What's more, kids often send mixed messages: they crave space, but they rely on their parents' advice and assistance. Not surprisingly, it's hard to know when it's appropriate to get involved in your child's life and when it's better to back off."You're On Your Own (But I'm Here If You Need Me)" helps parents identify the boundaries between necessary involvement and respect for their child's independence. Marjorie Savage, who as a parent herself empathizes with moms and dads, but who as a student services professional understands kids, offers advice on wide-ranging issues, including:- How to cope with your family's mood changes in the months before move-in day on campus- Why students complain about the food but still manage to gain fifteen pounds their first year- How to teach basic financial responsibility, including the handling of credit cards and academic expenses- When parental intervention is criticalWith anecdotes and suggestions from experienced parents and college staffs nationwide, the strategies and tips provided throughout will help you to create a loving, supportive partnership responsive to the needs of both you and your children.

    In this diary of a villager boy, you'll catch a glimpse of their secretive lives and find out how they survive in their hostile world. What's behind the calm expressions? What mystical knowledge do they possess? You'll never know by asking them. Dive into this book for the answer. This is Book 2 of the Wimpy Villager series—a great series for gaming fans of all ages! Grab the first book before starting this one! Disclaimer: This is book is not official. It is not endorsed, authorized, sponsored, licensed or supported by Mojang AB, Microsoft Corp. or any other entity owning or controlling rights to the Minecraft name, trademarks or copyrights.

    170 pages of A sounds! You can use this book with a young child who is just starting school or with an older child who has missed out on the basics. If a child doesn't know their phonic sounds...they will always struggle with spelling, reading and writing. Sometimes the same sound can be spelt in different ways, e.g. the sound ake (cake) can also be spelt ache earache) and eak (steak). The best way to use this book is to focus on one sound at a time. Read through them with your child, talk about the sounds, practice spelling them and write them. The A Sounds book is the largest of the series. You will also find the e, i, o and u books on Amazon. Katrina Kahler is a teacher with 30 years of experience in Elementary Schools. She is a highly successful teacher who has helped thousands of children. This is how she teaches the children in her classroom to spell. Start working with your child today and see the difference it will make to their literacy skills.

    Like civilization, play requires structure and participants willing to create within limits. Starting with Plato, Huizinga traces the contribution of Homo Ludens, or "Man the player" through Medieval Times, the Renaissance, and into our modern civilization. Huizinga defines play against a rich theoretical background, using cross-cultural examples from the humanities, business, and politics. Homo Ludens defines play for generations to come."A happier age than ours once made bold to call our species by the name of Homo Sapiens. In the course of time we have come to realize that we are not so reasonable after all as the Eighteenth Century with its worship of reason and naive optimism, though us; "hence moder fashion inclines to designate our species asHomo Faber Man the Maker. But though faber may not be quite so dubious as sapiens it is, as a name specific of the human being, even less appropriate, seeing that many animals too are makers. There is a third function, howver, applicable to both human and animal life, and just as important as reasoning and making--namely, playing. it seems to me that next to Homo Faber, and perhaps on the same level as Homo Sapiens, Homo Ludens, Man the Player, deserves a place in our nomenclature. "--from the Foreward, by Johan Huizinga

    Each project uses color-coded pieces and is photographed from multiple angles, making it easy to see how the models are assembled without the need for step-by-step instructions. Every model illustrates a different principle, concept, or mechanism that will inspire your own original creations. You're encouraged to use these elements as building blocks to create your own masterpieces.The Technic models in Simple Machines demonstrate basic configurations of gears, shafts, pulleys, turntables, connectors, and the like. You'll learn how to create small, elegant machines like cranes, operable doors, motorized cars, a rubber band-powered rocket launcher, a hand-cranked drag racer, and even musical instruments.This visual guide, the first in the three-volume LEGO Technic Idea Book series, is the brainchild of master builder Yoshihito Isogawa of Tokyo, Japan. Each title is filled with photos of Isogawa's unique models, all of which are designed to fire the imaginations of LEGO builders young and old.Imagine. Create. Invent. Now, what will you build?NOTE: The LEGO Technic Idea Book series uses parts from various Technic sets. If you don't have some of the pieces shown in a particular model, experiment by substituting your own parts or visit the No Starch Press website for a list of the special parts used in the book.

    Three Guides in One! Identification, Values, Lapidary UsesDesigned with beginners in mind, yet filled with valuable technical information for advanced collectors, "Collecting Rocks, Gems and Minerals" takes you from being just someone who appreciates rocks to a true "collector."Easy-to-use, quick reference format arranged by category and color of stoneCovers both lapidary and mineral display materialsProvides values and tips for locating, buying and collectingIncludes organics such as amber, bone, coral, pearl and shellLists chemical group, system, hardness, opacity, fracture, specific gravity and moreContains more than 650 full-color photosForeword by Johann Zenz, world renowned agate expert, author and lecturer

    The novel aims to provoke readers to examine and reassess their business practices and transform the thinking and actions of managers.

    Author Mike Selinker (Betrayal at House on the Hill) has invited some of the world's most talented and experienced game designers to share their secrets on game conception, design, development, and presentation. In these pages, you'll learn about storyboarding, balancing, prototyping, and playtesting from the best in the business.

    It gives detailed explanations of game art techniques and their importance, while also highlighting their dependence on artistic aspects of game design and programming.” — John Romero, co-founder of id Software and CEO of Loot Drop, Inc."Solarski’s methodology here is to show us the artistic techniques that every artist should know, and then he transposes them to the realm of video games to show how they should be used to create a far more artful gaming experience ... if I were an artist planning to do video game work, I’d have a copy of this on my shelf."— Marc Mason, Comics Waiting RoomVideo games are not a revolution in art history, but an evolution. Whether the medium is paper or canvas—or a computer screen—the artist’s challenge is to make something without depth seem like a window into a living, breathing world. Video game art is no different.  Drawing Basics and Video Game Art is first to examine the connections between classical art and video games, enabling developers to create more expressive and varied emotional experiences in games. Artist game designer Chris Solarski gives readers a comprehensive introduction to basic and advanced drawing and design skills—light, value, color, anatomy, concept development—as well as detailed instruction for using these methods to design complex characters, worlds, and gameplay experiences. Artwork by the likes of Michelangelo, Titian, and Rubens are studied alongside AAA games like BioShock, Journey, the Mario series, and Portal 2, to demonstrate perpetual theories of depth, composition, movement, artistic anatomy, and expression. Although Drawing Basics and Video Game Art is primarily a practical reference for artists and designers working in the video games industry, it’s equally accessible for those interested to learn about gaming’s future, and potential as an artistic medium.Also available as an eBook

    It's a tour de force of VW design, stunning in intellectual scope, spanning the literary, economic, sociological, psychological, physical, technological, and ethical underpinnings of design, while providing the reader with a deep, well-grounded understanding of VW design principles. It covers everything from MUDs to MOOs to MMORPGs, from text-based to graphical VWs.Designing Virtual Worlds brings a rich, well-developed approach to the design concepts behind virtual worlds. It is grounded in the earliest approaches to such designs, but the examples discussed in the book run the gamut from the earliest MUDs to the present-day MMORPG games mentioned above. It teaches the reader the actual, underlying design principles that many designers do not understand when they borrow or build from previous games. There is no other design book on the market in the area of online games and virtual worlds that provides the rich detail, historical context, and conceptual depth of Designing Virtual Worlds.

    It offers a no-nonsense walk through all the steps in the instructional design process and each step is explained in language that is conversational and easy to understand. This new edition addresses such topics as learning analysis, return on investment, and designing asynchronous and synchronous e-learning, as well as a wealth of illustrative examples of storyboards and professional commentary and case studies from professionals in the field.

    You'll discover at what stages to prototype, test, and implement mechanics in games and learn how to visualize and simulate game mechanics in order to design better games. Along the way, you'll practice what you've learned with hands-on lessons. A free downloadable simulation tool developed by Joris Dormans is also available in order to follow along with exercises in the book in an easy-to-use graphical environment.In Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, you'll learn how to:* Design and balance game mechanics to create emergent gameplay before you write a single line of code. * Visualize the internal economy so that you can immediately see what goes on in a complex game. * Use novel prototyping techniques that let you simulate games and collect vast quantities of gameplay data on the first day of development. * Apply design patterns for game mechanics--from a library in this book--to improve your game designs. * Explore the delicate balance between game mechanics and level design to create compelling, long-lasting game experiences. * Replace fixed, scripted events in your game with dynamic progression systems to give your players a new experience every time they play."I've been waiting for a book like this for ten years: packed with game design goodness that tackles the science without undermining the art." --Richard Bartle, University of Essex, co-author of the first MMORPG"Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design by Joris Dormans & Ernest Adams formalizes game grammar quite well. Not sure I need to write a next book now!" -- Raph Koster, author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design.

    Never ask for the order. Get an I.O.U. for everything you do. Don t spill your candy in the lobby.Until now, these unique rules (and 45 more) were given out only to Sandler Training clients in special seminars and private coaching. After three decades of proven success, the secrets are out in The Sandler Rules. And when salespeople know the rules, they get results.Early in his sales career, David Sandler observed that some salespeople work hard and struggle for every deal, while others consistently, and almost effortlessly, uncover new opportunities and close sales. Why is it, he wondered, that two salespeople selling the same product in the same market can have such different results?Are great salespeople born with a special gift--perhaps the right personality? Were they better educated? Did they have more experience? Were they just lucky to find themselves in the right places at the right times with the right people? No, they simply understood human relationships.Using Eric Berne's Transactional Analysis, Sandler devised a selling system and distilled forty-nine unforgettable rules that are frank, sometimes fun, and always easy to put to use. Sandler Training CEO David Mattson, coauthor of Five Minutes with VITO, delivers this fresh and often funny guidebook, filled with real-world tactics for successful prospecting, qualifying, deal-making, closing, and referral generation.In the first week of release, the Amazon ranking of The Sandler Rules shot to:#1 in the Sales and Selling category#2 in Hot New Releases--business books#3 in business books#23 worldwide!

    And every year, colleges are becoming more competitive. Throw the weakened economy into the mix, and it creates a perfect storm for Up Your Score: a book of invaluable test-taking wisdom, the only book written by "been-there-done-that" kids, the only guide that kids will enjoy using. It’s proven to work—the students who created Up Your Score all nailed the SAT and went on to the colleges of their choice, including this year's 2,400-scoring guest editor.A guerrilla guide that's a perfect complement (and reality check) for the student who has already tried Princeton Review or Kaplan, Up Your Score injects real-life humor and attitude into the dry business of test prep. Its vocabulary is rich and lively with examples that kids will relate to, and with proven tricks to make definitions memorable. It covers the eight main issues of math, with test-wise, problem-solving techniques. To help students ace the writing section, it addresses the 13 most important grammar rules to know. And it shows how to "psych out" the test: How to think like the SAT. How to prepare the essay in advance. The best ways to fill in answer circles and other strategies to save precious minutes. Plus, tips for maintaining concentration, why it's always better to guess than to leave a question unanswered, and a recipe for energy-boosting Sweet & Tasty 800 Bars (and how to smuggle them into the testing hall).FREE: An iPod download to help users learn the 600 key vocabulary words.

    Zombies: Garden Warfare 2! Written by Paul Tobin (Bandette, Banana Sunday) and illustrated by Jacob Chabot (The Mighty Skullboy Army, SpongeBob Comics), this is a hilarious, action-packed, all- ages, zombie-fightin' adventure! * The hit video game franchise continues its comic book invasion with a whole new series!