6.022 x 1023. I keep random bits of geeky information, such as Avogadro’s number (the number of atoms in a mole) in my head. If you do too, you may be ready for Geekdad. This daily blog (affiliated with Wired Magazine) is a wonderfully random sampling of things of interest for the tech savvy, sci-fi addicted geeks among us. The broad subject range (Lord of the Rings to cyber security) offers diversion and education alike, with a special focus on geeking it up with kids; geeklets, according to these dads.  Read the rest of this post...

The crisp cool air, changing foliage colors, and the smell of warm cider. Yes, autumn is certainly in the air. Today, the Painted Hen and I took our two boys on our autumn ritual in the Rocky Mountains. Every year at the beginning of October, the elk in the Rocky Mountains begin to rut. And that means they all come down to the low meadows to put on their annual mating display of crashing antlers and incredible bugling. It’s quite a show set against the amazing backdrop of the Rocky Mountains in their splendid fall foliage of glowing yellow aspens. To us, the ritual sort of signals the real beginning of autumn. The kids never tire of it and love to see the elk.  It’s usually on these trips that conversations turn to questions like “What should I be for Halloween?” It’s one of our favorite times of year, and I hope our boys remember these special times of year and our trips to the elk meadows as they grow older.  Read the rest of this post...

This past week, we received a LeapFrog Tag Reading System to test and review. As always, we were excited to check out a new product from LeapFrog. I mean, these guys have a great reputation and we’ve always been really satisfied with their products. So first off, what is the Tag Reading System. If nothing else, it is quite simply an amazing piece of technology that fits in the palm of your child’s hand. The “system” consists of a pen-shaped “reader” and specially encoded books. By touching various icons on the pages of the book with the tip of the “reader”, the device will either read the page aloud to your child or play an interactive game based on the current page in the book. In addition to that, everything on the page is touchable by the “reader” which provides great voices, sound effects, and music that go along with the picture that was touched. Your kids can even touch on an individual word on the page and hear it read back to them. You can drag the reader like a pen across the words on the page and it will read them slowly so your kids can hear each word individually if they want to. The 16MB system retails for $39.99, with a just-released 32 MB system retailing for $49.99. The books for the system retail for $13.99 each.  Read the rest of this post...

This past week, we received a copy of a new iPhone app from Kids Eat For. It’s a great application that helps you find “kids eat free” deals near you. I really love this app because the information in the application is community built by users. That means you’re always getting up to date information from real people who have actually found these deals for you. And, if you’re a user of the app, you’re part of that community too and can contribute deals that you find or know about. Kids Eat For is currently available in the iTunes store for $2.99.  And, even if you don’t have an iPhone, read on, Kids Eat For has something for everyone (hint: it’s a FREE website).  Read the rest of this post...