Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Reviews from Around the Internet

From momblog - The Dirty Shirt

Win a free copy of Family Car Games!

http://is.gd/1B2PQ

From a July 16 review:

I recently had the chance to review this app and used it for the first time on a car trip to run errands, not a long trip but I can tell you it was a quiet trip with the kids playing nice and laughing. I love that you can just shake your iPhone or iPod and the game spins to pick your game. When you select the game it lands on, you get a screen with all the directions on how to play the game. It gives you the Difficulty, Type, Length and # of players needed for the chosen game.

This is a great idea and I am actually looking forward to our long road trip that is coming up, now that I have tested this app out on my kids. They love it and even ask for it now, even if we are just going down the road. Which for me is a blessing. I love this app and it will provide hours of entertainment for your whole family. I have even been given the chance to show one of the Dirty Shirt readers just how much fun it is by offering a giveaway of a copy of Family Car Games for your iPhone or iPod.

When I emailed Jennifer to ask which games her kids liked best, she replied:

I would have to say that my son's favorite game is Ten Word Story (kinda fits with the brooding-teenager-not- speaking-much theme lol) and my tween daughter's is Grandma Went To The Beach. My toddler just laughs at them all :) Of course those are just part of the few we have played so far, more will come, I am sure!

FOX News.com - New Ideas for Road Trip Games

By travel writer Paul Eisenberg, in his weekly column, Away Game

Do you have one of those new-fangled scan functions on your car radio? Then fasten your seat belts and prepare to play “Catch That Song,” included in the iPhone app "Family Car Games" created by Ruth Greenwood, her husband, and their two teens. The object of the song game is to start “at the bottom of the dial and count how many songs anyone in the family can identify,” Greenwood says, adding that “when we play, there's a lot of exasperated ‘Oh! Oh! I know that! I know that!’ before the scanner moves onto the next song.”

For the rest of the article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529599,00.html

AOL's Parenting Coach and "America's Family Manager," Kathy Peel, AOL's ParentDish

Road Trip Sanity, Part II

by Kathy Peel

Categories: Preschoolers, Fun & activities, Toys & games

Last week I confessed that my mood improved and family vacations became a lot more fun when I stopped expecting my husband to read my mind about what needed to happen to get the five of us packed and out the door. Backseat boredom and disorganization were fodder for fights and frustration, so I began implementing ideas to quell chaos and promote peace. I share a few with you here, along with ideas from other moms who've discovered ways to make family road trips more fun. The Greenwood family of Princeton, N.J. created fun games for their own family and turned them in to an iPhone app called Family Car Games with instructions for 100 games families can play in the car.

The iPhoneMom.com Blog -

Quoted in a Recent ABCNews.com Article on Keeping Kids Entertained in the Car with an iPhone

Family Car Games is a unique app that is a resource for a hundred different games that you can play on a LONG family car ride. You don’t actually use your iPhone to play the games. Instead you use the app to find a game, read the rules and you’re off without electronics. Refreshing!

http://www.theiphonemom.com/family-car-games

The Fly Away Cafe, Family Travel Blog-

Our First Review!

Check out Family Car Games, created by a family of four to help your family pass the time with instructions for 100 different games. You can play the games in the car, on a long flight, or while waiting at the airport. Or waiting anywhere for that matter.

I downloaded the app ($1.99) to check it out. And hey – I like games, too! There seemed to be a nice variety, hitting on a number of different themes, from word games to story telling to singing...

You can select a game by various searches (name, degree of difficulty) or at random (a shaker/spinner much like the one on Urban Spoon), and you have the ability to bookmark your favorites so you can play them again and again. Each game is tagged with a degree of difficulty to help you choose age-appropriate activity.

It looks like a lot of fun, and next time I’m spending time with a youngster, I’ll give it a more thorough testing out. For $1.99, though, you can’t go wrong!

Mary Jo Manzanares

http://www.blisstree.com/flyawaycafe/family-games-on-your-iphone-or-itouch/