p i e rAme - 26 DIRECTORY Children's Therapy Services The ABILITIES CENTER, INC. Occupational and Physical Therapy for Children Handwriting • Sensory Integration • Groups 5600 W. Maple, Suite 0,304 West Bloomfield, MI 48322 Nikki Roseulieberman (810) 855-0030 Jill D. Spokojny Financial Planning Mak :M %S \ ''‘Na nt‘... MARK LICHTERMAN STAFF WRITER SYSTEMATIC INVESTING Invest in the market for as little as $25.00 per month. tia.T'MMM .V M M IKM ,..r For details and a free investors guide please call Michael H. Delap Phone: (810) 452 5690 • Fax: (810) 452 5688 - - CAMBRIDGE INVESTMENT RESEARCH, INC. 7 W. Square Lake Rd., Suite 150 Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 48302 - Member: NASD, SIPC, & MSRB All accounts are carried with National Financial Services, A Fidelity Investment Co. zssmassomamem....,,,, Instruction EXPERT PIANO INSTRUCTION Classical or Popular Intermediate to Advanced THE APPLETREE (Adult Beginners Okay) DAVID SYME 810-681-2417 16 Fun In Funland I f you were to stumble upon a Web site called "Jewish Funland," created by an educator named Dr. Nurit Reshef, chances are good you would imagine Tel Aviv or New York was home of such a "land." In fact, you should have looked a bit further to the west and north, actually a lot further west and a lot further north, to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The curriculum coordinator at Talmud Torah School, Dr. Reshef has created a well-de- signed and fun site at http:// wwwbus.ualberta.ca/yreshef/f unland/funland.html, where parents and their elementary- aged children can learn about Israel, Jewish holidays and the Hebrew language. The opening page is in con- stant motion (much like any ele- mentary-aged childyve ever met) and introduces itself as "a - place where kids learn through playing." In addition to graphics of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, or of a large, pink- eared mouse busily writing something, the visitor immedi- ately is given the opportunity to choose background music to ac- company his or her visit. Choic- es range from "Hiney Ma Tov" to "YMCA" (yes, it's the Village People's fine version), with Pa- chobel's Canon in D some- where in the middle. Our musical accompaniment set (I won't tell you what I choose, but I can assure you it does not bring exercise facilities to mind) the main menu pre- sents 11 different pathways into the site. The first choice is "Israel's Map (Puzzle)." Click on the lit- tle rotating ball and off you go to a map of Israel cut into eight moveable rectangles inside a frame with one open space. This is just like one of those little games where you have to end- lessly slide the numbers around to ultimately put them in nu- merical order. Here, obviously, the point is to put Israel back to- gether in its appropriate arrange- ment A few words of advice re- garding this and most of the oth- er games on the site. First, to play you will need a "Java-com- patible browser." The most re- cent versions of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer are Java-compatible. If you are not sure whether your browser is so equipped do the unthinkable (for me, at least) and read the documenta- tion, or simply call the technical support line. Second, be patient. Even at 28.8k, it took a while for the puzzle to load. My second stop in Jewish Funland was "Hebrew Hang- man." Upon my arrival I met a little, animated triangle-of-a- character named "Duke." Duke is a "happy-go-lucky-dudette," and to keep her that way the player must guess Hebrew words written in Latin letters. If you don't guess the word (Jew- ish concepts and artifacts like a mezuzah, lulav, seder, shofar) in five tries, well, I won't tell you where our friend Duke ends up. Duke makes another appear- ance in "Hebrew Hangduke: Biblical Personalities." This is obviously another hangman- type game, only this time the manner in which it is played is a bit more sophisticated. Here, there is actually an alphabet to click on. The page also contains a running total of the number of games played, won, lost and the number of guesses remaining in each. Players are allowed 10 guesses a game. Back at the main menu, I next clicked on "Holidays' Chal- lenge." This is basically a large puzzle with two different de- signs for each of the holidays. The controls allow you to choose how many pieces the puzzle will have, from four all the way up to 256 pieces for the - puzzle fiends among us. Each scrambled design is accompa- nied by the intact version of the same picture. This was quite fun, and I might add, addicting. I had a hard time pulling myself away from it It would be a great way to begin conversations about the various holidays with your children. I enjoyed this site, and I would like to hear feedback from any of you who go there and try it out yourselves. As al- ways, all comments, questions, criticisms and suggestions for fu- ture columns are encouraged and welcome. ❑ Mark Lichtennan lives in Huntington Woods with his wife Susan and their two children: Yossi, 6 and Allie, 3. You can reach him online at marksus@mci2000.com .