MacGuyver: Improvised Baby Cam using Facetime

As the resident tech guy at Stunt Dad I like to find interesting and unique ways to integrate technology into daddyhood. And while there is no app that will replace daddy, there are some crazy cool tools to help elevate your game. This baby cam idea was a last minute improvisation to keep a watchful eye on Buddha while drinking a cold one out on the porch. Please note: also works as nanny cam, plumber cam, mommy cam and goth teenage baby sitter cam.

Ingredients:

• 2 Apple devices of any combination of either iPhone 4s, iPad 2s, or a Macs with video camera installed
• WiFi network
• 2 Facetime accounts

Instructions:

1. While away from the baby, use Facetime to call one of the devices from the other.
2. Turn down the volume on one of the devices and place it with the the video cam facing your sleeping baby. This way you can hear them, but they can't hear you.
3. Finally, take the other device out to the back deck with your friends while you keep a eye on your little one all comfy and cool inside. But remember if you exit the WiFi area of coverage, your call will be terminated.

Other homemade baby cam ideas? Let us know how in the comments.

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App of the Week: KidCalc

I just learned about a great math app for toddlers called KidCalc. It has several different number games for counting, recognizing and writing numbers and counting, but the best part is the addition and subtraction. The app talks and visually shows groups of objects merging together. Then asks your child to select how many objects there are from 4 multiple choice selections. It grabbed Monkey's attention right away and within 15 minutes he started knowing a few of the addition challenges from repetition. This is exactly what I was looking for to go to the next level of learning numbers and starting to understand the basics of addition and subtraction. The app provides several age settings: 2-4, 4-6, 6-8, 8-10 and little genus so that you can manage the complexity of the problems displayed. It also allows granular control of items such as integer to count by (1,2,3 etc), lowest number, highest number, ascending, descending and a myriad of others. Check out KidCalc when you get a chance.

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App of the Week: Weather Done Right

We all know the joke. Weather people get paid good money to be right once in while. We would all love that kind of leniency in our own jobs, or even better, with parenting. Parenting is not going to get easier, nor are weather people going to get more accurate. Fortunately, there is an app that replaces the weather person and it is available whenever you want it. The Weather Channel iPhone is awesome and it turned a potentially lame day into a bunch 'o' fun.

Yesterday, the weatherman said it was going to rain. But instead of trusting the weather dude, I bought the Weather Channels iPhone app. In minutes I got a detailed radar map that showing rain everywhere, but Monkey's favorite playground was going to stay dry. So we headed out sans umbrella and enjoyed a day of pushing trucks in the sand, rolling balls down slides and chasing each other around in circles.

So if you want to plan your days around the weather with tighter tolerances, get yourself the Weather Channels iPhone app.

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3 iPhone Apps to help maintain sanity

At the Stunt Ben house, we no longer measure time in minutes, we measure in lengths of diversions. My two year old doesn't want to sit in his chair at restaurants for more than 1 and 1/2 chicken strips. He doesn't want to sit in the stroller for more than 3 storefront windows at a time and likes to kick the back of my car seat and has the endurance to do it for 3 showings of Toy Story 2 straight. The stress and tension of stringing together micro diversions can drive any dad to the limits of sanity. But our days of stringing together diversion after diversion are over. I have found salvation in the iPhone and these three magical apps.

1. Thomas the Tank Engine Game Pack by HIT Entertainment- 3 games in 1 $2.99
   This app has 3 games rolled into a single app. "Match the Engines" is a memory game in which your little monster will flip over cards and have to find matching pairs. It also gets them even more acquainted with the hundreds of characters in the Thomas the Train franchise...joy. It also comes with a touch screen puzzle in which kids have to put the picture of their favorite engine together. Finally a maze game that challenges little ones to place missing pieces of tracks together so Thomas can get to the end. This app has kept my buddy entertained for dozens of minutes (that's years in toddler attention span) and saved my sanity time and time again. And it seems educational. This app provides plenty of calm minutes, so my guess is that the ROI is about .01 cents per non-squirmy minute. That's a bargain!
2. Super WHY by ABC Kids - $2.99
   Like the aforementioned Thomas the Train app, this is an amalgamation of games which helps to string together periods of peacefulness even while your toddler jumps from activity to activity within the app. This app teaches letters, writing, rhyming and rudimentary sentence structure. The sentence part is beyond my guys' skill level, but the app still entertains and teaches him. I think this purchase will continue to hold his attention as his skills and understanding of letters, words and sentences expands. A high return on investment for $2.99.
3. AlphaBaby by Laura Dickey - $.99
   The free version is the App that got me and my son hooked on the iPhone, encouraged me to buy him an iPod Touch, and a plethora of kid apps there after. This App still holds a soft spot in my heart because it not only opened the door to a few peaceful moments while pushing the stroller (past 3 storefront windows), it also taught my 2 year old numbers, shapes, and the alphabet in about 5 days. I was amazed at how quickly he learned and enjoyed playing with this App. It's simple, you touch the screen and either a number, shape or letter appears with a voice saying what it is. If you want to add a personal touch, you can record your voice over the provided canned voice so your child learns these important lessons to your voice. If you are looking for a way to help your little one learn letters, numbers, and shapes, I highly recommend this App.

As you can tell from the descriptions, these Apps not only provide a little sanity to your crazed hectic days and nights, they also help your child learn as well as reinforce valuable early learnings.

Any recommendations for favorite children Apps? Please share your experiences and favorites in the comments section of this post.

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