Contributed by Debbie H. Zoodles Education Team
In the process of working for Zoodles in the past ten months, I’ve encountered a wide array of different games for children. Every so often, games will pop off the page and become part of your daily conversation. Most recently, I have been really excited and consumed by the American Girls games. They are designed with a function that meets the needs of learners: they teach facts about the United States and world cultures. In addition, the design meets the needs of children in ways that are fun — I find the games engaging at my age, and I have no doubt that I would have also enjoyed them as a child playing on Zoodles.
The foundation of the games are the different American Girls, each of whom hosts games that uniquely suit her personality, background and culture. By creating three-dimensional representations of different types of girls, Zoodles players will be able to identify with the different American Girls characters. American Girls doesn’t reinvent the wheel- they redesign it in a way that is purposeful and unique.
In “Kit’s Railway Adventure,” girls are able to see the United States from the perspective of early settlers. Through a series of visits across the country, Zoodles players are exposed to early colonial history.
In “Samantha’s Scavenger Hunt,” your child learns about United States history and culture by going on a scavenger hunt with Samantha in 1904, New York. Concepts of early times are taught in fun ways- only second to visiting Jamestown and Williamsberg!
It’s also encouraging to see that the American Girls site also acknowledges immigration and girls from all over the world. For example, in “Rebecca’s World Word Search” children play their favorite word search games, but are exposed to new, sophisticated words about Russian culture.
Likewise, in “Rebecca’s Russian Doll Mix-up,” children can play their favorite matching game but learn about a new culture at the same time.
In “Josefina’s Santa Fe Market Adventure,” Zoodles players learn about economics and the roles of buyers and sellers, as well as basic Spanish language vocabulary by going on an adventure looking for goods at the Market.
If your child ends up on the American Girls site, you will be in good hands. We look forward to hearing what your child thinks of the new games on Zoodles!
We’ve been proud of features in the past, but the latest feature we’re here to announce truly breaks new ground: Zoodles violence filtering. 
It comes down to this. Parents have preferences when it comes to the media that their children consume, whether it’s 
Jason Azicri holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Central Florida and an MA in Counseling Psychology from Santa Clara University. Jason was a Special Needs Health and Health teacher in Miami before relocating to CA. He also co-created an educational film series called Adina’s Deck because he believes young people need more empowering messages and positive portrayals of young teens in film and television. Jason sees Zoodles as another opportunity to further help bring great educational content to kids. He currently also counsels at two high schools and continues to write screenplays.
Yaa Cuguano has a lifelong interest in how learning can be tailored to learners in order to provide them with effective learning experiences and environments. She is also interested in second and third language learning and inquiry based learning. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Stanford’s School of Education with a specialization in Learning Design and Technology. She is excited to be a part of the Education Team and contribute to the great work being done at Zoodles.
With the Zoodles play timer, you can limit your child’s time online without having to constantly step in and feel like the bad guy. Zoodles does all the negotiating for you – as soon as your child’s time on Zoodles runs out, a big blue clock will appear signaling their time is up. The browser stays locked in full-screen mode, so your child can’t wander somewhere else online or click around on the computer. After a minute or so, they’ll be brought back to the original family log-in screen, so the brother or sister who’s been patiently waiting in the wings can get a turn!
With 10 minute, 5 minute, and 2 minute warnings, Zoodles eases your child off the computer and on to a new activity without the tantrum. The 
You can set time limits in half hour increments anywhere from half an hour a day to 8 hours a day, and you can set them differently based on whether it’s a weekday, or a weekend. What’s more, each of your children have their own unique play timer settings, so you can limit them differently based on their individual play patterns!
I spent a large part of last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. While I love gadgets and new technology, I was drawn to CES this year by the Kids@Play conference held at CES. I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel about internet safety for children and to demo Zoodles. The panel and demo went very well, but the thing I came back from CES most excited about is all the enabling technologies that are going to improve the lives of children around the world!
Inside of Subjects, we’ve divided our games into 9 groups: Action Games, Art Games, Board Games, Brain Games, Math Games, Puzzle Games, Science Games, Sports Games, and Word Games. Hopefully not just one, but many of these areas, will appeal to your young ones!
Within the Characters tab, we’ve given your child easy access to games from all the shows and characters that they know and love. 
Lastly, we’ve created an Animals tab, a fun new way for families to think about the educational games on Zoodles!
