“Games galore at Hastings Museum” plus 1 more

Posted: 16 Feb 2011 11:24 PM PST

HASTINGS -- For weeks, it has been snowy and cold outside, so the Hastings Museum invited kids to come inside and play games on Friday.

Russanne Ericksen, curator of education, said the Out and About sessions at the museum try to concentrate on learning, being active and having fun.

"We thought games, what's more fun than games?" she said Friday. The Out and About sessions are for kindergartners through sixth-graders when public schools have breaks.

"We wanted it to be active because they have been cooped up inside with the crummy weather we've had," Ericksen said.

Not only did the 16 kids, ages four to 11, learn about existing games, but they also got a chance to make up their own game.

Provided with a bucket, bean bags, stick horses, a large die, three rings, three discs, three hats and plastic Easter eggs, each group of four kids came up with a game, complete with rules and a way to score.

Hope Kohmetscher and Kaitlyn Hamburger, both 9, teamed up with Evah Thomas, 7, and Dacey Sealey, 8, to create their game. They went through several ideas including hopscotching through the hoops and racing back to the start with the stick horses before settling on a series of events. It started with hopping through the hoops, added a bean bag toss into the bucket that deducted 10 points for every one you missed and adding points for finding the right color of egg under the hats.

Another group with Isaiah Sherman, 9, Karlee Sherman, 4, Brooke Aspen, 8, and Blake Aspen, 10, added a little scoring mathematics to their game.

The hats were set upside down on the bean bags to keep them facing up. The player got 10 plastic Easter eggs to throw into the hats, placed at various distances and worth varying points. Then the player rolled the die to determine the number by which to multiply the egg toss score.

"I like that you put some math into it," Ericksen told the young game makers. "You are all very creative."

Other games included an obstacle course where the players lost points if they touched the ground and a game where the player tried to get a hoop over the head of a stick horse.

The kids also learned about games throughout history, from some of the oldest such as marbles, which have been found in Egyptian pyramids dating to 2,000 years before Christ, to recent video games.

Lynn Zeleski, volunteer coordinator and education coordinator, said the oldest toys were probably dolls, which were made of anything from animal fur to cornhusks. She said in some Native American cultures a cornhusk doll was made for a young girl about 3 or 4 and it lasted her until she was in her teens.

Kids have been jumping rope for at least 5,000 years and chess was invented about 4,000 years ago in China.

"Stick horses have been around as long as there have been sticks and as long as there have been horses," Zeleski said, adding that some of the oldest games involve racing or guessing games.

The kids learned that bingo was originally called beano for the beans used as markers. It became popular in the late 1920s at county fairs and then became a popular fundraiser for churches. By 1939, Americans were playing 10,000 games of bingo each week.

Charles Darrow became the nation's first millionaire when he sold the rights to Monopoly to Parker Brothers in 1934.

"It's fun with a little bit of education thrown in," Ericksen said.

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Kids' parties business bounces back a bit

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 08:57 PM PST

Ethan Shannon had a choice for his birthday this year: The 9-year-old could get a birthday present or have a birthday party.

He chose the Game Dudes, a new children's-party business in Central Florida that combines video games and laser tag in a two-hour event that comes to you. Owner and creator Michael Carter says that, despite the still-sluggish economy, his party bus is booked almost every weekend.

"It's been the most well received thing I have ever done or ever been involved in," said Carter, who also owns a franchise party business under a separate name.

Other children's-party businesses in the area aren't doing as well as Carter's, but they all say business has improved significantly in recent months.

Birthday World, a family entertainment center in Altamonte Springs that opened in February 2008, at the outset of the recession, had what owner Deborah Shearman describes as a phenomenally tough first year. But the business, which has a small roller coaster, bumper cars and bounce houses, managed to hang on and has posted record revenue during the past three months — including the best single-day sales in its history, on Feb. 5.

"Businesses like ours have to be continually changing," Shearman said. "It's constant research — what's new, what's hot, what are kids into?"

For example, Birthday World is getting rid of its miniature golf course and installing a laser-tag arena to attract older children. And two weeks ago, it installed a trampoline bungee jump that allows children to jump as high as 20 feet into the air.

Carter says Game Dudes is unique in the Orlando area, which is why it's doing so well, he said.

The bus has three networked Xbox 360 game consoles attached to a trio of 42-inch TVs that allow a dozen partygoers to face off in virtual combat while others use the musical play-along game Rockband or motion-sensor games on two external TVs attached to an Xbox 360 and a Nintendo Wii. And if video games don't suit everyone, the bus has a portable laser-tag set, including obstacles that kids can use for organized games like Capture the Flag.

"It's hard to find a place to do a party once they turn 9," said Karen Shannon, Ethan's mother. "Chuck E.Cheese and other things, we've already done all that. This is just something we could do outdoors, and keep it outside the house."

The big uptick in business during the final months of 2010 was too little, too late, for some party businesses.

"People were starting to spend a little more, and all the economists were saying it [the economy] is definitely coming up," said Darcy Umstead, owner of Sliderz Adventure Center in Oviedo. "We thought we would stick it through and make it. It just didn't come back fast enough for us."

Sliderz closed its doors Jan. 31.

Tucked away in the corner of a warehouse district off Alafaya Drive near the University of Central Florida, Sliderz had seven large inflatables, including a two-story "super slide" and a pink pirate ship.

"At the peak of it, we thought we had it made," Umstead said. "We thought it was a piece of cake."

The business opened in 2005 with a $150,000 investment and had its best year in 2007 and the first half of 2008, just as the nation's economy slipped into a record-long recession.

"Once the gas prices went up, it slowed down. Then the economy took a dive, and it slowed down even more," said Gary Laug, Umstead's father and co-investor. "And we were thinking, 'Gosh, I don't blame them — we don't have the money to go spend $200 on a party, [either].' "

There are several possible reasons more parents may be returning to party businesses for their children's birthdays as the economy emerges fromrecession, said Maria Bailey, chief executive of BSM Media, a Fort Lauderdale firm that specializes in marketing aimed at mothers.

First, moms are often in friendly competition with other mothers they know over such things, she said, and the sudden rise of online social networks has helped up the ante. Second, they don't like giving up special purchases for their children. And third, they have even less time now because of job-related issues and other concerns imposed by the recession.

"A lot of moms are feeling the financial crunch," Bailey said. "If they are a single mom, they are working more. If they were a stay-at-home mom, they are doing something to generate income for their family, which takes away from the time they have to plan birthday parties."

"Five years ago, if you had a birthday party, the only people who saw the favors were the people who came to the party," she added. "Now it can be seen by hundreds of other people on Facebook, Twitter and even your YouTube channel.

A 2010 MomTrak Study by Parents Magazine that Bailey helped design and conduct drew the response from seven of every 10 moms that they "will always find a way afford some items that make my kids happy."

"She will give up her pedicures, start using coupons at the grocery store, but the last thing she gives up is luxury items for her child," Bailey said.

Karen Shannon, whose son Ethan received a visit from The Game Dudes, appreciated the convenience of having a mobile party machine pull up to the house.

"They run the party for you, they show the kids how to operate everything, and [they] play with them," she said. "It's great; it is so worth it as a host." All she had to do, she said, was set out pizza, a birthday cake and beverages in her garage.

And no one, she added, complained of being bored.

xcxrlittle@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5011

Kids Games

Thursday, February 17, 2011

“Games galore at Hastings Museum” plus 1 more

“Games galore at Hastings Museum” plus 1 more

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