Grandma Mouse still isn’t quite ready to go because I spent a long weekend with my family. David and Lindsay brought baby Caleb to Illinois so my mom could meet him. The rest of us went there too, of course. Since family is what Grandma Mouse is all about, I hope you will forgive this delay.
Have you ever gotten tired of waiting for the bride and groom to appear at a wedding reception? At one reception I attended, my table mates got so tired of waiting that they started destroying the plastic tableware!
When each of my two children got married, I wanted to keep the guests happy, so I created some games for them to play while they were waiting. We also provided a personalized wedding pencil for each guest.
I have re-created some similar games for Grandma Mouse. You can check them out here:
http://www.grandmamouse.net/printablegames.php
Hopefully in a few days the Grandma Mouse site will be ready for people to order games. The free Bible games are already available.
I have several printable Bible games that I made while I was working with kids at church. I also made a couple of online Bible games while I was learning to make online games. Since it is always good to help people learn more about the Bible, I am happy to offer the games free to parents, teachers, and anyone else who would like to use them.
Grandma’s Family Games are Java applets, just like most of the games on popular online game sites. To play any of them you need Java installed on your computer. I believe that the games will now work for all Windows and Mac users who have or can install a fairly new version of Java on their computers. If the demos will work on your computer, your own version of the games will work as well.
The last several days I have been busy creating the pages where people can upload pictures and other information for me to use in creating their games. This took quite a while because I had to learn how to do this before I could do it.
If any of you have ideas or feedback about what I am doing, I would still love to hear them. Your ideas together with mine are better than my ideas alone.
Next Post: Free Bible Games
I had hoped to title this post “Good News for Mac Users.” I have been working on a solution that will allow Mac users to play Grandma’s Family Games along with Windows users. With some help from a Java forum and some testing help from a few Mac users, I have made some changes and now one Mac user has reported being able to play the games. I would like to get positive reports from others as well.
If you have a Mac and you feel helpful, please go to the following page and see if the games will work for you. Post a comment here or send me a message. Thanks for any help you can give.
www.grandmamouse.net/familygames/demo1/
(For some reason the link’s not working but you can copy and paste.) 
In my experience most kids love bingo games. Grandma Mouse will be offering personalized bingo games for children’s birthday parties. Each game will feature the child’s picture, name, age, and favorite color.
The regular birthday bingo game has 9 squares per card, and the object is to mark 3 squares in a row. It would probably work for ages 6 and up. The simplified birthday bingo game has 4 squares per card, and the object is to mark all 4 squares. It would be good for ages 4 through 6.
I have sample games ready featuring Miranda and Mason Mouse, but I would prefer to use sample games with photographs of real children. Therefore, I will give away one regular birthday bingo game and one simplified birthday bingo game. To receive a game you must agree to allow me to use your child’s picture and name in a sample game on my website.
To enter the “contest”, send an e-mail to shirley@grandmamouse.net stating how you will use the game and including the statement, “If I win a free game, you have my permission to use my child’s picture and name in a sample game on grandmamouse.net.”
If more than one person requests the same game, I will choose one of them to receive the free birthday bingo. The game will be e-mailed to the winner in .pdf (Adobe Reader) format, ready to print out. (Adobe Reader is a free download if you don’t already have it.)
Here are the samples with Miranda and Mason Mouse:
http://www.grandmamouse.net/samplegames/birthday-bingo.pdf
http://www.grandmamouse.net/samplegames/birthday-bingo-simple.pdf
Next Post: Good News for Mac Users
My grandchildren live in Missouri and Maryland (I am in Illinois). Even before any of them were born, I began to think about a computer game that would help them recognize family members whether they saw them often or not. I began to plan a series of games, gathering ideas from other toddler and preschool games that I found online. As my granddaughter Lydia and I played my game and others together, I got an even better idea of what she could do and what she enjoyed.
The result is what I am calling (at least for now) Grandma’s Family Games. Here’s Grandma! is a game for babies and toddlers. To play the child just presses keys on the keyboard. Where’s Grandma? and Grandma is Hiding require the use of the mouse.
A family can order one, two, or all three games. Then I will create a directory for them at grandmamouse.net, where they will access their personalized version of the games.
The games have been tested using Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Internet Explorer 7 and 8, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome. I have not had access to a Mac computer. Each game is a Java applet and may take several seconds to load, depending on your computer, browser, and Internet connection.
Here are links to two demos. One shows how the games actually work with pictures of real people. The games featuring Grandma Mouse’s family are a demo that children can try.
Grandma Mouse Presents Lydia and Luke’s Family
Grandma Mouse Presents the Mouse Family
After you try the games, please comment on some of the following. I appreciate your feedback very much.
Next Post: Birthday Bingo Contest
Grandma Mouse is my alter ego and provides the name and logo for my business. The name Grandma represents family values, and the name Mouse shows that she loves computers.
Looking back, I was always the one who volunteered to make up the games for showers rather than prepare the refreshments. For each of my children’s wedding receptions, I created a booklet of games for the guests to play while waiting for the bride and groom to appear. While teaching kids at church, I brought them Bible games such as bingo. When I became unemployed in 2007, this gave me time to work on my latest idea, computer games that help my grandchildren know who I am even though they don’t see me very often.
Being unable to find a new full-time job has led me to the conclusion that God wants me to start a business. I will have a flexible schedule and will also have fun sharing my games with other people. In addition to personalized family games Grandma Mouse will offer free Bible games.
As I make some final decisions, I will need input from my online friends. I hope for feedback from
The first several posts will appear both here on the blog and in Facebook notes. Feel free to comment in either place. This post doesn’t contain any specific questions, so you can comment now or wait for the posts with the questions.
I am looking forward to hearing all your suggestions and ideas. I would be honored if you would also tell your friends who might be interested in Grandma Mouse.
Shirley McKinstry
Next Post: Grandma’s Family Games