Taking a roadtrip to Michigan's Little Bavaria to celebrate a birthday has become a family tradition. Today is my wife's birthday and we made the hour long trek north on I-75 from our suburban Detroit home to the city of Frankenmuth in Michigan's thumb to enjoy the world famous chicken dinners served at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant.
Frankenmuth is known for its Bavarian-style architecture, family friendly activities, the country's largest Christmas themed store, and restaurants that serve German food with Old World flair. Indoor water parks, eclectic shopping, a charming downtown, frequent festivals and more make this a favorite place to go for an excursion. You always feel WILLKOMMEN in Frankenmuth, Michigan.
We keep coming back though for the chicken dinners. Served family style in three courses starting off with traditional German staples of beans, coleslaw, cranberry relish, stollen bread, pasta salad and noodle soup; followed by the main course of all you can eat fried chicken accompanied by buttered noodles, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, and stuffing; finished off with a desert of housemade ice cream. Plus if it is your birthday you get a slice of cake.
Join the Bavarian Inn Restaurant birthday club and adults get a free meal to celebrate your special day. That is a great deal as a Family Style Chicken Dinner at the Bavarian Inn costs $26.99 per person. They'll send you an email around your birthday each year if you sign up that provides the birthday person with a free meal with the purchase of another one of equal or greater value. We've been taking advantage of this offer for years going to Frankenmuth to celebrate both my wife and I's birthdays. These make for nice, memorable outings with our kids that have made these birthday celebrations a beloved family tradition.
This was our our first visit to Frankenmuth since the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic swept through the state. Yes there was some tension in making the trip but we masked up and were greeted by an establishment that was taking its patrons' health safety very seriously. Occupancy was reduced, diners were spaced out throughout the restaurant, staff all wore masks and you could see them making an extra effort to wipe things down with sanitizer. Since the tables around us weren't filled we were able to take off our masks while eating without feeling uncomfortable or ill at ease.
This dad blogger had a very nice experience at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant with his family. This roadtrip brought back a sense of normalcy as we've really stuck close to home during the last six months. Yet we still remained cautious about the public health threat of coronavirus as masks were back on after our meal and cleaned up with a healthy dose of hand sanitizer when we returned to our car. While it wasn't as casual of an affair as in past visits a happy birthday still was had!
I've partnered with SMARTICK to help keep my kids on track with their math learning despite the pandemic. Hate to say it but when my kids' elementary school shutdown due to the coronavirus health emergency the online learning their teachers provided them with was a joke. So now not only have they missed a semester of learning math but they are going through the summer with no guidance from our school district. To make up for that lapse, I have my son and daughter spending some time each day using SMARTICK.
SMARTICK is a 15 minute interactive online math program that creates personalized sessions for every child using it through AI (artificial intelligence) technology. Accessible on PCs as well as Apple and Android tablets provides a math instructional and tutoring service that lets kids advance at their own pace and according to their own abilities. The program includes hundreds of educational tutorials and mentally stimulating "brain games."
Each child enrolled in this subscription service starts off by taking an assessment quiz to evaluate their math skills based upon their age. This allows SMARTICK to create a personalized lesson plan based upon where they should be at based upon their schooling and where the student may actually be. This evaluation allows the tutorials to focus on a child's weaknesses in math and also takes into consideration special needs like ADHD and Dyslexia.
Every day SMARTICK provides a child with a 15 minute session that reinforces how to solve math problems and helps students work through difficulties or a lack of understanding. Based upon their interactions, children can earn points that they can use to open up access to a virtual world that they can explore with a customized avatar. So SMARTICK provides both educational and entertaining for kids.
Honestly, my children have been more enthusiastic about using SMARTICK than I initially thought they would be. They've been doing their 15 minute sessions every morning after breakfast without a gripe. My son was so excited this morning to show me how well he had done on a math challenge.
An incentive for them to do well is that both of them have really been enjoying having their avatars engage in the virtual world that is a reward feature of SMARTICK. They have been enthusiastically earning points so they can add accessories to their avatars. My daughter wants to get a kitten to keep hers company while her brother wants to earn a pet dinosaur.
And I know they aren't screwing around because after each of their SMARTICK sessions an email arrives in my inbox providing an individualized summary of how each of them did during their 15 minute tutorial session. Plus the program provides a parents-only section the kids can't access providing indepth details about a child's math abilities and use of SMARTICK. The program is very user-friendly for both children and adults.
A perk of using this math skills subscription service is while parents are provided lots of information as well as tips to enhance tutoring on their own, mom and dad don't have to hand hold their kids through the tutorial sessions. SMARTICK is designed for children to work independently without relying on parents for help. With my wife and I both working from home, it can be tough to balance parenting and professional obligations during the work day so SMARTICK is a nice way to keep kids engaged in learning without having your conference calls and Zoom meeting constantly interrupted with someone asking for help with school stuff.
SMARTICK has been working out really well for our family and is going to be an ongoing part of our summer routine. If you have kids at home between 4 - 14 years old check out this math tutorial service this summer. SMARTNIK is offering a summer deal that provides a free two week trial plus 10% off subscription prices. Go to smartickmethod.com to sign up.
SMARTICK has earned a Geek Daddy nod of approval for providing my children with a good time while helping them with learning important life skills. Math is so important for kids to have a good grasp on and so easy for children to fall behind on during these uncertain times. This dad blogger highly recommends SMARTICK to keep students on track with their math studies.
Here are a few other endorsements from some of America's leading educational institutions:
Harvard
"Smartick tackles a major socio-economic issue affecting Western children, notably in the U.S.: the poor level of math education, lagging far behind their peers from several countries in Asia.”
- Harvard Business Review
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
“I am particularly excited about Smartick because it reflects everything that we have been researching about education in mathematics.”
- Lori Breslow | Ph.D. and professor at MIT
Johns Hopkins University
“Smartick is changing the world of Math with a new and fun approach to math education powered by artificial intelligence and personalized learning. The students love it, and the parents love to see their children’s math knowledge and grades improve. Learning math from home has never been easier today for tomorrow’s most in demand STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education.”
- Professor Joël Le Bon, PhD | Johns Hopkins University
I'm looking forward to the long intermission ending, the pandemic passing and the curtain rising again for live drama and musical presentations at theatres. Detroit has many grand theatres that have been the backdrop for many special moments for me and my family. We are very much looking forward to having the chance to making even more fond memories at these venues in the future when the coronvirus social distancing at some point comes to an end.
From my going to see my first play, Annie, with my parents at the Masonic Temple as a kid to taking my own kids to see Sesame Street Live at The Fox Theatre to walking across the stage of the Detroit Opera House to receive my diploma during my law school graduation there have been a lot of smiles shared by my family at these places. More recently, I've enjoyed some great dad time spending one on one evenings out on the town for dinner and a Broadway in Detroit play with my kids taking my daughter to Disney's Aladdin -- The Musical at the Opera House and my son to The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical at the Fisher Theatre.
As auditoriums across the country remain dark during the COVID-19 pandemic, Metro Detroit's theaters want people to know the show will go on! They've produced a video message of hope letting people know that GHOST LIGHT are shining in these special places. Ghost Light narrated by Michigan native Jeff Daniels who is known nationally as a Tony® Award nominated actor and locally as the founder of the Purple Rose Theatre Company, features the solitary ghost lights that continue to shine on our area’s stages while waiting for audiences to safely return.
A centuries-old tradition, a ghost light is a single lamp that illuminates the stage when the theatre is not in use. Legend has it that the light shines to protect the actors, patrons and theatre from bad luck and ghosts. In these times, ghost lights have taken on a new meaning. They are beaming a message of hope and inspiration to “Shine on Detroit!” as we as we persevere through these difficult days together.
The production of Ghost Light was sponsored by Broadway in Detroit and the film short was created by SMZ Advertising. Check out this video and I hope it inspires you to shine on! Plays and concerts will one day be ushering us back into normality and I look forward to the day we can return to the theaters around Michigan and across the country. It is nice to know the ghost lights are on in Detroit as a guide for us to return once again to experiencing in a communal setting live theater and music together. Until that moment my friends, this dad blogger wishes you all stay safe and keep your spirits up.
