LaLa Lunchbox App-etizes Your Child’s Meals

I can’t decide how I feel about this. Billed as “a fun and easy way for kids to plan and pack lunches with their parents” and something that “empowers your kids, teaches them to make smarter food choices and helps them learn about advance planning,” LaLa Lunchbox is a $1.99 app that adds a layer of gamification to the simple — yet occasionally quite aggravating — act of planning your kids’ lunches.

If your kids are anything like mine (and judging from the fact that LaLa Lunchbox is a thing, most of them probably are), getting them to eat their lunch (or breakfast, or…I need a drink) can be a complicated process that involves bribery, treachery, and pleading. There are a million excuses for not emptying one’s lunchbox, and you’ll hear them all. However, unless you’re some kind of meal dictator, I sort of doubt that “because you didn’t ask me what I wanted” is one you’re going to hear very often.

So yeah, I’m sort of ambivalent about this. Gamification tends to be helpful when you’re trying to con yourself into completing an unpopular task or fulfilling a long-term goal, but eating generally doesn’t fall into either of those categories, especially when you’re young enough to depend on a parent to make your meals. I’m sure it’ll make choosing meals more fun for kids, but will it make kids more likely to eat them? I have my doubts. My daughter’s favorite excuse is “I didn’t have enough time.” I don’t see how personalizing a virtual lunchbox with “fun monsters and colors” will change that.

On the other hand, what the hey, it’s $1.99. If you’re desperate to stuff some lunchtime calories in your little one and you have an iGadget at home, it might be worth a splurge. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes.

Playmobil Courts a New Generation of Fans

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If you don’t feel like paying out the nose for LEGO sets — or maybe you’re boycotting them because of their kinda patronizing LEGO Friends lineup — but you still aren’t quite ready to take the plunge into “generic plastic blocks” territory, Playmobil would like to have a word with you.

As discussed in this recent article from Wired’s GeekDad, the venerable playset builder has lately redoubled its efforts to penetrate the some-assembly-required market, and the sets reviewed in the article — the modern art-sounding Pet Clinic and Barn with Silo — both look pretty cool, especially if you can trust your kids to clean up small parts and/or not eat fake silage.

Speaking as the father of a would-be animal doctor, I’m intrigued by the Pet Clinic set, especially at the quite reasonable $39.99 quoted by GeekDad (although Amazon seems to have a different idea of what it should cost you). We don’t own any Playmobil around these parts — I actually don’t think I was aware that they were still making toys — but this looks like a happy medium between overpriced, overfranchised LEGO and cootie-bearing downmarket brands. Check out GeekDad’s in-depth writeup here and plan your impending birthday parties accordingly.

Album Review: Renee and Jeremy, ‘A Little Love’

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All About Renee & Jeremy Apart, they’re Renee Stahl and Jeremy Toback, both veteran recording artists in their own right — Renee has released a pair of solo albums, and Jeremy was a founding member of Brad before moving on to his own solo career and his latest band project, Chop Love Carry Fire. Together, they form what might be kindie’s soothing-est duo: the mellifluous voices behind the Dadnabbit favorites It’s a Big World and C’mon.

What They Sound Like Take one part acoustic instrumentation, add one part heartwarming two-part harmony, and you’ve got the basic ingredients. Simple but effective.

Album Highlights A Little Love is a covers record, so these are all songs you probably know by heart, from AM gold (the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “59th Street Bridge Song”) to classic rock (Supertramp’s “Give a Little Bit,” John Lennon’s “Love,” Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend”), a few surprising choices from the last 25 years (“Shiny Happy People,” Coldplay’s “Yellow” and the Chili Peppers’ “Give It Away”) and even a little sweet soul music (“Put a Little Love in Your Heart”).

Suggestions for Improvement Tough question, because A Little Love is effortless listening, and the track listing moves smoothly from easy picks like “Daydream Believer” to wonderfully off-the-wall choices like “Give It Away” — and Renee & Jeremy manage them all with tuneful aplomb. It’s a lot of fun. If I had to come up with a nit to pick, I suppose I’d wish for more unexpected covers on the next installment, but that’s only because it’s so much fun to see the looks on people’s faces when they hear “Give It Away.”

Target Age Group Everyone

Final Verdict A creative holding pattern, perhaps, but as placeholder projects go, A Little Love is more fun than most. A wise man once told me that you shouldn’t bother cutting a cover of someone else’s work unless you have something of yourself to bring to the song, and Renee & Jeremy observe that rule religiously here — you’ll obviously recognize everything here, but none of the covers are slavishly faithful, and all of the new arrangements make sense. Listen to the whole thing below (or just buy it here), and see if you don’t agree.