Mama Mimi @ Mom Central

Your Shape Fitness: no slacking allowed!

These days, I’m finding the latest video game trend features in-home workouts. Usually led by a celebrity trainer and boasting more exercises than you have days to actually workout, they come designed to get the gamer off the couch and moving.

However, these type of fitness games may not give tips on proper form, customize for male or female gamer, or know when you’re slacking. With Ubisoft’s new Your Shape Fitness for Kinect on the Xbox 360, it utilizes an advanced form of technology that reads over 50,000 points on your body.

Working out with Your Shape Fitness

I recently tried this new game at Club H Fitness in New York City. The Kinect technology comes into play by projecting your body into the game, reading when you do a motion incorrectly and guiding you to the correct form.

It also personalizes your workouts according to your fitness level and adjusting as you progress. The game can also tell when you’ve stopped working out or have moved away from the game all together. Even though it’s motion sensitive, it does ignore certain motions outside of your range such as the dog running by or your child standing nearby.

Your Shape Fitness yoga workout

The workouts I tried and liked best were the classes such as yoga, kickboxing, and hula hooping. The yoga class helped me improve my form, as I sometimes forget to work on this during an actual class unless the instructor comes around to fix positions.

Your Shape Fitness hula hooping

Hula hooping got my inner seven-year-old laughing and gave my not-so-seven-year-old figure quite the workout. The faster and better you can move your hips, the more hula hoops get added on to manage in the game. I was so impressed the Kinect could tell the right motion of my body that it would take for a hula hoop to swing! 

Your Shape provides a great workout for mom and kids alike, with the technology that lets you feel truly in touch with your body.

Allison Parker is an Account Manager at Mom Central.

New Toshiba Kids PC: Extra security and sticky finger friendly

I need advice about the whole computer thing and kids. I'm truly torn between the idea that I want my kids to be computer-free for as long as possible and giving them access to something that can help them learn. I have at least a couple of years to continue obsessing about this, but my son has been introduced to the joys of YouTube where I do searches for Elmo and songs I loved as a child. I also want him to know the joys of The Beatles and Elvis. 

I do anticipate a power struggle though and can see it all in the making. I'm already worried about what kids may encounter on the internet or how curious button pushers may delete important family files, plus my neat freak side is concerned about keeping the keyboard free from sticky hands.

Toshiba Satellite L635, a computer designed with kids in mind

When I attended a recent event for Toshiba, I was introduced to the idea of getting kids their own computer. As part of the You Spoke, We Listened program created by Toshiba and Best Buy, the Satellite L635 Kids’ PC, a laptop computer designed exclusively for children, has recently been released for sale only at Best Buy.

Unlike other products currently on the market for kids, this full-sized laptop, geared toward the five to 10 age range, functions like any other “adult” laptop and comes equipped with kid-centric software such as KidZui, an Internet browser made for children. It also comes with Net Nanny, which allows you to decide how you want your child to use the laptop. For parents who can’t seem to master going back and forth between kid-safety mode and a parental account, this separate computer makes it easy for parents and kids to work side-by-side.

In addition, the computer comes pre-installed with two Disney movies and a LEGO Batman game, perfect for any rainy day or just to keep your child busy while you prepare dinner. Kids’ PC also features a wipeable keyboard (its sealed between the keys), which allows for easy clean-ups, and a finish that helps resist fingerprints.

This new PC for kids seems to allow parents the peace of mind to let their kids play and explore on the computer without the fear of Web dangers. Kids can play and use the computer as they like, freeing up the parental computer and maybe even allowing us to do work while they are occupied.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

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Disclosure: Michelle attended a New York City event for Toshiba.