Director's cut

Even young children are capable of using technology in creative ways, and parents should encourage such self-expression. Prompt your child to create a "video tour" of your home or neighborhood using the camera application on his LeapPad Explorer, or using any kid-safe digital camera or camera phone.

Encourage your child to describe what he is filming as he walks around with the camera. Pets are also good subjects for young children's videos. Children can pretend to be the pet and add the "pet's voice" to the video or make commentary about what the pet is doing.

When your child is done filming, help him save the video to a computer, upload it to a web page, or send it in an email to Grandma.