A review of Paramount Kings Dominion

This weekend we visited Paramount's esteemed theme park in Doswell, Virginia (near Richmond) and had some very interesting experiences I wanted to talk about and tell all the readers. First as a disclaimer, I should mention, we could not have picked a worse day in three years since this was one of the most crowded days in the park (the park sold tickets at half price on this day which turned out to be Bank of America day!). We planned to do only the kid rides this time, which formed about 30-40% of the rides so the long lines (sometimes an hour's wait) did not pose a big problem for us. We arrived at 11:30 AM and finished all the rides by 7:30 which was great. BTW, Paramount's website disallows all outside food and drinks inside the park which turned out to be a false alarm - I wish we would have taken some more drinks and snacks to make our movements inside the park much quicker.

On arriving, we started in Kidsville and soon decided that the level 1 rides there were not "thrilling" enough for a visit to a theme park. However these rides were fun and provide a lot of magic moments of fun for the family. Kids can go into these rides all on their own unlike the thrill rides. For a 36''-40'' toddler, the best rides in Kidsville were Taxi Jam, TOPCAT, Clipper, Airfield and Boulder Bumpers. Our second stop was Congo and the only ride do-able there was the the Scrambler - a level 3 ride. This was a pretty good ride as well. By far the best ride was in the Old Virginia section and our son loved it - Lumber Company roller coaster (where we picked up our fun photos as well to memorize the trip). Another interesting ride in this section was Flying Eagles. The last section we visited was the Waterpark and the ride we did there was the "Lazy Rider" - a fun family ride through a long and winded water stream.

That was it. We finished up with a few rides we skipped in Kidsville. Overall the trip was fun and we really had a good time. Kings Dominion was our favorite and value for money.

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Social Networking for Parents and Kids

A lot of social networking sites have been designed around kids and parents and somehow or other they prove to be a challenge to monetize and grow. More recently, I found three new services in this space and thought it would be a good idea to try them out a bit:

1) Totspot: This helps parents create a private page for their kid and share it with people they trust like family members and friends.

2. Bundlo: Bundlo seems very similar to totspot.

3. Babyspot: Babyspot seems to be a superset of what Totspot and Bundlo have at this point or are trying to be. It combines a private social network with an opportunity to discuss issues with other moms and dads out there. It has chat rooms, meetups etc. However the site appears new and way behind that of Totspot or Bundlo.

Try them out and let us all know!

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Safe Internet Browsing for Kids

Recently I tried out two products meant to allow safe browsing for kids. My kids are not old enough yet to start browsing so not sure if I was able to do a fair and complete evaluation. So I would ask visitors reading this for feedback as well:

Glubble: This is a firefox add-on which creates tabs for parents and kids on the same browser. I must say I found this very inconvenient and a lot of time it accidentally closed all windows on my browser. I had to turn this add-on off and I am scared to turn it back on when I am doing something important (like writing this blog :).

Kidzui: this is a complete browser by itself. This is a "freemium" service - ie., a free and a paid model (pay for reports and more control). Kidzui also comes with a social network.

I think both of them do a good job as far as managing the sites the kids can access. However, as a parent I felt like a control freak - almost like Marlin in "Finding Nemo". Personally I would keep looking and hope there is something better available by the time my kids are ready. I am sure other parents out there have a different opinion and maybe these apps provide what is much needed.

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Planning for a Kids destination for Memorial Day?

If you are planning a vacation or get away this memorial day, you may want to look in your backyard! Its expected that fewer Americans will drive far this memorial day amidst high gas prices and the economy on the rocks. I have already been getting fliers and booklets from my local state tourism department telling me about what's local and interesting.

Anyway, I live in Maryland and my two year old is fond of animals and getting near water. I took him to the DC National Zoo last weekend and he wouldn't stop gazing at the water streams and ponds there. Same at Reston Zoo, which is another great place for kids this age.

This memorial day I am planning to go to the Natural Bridge area in Virginia. Nestled somewhere in Blue Ridge mountains near Roanoke and about 2 hours drive from Luray Caverns, it offers quite a few interesting things. I haven't been there, but if you haven't finalized your plans yet, you may want to take a look at it. For 2-3 year olds, the Virgina Safari Park appears to be very interesting. Prof Cline's haunted monster museum and Dino Kingdom appear to be interesting as well. There is also a Natural Bridge Zoo in case you don't get tired of all those animals ;) I have been to Natural Bridge and the night show there and that is pretty decent as well. If you don't know, its one of the natural wonders of the world.

Another interesting destination for kids is Luray Caverns, but it has lesser attractions and the caverns themselves may be interesting for bigger kids.

If you want to browse the full set of attractions, click here.

I also found the following two sites extremely useful in planning the trip:

TripAdvisor and Wyndham Rewards Booking site for Hotels. TripAdvisor's reviews were very helpful in terms of picking attractions and the Wyndham Rewards site had the lowest hotel rates (lower than Orbitz and Hotels.com).

Checkout this latest report on Childrens Reading

This was on Radio today and all over the internet. What is the most amazing thing? It seems children read Dr Seuss till almost the third grade! I also found that the Horton series of Books (Horton hears a Who or Horton hatches an egg) are not as popular as Green Eggs and Ham. Checkout the full report here.

Cole Bros Circus

Last week we took Rohan to Circus. I must say my husband and me were also excited as well. This was the first time we were attending a circus in the states. This was a Cole Bros Circus and I am not sure how many of you have been to one. I must say I had mixed feelings coming out of the show and Rohan also only partially enjoyed it. The show started with a bike stunt which was pretty impressive I must say - three bikers were going round in circles inside a hollow sphere. Thereafter things went downhill. The clowns were pretty boring and the audio sounded like internet voice over modem lines - that's the best description my hubby came up with! I look forward to the Ringling Circus in metro downtown next which I hope is much better quality and content.

The Non Eater

"I do not want to eat it. I do not like it, I don want it!" he quipped.

I was trying to get a quick nap this afternoon and I heard these so very familiar words. I looked and saw Rohan in his bed, practicing his dinner time epilogues.

Rohan is such a fussy eater. We have tried so many techniques on him but he will eat only when he wants to and what he wants to. We tried giving him incentives -watch tv, play with cars,go to library etc but with an expert negotiator like him, we were ending up with too much of tv time and way too many cars!.We reluctantly tried the - letting him go hungry method too. But this kid is like Duracell battery - keeps on going! Would not eat the whole day.All this for a kid whose favorites are The Hungry Caterpillar and The Giant Jam Sandwich.

He is getting better as he is growing up watching other kids eat. But it is very tricky to get a fussy eater to get all the nutrients that he needs in his daily routine.

Here is a recipe of one of my easy staple dinner time meal when Rohan was very fussy about eating...(photo coming soon)

1/4 cup rice
2 tablespoons lentils(I prefer yellow ones)
1/2 cup of chopped vegetables and chicken (carrots,spinach,peas,green pepper,tomato)
salt and pepper to taste
butter (as much as you want ;o) !)

Take all this and put it in pressure cooker and give one/two whistles.
If you do not have a pressure cooker, switch off the computer and get one right away.
Its the working mom's best friend!( a slow cooker could also work.)