Gadgets Teens Want for Christmas

Here is a rundown of the top gadgets that every teenager is going to want for Christmas this year.
If your kid does not have an iPod yet its time. Every kid in the world has one by now so it is time for you to get with the program so your kid is not so uncool! Music is important to children and a real must-have. You can choose from many varieties and with different size, capacity and price ranges so there is no reason that your child should not own one. They are cheap now.
Also big on a teen's wish list is a laptop or notebook. It is best if the laptop has enough power to play games. It is also a good idea to supplement this gift include external hard drives so that your child has space to store videos, photos and music. Yet another good addition to your child's wish list of software is a pair of headphones. This is a gift for yourself as well as it helps keep your home peaceful.
Most kids secretly want a Nintendo DS. It is a dual screen handheld game console with the bottom one being a touch screen. It has a built in microphone and a WiFi connection to interact with each other within short range. This is also not a very expensive gadget to own. Teens also like the Game-boy Advance which is similar to the Nintendo entertainment system but more complicated.
You might also want to investigate getting your kid a PS3/ With its crazy advanced technology, Giga-bit Ethernet and a pre-installed hard disk drive, this is any teens most sought after toy. Other than playing those top of the line games you can also watch movies on DVD. I must admit once I got my son one of these I became really fascinated with playing games on it.
If you really want to make a kid's Christmas a great one get him or her cell phone. This is another gadget that teens want badly. And those who already managed a device want a better model that has internet capabilities and can take pictures. Make sure that it has a keyboard because not only are teens crazy about texting each other but it is also a lot cheaper if they text rather than make phone calls. So the cell phone is the cheaper choice to make if you are planning to buy your teenager just one gadget.
Kids also love digital cameras, but ultimately you could get away with getting them a cell phone with a digital camera in it and save some money!

The New Edu-tainment

I was trying to figure out how my child knows so much about the bible lately and it turns out her teacher has been using the Animated Kids Bible in the Classroom. Basically the kids watch a DVD inserted into a player and it is projected right in the classroom.

This works well because most kids, whether they are five or fifteen years old seem to be hypnotized by any type of television or movie screen. Audio visual aids make them as quiet as the television odes at home. Guess the teacher figured out that kids are likely to be very attentive to any type of subject matter once animation is involved.

The use of sophisticated animation is already being used to teach future doctors biology and human anatomy but of course it also has other applications when it comes to helping simplify concepts and also repeating those concepts through the use of a playback function on the DVD player. I notice that my kids watch the same thing again and again and don't mind rewinding. This is of course the rote way to learn.

Some animators and teachers are now referring to learning materials that bridge the gap between entertainment and education as 'edutainment.' My kids are watching this new Animated Kid's Bible series at school definitely falls into this new and unique category of digital media. This is because children (and adults too!) are so enraptured with the novelty of 3D CGI (three dimensional computer generated images. My kids told me that there is nothing that looks so real and they are right!

This type of animation is so detailed and so refined that many people watching the Kid's Animated Bible will find themselves transported to an alternate world where they can watch the creation of women from Adam's Rib, Moses come down the mountain and smash the tablets and the seven plagues of Egypt and also The Birth of Christ.

Some educators are reluctant to use animations as teaching tools but it is because they have yet to realize the medium's full potential to help children retain what they are watching and learning. The idea is to convince students that watching this video is not just an escape route from reality but rather a story that they will be quizzed on after the presentation.

It is handy for a DVD to be paused, replayed or played forward. This allows the teacher to create on the spot quizzes about what might happen next. The pause functions also allow students to take notes while they are watching the stories being told in the Kid's Animation Bible. The secret is to let your student's know that even though they are watching an incredible piece of 3D animation that they are still supposed to be learning and retaining everything that are being taught.

Sunday school teachings were never easier!