Category: for 11-year-olds
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Minecraft: The Island
[amazon_link asins=’0399181776′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’91f8d4e9-f636-11e7-a944-ff7108981ad3′] We have some Minecraft-obsessed people in our house and when visiting the library we always look for Minecraft-themed books for design ideas. We picked up “The Island” not knowing anything about it and the kids lost interest when they saw that there were no illustrations. But I read the…
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Good Eats
[amazon_link asins=’1584797959′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=”] Watching Good Eats was one of my weekly rituals back in the ’90s, back when the Food Network was an emerging force on television. Unlike the standard TV chef format (cook looks across a counter at the viewer while preparing food), Good Eats’ Alton Brown gets into the science…
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Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land
[amazon_link asins=’B00287Z1F2′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’b2bea96f-e66e-11e7-bc7b-35986d9cfc05′] This is one of the great Disney shorts from their “classic” period of the 1950s and ’60s. It has Donald going on an adventure, learning about how math is the foundation for music, architecture, nature, and games. It explains the Golden Ratio phi and how simple ratios explain many…
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LEGO Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Isle
My kids didn’t even know who Scooby-Doo was before stumbling across this game while looking for Lego-related apps. The game is rated 10+ but we tried it anyway and I haven’t seen anything particularly ‘mature’ about it and our 4-year-old enjoys it without being scared (and this is someone who is sometimes scared of things…
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Bad Lip Reading Star Wars Songs
BLR is a YouTube phenomenon. A guy dubs over news clips and videos with silly nonsense and sometimes songs. The songs are very, very good – well-composed, well-performed and sung, and slickly produced. His re-dubs of music videos are better than the originals. Not all of them are particularly kid-friendly, but most are. In 2016,…
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Block Craft 3D
This is essentially a clone of Minecraft and the main reason to play this is if you want to play Minecraft but don’t want to pay for it. It’s a pretty faithful copy with some slight differences and is close enough to the original that even kids who have played real Minecraft should have fun…
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Moana
I’m normally a pretty cynical person, but I thought Moana was just great. Great story, great music, great everything. (The executive producer was John Lasseter, who produced and/or wrote/driected most of the great Pixar movies before and after the Disney purchase, which may have something to do with the quality) [amazon_link asins=’B01MRNUJUO’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’…
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Mr. DeMaio – YouTube Channel
Mr. DeMaio is an elementary school teacher in New Jersey who makes silly and fun absurd educational videos for his students. Since 2013, he’s put a few dozen videos on his YouTube channel His playlists include songs about multiplication and social studies themes, but my kids’ favorites are the ones about space and science Unlike…
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The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster
[amazon_link asins=’0394820371′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’c493290a-459d-11e7-89db-35d054db529a’] I have met many, many adults who consider this book their favorite book of all time, even though they haven’t read it in twenty or thirty years. And I have met even more adults who have never heard of it. The story is ultimately an adventure story, with the…
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FunBrain
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ad for FunBrain but they have been around since 1997 and are one of the best sites for safe, educational games and videos for kids. Their target audience is pre-k through grade 8. The site is free to use although it pays for itself via ads. The ads…