Sadly, precious few maps have survived the centuries. But one of the most remarkable collections I’ve ever seen came to my attention via the magic of Twitter. The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection has a breathtaking online gallery of 19th Century maps drawn by children, most of whom were young women. The quality is astonishing, making even my best attempts at map-making look rather childish in comparison.

From the site:

In the 18th and 19th centuries, children were taught geography by making their own maps, usually copies of maps available to them in books and atlases at their schools or homes. Below is a group of maps and geographical diagrams made by children in the 19th century; and some of the school atlases, geographies, and wall maps that may have been their sources. These old maps made by children were hand drawn and colored, one-of-a-kind productions, and it is amazing that any have survived down to our time. That they have is due to luck and the efforts of families to preserve the history of their children. These maps have a special poignancy today in the way that they reflect the optimism of youth from another time.

Via @bookn3rd

Image via Buttonfreak at Wikipedia (public domain)

He was 18 months old the first time he touched a Matchbox car. On that day, in the early spring of 2008, my son wrapped his chubby little fingers around the cool metal of a paint-chipped 1970 Impala, and his life has never been the same since.

You may think I’m exaggerating, and there are days I wish that was the case. But our son is now three, and as the last Christmas season reiterated, there is nothing—nothing—on the face of this planet that amazes him more than a 99 cent Matchbox or Hotwheels car. Not knights, not Lego, not trains, not Play-Doh. Well-meaning family members and friends have only given him more cars, wanting to please him. While he loves books, he will find the one car in the entire book and obsess over it. Sometimes the only way I can get him to watch a movie is to promise there are cars in it, somewhere. We find cars in the sink, in the toilet, in our beds, in our shoes.

This is my life with cars.

Sure, my husband and I joked about what our son would be like in high school, how just to spite his geeky parents he’d play baseball and listen to crappy music and wear “popular kid” clothes (whatever that will be in the 2020s). I imagined that his formative years would be the easy ones, where I could force him—I mean, encourage him—to love the geekery I love, and that later he’d rebel. I wasn’t prepared for this.

While it’s been frustrating at times, I’ve learned a few things from my three-year-old that have surprised me, and hopefully might help you, too.

Cut your losses. About a year ago, I was sitting with our son, moving his cars around the lot and trying my best to keep him entertained. He sighed and looked up at me and said, “Mommy, you’re not good at playing cars.” It’s true. I like cars, but driving around a parking lot and getting gas is about as exciting as watching a file download. I have a huge imagination, but if it’s not steampunked or carrying a sword, it’s a little tough. Since that day, he’s not been terribly interested in including me. But that’s okay, because I’ve learned to…

Work hard to include them in the daily routine. While not exactly playing, cooking is something that I’ve worked to keep him involved. At the end of the day it gives him a sense of accomplishment to “help” me with dinner, and gives him a break from the cars. Because really, if given the choice, he’d do nothing else but play with the cars. But the kitchen is like a cool chemistry experiment, and even at three he loves seeing what happens and how food comes together. It’s something that we share together, and it’s blessedly car-free.

Never belittle. It occurred to me that my son’s car obsession is, in essence, his first form of geekery. Just because it’s my thing doesn’t mean he’s not a geek. In fact, my son is a car connoisseur. He doesn’t like flashy cars, or tricked out cars. No, he wants cars that look like they drove off the dealership parking lot. He wants Honda Civics and Dodge Rams. He can also spot a Saab at 100 feet. That’s pretty geeky, I must say.

Consider the long-run. Our son’s obsession with cars has led to a never-ending quest to figure out how they work. Suffice it to say, if you search my couches you will likely find many dismembered vehicle parts. While at first I chalked it up to a destructive nature, I’ve since realized that he’s just trying to understand the basic concepts of how cars work. Maybe this will lead to a career as a mechanic or an engineer. In the mean time, he’s recently become fascinated with Lego car sets, which he can take apart and put back together. Baby steps.

Find common ground (and be persistent). Sometimes our son is extremely resilient when it comes to thinking outside of the box. The first few times I suggested that you know, dragons could ride around in cars or that there were knights defending the bridge, I got some quizzical looks. But anachronism is fun, and stretching the imagination is always a good idea. I couldn’t get him to play with Play-Doh, either, until we designated some all-terrain cars. Also, Transformers have been a surprising success (although, sadly, Bumblebee has been um, permanently disassembled.)

Regardless, keep in mind that if you don’t share an interest with your child that, truly, you should be proud. Why? Because your kid is exploring the world of their own volition, and finding joy in something. It’s their first hobby, and that’s pretty special.

Dinomixer for the iPhone

Don’t you ever wish you could combine the head of a Triceratops, the body of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and the spiky tail of a Stegosaurus? (No? Okay, maybe it’s just me.) Now you can, without all the cutting and stitching or DNA manipulation! All you need is an iPhone or iPod touch. DinoMixer is a fun little app that combines two kid favorites: dinosaurs and your iPhone.

I got a review copy and both my daughters love it. (Even the three-year-old has had no difficulty with the controls, which are simple and intuitive.) There are currently fourteen dinosaurs to choose from, with more promised in future updates. Each dino is separated into three pieces: head, torso, and tail, which you can swipe up and down to mix and match. Or, you can just shake the iPhone and they’ll spin around, jackpot-style. The background and foreground can also be swiped left and right for different scenes (or an entirely blank background if you want a better look at the dinosaur).

Allosaurus details

When you do get three pieces of the same dinosaur lined up, the name appears at the bottom, along with a button to push to get a few screens of data about it. My daughters currently skip the text and the screen showing geographical information to get to the third screen, which shows the dino’s relative size to a human. Also, each dinosaur makes a different noise when it’s completed; I don’t know how well-researched this particular aspect is, but it’s kind of fun.

There are general sorts of jungle-ish sounds in the background while you play (and can be shut off), but one feature I would have liked in addition is an audio pronunciation of each dino’s name, so that when younger kids are playing with it they’ll hear the name rather than just trying to muddle through it.

The artwork is excellent with just the right amount of detail: it’s certainly comparable to what you might find in a book about dinosaurs. The best part? DinoMixer is only 99 cents, so it won’t set you back much and will keep your kids entertained (and educated!) for hours.

Oh, one minor complaint about the interface: on the first info screen, the lengthier text about each dino can be scrolled up and down; sometimes this interferes with attempts to scroll right to the next info screen. It’s not a big deal, but maybe could be addressed in a future update.

Wired: Mix-and-match roaring dinosaurs for only 99 cents.

Tired: Would be nice to have pronunciation of the dinosaurs; minor interface issues.

Dora wants some water, and Lena fetches a stick.

My daughters (and my wife) really want a dog, despite the fact that my six-year-old is allergic and breaks out in a rash whenever a dog licks her face. But I’m not really a dog person, and I know that as the stay-at-home parent I’d end up doing most of the chores myself. But then I found the perfect dogs for them: they’re quiet, I don’t have to buy dog food for them or clean up after them, and they fit in my pocket. And best of all, they’re free! (Well, sort of.)

Touch Pets Dogs was released for the iPhone in early November by ngmoco, and I’ve had a chance to play with it for a while. It reminds me a lot of Nintendogs, a game my brother had on his Nintendo DS: you pick a puppy, and then you can play with it, teach it tricks, and take care of it. Playing with different toys builds up their skills like Agility or Fetching, and you have to be sure to feed them when they’re hungry and let them out when they need to poop. (Okay, so you do have to clean up after them, but it’s much easier than real dog poop.)

The game is a free download, and you start off with enough puppy bucks to adopt a puppy. There are several breeds available, plus a robot dog. As long as you keep your puppy happy, you earn more puppy bucks which you can spend on other toys, dog treats, clothes and accessories. And if you want, you can buy career passes so you can train your dog to become a rescue dog, crimefighter, scientist, politician, or celebrity. (The careers require certain ability levels and tools, which also cost puppy bucks.)

You can adopt up to five puppies, and then play with up to two of them at a time. Touch Pets also uses the Plus+ network so if you have friends with Touch Pets your puppies can visit each other and have playdates. I haven’t actually tried out this feature and I opted not to have all my puppy statuses published on my Facebook page, but that’s an option too.

My kids (ages six and three) both love playing with their puppies (we earned enough puppy bucks so they each adopted a dog) and quickly learned all the controls. I’ll admit, it is fun to watch the dogs running around chasing the frisbee, and it’s really funny to see one dog get angry if you pay too much attention to the other dog. And just this week my wife got in on the act, and has been playing with her new German shepherd. I think she’s hooked.

Lena wants some attention; Q plays with the frisbee.

The game itself is free, but you can get more food bowls by paying real money for them. (The more recent updates seem to suggest that you’ll never run out of food but I don’t know if they make you wait and slowly build up food, or if you automatically get a refill when you run out.) Or, sometimes you get popup messages when you start the game that will give you food and/or puppy bucks in exchange for downloading and installing some other iPhone game. I ended up doing that once to get 100,000 puppy bucks, because I noticed that some of the things in the store were costing a whole lot more than I had. A big beach ball cost 4,000 bucks, but then the Advanced Bouncy Ball is 290,000 bucks. It takes a long time to get that much money.

I do get a bit tired of the frequent pop-up messages, whether it’s to download something else for free food and money, or the little alerts that are going out to my Plus+ network; usually I just want to play the game.

Overall, I think it’s a really fun app, and my daughters certainly get a kick out of it. The career paths add a little variety to an otherwise fairly repetitive game, and it’s certainly a lot easier than getting a real dog. But somehow I don’t think it’ll keep my wife from browsing the puppy shelter website…

Download Touch Pets Dogs for free (or search for “Touch Pets Dogs” in the iTunes stores for various paid versions which include more food bowls).

Wired: Puppies that are cute and easy to take care of; fun for the whole family.

Tired: Frequent sales pitches and ridiculously-priced items; now my wife is angling for time with my iPod touch.

Mike Nakamura, owner of the 9-year-old Midwest publishing and electronics company Senario, is trying to address the concerns of both groups. Earlier this year, Senario released My Secret Circle as a the “first-ever secure social networking world designed for girls 8-12 and their Internet-cautious parents.”

My Secret Circle: A protected social network for girls

The online community in My Secret Circle is a closed system. Access is granted not by logging into a website but by plugging in a USB thumb drive, pre-loaded with a Flash browser and a security key (courtesy QiGo). No personal information is requested or stored as part of the registration process. In fact, members of MSC are urged to avoid using real names, even in this protected environment.

Nakamura took a proprietary technology and coupled it with the premise that kids need a safer place to socialize than the web-based sites currently available.

Sociality is Learning

While many parents are urged to keep their young children off of social networks, participation in social media tools can provide opportunities to learn skills needed as adults. These tools are valued differently by our children, particularly where it involves privacy and control. As Microsoft researcher danah boyd writes:

Over the last three decades, youth lives have gotten increasingly structured. Many youth spend little to no time in unstructured social settings, otherwise known as “hanging out.” The practice of hanging out is consistently demonized by educationally-minded folks as a waste of time. Yet, it is in that space where youth learn to navigate social situations, make sense of impression management, and develop the social skills necessary to be productive adults.

She further suggests that rather than trying to “fix” problems in social worlds, adults should serve as guides in the process of learning social skills while exploring mediated spaces. It may do more harm than good to regulate away cyberbullying instead of cultivating individual and group skills to address that dynamic.

“We have spent the majority of our public relations time trying to educate parents about the need for safe social networking,” Nakamura says. “Parents need to know what, when and how their kids are communicating online.”

My Secret Circle might be an acceptable shared control between parents and kids. When the MSC key is plugged in, parents know exactly what their kids are doing online: The browser is stripped down to remove any means of navigating away from the site (”They can’t surf out, and nothing can come in. Just communciations with their close intimate friends.”) At the same time, kids interact with a group of friends they know and choose.

Friends are Who You See

We can debate what friendship has become in a hyperconnected online world, but for kids the term seems a bit more pure. Friends are who you see each day, in class or church or at the local LEGO group. It is only after children become adults with multiple schools, jobs, and recreational pursuits on their resumes does the concept of friend get fuzzy. The role of online social spaces is not to replace or expand those offline connections, but rather to give those small groups a place they control.

With MSC, each account starts with a default friend, “Serena Circle,” who acts as the information resource to help members navigate the online environment. Networks are then built offline. In order to add someone to her online circle of friends, a member has to generate a unique 12-digit friend code and give it to someone else already in possession of an access key thumb drive. If both girls accept each other’s friendship online, they can start communicating and sharing through the online world.

According to Nakamura, most members make use of the diary, which doesn’t require an established circle of friends to be useful. Friends of friends can’t connect without also exchanging friends codes with each other. There is no way to request friendship through the system; this is done exclusively through offline communication.

“Most circles are well under ten and most under five, which makes sense at that age,” explains Nakamura. “Bullying often becomes a pattern when too many people are too far removed from a close friend. MSC is built by name and by interface to keep the circles small.”

At the moment, the product is branded and targeted for tween girls. “For MSC, we started with a slow approach to make sure our product works well and delivers the right experience for the user,” Nakamura explains. That strategy included an initial limited retail launch at Justice that is paving the way for a national launch during the next back-to-school season.

The product can be bought in toy stores or online as a single thumb drive to access the site ($20) or a “BFF Pack” featuring two access drives ($30). In addition to the access keys, members can unlock additional features within the virtual world with Snap Caps—interchangeable parts that fit on the end of the thumb drive. The first cap adds a voice chat and comes with a headset. Nakamura says the caps will allow MSC to keep advertising out of the online experience.

“In the end, MSC gives a full networking experience that is appropriate for the age group and with the best level of security that we could provide today at an affordable cost,” claims Nakamura.

My Secret Circle works on Windows or Mac computers with about 2.6 GHz processing speed and 1 GB or RAM. For more information, try the Quick Start Guide, available as a PDF download.

Thanks to Megan Lawler for providing a couple thumb drives to allow me to take My Secret Circle for a spin. Our own little girl may be asking for a drive of her own in about a decade.