After looking at a few choices I settled on a WiiWare game called Learning with the PooYoos.

Learning with the PooYoos is a game developed in France and available via WiiWare download on the Wii for 500 points ($5.00). The game is designed with two different levels: Little PooYoos (ages 3-4) and Big PooYoos (ages 5-6). Given the age levels, the graphics and catchy theme song are perfect and will capture the young players’ attention. After you pick you level, there are two different games to play. One involves matching the shape of a PooYoo with the shape in a cloud (first picture below) and the second involved popping balloons with the water from the elephant PooYoo’s trunk.

Isaac can not yet handle the shape matching game so I can’t speak as much to that part of the game, but we have played the balloon popping game several times. In the little PooYoo level of this game the player simply shakes the remote and the elephant PooYoo shoots water at balloons until they are all gone. (As shown in the video of Isaac below.) In the Big PooYoo level, the player actually has to point the Wiimote at the screen and aim at the balloons to pop them.

After you pop the balloons the first time, the game has an intermission and asks what shape the balloons were and then goes through a second round of balloon popping followed by a question of what color the balloons were. Then the PooYoos lead you through a nice dance routine. During the dance routine, by pressing different buttons on the Wiimote various effects happen on screen like spot lights, confetti and other fun. After the dance, you take a boat ride where again, pressing buttons on the Wiimote causes different effects on the screen. Isaac especially enjoys pushing the buttons and causing lights and the sun (a fan to him) to go across the screen.

Isaac has not played the big PooYoo level, but he enjoys the little PooYoo level quite a lot. Simply shaking the remote is a nice way for him to learn about the cause and effect relationship of the Wii. As I said, he truly enjoys pushing the buttons on the Wiimote that cause various visual effects to appear on the screen.

My biggest complaint with the game is that the few questions it asks are always the same. At one point the game asks what color the bubbles are or what color an umbrella was but the answer is always the same color. I would like it better if the color would rotate to make Isaac think a little more. There is a version 2 released, but I have not looked at it yet.

Ultimately, this game did exactly what I wanted it to do, especially for only $5.oo. Isaac is able to use the Wiimote and learn how it works. He is learning more about cause and effect relationships and a little about hand-eye coordination. Another learning piece I didn’t think about was that it counts on screen and out load to help re-enforce math skills. I have a feeling I will download the second episode before the end of the summer for Isaac to play. If you have a two – six year old who you want to introduce to the world of Wii, this is the game for you.

The pictures on the right above are of the smaller play structure adjacent to the larger one. The small structure is good for youngsters who have just started moving. If they can crawl or get up stairs, then they can have fun. If nothing else, parents can help the tykes on the small structure and let them go down the slide. Isaac really enjoyed this area when he was 1 because he do almost all of it on his own and it has a steering wheel on it, which he always likes.

Another nice feature of this park is the picnic pavilion. This is located very near the play area so you could have a large outing here and still be close enough to supervise young children. The picture on the left below shows the pavilion, the picture in the middle shows Isaac trying, unsuccessfully to climb up the harder side of the play structure, and the picture on the right is Isaac making his way to the twisty slide.

The park also has swings (I think two baby and two regular) and is adjacent to several soccer fields.

The park is easy to get either by car or by bike. It is located off of Atkinson just south of Washington as shown below. In the third map image below, you can see the large red roof is the pavilion and the two yellow roofs are the two play structure. The paved strip there is a bike path that head off towards the College of Lake County and just past the bike path is Mill Creek.

I like this park. It is a little far for us to go to on a quick trip, but if we have some time this is a nice park because of the wide range of activities and the large field nearby is a good place to run around. (Just watch out for the goose poop.)

The park also includes two real swings and two baby swings along with two bouncy animal things (picture below on the left). The other feature that sets this park apart is that it has a half basketball court (which you can see in the picture on the right below and in the map below). Now, this can be a mixed blessing. One of the times we were there several guys were playing basketball and swearing quite a bit. It wasn’t anymore than you would hear in a YMCA gym pickup game, but I wasn’t a big fan of it with Isaac near by.

One of the things Isaac likes best about this park is that he can smash and bang on the metal parts (either the slide of the tube) to make lots of noise.

While the park is off of RT 120 it is easily accessible via trails. You can either get to it from Lake Street near the post office or you can get there from Alleghany if you go down Hojem and then Quist and them past the apartment building to get to the Grayslake Apartments.

View larger map

One note of caution, since the slides are metallic, they go very fast and the bottom of the slides are a little high and when Isaac is going full speed down these “metal death traps” (j/k) he tends to fall in his butt.

Overall I like this park because it is unique and the play structure is built in a way that it is safe for newly mobile kids and more stable ones. After age 5, I would be cautious in terms of there being enough to keep them occupied. If there were another big structure then Cullen Park could be one for all ages.

The summer began which meant we were starting our time with our pool passes. Isaac loves the water and he runs around in it and even when he falls in over his head you just pick him up real fast and then he is ready to go again after spitting the water out.

We also recently discovered the Grayslake Park District Splash Park, and Isaac loves this place too. It is just an adventure land with water toys he can run around in. He has been “bumping into” girls there also and saying, “Hi.” He is a gonna be a heart breaker I fear. (I love the one on the left!)

Much like the pool and the park. Isaac loves bath and is still quite exciting to get to splash around. I think really it is just that he likes violence and destruction much like Stitch from Lilo & Stitch.

Isaac got to meet the neighbors and play with them a few times and he is still happy playing on the porch with his house and in side with his horse. The horse works with the TV like a very simplistic learning video game, but he didn’t like that much the first time we tried. We will have to try again soon.

We have also found that Isaac thoroughly enjoys the park and playground equipment. He loves pulling on chains and making things swing and he loves climbing up things. That could be stairs, couches, slides, anything really. He isn’t as crazy about going down slides or things like that, but in time that will come. It is a good thing for now in that he is not hurting himself.

Lastly, Isaac loves food. People often ask me what he likes to eat, and he likes to eat pretty much anything. I think I have yet to find anything he doesn’t ear. There are of course some items he like more than others. He loves chicken nuggets, pancakes, blueberries, and macaroni and cheese to name a few.

However I fear that we are teaching him some bad habits, such as watching TV from the dinner table.

The first video is him being goofy and trying (and failing) to stand up.

This video shows him standing up.

Here is another one from the same shoot.

I like this one because he is doing things almost like he posed. I wasn’t there, but it is cool that he is moving and doing those things and they were captured like that.