My Four Cents

Snowland At Great Wolf Lodge

2010-12-14T09:58:00.002-05:00

The kind folks at Great Wolf Lodge invited my family back for another weekend. This time we got to experience Snowland.

We checked into the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord on Saturday afternoon. Our room was ready early, so we went upstairs to unpack and change into our bathing suits so we could hit the pool. My daughter was ecstatic to find out that we had a KidKamp Suite, which meant that in addition to a queen-sized bed for my wife and I, there was a "tent" for the kids that contained cool bunk beds and their very own TV! Christmas came early for my daughter! Did you know she's the only kid above the age of three that doesn't have a television in her bedroom? I didn't either. Apparently, she's done extensive polling.

After we finally pried my daughter's fingers loose of the bunk bed, we headed down to the waterpark where we enjoyed my favorite part of the Great Wolf Lodge: the waterslides, the play areas, and, most of all, the wave pool. After that, we headed to the conference center for the dinner they provided for us.

I didn't realize it at the time, but they had also invited six other bloggers down to the Great Wolf Lodge that day. I was the only Dad in a sea (ok, more like a pond) of mommybloggers. Which was kind of cool, because everyone kept coming up to my wife and shaking her hand first. Ha!

The dinner was superb: prime rib, turkey, stuffing, scalloped potatoes, cheese, salad, great desserts, YUM! There was also a little buffet set up for the kids with chicken tenders and waffle fries. The Director of Sales, John Poole, and the General Manager, Phil Cunningham, both sat and ate with our family and talked with us and made us feel at home. They asked about blogging and how long I'd been doing it. Both took a liking to my daughter who can charm anyone. Mr. Poole, an ex-Maple Leaf, even bought her a MagiQuest wand and game. I won't lie to you: we were treated us like kings for the duration of our stay.

After dinner, we scurried back to the lobby for Snowland!

Snowland is the Great Wolf Lodge's annual winter celebration. They redo the lobby in a snowy winter theme. They have crafts for the kids. There's even an area for Santa, who stops by and meets with kids every night for a couple of hours. All this is great, but we were waiting for the snow to fall!

Three times a day, snow falls in the lobby of the Great Wolf Lodge. After the lobby's animatronic characters got done singing, the snow fell from the lodge's rafters. It was pretty cool seeing it snow inside. Just ask my son.

Since the folks at the Great Wolf Lodge were also kind enough to give us tickets to the Christmas light show at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, we headed off to see that next. Want to know the best part? The lights? The petting zoo? No and no. It was driving my car on the actual racetrack, at the 45 degree angle (at least it seemed that steep).

It was late by the time we got back to our room, so we went to bed. The next day, we played some MagiQuest in the morning, had lunch, and swam before bidding a sad farewell to the Great Wolf Lodge around 3:00 that afternoon.

In closing, I'd like to say the following: I'm usually cynical when I read reviews like these. I mean, it's really easy to give a glowing review when something like this is handed to you for free. But I'd like to point out that between our first visit and this past visit, we have visited the Great Lodge for a weekend on our own dime and are planning on going back soon for our son's birthday. We really do love the place.

I'd like to thank Phil Cunningham, John Poole, Tammy Hamrick, Beth St. Lawrence, and everyone at the Great Wolf Lodge who made this trip so memorable and special for my family.

Great Wolf Lodge

2009-09-18T01:00:00.007-04:00

My wife and I had wanted to take the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, North Carolina ever since it opened in April of this year. When a representative of Great Wolf Lodge's public relations agency offered my family a complimentary two-night stay, I couldn't say "Yes" fast enough. Below is a review from that stay.

Here's my one-word review of the Great Wolf Lodge: Awesome.

Where to begin? The Great Wolf Lodge is a resort with an indoor waterpark. The rooms are very nice and spacious with a microwave, mini refrigerator, couch, desk, and several other amenities. In most of their suites, the sleeping quarters are divided in half: there is a queen bed for the parents and an area made up to look like a cave, a tent, or a cabin for the kids, complete with their own TV. Unfortunately, the kids' quarters in these suites have bunk beds and since I'm neurotic and my kids are crazy sleepers, we opted for a room with two queen beds. BOO! DAD SUCKS!

But while the rooms are very nice, the main draw is the waterpark. My son's favorite sections were Beaver Tail Lake, a wave pool where the waves reach heights of three feet, and Cub Paw Pool, a section designed specifically for toddlers (the maximum depth is one foot) with stationary jet skis, geysers, and a toddler-sized water slide. My daughter loved the water slides: Mountain Edge Raceway, where you could race against each other (I only lost once! (yes, I am petty)), Alberta Falls, a four-story water slide, and River Canyon Run, a raft slide. There was another slide, the Howlin' Tornado, which was a 6-story funnel, but she was too short to ride that one. And don't think I didn't hear about that all weekend. [Click here to see pictures of the waterpark*]

Both kids enjoyed Fort Mackenzie, a treehouse with two additional water slides named the Twin Towers, with water guns and buckets that you could use to dump water on people below you. Fort Mackenzie also hosted a 1,000-gallon bucket that dumped water on people every few minutes. The kids also enjoyed the Chinook Cove Activity Pool. My son swam while my daughter completed the agility course, hopping from lily pad to lily pad. "Look, Mommy! It's like Wipeout!" she yelled at one point. Big red balls, flat green lily pads: same thing in the mind of a seven-year-old.

Although the kids would've been content to stay in the water all day until they shriveled into little prunes, we did do a few other things at the Great Wolf Lodge. There's an arcade where kids can exchange tickets they won from the games into trinkets. There's also this game called MagiQuest, a scavenger-hunt game where you use clues to find objects hidden throughout the resort. My daughter and I must've spent three or four hours alone on this.

The Great Wolf Lodge is very family-oriented. Every night at 8:00 PM, the children are encouraged to come down to the lobby in their pajamas for story time. Every morning, there's an arts and crafts activity in the lobby.

Even though we were there for two nights, we couldn't fit everything we wanted to do into our schedule. My daughter wanted to go to Scoops Kid Spa and get a manicure. We were planning on playing a round of mini-golf at the resort, but went swimming instead. You really need three or four days to experience everything the resort offers. The Great Wolf Lodge also boasts a gaming/karaoke room for teenagers and a spa for the Moms. There is also a fitness room, but I could've stayed at the resort for a whole month and never stepped foot in there.

The Great Wolf Lodge is an amazing place. We had a wonderful time there and the kids can't wait to go back. The staff was friendly and helpful. Everything was clean and well-run. The resort is very green: guests are encouraged to reuse towels and every suite has its own recycling bin.

There were two things I would like to see done differently there. MagiQuest takes place in the lobby and on three of the resort's four floors, mostly around the elevator. This could be quite a nuisance when you're checking in and you have to wade through a sea of boys who are waving their wands at everything they see (just like Spring Break!). While I personally didn't have a problem with it, I could see where some might take issue with it.

One very cool thing about the park is also a negative. When you check in, each member of your party is given a wristband which you must wear for the duration of the trip. The adults' wristbands are also keys to the room. You hold your wristband up to the scanner on your door and it unlocks. Cool, huh? You also have the option set it up so that your wristbands can be used to charge things to the room. This can very useful when you're wanting to grab something to eat after hitting the waterpark and don't feel like running up to the room to get cash. But the kids' wristbands can also do this. More specifically, the kids can use it in the arcade. You just wave your arm up to a sensor and $5 in tokens comes out of a machine. We have friends of friends that found out their son had rung up a $400 bill in the arcade while they were staying there. Ouch! I think to prevent this, the kids' wristbands should not be used to charge items to their parents' rooms.

But in the end, the many, many positives far outweigh the few negatives. The kids had permanent grins on their faces the entire weekend. We will definitely be saving our money to return next summer.

*I took tons of pictures while we were there and they would add a lot to this review, but all of the photos had other people in them. I'd rather send you to the Great Wolf Lodge's professional images of the waterpark than compromise their patrons' privacy.

RIDEMAKERZ Giveaway

2009-06-22T00:22:00.006-04:00

I first discovered RIDEMAKERZ two years ago during a trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. It's a store where kids and adults can create their own cars. I was impressed with it back then and wrote about it on Cynical Dad. So when the kind folks at RIDEMAKERZ offered me a $75 gift code to create my own ride through their online store, I jumped at the chance.

When you begin building your ride, you're presented with a large number of vehicles to choose from: Corvettes, Challengers, Rams, Mustangs, Mini Coopers, Scions, and many more. We opted for a Dodge Viper.

You have the option of giving your vehicle a standard chassis or a Monster chassis (jacked-up, big wheels). You then choose between six different sound effects for your car.

Then comes the coolest part: you are given the option of making your vehicle remote-controlled. Did we do this? Of course!

Next, you pick out rims and wheels for your vehicle. Each vehicle comes with standard rims and wheels, but you are given the option to upgrade both. Finally, there is a huge selection of decals, spoilers, ground effects, and more to make your vehicle a one-of-a-kind ride.

Ordering through the RIDEMAKERZ site was simple and easy. Shipping was fast and actually happened quicker than I expected (our Viper arrived while we were at the beach, but our neighbor took good care of it until we arrived home).

I had the car together in a matter of minutes. The kids and I spent most of the afternoon playing with the car. My daughter has become quite a pro at maneuvering it around the house. My son has become quite a pro at running from the car while laughing. Everybody's having a great time with our Viper.

And guess what? RIDEMAKERZ has given me an additional $75 gift code to pass along to one of you guys. Want to win it? Here are the rules:

Leave a comment. If you want to win the code, leave a comment. If you don't, don't leave a comment. I'm not going to make you jump through hoops for this.
Contest ends at 9 PM ET on Thursday, June 25, 2009. All comments received after this date and time will be disqualified.
I will use a random number generator to pick the winning entry.

Good luck!

Update: So I used Random.org's random number generator, and here is what it came up with:

Congratulations to Black Hockey Jesus, who left the 10th comment on this post! Enjoy your vehicle!

Social Skill Builder's My Community

2009-04-03T09:37:00.002-04:00

Many people with autism have social deficits. To help them learn what behaviors are acceptable, many use social stories which detail certain situations they may find undesirable or may have difficulty in deciding the correct course of action. These social stories can come in the form of books, videos, and software. My wife and I use social stories with our son so I was very excited to take a look at Social Skill Builder's My Community software for The Parent Bloggers Network.

My Community is set up like a town. By clicking on different icons, you can see different scenarios played out at a friend's house, the movie theater, the doctor's office, a restaurant, and the grocery story. You can also view social situations in the car, on the phone, and while crossing the street.

My Community is also divided into five different levels:

Level 1 -- you are shown videos of both appropriate and inappropriate behavior in social situations and are given a recap of the situations
Level 2 -- you answer multiple choice questions based on the information you see in videos
Level 3 -- you are shown multiple images and must pick the one that best answers the question you are given
Level 4 -- you match the thoughts and feelings of the people in the images by placing speech balloons above their heads
Level 5 -- you predict what happens in the situation by entering text

The videos are short and cover a wide variety of scenarios that could arise in each section of the town. The questions are straight-forward and are brief enough that the user will not become bored. To keep the learning fun, there are short games the user can play once he's answered five questions in Levels 2-5. The more questions one answers correctly, the longer one is able to play the games. The program keeps track of how many questions your child has answered and what percentage of those were answered correctly.

Social Skill Builder should be commended for making My Community so highly customizable. Not only can you focus on certain locations (the doctor's office, restaurant, etc.), you can also choose to work solely on certain social skills. If your child has difficulty in understanding others' feelings, you can select that skill in the lesson plan and your child will only be shown videos and images that pertain to understanding others' feelings.

This software was well-designed and would benefit anyone with social deficits. One of my favorite parts of the program was Level 4 as it taught you how to read facial expressions. While my preschool-aged son was unable to use this software (the program is designed for kids with a cognitive age of 5 to 15), I do know that one day he will be able to use and learn from this program.

The only negative thing I can think of about this software is there were no scenarios available for school. While I know Social Skill Builder produces separate software titles that deal solely with school, it would've been nice to include it on this title as well.

DreamBox Learning K-2 Math

2009-02-09T09:40:00.000-05:00

I don't know about the rest of you, but I almost have to trick my daughter to get her to learn stuff. She does great at school, but if I'm trying to teach her something at home, she's busy thinking about the computer, the television, her CD collection, her toys, the playground, the dust bunnies under the couch, and pretty much anything else besides the words coming out of my mouth. Because of this, I was quite eager to review DreamBox Learning K-2 Math for The Parent Bloggers Network. It is for people like me that DreamBox Learning K-2 Math was created. The only difference is they don't trick your kids into learning things; they make learning fun and make your kids want to learn.

Upon logging on, your kid gets to pick an avatar. The actual game itself is divided into four bright and colorful lands that should appeal to most children: Pets, Pixies, Dinosaurs, and Pirates. Each land contains eight stories. To complete a story, your children must "find" six pieces of a desired object.

To find a piece of a desired object, your children complete various games. Your kids will think they're games, but they're actually math problems. My daughter has played games that deal with addition and subtraction, comparisons, and ordering numbers. Every time a new curriculum is introduced, the game assesses your child's ability. If your child has problems, like my daughter did with comparisons because up to that point, she had never seen a greater than or less than symbol in her life, the game will adjust accordingly. However, if your child shows no difficulty in completing the given curriculum, the game will move through it quickly and your child may skip or place out of this particular curriculum.

During the trek to find a piece of the desired object, your child will also earn printable certificates of achievement, friend cards (kind of like Pokemon cards), and tokens to use on fun carnival games. Remember what I said about how they make learning fun?

One of the great things about the game is the Parent Dashboard, which shows how your child is progressing with his/her math skills. Upon my first visit to the Parent Dashboard, I was pleased to find that my daughter, a first grader, skipped all of the kindergarten work which means a) she had a great teacher last year and b) she was actually paying attention in class. The game shows all the skills your child has mastered, the ones your child is currently working on, and the skills yet to come. The game also logs the amount of time your child plays in case you limit his/her computer time. I won't lie to you; I'm ashamed to admit the amount of time my daughter played this game (we're talking hours, not minutes). DreamBox also emails you when your child completes a story.

There were a few drawbacks to the game. My daughter twice completed tasks and was not given appropriate credit, so she had to go back and do them again. Also, the game seems to be a bit louder than most of the stuff we do online. When she starts playing, we have to race to turn down the speakers in fear of waking up her brother from his nap.

But hey, enough of what I thought about the program. Want to know what my daughter thinks? Here's her opinion: "I think it's a great game. It's really, really fun."

If you're interested in trying out DreamBox Learning K-2 Math, you can sign up for a free fourteen-day trial on their site.