Simple Ideas to Entertain the Kids this Summer (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on June 25th, 2009 by wwaddell.
Categories: Digital Photography, Scrapbook Articles, Scrapbook Tips, Training.

2 Simple Ideas to Entertain the Kids this Summer (Part 2 of 2)

By: Wes Waddell 

We left off in part 1 with setting up the Digital Mystery Game and providing some basic ground rules and courtesies as needed.  We then sent our little spies, detectives and reporters out into their world to gather the data and photo evidence for their first story.  Now, it’s time to put on the final touches and to finish up the stories.

Playing the editor:

Your job in the game is not to criticize or take control, but to guide the children in their stories.  Yes, the younger they are the more help they’ll need; at least at first. But, you’ll also find that with just a little guidance, it won’t be long and they’ll be almost completing each story on their own.

When they first come back, have them explain a little about what they seen, what is on their notes (make sure they take notes… it’s very important later) and how the story unfolds.  Make sure that they have a beginning, a middle (the content that matches the title you first gave them) and a finish or ending.

If any of the parts are missing or it doesn’t match the story title, then your guidance as the editor is needed.  Ask them questions that lead them to the answers themselves. Ask why a photo is important or what could be added to better tell the complete story.  It’ doesn’t have to be perfect, just complete and thought out to the best of their abilities. 

If you see them begin to get frustrated, take a snack break or give them a clue that helps them out. Above all, keep it fun or it won’t last long.  You’ll also see that their stories and their capabilities will grow as they do more and more of them.  You’ll find a healthy helping of praise for what they do will go a long way in motivating them to go farther and do more.

Now, if needed, send them back out to gather the rest of the photo evidence and story notes.

The Final Story:

The fun doesn’t stop when the photos are all taken.  Now it’s time for them to draft the storybook scrapbook and show off the stories in a newsletter or website.

No, you don’t have to be a computer wiz to make this work, but if you do know how to assemble a basic web site or to create an online newsletter or blog, then you can show mom & dad or grandma and grandpa what the kids have been up to.

If you don’t know how to put the storybook scrapbooks or newsletters online, then just print the photos on card stock or photo papers and cut them out.  Then just get out the glue sticks, colored markers and stickers and let them create the stories the old fashioned way… by hand. 

We even take the digital storybook scrapbooks and print them out sometimes and then paste them to a large poster board in newspaper fashion with large photos of the kids by their stories.  Frame it in a poster frame and you have some really treasured memories to hang on the wall.

Kids and computers go well together and kids these days are using computers in school as young as 6 years old.  You can use any word processing program or digital scrapbook program to insert the photos and add the story text to.  Many of them will allow you to save the finished stories as a web page or upload to a blog. My 10 year old granddaughter is able to help her 7 year old sister to create beautiful storybook pages with Microsoft PowerPoint and Word.  I showed them how a couple of times and now I only have to help print the final stories after I review them.

That’s it, how far you take the game is up to you.  Create a whole summer storybook scrapbook or just have a few wonderful pages to frame and hang on your walls.  It’s fun, it keeps them busy and the memories they create are preserved for years to come.

It just doesn’t get any better than that!

Wes Waddell

www.PrincessCrafts.com
www.TwastheNightScrapbook.com

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2 Simple Ideas to Entertain the Kids this Summer

Posted on May 31st, 2009 by wwaddell.
Categories: Digital Photography, Scrapbook Articles, Training.

2 Simple Ideas to Entertain the Kids this Summer (Part 1 of 2)

By: Wes Waddell

 

“School’s Out for The Summer” as the classic KISS song goes.  These words begin causing stress for many a parent weeks before the actual event takes place.

 

Why?

 

Because every parent knows that within days… sometime hours, the dreaded whine begins: “Mommy, I’m bored… there’s nothing to do!”, “I don’t want to go outside, there’s no one to play with!”  The historic echo’s still ring within the walls at our house, even now after the kids are grown and on their own.

 

The good news is that I’ve found a new way to keep my grandkids entertained for not just hours, but for days and even weeks during the summer, and no, it’s not sending them to grandma and grampa’s house!  I’ve taken an old page from my grandmother’s bag of fun and turned it into a new technology children’s game.

 

We call it “The Digital Mystery”

 

Appropriate for kids ages 6 and up… especially good for “Tweens” and young “Teens.”

 

No! you can’t get it in stores…  at least not yet ;-)

 

All you need is a cheap digital camera, a small notebook with pencil and a few minutes of your time creating story lines.  I’ll explain the story lines in just a minute; first let’s talk about the equipment.

 

I said cheap digital camera for a reason.  Kids are sometimes hard on things… I know that’s nothing new to you.  But the younger they are the harder it is for them to take care of things and to keep track of them.  So, depending on age, just pick one up that you can get in almost any chain store these days. Your only requirement is that it needs to hold at least 36 to 40 images in its memory so you aren’t bothered every few minutes downloading them to a computer. Of course older kids will be able to do this themselves.

 

The notebook and pencil can be anything from pocket size to a school notebook. They’ll be using it to take small notes on what they see in each photo they take. Younger children will need more room to write and older kids will want something that can fit in their pocket or camera case. If you use a larger notebook, consider putting it in a small backpack or shoulder bag for them to carry it in… don’t forget to put their names on it!

 

Now, on to your small part in the game.

 

The object of the game is to tell a story using digital photographs and notes or comments for each picture.  Your part is to come up with a few story titles for them to start with.  Here’s a few things to consider when you start listing the mystery story titles:

 

  1. The younger the child, the smaller the area they have to explore. You may want them to stay in the back yard or on your block.  If you live in an apartment complex, you may need them to stay in a play area or inside the building itself.  So, you wouldn’t want mystery titles such as “What the neighbors did today” if you want them to stay in the back yard. You might want titles such as “Bugs of the 123 Willow St. House” or “What Else Lives at 654 Bluebird Lane.” My 6 year old granddaughter loves “What My Teddy Bear Did Today.”
  2. Your titles need to hint at some kind of mystery or puzzle that needs to be solved. You want the kids to have a definite purpose with the photos and story and not be able to just take random pictures of just any old thing.  You want them to think (age appropriate) and take some time… preferably a lot of it; in coming up with the final story. Tweens and Teens love to play the part of the detective or spy. Give them titles like: “What Changed in the Neighborhood Today?” or “Who Worked on Our Block?” One of my 10 year old granddaughter’s favorites is “Wildlife of Our Street.”
  3. While you don’t want them peeping in windows or invading the privacy of siblings or others, you do want to nurture their natural curiosity and imaginations.  Depending on the child, you may need to set some basic ground rules and consequences for breaking the rules.  The bottom line is that you want them to have fun, but at the same time you want them to be courteous to others.

 

Getting Started:

 

It’s best if you begin planning a few days before school’s out.  Having 8 to 10 Mystery titles (per child) all ready to go before you need them will make your life much easier and ensure that they have plenty to keep them busy.

 

One quick note:  This also works really well for vacations and day trips too.

 

Here’s how we play it at our house:

 

I set up a storyboard using a piece of white poster board.  I have a column for each of the grandkids with their name at the top of the column.  Below I have rows about a ruler wide all the way down the page.  Under each name I have a story title for each child that is different and age appropriate. 

 

After every 5 stories, there’s a prize that they earn for getting to that point.  I never have more than 5 stories listed at any time for each child as I keep that part of my mystery as to what comes next and what the next prize will be.  After they finish one story, I add a new one to their column so that they always have five listed and one prize they are working towards.

 

Depending on how long they will be staying with us, I try and make the last prize a really special one that I know they will cherish.  Last summer we took them to a water park at the end of the week.  This summer, since they are a bit older… we are looking at getting them new digital cameras now that they know how to use them and take care of them.

 

Next, I’m the editor for a fictional news site.  I have final say over all completed stories (just like in the real world) and I get to send them back out to fix any parts of their story that I find missing.  This serves the purpose of both, keeping them busy longer, and at the same time teaching them to complete the whole story with quality (age appropriate again) work with complete thoughts.

 

That’s it! Off they go to start their first story and you are free to do what needs to get done around the house… even if that’s to relax or take a nap ;-)

 

In part two, we show you how to keep them busy by actually creating the story on the computer using the photos and notes they take here.

 

Until then…

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Review of Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist

Posted on May 19th, 2009 by wwaddell.
Categories: Scrapbook Articles, Scrapbook Tips, Training.

Review of Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist

I actually started this review several months ago when Serif first introduced their new Digital Scrapbook Artist software. Unfortunately, due to some issues with the first version and the fact that it doesn’t run on Windows 2000 or older versions of the windows software… things got delayed a bit.

The good news is that with the latest patches now downloaded and installed, Serif now has a great stable working software that is really fun to use.

Here’s what we learned in our extensive testing with the Digital Scrapbook Artist software:

When you first open Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist the program automatically checks for updates and patches.  We like that and we also like that you can set the period in-between update checks right from the settings menu. Please, let the program update with any patches as some of them fix things that will hang you up or crash the program. As of 18 May 2009 the program with patches loaded is quite stable and gave us no problems in our quite extensive test of it’s abilities.

We do recommend that you have at least 2 gig of memory in your computer in order to use the higher resolution graphics and settings. We also found that on lower end systems that we couldn’t have other programs running in the background or it slowed down displays and required extra virtual memory. (memory allocated on the hard drive for program use)

Our Initial Impressions:

Kathy and I both like that you can preload elements, backgrounds, templates, frames and other tools from the built in packs.  This makes it really easy to have exactly what you need for your new design when you first open a new blank page. I only wish that I could have a way to easily add my own designs and elements to the proper menu’s. We’ll talk a bit more on that in just a minute.

Serif has done a wonderful job with the page set up menu’s.  We found it was straight forward and I needed no help finding the button on the top of the screen and the menu’s to set the size and properties just the way I wanted them.

As a matter of fact, to create a great looking page right from the start, I needed no help from the tutorials or built in instructions.  If you have never worked with graphics, photo or presentation software before, then you may need some help with the use of layers and frames, but it’s all easy to learn. The help menu’s and tutorials that come with Digital Scrapbook Artist are quite complete and we found them easy to understand even the more complex capabilities of the software.

To make a comparison of Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist with the other programs out there… here’s what we think:

Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist falls right in the middle of the pack for ease of use and capabilities.  Scrapbook Max by Indigo Rose is easier to use and let’s you easily export your finished digital scrapbook/cards to Pictures, Video CD/DVD presentations and PDF files so you can share them with your friends and family. Scrapbook Max also lets you create templates with click and insert photo spots built in.  Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist on the other hand lets you do more with your pages such as better object rotation with less pixilation and smoother transitions. Digital Scrapbook Artist also has more filters and special effects than Scrapbook Max.

On the high end, Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist is not as capable as PaintShop Pro or Adobe Photoshop… but then it won’t take you years to learn to use Digital Scrapbook Artist like it can the other high end photo editing packages mentioned above.

In short, if you are computer challenged or have kids that will be using the program (like my 10 year old granddaughter) then you probably need Scrapbook Max. If you are going to create professional designs or work with photos that require a lot of modifications, then you’ll probably be wanting one of the advanced photo editing software packages like PaintShop Pro or PhotoShop.

If you are looking for a program to use to create digital scrapbook pages and still be able to enhance and make common changes to your photos and/or you also want to use some of the better special effects tools out there… then Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist is just exactly what you are looking for.  It’s easy, but still advanced enough with the tools you need to create really professional looking scrapbook pages, digital cards and photo prints.

Here’s the really short list of flaws as we see it for Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist:

  1. The only way to easily add items to the left menu of embellishments, backgrounds, frames, etc. is to put them in the Photos tab. The photos tab is the only one who’s add button lets you select from outside the installed tool/content packs.
    1. We would like to see all the add buttons have the capability to browse the whole computer to add elements, backgrounds, frames and other elements.
    2. Other option would be a tool that lets us create or add to a default Artist Pack. 
  2. The thumbnail images that are created on the Photo tab when you add your elements and photos there don’t show the transparent areas (everything is white), but the transparent PNG areas work normally when dragged onto the page. Minor I know… but needed to mention it anyway. 
  3. This program does have some of the high end tools and capabilities of the high end graphics packages.  Because of this, you really need to have a computer that has at least 2 Gig of memory and 4 Gig would be even better.  Without the extra memory, look for the program to be a bit sluggish and it could even lock up on you.

That’s it! Serif has done a wonderful job and has put out what’s been missing from the digital scrapbook community for several years now… a middle of the road scrapbook software that goes beyond beginner yet isn’t so hard to use that it takes a masters degree in graphics design to use it.

Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist is a very solid capable program that is going to become very popular with a lot of people around the world.  I know I’m a fan already.

Wes Waddell

www.PrincessCrafts.com

www.Blog.PrincessCrafts.com

www.ComputerScrapbookTraining.com – The Greatest FREE Digital Scrapbook Gift… EVER!

 

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This Digital Scrapbook Site is a Treasure

Posted on May 15th, 2009 by wwaddell.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Hi, This site is a treasure. I love it.

Thanks………Debbie Knahs

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Confused About Service?

Posted on May 4th, 2009 by wwaddell.
Categories: My Thoughts.

I was Confused…

I became confused when I heard the word ’service’ used with these agencies.

  • Internal Revenue ‘Service’
  • Postal ‘Service’
  • Telephone ‘Service’
  • Cable TV ‘Service’
  • Civil ‘Service’
  • State, City, County & Public ‘Service’
  • Customer ‘Service’

This is not what I thought ’service’ meant.

But today, I overheard two farmers talking, and one of them said he had hired a bull to ’service’ his cows.

BAM!!! It all came into focus. Now I understand what all those agencies are doing to us.

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Bishop Ludden Jr Sr High School Scrapbook Project

Posted on May 1st, 2009 by admin.
Categories: Scrapbook Articles, Scrapbook Tips, Training.

Hi Kathy,

I teach at Bishop Ludden Jr Sr High School. Each “house” (homeroom) has been assigned the project of creating a “house” scrapbook. I am the technology teacher and would like to come up with a way that the students ( grades 7-12 – 400+) could create their pages online and then print them and put them in the scrapbooks. The younger students in grades 7 and 8 LOVE to play cut and paste, but my sophomores, juniors and seniors need help with ideas and creativity!

Soooooo – I am not a scrapbooker – I am a “techie” and would love to give the kids a site where they can put their own photos, scripts, etc and then we could have the pages printed. Can you solve my dilemma?

I am guessing that this might be an annual activity! We have 36 “houses” looking for project help and a budget – although slim – to work with!

Mary Lou Connors

Bishop Ludden Jr Sr High School
Syracuse NY

————————————————————————————

Hi Mary Lour,

Not a problem.  You can use our FREE Digital Scrapbooking 101 course and lessons to get the kids started.  The software, course and a good sample of templates are all included at no cost (FREE) what so ever.  Just go to:

www.ComputerScrapbookTraining.com

to sign up and set up your account for free.

If you need more ideas and samples, we provide our memberships to schools – One membership for the entire school to use.  If you are interested, just drop me another line and we can go into details on how you can make that happen.

Happy Scrappin’

Kathy Waddell

www.PrincessCrafts.com.

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