Leaptster Screen Freeze Touch Broken

Posted on February 1, 2012 by TheDaddy

I’ve had the idea to do legitimate toy reviews from real parents here on UndefeatedDaddy.com for a long time. However, I wasn’t sure exactly how to go about it. Now, I’m going to start doing real toy reviews of the toys my own kids get, play with, and enjoy (or don’t). That way, the readers here will know that they are getting real non-fake toy reviews that are not designed to gather a 5-star rating on Amazon or whatever.

Leapster 2 Touch Screen Problem

This article is not a Leapster 2 review. That will be coming soon. However, the short version is the this. My kids love the Leapster 2. However, they do not have a Wii or Xbox or iPad or anything like that. Thus, this is the first and only kids gaming system we have, other than those aimed at younger children.

That being said, do not buy a Leapster 2. They are being phased out to make way for the Leapster Explorer. That means your Leapster 2 will be out of date in no time and there may not be any new games for the Leapster 2. We didn’t know this at the time, but we plan to take advantage of clearance sales to stock up on Leapster games from eBay and elsewhere online to make it last until we are ready for a new game system.

I bring this all up because we got a Leapster 2 game handset for Christmas that developed a bug where it would ask us to touch a flag to choose USA or Canada, but nothing happens when you touch the screen. It’s only a month old, so you can bet I was on the phone ready to be outraged.

Check out my article about whether there is a Credit Karma Scam.

It turns out that this is a rather common problem with Leapster and Leapster 2 game sets. Fortunately, there is a very easy fix.

Fix No Response Touch Screen on Leapster 2

To fix a broken Leapster 2 touch screen, you have to recalibrate it. To do so, you need to enter an undocumented (or poorly documented) configuration mode. To get into the system mode on the Leapster, hold down the ? (Help) button while turning it on.

Keep in mind that you have to already be pressing the ? button when you touch the power button and you have to keep holding it down until a configuration screen shows up.

Once you get to the config screen, press the A button to calibrate the Leapster touchscreen. The unit will display little red circles with a cross. Just touch each circle with the pen. They will appear in the four corners of the screen and then in the center.

When you’ve done that and are back at the configuration screen just press the power button or the down arrow until the unit shuts off to reset. Now, when you start the Leapster 2 and it asks you to select USA or Canada, it should actually work when you touch the American flag.

 

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Learning to Read Means Learning English is Dumb

Posted on November 29, 2011 by TheDaddy

As your youngster learns how to talk, you’ll notice that there are several little things about English that don’t really make sense. The irregular verbs come to mind. Many children end up saying "go-ed" instead of went and my own frequently says will’nt in place of won’t. But, nothing prepares you for just how stupid the English language is until your child starts reading and writing.

We all know about silent letters, in particular the silent K at the front of some words, but it goes way beyond that. Some silent letters have purposes after all; for example, the silent E at the end of many words makes the preceding vowel take the long sound, which makes perfect sense. However, English is filled with nonsensical letters, words and sounds.

For starters, what exactly, is the purpose of the letter C?

The sounds it makes are already covered by other letters, namely S and K.

Cake is two K sounds. Why is one of them a C and the other a K?

Why does G need to make a j sound if there is already a letter J?

Garage has the letter G make both the g-uh sound and the j-uh sound in the SAME WORD!

Face and case make exactly the same sound except for one of them has a C for that S sound in the middle and the other has a C. How does that make any sense whatsoever? And, just for fun, that K sound in case is brought to you by a C instead of a K.

Fruit and Food have very similar "oo" sounds, and yet one is UI and one is OO. That wouldn’t be so bad except that OO sometimes makes the "oo" sound like in You (which uses OU instead of anything that makes sense. Oh, and by the way, OU usually makes an "ow" sound instead, so why in the world does it take the "oo" sound here?) Of course, OO also takes the "uyh" sound like in book and hook.

Of course, your child will eventually learn all of the inane exceptions, double sounds, nonsense lettering and more that compose the English language. However, in the meantime, good parenting requires you to remind your child that this is NOT a lack of understanding on their part, nor are they not trying hard enough. These quirks can sap the confidence of young readers, especially if they start to feel like they are doing well and the run into a pile of these bizarre spellings in a row.

Remind your child that the words they are reading don’t follow any patterns. Be sure to use their language. Tell them, "Yeah, that doesn’t make any sense, but that word is actually TOWN even though it is just the word OWN with a T on the front."

By reminding your young reader that what they are tripping up on is a glitch or quirk in the language and not something that they should be able to figure out, you save their confidence and continue to encourage their reading development. Above all, never correct harshly, especially when the error is in the language, not your child’s understanding of the sounds of letters and letter combinations.

Finally, remember that you’ll go through this again soon when your child graduates from reading letters and sounding out words and moves on to putting words together into sentences. There are dozens of grammar rules that make just as little sense as the letter C does.

Dumb English Words and Sounds

Here are just some of the idiotic words and sounds that make learning reading and sounding out words difficult for beginning readers.

  • there, their, they’re and your, you’re
  • town, gown, frown, down, towel BUT round, ground, loud (all "ow" sound)
  • ow = "ow" BUT own = "oh-n" BUT town = "t-ow-n" (ow or oh, not both)
  • book, look, hook BUT food, school, tool

There are tons more. As I remember them, or my poor kiddo runs across more, I’ll try and update this list.

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Denver Zoo Lights 2011

Posted on November 27, 2011 by TheDaddy

Every year, the Denver Zoo put up tons of Christmas lights and stays open late for visitors who follow lit paths through the zoo looking at the array of lights. This zoo event is called Zoo Lights. The 2011 Denver Zoo Lights event runs from December 9th through January 1st, 2012. Denver Zoo Lights 2011 hours are 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. Regular winter zoo hours are in effect for the days before the lights which are from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. However, the admissions gate closes at 4:00 p.m. so you have to already be in the zoo by 4:00.

For Denver Zoo members, there is a special Zoo Lights preview weekend November 25 – 27 with hours from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The member’s preview weekend includes a Santa Claus in attendance each night, fire dancers and ice carving.

Denver Zoo Christmas Lights 2011

Denver Zoo LightsThe 2011 Denver Zoo Lights offering includes over 150 animal lighting displays. Many of these animal lights are “animated.” The animation is created by having a full lighting display of the animals in several positions, but only illuminating one part of the display at a time. The effect is seeing an empty spider web, then an insect approaching, getting caught in the web and finally, the spider moving toward it’s prey.

Other animated lighting displays include a fish shooting water at a dragon fly, a wolf chasing a deer, prancing gazelles, elephants spraying water, and a fox playing with his mother by running through a log.

The zoo puts up some special concession treats during Zoo Lights as well. There is hot cocoa, hot apple cider, caramel apples and kettle corn. Standard zoo treats like cotton candy and sodas are also on sale. This year, if you buy a 2011 Denver Zoo Lights souvenir hot chocolate cup or hot cider cut, you get unlimited refills during the entire run of zoo lights.

2011 Denver Zoo Lights Tickets

Tickets for Zoo Lights are $9 for adults (age 12 to 64), $5 for children (age 3 to 11) and $7 for seniors (65+). Zoo members, however, get a two dollar zoo lights discount on their purchases, making tickets $7, $3 and $5 respectively.

Denver Zoo Lights coupons are not available, however, there are a couple of ways to get discounted Zoo Lights tickets. First, bring a canned food donation and get $1 off of admission. Also, you can get a discount on admission for groups of 10 or larger. However, you need to purchase your tickets in advance to get the group tickets rate.

If you are hoping for a Denver Zoo free day during zoo lights, sorry, but that isn’t going to happen. All the 2011 Denver Zoo free days have passed for this year.

The lines for buying zoo lights tickets can get long, especially if you go close to Christmas or on certain weekend nights. The special smart parenting tip is to skip those long lines by buying your tickets in advance, which you can do on the Denver Zoo website. Print out your tickets and bring them to the zoo, then skip the line near the front where people are buying tickets and head straight to the gates. A ticket taker will scan your printed barcode.

You do not have to exchange your online ticket print outs for admission tickets at the ticket sales booths.

Looking for other fun things to do with kids in Denver?

Zoo Lights Tips

  1. Buy your tickets online. Skipping the buying lines means less waiting and more seeing.
  2. It gets cold after the sun goes down. Come prepared for a chilly night and possible winds, even if the daytime was sunny and warm. Gloves are a must and hats will be appreciated on many nights.
  3. There are bathrooms by the entrance, but also in the Giraffe House. Don’t count on using the bathrooms back by the monkeys, the trail usually ends before you get there.
  4. In years past, the Zoo has had the train and carrousel rides open during zoo lights. The train ride is not long, so don’t wait in a huge line. The carrousel holds more people than it looks like, so the line moves quickly.

Come dressed warmly and with some snacks and hot drinks and you’ll have a great time at zoo lights with the whole family.

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BPA Dangers for Pregnant Women

Posted on October 24, 2011 by TheDaddy

Yet another study suggests that BPA is dangerous for kids and pregnant mothers.

The plastics industry is quick to roll out the same arguments that the tabacco industry used for years. This study doesn’t count for some reason. The results are inconclusive. Blah, blah, blah.

What they are desperately hoping to distract everyone from is that this is NOT the first study to suggest health problems arising from using BPA in food and drink containers. In fact, this is yet another study in a long line of studies that have shown a potential link to health issues, including cancer, from using BPA in plastics. These studies have led most other first world countries to ban the use of BPA in food and drink containers.

Parents should avoid using baby bottles, sippy cups and dishes that have BPA. Since the government won’t require manufacturers to disclose when BPA is used in manufacturing plastics, customers have no choice but to refuse to purchase any plastics not clearly marked BPA Free.

 

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Baby Intercom Good Idea?

Posted on September 10, 2011 by TheDaddy

So, a new dad to be is chatting with some guys who are already dads, some newer dads and some older dads when he brings up the idea of a baby monitor with built-in intercom instead of a high-quality video baby monitor. As he sees it, he can talk to the baby and provide some reassurance from another part of the house, thus making the baby feel better, and maybe even fall back asleep.

The conversation goes from the older dads saying that they never had anything like that when their kids were infants, to newer dads saying debating whether or not they could or would use such a thing.

Finally, I brought up a point that I think was getting overlooked.

“Do you think that your child is more or less likely to get escalated and insist on seeing you and being held when he hears your voice but can’t find you?”

The conversation turned around quickly with all the dads concluding that a baby that hears your voice will insist on seeing you and the intercom thing might actually scare an infant who doesn’t understand how Mom or Dad can be there, without being there.

The dad to be wasn’t so sure. In his mind a soothing, albeit electronic sounding, lullaby from afar might be just the thing to soothe an infant back to sleep or relaxation.

As any dad will tell you, the key to keeping a baby by themselves, whether in a crib or just playing in a room is to keep them from seeing you, because as soon as they notice you, they will notice you leaving or notice that you are not holding them or otherwise being with them. This goes true for hearing you as well.

Before you buy an intercom baby monitor, test out the concept. Say a few words to your baby from outside the room and see if your toddler calms down or insists on an appearance. Then, save yourself the money and by a one-way baby monitor with a video screen instead.

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