In an effort to kickstart this blog back to life, we thought we’d share some great news.  We’ve been recognized by Babble as one of the top 25 Android Apps for Moms!  Reaching over 6 million moms a month, Babble is a parenting site for “a new generation of parents.”  Their editorial crew sifted through tons of apps and highlighted our Kid Mode app as the #2 app for “Best Family Fun.”  Awesome!

Here’s what they said about us:

When that 10-minute restaurant wait turns into 20 and the coloring book that you brought along just isn’t up to the task, what’s a mom to do? Hand your kid your Android phone, of course. But before your toddler starts e-mailing your boss or updating your Facebook status, be sure to install the Kid Mode app that protects your phone by locking the Home button and then provides your kids (ages 2 through 8) with a selection of fun, educational games and videos geared specifically to each child’s age.  See the full article.

Check out the other winning apps at http://www.babble.com/products/mom-products/25-best-android-apps-for-moms/

Big thanks to Babble for highlighting our hard work and putting us in some great company!  To all of our Zoodles families, we just can’t say it enough.  Thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement – we would not be here without you!

Mark Williamson CEO & Co-Founder

One of the challenges that parents face is ensuring their kids build meaningful relationships with their aunts, uncles, grandparents and other family members.  This can be especially hard for families that are spread across the country like mine is.  While we live in California my daughters have aunts & uncles in Denver, Columbus OH, and Bethlehem PA while their grandparents are in Seattle and Columbus OH.  This means that they only get to see some of these family members once a year and with time zone differences it is close to impossible to Skype with them.

Since we build software that puts computers into Kid Mode, we thought we could improve the lives of families by enabling kids to connect with distant relatives.  Today we are announcing two new features that do exactly this:

Video Mail:

Finally, the most common activity online for adults – communications, is available to kids of all ages.  Zoodles Video Mail enables kids and family members to easily record and exchange video messages.  After a parent invites a family member to connect with their kids, that family member can record a message using a webcam, and that message is delivered directly to the child inside of the Zoodles computer app.  When a child clicks on their Mail tab, their new messages will immediately start to play as the picture below shows.

A child can easily reply to any video message and it is so easy that my soon-to-be 3 year old daughter can do it too.

Storybooks:

This feature was inspired by a conversation with a grandma in Texas who recorded herself reading books on mini-cassettes and mailed them to her grandchildren in California.  She was looking for a way for her grandchildren to hear her voice before bed so they could stay connected.  With Zoodles Storybooks she can now select one of the Zoodles classic storybooks to record for her grandchildren and they will automatically receive the recording in the Books tab inside the Zoodles computer app.  As the picture below shows, the experience is really compelling for kids:

We hope that Zoodles can play a meaningful role in connecting families across the country, and we can’t wait to see how families use these new features.

Guest Blog by Susan Long

Child playing video game

Way back in that other life, the one before kids, I’d spend long evenings building Roman cities or searching for treasure while my husband shot zombies and eluded the police. We were dedicated gamers and with no kids, we had plenty of time to indulge our hobby. Now that we have kids, we’re constantly surprised about how little quality information is available for parents. Like drugs and sex, parents are being told that the only safe way is to tell them “no way”. It’s true that there are risks you may not have considered but if you are armed with accurate information and educate yourself and your child, there are some definite benefits too!

Gaming – It’s Not All Bad….

Gaming can actually assist children with developmental stages. Depending on the game, children develop problem solving techniques, analytical thought and logic skills as well as developing better hand-eye coordination.  It’s a relatively safe, fun activity that allows awkward teens to “fit in” without exposing themselves to risky behavior. It’s also a fairly affordable source of entertainment for long school vacation periods.

The Real Hidden Danger…. Literally!

Most parents are unaware of “Easter Eggs”, “Cheat Codes” and “User Generated Expansions”. These are the real dangers to look out for and there is surprisingly little information out there for parents. Games that seem perfectly acceptable on the surface can contain unseen dangers!

Easter Eggs

Like the chocolate treat, gaming Easter Eggs are something the child must hunt for, it is hidden from sight and often missed by a parent testing out the game. In G and PG rated games, it may be something like a familiar cartoon character that goes unnoticed until the game has been played many times or a little feature that can only be seen after clicking certain background objects.

As the ratings move into M, R and AO, the Easter Eggs can get a little more adult. The most famous example of this is in the AO rated Grand Theft Auto modification where a series of codes unlocks graphic sex scenes.

Arguably, the first ever software Easter Egg may have been in a less exciting program. In an early version of Microsoft Word, spell checking the phrase “I’d like” came back with the suggestion “I’d like to see Bill Gate’s head on a plate” proving that it’s not just the cool game programmers that like to express themselves!

Cheats

A cheat code is a command that kids can type into the game to “unlock” advantages. Perhaps typing a line of code will give them unlimited money or allow them to skip to the next level. Usually these are pretty harmless but it’s worth investigating them before choosing a game for your child.

A good example is the EA Games best seller “The Sims”. Although it carries an M rating, it’s about raising families, buying nice clothes and pets, getting good grades at school and building a lucrative career. It can make game play feel like you are “virtually” playing dolls, and it is a favorite with 8-15 year old girls. Most parents are happy enough to allow their girls to play The Sims even though there are “implied” sex scenes. However, the built in game cheat “Censor Grid” allows the player to see the characters in a “mock” nude state and to kill the characters in strange and bizarre ways.

User Generated Expansions

Online Sims fan sites allow kids to download expansions for the game – letting them perform tasks or buy objects that are not condoned by EA Games. Unfortunately, some of this user generated content contains sexually explicit scenes and objects and anatomically correct skins. In other games, children can commit especially violent acts and engage in other activities with adult themes attached. This is especially common for PC games (it’s much harder for console games) so it is vital that parents thoroughly search fan sites, forums and any other game related site that their child visits. It may be possible also to block downloads from these sites using some parental lock software packages.

Physical Safety

Most parents are now aware of the physical downside to gaming. The rising childhood obesity rate is partly blamed on “screen time” and more and more kids are suffering back pain from sitting still at a desk or in a lounge chair for long periods. Like anyone sitting at a PC, it is important to make sure that the desk is ergonomically correct for your child. If they are playing on your computer, you may wish to purchase an adjustable desk and chair.

While the Wii Console is a bit of a revolution in gaming, it appears to be the main offender for gaming related injuries. Before you think about putting the Wii up on Ebay, you might want to re-assess how you think about it. If your children are playing active games on their Wii, treat it as a low level sport. Make sure they warm up a little first, that they don’t overdo it, that the playing area is free from dangerous obstacles, ensure they take plenty of breaks and that overall, it plays a healthy role in their lives (don’t let school results or social interactions be dictated by it). If your child starts to show signs of RSI, see your doctor immediately.

Although the experts don’t yet agree on how hard, too much screen time is definitely hard on little eyes. If your child shows any symptoms of eye strain, speak to your doctor or optometrist.

Online Gaming

With any online activity, children are at a small risk of being approached by inappropriate people. The same rules apply to online gaming as any other online activity:

• Mom must approve all new friends
• Mom must have all passwords
• Mom must monitor any conversations with people the child doesn’t know
• The child may not friend any adults, even ones they know well
• Mom must be able to monitor any “chats”

Most parents have the “stranger danger” talk with their children at quite a young age. As kids become interested in online activities, it’s time to have that talk again.

As with any game your child wishes to play, you should thoroughly investigate the online game to ensure it is age appropriate and that it does not allow user generated content. Popular online games like Second Life are not appropriate for young children for this reason.

On the flip side, online gaming is an especially good outlet for shy children and children who struggle to connect with friends. Children participating in multi-player online role playing games work with other kids to achieve quests and goals. This can be a wonderful exercise in building self esteem and social skills through feeling accepted.

This social aspect is however, one of the main reasons that online gaming is also the major growth area for “video game addiction”.

Video Game Addiction

It’s a controversial new topic but more and more, the experts are agreeing that video gaming can become an addiction. It is now listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders so is at least technically, an official mental illness. Kids get the same release of endorphins as they would gambling or taking drugs and any parent of a serious gamer will tell you that it can impact on their social, family and academic lives.

However, the addicted behavior is far less risky than more extreme examples like drug taking so it is probably more similar to the notion of television addiction than heroin addiction. The word “addict” has a tendency to create panic and over reaction in parents.

With any activity, it is vital to set boundaries and teach proper behavior early. Allowing children to explore gaming from a young age also allows parents to educate them about dangers and risks so that they can make informed decisions through to those especially difficult teen years.

If you feel that your child has a serious gaming problem, and talking, negotiating and setting boundaries have all failed, there are now support groups and psychological help available.

Video games are not all evil! Electronic entertainment is a phenomenon so great that it is definitely here to stay so, like anything in life, the best you can do is provide guidance and protection while they explore the big cyber world out there!

Author Byline

Susan Long is a mother of two mad gamers and one gamer of the future, when she finally has access to her computer, she writes about happy family holidays and Car Rental.

Guest blog by Traci S. Campbell

Tween Texting

Gone are the days of a cell phone being used “only in an emergency”, as my mother used to tell me. So long are the days when the only access to a computer was in the school computer lab or library. And when checking email was usually done at work or in the evenings at home, now it’s as commonplace throughout the day as grabbing a bottled water to drink (and for many, email and text takes more priority than taking time to hydrate their body).

Don’t get me wrong, the advent of the current technology trends – social media and texting in particular – have greatly changed the landscape of communication and information transfer. Overall, this is a positive phenomenon. However, for our tweens and teens, this phenomenon is much more than a better way to gather and transfer world news or current events. The current technology trends are shaping their social lives and how they communicate in general. For this reason, it is a very good idea to have a true grasp on just how widespread this impact is on their young lives. Could it be that our next generation is already the victim of technology overload?

According to research compiled and reported by sources such as the LA Times and the Kaiser Family Report, the following statistics give us a clear picture of how dependent our young people have become on modern technology:

• Texting is the second common use of cell phones after checking the time.
• Sixty-five percent of high school students use cell phones in school.
• One-quarter of text messages sent by teens are sent during class.
• Text messages connect kids instantly and privately.
• Images and messages can be spread virally or uploaded.
• Teens with phones averaged nearly 2,900 texts a month — a 566% increase in two years.

It is also important to note that the average amount of computer usage time those between 8-18 years of age has tripled in the last 10 years, from 27 minutes in 1999 to 1 hour and 30 mins in 2009.

So what does all of this data tell us? It is clear that we are seeing a generation that is more involved in less “human-related” activities than their counterparts from previous generations. This generation has more dependencies on technology than any generation before it. Gone are the days of coming home from school, dropping your books, and venturing outside to get in an hour or two of playtime before dinner.When I look back on those days, not only was I more physically active than my nieces and nephews are today, but I was also mentally “happier” and less stressed.

It is wise to encourage young people to find a healthy balance between the “old-fashioned” ways of recreation and communication and the current ones. Technology is great and is indeed the wave of the future. However, let’s also be mindful to encourage this generation to find time to walk away from technology and enjoy their youth with others – family and friends – in the flesh and not only through a computer screen or cell phone. Their minds and bodies will thank them – and you as a parent – for it in the long run.

Author Byline

Traci S. Campbell

Traci S. Campbell – author, family advocate, executive producer of “The C.H.A.M.P. Experiment”.

Contributed By Ginny Haynies Zoodles Marketing Team

According to reports, there are an estimated 40 million plus iPhones in circulation and 4.8 million Android devices activated per quarter. In addition, more than 3 million iPads were sold before July 1st. The sales only continue to grow and as the numbers increase so do the number of children with easy access to the Internet. With these devices comes the introduction of mobile applications for our children. As of September 2009, iPhone and Android users were downloading an average of 10 apps per month and iPod Touch owners at 18 apps per month. (http://blog.7touchgroup.com/tag/how-many-apps-sold-per-user/) A quick count of my own iPhone reveals 50+ applications with a large percentage of them being games, both fun and educational for my children.

According to Education.com there are currently over 3,400 education apps available for download at the iTunes store, with a large number of them targeted for children between the ages of two and five. They note that the top selling iPhone education app continues to be Wheels on the Bus and that “13 of the 20 top paid apps in this area are clearly child-directed.” (http://www.education.com/magazine/article/smartphones-kids) A quick search of the Android marketplace reveals the same trend occurring there. The preschool and young child market is clearly a hot topic and a market that is being heavily targeted.

Two great parent resources for finding great Smart Phone applications for your children are theiphonemom.com and momswithapps.com. While the iphonemom focuses more on iPhone/iPad applications, momswithapps also features Android applications. Their reviews and suggestions often lead you to some fantastic applications. While using discretion in selecting which mobile applications you choose to install on your device, you might also implement the 3 C’s approach to evaluating media for children as suggested by Lisa Guernsey, Director at the Early Education Initiative:

* Content – What is the basic premise of the app? How is it designed? Is it research based? Is it age appropriate? Does it come from a trusted source such as Sesame Workshop? There are a few great resources to help parents evaluate content, such as Common Sense Media and Children’s Technology Review.

* Context – Who is interacting with the child? How do parents talk about what’s on the screen? Is the child learning through a game, then applying that in another activity? Is the child telling stories about what he or she has experienced?

* Child – How much stimulation can this child take? What types of media trigger the most curious questions, playful reenactments, engagement and joy? What is she missing out on by spending time on the device – is she still exercising, socializing, and doing her schoolwork?

Apple reports that more than 1.7 million iPhone 4 phones were sold in the first week and that more than 75% of the devices sold were upgrades for existing customers. Which leads one to wonder: what is being done with the old phones? While many may be donated or resold, another use is to modify a few settings on your older model iPhone and let them function as an iPod Touch. Many of the current application offerings rival those of other popular hand held gaming systems and are quickly becoming more popular among elementary age children.

These same settings and suggestions are also easily applied to your own iPhone, iTouch, or iPad and will allow for some added security and protection if you choose to allow your child to play with your phone or device. These are all located under Settings -> General -> Restrictions.

The first step is to apply a passcode that you will remember, but your child does not know so that you can keep the restrictions in place.

Then you will see a list of choices of things you can either disable or set limitations to restrict. If you choose to use an alternate web browser application such as Mobicip or SafeEyes on your mobile device you will want to disable Safari so that you children will not get an unfiltered web browser. I also suggest you turn off YouTube. This will take away the button for YouTube, however, you would still be able to watch videos you have direct links to and through child safe video filters. This will keep little hands from navigating into Lady Gaga’s most recent music video accidentally. I also highly suggest you turn off In-App purchases. This will prevent your child from accidentally upgrading an application or purchasing something from within an application that they did not understand. Also located under settings are options for Music, Movie, App, and Podcast age ratings. Obviously the level that you choose to put these settings at would depend on if the device is being used by you primarily or if you are turning it into a dedicated child safe device.

As always the best advice is to closely watch your little one, but these precautions and settings can help to make your iProduct a bit more child-safe.

]]> http://www.zoodles.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/how-to-make-your-iphone-kid-friendly/feed/ 1 http://www.zoodles.com/blog/index.php/2010/04/zoodles-recommends-3-fun-ipad-apps-for-kids-adults/ http://www.zoodles.com/blog/index.php/2010/04/zoodles-recommends-3-fun-ipad-apps-for-kids-adults/#comments Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:58:25 +0000 Rachel http://www.zoodles.com/blog/?p=1197

The iPad has arrived, and we here at Zoodles have been happily fiddling with our “family Pad” all week.  Are you as excited as we are?  Touch interfaces may be sexy for adults, but they are an insane game changer in the world of kids and education.  Until now, a lot of the motor skill constraints that toddlers face have kept them from benefiting from the great education technology already out there.  Apple’s iPad breaks that barrier, and it enables content developers to build unique experiences for kids that don’t require a mouse or a keyboard.

We took it upon ourselves (and it wasn’t exactly torture) to play a few of the early apps out there with this kind of potential, and see what ones were fun for kids and adults alike.  Here’s what we found.

It’s free, and it’s pretty stinkin’ cool. Disney Digital’s Toy Story takes stunning visuals straight from the movie, and narrates the story as your child follows along with the highlighted words.  During the best scenes, short clips of the movie play. The coolest part is that parents can record themselves reading the story!  Now when kids beg “Again?” after their bedtime story, you can save your singing voice.

Smule makes us think that the future of music will never be the same. This app, Magic Piano, lets kids and adults create music without having to read notes or properly “hold” an instrument. With this $3.99 purchase, your family can unlock a bundle of instruments that sound and look something like a piano, but play more like a game.  Oh, the joy of music without the pain of practice. :-)

The name says it all, but Draw creates much more than a drawing experience for kids.  The extra goodness thrown in — Tic Tac Toe, Dots, and a Word game — make the classics feel young again, and make plain ol’ paper seem like a downgrade!  Once the scribbles are down, Draw lets you Tweet, email, or save them into perpetuity.  It’s the refrigerator door that never runs out of magnets!

Let us know if you discover any other cool apps, and stay tuned for our next batch of recs!

Coupled with developing motor skills, the thought of introducing your young one to a computer can be daunting.  Where do you start?  What are most kids able to do, and by what age?

In this post we thought we’d share our take on the stages you can expect your child to move through on their path to Computer Whizdom.  As with most things, their progress down this path will depend a lot on how much time they’re able to spend online playing, learning, and exploring.

1. Toys

Most of the first toys your child handles are bulky, colorful, and safe.  As your child learns to grasp these objects, they also learn how to wrangle fun sights and sounds out of them.  In this early stage of motor skill development, your child is just starting to understand that what they do physically can make something else in the world behave a certain way.

2. Screens

Soon after, your child will start to understand that screens – be they on the phone, TV, or computer – are places where things happen too.  Not only that, but they’ll quickly realize that they can make things happen there!  Depending on how developed their motor skills are, this is a great time to introduce toddlers to hand-banging keyboards like Fisher Price’s Laugh & Learn Keyboard Topper or full-body systems like the Wii or Leapster Zippity.

3. Touch

Touch is the third physical interaction usually mastered by tots.  Their little fingers do particularly well with touch screens, so the iPhone and iPad are great (though expensive!) interfaces for them to start with. With apps like My First Puzzles, the interaction between finger and screen can be so immediate that children can easily get caught thinking that the manipulatives on screen are real!

4. Pen

After touch, the next interfaces to learn are ones that involve pens.  No need to run out and get a tablet – you just need something interactive that will continue to develop your child’s fine motor skills without losing the feedback and immediacy of touch interfaces.  Whether your child spends time with crayons, Magna-Doodles, or Tag Readers, learning to grasp and use a pen tool will pave the way for mouse success.

5. Keyboard

The keyboard – mentioned previously in Screens – is a tool that can be mastered to varying degrees.  The first thing to learn is that banging on the keyboard causes things to happen on the screen.  That’s pretty much all your toddler needs to know to explore their powers on sites like Kneebouncers or Fisher-Price.  The next thing to learn is that different parts of the keyboard do different things, starting with the spacebar and arrow keys, and then the letter and number keys.  After the hunt and peck typing has begun, your child is well on their way towards 120 WPM typing!

6. Mouse

The mouse is a perplexing tool for kids.  The first thing they do – and easily too! – is start clicking away!  What you’ll quickly find is that clicking the mouse isn’t the hard part, it’s clicking the right thing on the screen that proves difficult.  To do this, your child has to understand conceptually that the small rounded device in their hand controls another small graphical image on the screen – the cursor.  Once they see that their hand and mouse movements map to the cursor’s movement, then they’re clicking really means something!   From there, they need to learn how to “click just one time,” do some clicking and dragging, and finally hit those double-clicks and right-clicks!

After watching lots of little ones struggle with their mouse at home or in our office, here are some recommendations:

Get a mouse they can grip. They’ve got tiny hands!

Get a mouse with one button. Left click vs. right click means nothing to them, and disaster to you!

Adjust the mouse speed. The cursor’s tiny as it is!  Why not slow down the speed, so they can actually watch it move!

7. Explore!

With these skills under their belt, your child will be well on their way to computer bliss and freedom.  As they explore, they’ll quickly pick up other important abilities like scrolling, searching, and navigation.

At that point, it’s not a question of “can they go,” but “where they go” that really matters.

And that’s where Zoodles comes in.  With Zoodles, you can trust that your little keybanger will not only be contained, but engaged, and educated, all from within the safety of our browser.  Our interface protects your computer, and our content safeguards your kids.  We feature content providers who are passionate about designing games, activities, and videos specifically for young developing users.

Truth be told, your little one will probably move through these stages faster than you can say “antivirus,” and you won’t have to do a thing.   They just need time to explore.

With Zoodles, you can trust that your child’s road to computer literacy will be a smooth one.  So let them drive.  You just sit back and enjoy the ride.

In an earlier post, we talked about all the ways that parents set screen time limits at home.  Whether they’re using the DVR to dole out episodes of Dora, or printing out sticker charts to make their kids play outside, different parents have different ways of handling their desire to limit the amount of media their children consume.

Introducing the Zoodles Play Timer!

That is why we’re pleased to present the Zoodles Play Timer,  a new feature that will help parents set the time limits they want, without the hassle of maintaining them or explaining and reexplaining them to their ever-desirous kids.

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!

Of course, no kid likes to be cut off cold turkey, so we’ve built in some friendly purple reminders that time is winding down.   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 wind-down process is important for every child to learn, and all parents know how painful this process can be if it’s not done artfully!

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!

We hope that you’ll enjoy this new feature, and all the ways that it strives to make your life easier!  As always, please let us know what you think once you’ve gotten a chance to try it out!

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!

Tablet computers, 3-D display technologies and touch screen interfaces are just a few of the technologies at the show that can be used to create compelling educational experiences.    I am looking forward to all the innovation that will come in the near future and excited to be part of a company that is trying to create those compelling experiences for children and parents.

Best,

Mark

Since Zoodles was launched, we’ve had the chance to talk to hundreds of parents about how they handle screen time in their home. Some parents have different rules for watching TV than for playing on the computer, or for TV shows versus DVDs.  Some parents regulate screen time based on their child’s age, the time of day, or the day of the week.  Some allow their kids to watch two hours a day, some set a timer, others give their kids free reign.  Many times the TV or the computer is used as a reward for good behavior, strong report cards, or well-performed chores.

How do you control screen time at home?

If you have any tips on regulating screen time at home, share them here!

We did some research on what Common Sense Media recommends for setting screen time limits, and these are the suggestions that we found:

1. Provide distractions.
2. Practice togetherness.
3. Do activities.
4. Delegate chores.
5. Schedule play dates.
6. Grant privileges.
7. Encourage creativity.

To read about each of those tips in more detail, be sure to visit the Common Sense Media website!

Does it really matter what they watch?

Of course!  We see it as both a parent’s responsibility, as well as Zoodles’ responsibility, to be extremely careful in the types of media we expose kids to.  It’s important to remember that children are affected by media differently depending on what stage of development they’re in.    For instance, preschoolers love songs and rhymes, and can be influenced heavily by the music they hear on the radio or that their parents play.

They also have trouble separating make believe from reality, and commonly imitate behavior they see.  This makes them particularly susceptible to the language and behavior they see on TV, even on educational shows from channels like PBS, Disney, and Nickelodeon. As they grow into kindergartners,  their love of humor takes off exponentially, and they continually experiment with new words and new ways of expressing themselves.  Even so, they are still surprisingly vulnerable to misunderstanding the intent of commercials or the difference between what’s real and what’s not.

With more age, a child’s freedom only increases, and kids by this time should understand for themselves the value of screen time limits, have the discipline to limit how much they watch on their own, and learn to differentiate between content that’s appropriate and inappropriate for them.

This is why it’s important to not only implement good screen time limits for you and your family, but to engage with your children in conversations about what it means to be a smart media consumer.  To do our part here at Zoodles, we are always taking careful steps to not only monitor the educational value of our content, but the level of violence involved, the presence of advertising, and the overall age-appropriateness of the content.

Zoodles is proud to announce the release of a major new feature, ad-blocking!  With Zoodles ad-blocking enabled, children will no longer be exposed to ads within the Zoodles browser.

Since the founding of the company we have heard over and over again from parents that the advertising their children are subjected to results in parents being less comfortable putting their children online.  As a parent I feel the same way and I have personally found many of the ads that are displayed on sites for children not only annoying, but in some cases disturbing.  Here are a few examples of ads that we have found on sites for children:

Just look at this Nissan ad we found on a popular gaming site!  Do they really think 7 year olds are interested in cash back on a sedan?

What parent wants their child playing a game described as “Action Shooter Meets Gang Themed MMO”… much less even looking at the ad!:

And finally, here is an ad I am happy that my daughter will now never see again -  Hugh Hefner with partially dressed women promoting a video game!  Not the example I want to set for my 5 year old daughter!

I am happy to state that all of these ads will be blocked by the new and improved Zoodles browser!

Blocking advertising from children will also result in their ability to better concentrate on the games and activities they are trying to perform.  A child who is playing a challenging math game won’t have to waste working memory on the giant flashing advertisement next to the game, they will be able to use all their cognitive abilities on learning!

Below is an image that shows the difference the Zoodles ad-blocker can make.  The screen shot on the left shows a game from Nick Jr. with all the advertisements highlighted in red while the screen shot on the right shows the same game with the Zoodles ad-blocking enabled.  Notice all the sections of the screenshot on the right that are highlighted green… these are where the ads used to be. For those you counting, yes if you counted correctly… there were 8 ads on the original page!

Here is another game for children showing the before and after effects of Zoodles blocking ads targeted to children.

With over 18 advertisements targeted to children in the above screen shot you can really see the effect of removing ads from the child’s experience.

I want to thank the entire team for working hard on building this new Premium Feature, especially Michael on our engineering team!  Every family who signs-up for Zoodles will get a free trial of the Zoodles Premium Membership and they can test this feature out for themselves.  For any of you parents out there that find ads still showing up in Zoodles, just let us know and we will hunt them down and find a way to block them!

So if you hate advertisements targeted toward children be sure to tell your friends about Zoodles and how we block advertisements from kids!

Zoodles thinks so!

And according to new research released by Haier et al at Blue Planet Software, we’re not far from the truth.  A recent MSNBC article reports the findings as evidence that playing certain video games – in this case, Tetris – can actually enhance parts of the brain related to critical thinking and reasoning.  More research is being done on what kinds of games can improve cognitive areas related to memory and spatial reasoning.

We at Zoodles strongly believe that games have the ability to improve mental acuity, and not just in areas like memory and spatial reasoning.  During our many usability studies, we’ve seen incredibly rapid learning happen right before our eyes!  When kids are young, their brains are developing at such rapid rates that we can’t stress enough how important it is to continue stimulating them!  The important thing that many parents miss is that this kind of mental toning occurs best in a relaxed, engaging environment, where games form the perfect backdrop!

Games enable children to be challenged while also engaged, and to learn new things without even realizing it!  In the face of overly-difficult material, games have the ability to buffer frustration and increase motivation with a constant stream of clever game mechanics like new levels and rewards.  We believe the Zoodles browser provides this kind of learning environment for every child.

If you’re a parent and you have some fun brain-enhancing stories about your kids learning on Zoodles, we’d love to hear them!

And you know, stimulating brain games aren’t just for kids, they’re for adults too!  While many of the eight-year-old games on Zoodles are actually still ridiculously fun for us big kids at the office, we thought parents might like a trip to Lumos Labs for some “scientifically designed Brain Games” of their own.  Enjoy!

If you’re interested in learning more about the different parts of the brain, check out this neat interactive applet put together by MSNBC, New Roadmap to the Mind.

A recent article in the New York Times points to the transition schools will soon be making from textbooks and worksheets to digital books and interfaces.  Despite the generally optimistic outlook schools might have towards a digital future, many parents are hesitant to feel the same.  There’s concern that something indescribable will be missing from their child’s education with the dearth of the textbook.  Here at Zoodles we thought we’d take a step back and look at what the Digital Era could mean for you as a parent, and how to come to terms with its transition into schools.  If you have any thoughts of your own on the matter, we would love to hear them!

1. Moving to free, open-source digital textbooks alleviates a significant amount of the financial burden on state education systems, particularly if students already have access to some electronic form of distribution.  It can be extremely costly to keep traditional textbooks updated, and in a rapidly changing world, they’re quick to become outdated.  The transition helps your child get only the latest information in schools, and it also saves their backs from such heavy loads!
2. Teachers are no longer forced to create lesson plans in subjects beyond their expertise or duplicate work that’s already been done by others.  Instead, they can combine their efforts and form a pool of only the best educational content online.  Saving teachers from having to sift through thousands of websites and activities on their own gives them more time to learn about your child.
3. Kids are wired differently these days. With growing research on all the ways kids use digital media, it’s clear that kids are developing new (and necessary) skills for a changing world.  This generation of toddlers and teenagers are growing up setting the DVR to record their favorite shows, sending emails rather than letters, and tapping into the Internet every day knowing that they have an infinite base of knowledge at their fingertips.  Even from the usability testing that we do here at Zoodles, we’ve had some superhuman three year olds show us how to use the mouse, the keyboard, and scrollbar to play – and even cheat – at complex computer games!
4. While the transition to digital in schools may be scary, there’s also a great opportunity to let the change carry over into your home.  With the Internet, you and your child gain access to worlds of amazing educational content, right from the comfort of your own home.

Thus, as a parent, you face the same responsibility that many teachers face every day – filtering thousands of pages of content down to only the best content for your kids.  Inspired by the open-source model described in the Times article, we decided to track down the best up-and-coming websites for finding open-source textbooks and curricula.

The first is Curriki, a non-profit organization started by Sun Microsystems with the intent of “creating a community that supports the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them.”

The second is CK-12, a non-profit organization with the mission of “reducing the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market, using an open-content, web-based collaborative model termed the “FlexBook.”  While the content on CK-12 is currently very focused on high school, the platform enables parents and teachers to share content for all grades.

Third is Scholastic’s TeacherShare, a new project by Scholastic that was founded with the mission of “making high quality educational content and tools freely available on the web.”

Finally, there’s Zoodles.  Like the others, Zoodles was founded to help you as a parent traverse the often-intimidating world of the Internet, and easily put only the latest and greatest educational content in front of your child.  Unlike the others, however, we focus our help on parents with younger children.  These are the parents who face the unique challenge of introducing their children to computers and the Internet for the first time, who spend late nights looking for activities that match their child’s rapidly changing abilities, and who worry that along the way the wrong website  will slip through.  With Zoodles, we hope that parents everywhere can feel equipped to face the digital future, whether it happens in schools or at home.

I admit it, I am a little nervous.  Normally at this time of the year I am nervous because I am waiting to see how the Chicago Cubs will break my heart… but that isn’t the case this year.  No, this year I am not nervous about the Cubs (this really is our year!), I am actually a little nervous because my oldest daughter is starting kindergarten!  This monumental event has had two questions running through my mind over the weekend:

1. How did my little girl get old enough to go to kindergarten?
2. With just a week until school starts, what can we do to have Abbie brush up on some math and reading basics?

Since Tara, my wife, will tell me that the answer to the first question is “you are getting old”, I will focus on trying to answer the second question.

Much has been written about the concept of “Summer Learning Loss”, so Tara has worked hard to keep Abbie engaged over the summer in numerous academic activities.  As Zoodles longest running user (yes, I exposed Abbie to our product *very* early… poor kid was our first tester ;-)), Abbie does love playing on the computer.  So this week we have decided to use a newly updated feature of Zoodles that allows parents to “promote” educational subjects in their child’s toybox.  The following picture shows our new interface which equally weights all the academic areas:

Given that we are interested in Abbie brushing up on her math and reading skills we have gone ahead and increased the focus on these subjects by simply moving the sliders up.  As you can see from the color coded representations of games, Abbie now has more math and reading games in the front of her toybox.  Pretty cool!

So now Zoodles parents across the country can let their child play online while also influencing exactly what subject areas they are going to be playing in!

With the summer winding down and school just around the corner, many parents might be considering buying a laptop for their child. The recent onslaught of cheap and durable Netbooks available brings the question to nearly every parent’s mind:

Is now the right time?

The Disney Netpal in Princess Pink

Just this week, Disney has begun shipping its first line of laptops geared towards kids ages 6 – 12. The “Disney Netpal,” released in Princess Pink and Magic Blue, comes equipped with web-safe browsing and email, WiFi capability, USB connectivity, and a 0.3 megapixel webcam. On top of being marketed as sturdy and spill proof, the laptop weighs only 2.20 lbs and features an 8.9 inch display. The Netpal is just the latest to join the ranks of the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) and Classmate PC in the growing market of laptops for kids.

While none of us at Zoodles have had the chance to play with one yet, the $350 Disney Netpal inspired us to find out what kinds of questions parents should be asking themselves before reaching into their wallets to buy a laptop for their child.

Here’s what we found:

First, it’s really important to think about why you want to buy a laptop for your child in the first place, and what needs in your home you think it will fill.  Is your child watching too much television?  Many parents have the desire to replace television time with something better for their child, but just don’t have the time to find it.  As a quick fix, many parents feel that buying a laptop will do the trick, and that having a laptop will automatically make their children more prepared academically.  And yes, while research does show that having and using a computer in the home is positively correlated with academic achievement, there’s no distinction made between desktops and laptops (1). Keeping that in mind, there’s no reason why the desktop that you already have in your home needs to be replaced or supplemented.

Instead, what really matters is the kind of content that you’re putting in front of your child. A 2005 study from the Journal of Research in Childhood Education showed that kindergartners who frequently use educational math and literacy software or games are more likely to have high academic achievement (1). What this means for you as a parent is that getting your child off the TV isn’t enough, their time needs to be supplemented with interactive educational material to really make an impact.

Another reason many parents consider purchasing a laptop for their child is because they want him or her to be in a safe, contained online environment. Contained in both senses of the word – parents don’t want their kids to get access to inappropriate content, but they also don’t want their kids messing with Mommy or Daddy’s personal websites and applications!

The problem with buying a laptop to alleviate this fear, however, is that it has the potential to open a whole new panoply of other dangers. A laptop enables your child to use the computer anywhere they want, including a friend’s house, or their bedroom, where their online activities go unsupervised. In fact, Common Sense Media suggests keeping computers out of kids’ bedrooms until late middle school, when your child is old enough to understand basic Internet safety. If you’re ready to have that discussion with your child, take a look at some of the ground rules recommended by Common Sense Media to get started.

Here at Zoodles we believe we address both the concerns that might drive you to purchase a laptop. We not only provide your child with educational math and literacy content, but we contain your child in a safe and engaging online environment that you can always control and monitor, no matter what kind of computer they’re on, or where they might be playing. So whether you decide to take the plunge and buy a Disney Netpal or not, Zoodles has you and your family covered.

(1) Judge, Sharon. 2005. “The impact of computer technology on academic achievement of young African American children” Journal of Research in Childhood Education. (2005). Print.