby on your lap will love it.

Scroll down the Blog and try the game right away.
Have a good time!
          
http://windosill.com