Contributed by Mike Portuesi Zoodles Engineering Team

When I’m not building new product features here at Zoodles, I’m very involved with Astronomy as a hobby. It gives me the opportunity to engage the public, especially young people, and share my excitement with astronomy and science in general. One of the joys of my work as a citizen science educator includes judging duties at the San Francisco Middle School Science Fair.

This year’s fair included 210 entries, pooled from the winning projects at twenty-nine schools across San Francisco. Around 30 volunteer judges with career experience in science and technical fields break into teams of three to four people to judge entries across three grade levels (6th, 7th, and 8th) as well as three categories (Biological Sciences, Behavioral and Health Sciences, and Physical Sciences).  I was the team lead judging 7th grade Physical Sciences, which included 22 entries.

Every year, I’m impressed by the thought and creativity that go into the projects, and this year was no exception.  Some of the more notable entries I encountered include:

Clouds in a Jar - inspired by the notion of catching and bottling a bit of ‘magic’, the student tried generating clouds in a jar with a crafty process involving water, a match and a rubber glove.

Can my Laptop Get Better Reception? – in this case, the student, wanting better wireless network connectivity for his computer, built radio antennas from cookie sheets, wire strainers and Pringles cans, and judged their effectiveness.

Singing Wine Glasses – The student investigated how liquids alter the sound produced when you run a finger over the rim of a wine glass.  The student experimented with not only the amount of liquid, but the viscosity, including such odd ingredients as almond butter!

Our team rated each project in three areas:

Methodology – Did the student come up with appropriate “controls”, or standards of comparison for the experiment? Was the experimental procedure sound?  I look for experiments where the student investigates the “whys”, or the science principles behind the experiment, rather than just demonstrates an effect or makes simple measurements (as in one project that simply timed the speed of popular web browsers).

Creativity – Is this an original, offbeat idea, or did the student pull the project from a book like “101 Science Fair Projects”? The most creative projects, like “Clouds in a Jar”, were motivated by a student’s real-life observation, which piqued their curiosity and spurred them to learn more through discovery.

Communication – How well did the student present his or her hypothesis, procedure, experimental data and conclusions?  Are the charts and graphs clear?  As judges, we value clarity and completeness over slick presentations produced with fancy graphics software.

Science Fair Do’s and Don’ts

A science fair project is a perfect way you and your child can have a rewarding, enriching experience together, and maybe produce one of tomorrow’s generation of scientists and engineers.

Here’s some ways you and your child can work together to produce a winning entry:

• Gently urge your child to come up with their own idea from real life that will motivate them and make them excited. These projects get the most time with, and discussion amongst, the judges.
• Photos are a great way not only to spice up the look of the project, but also to give the judges a real flavor for what the student really did.
• Let the child lead, and drive the direction of the project. You can assist the child with trickier bits, and suggest resources for more information, but don’t give them answers outright or do their work for them. Trust me: the judges can tell.
• Make sure your child provides proper credit where credit is due, if he/she includes materials from elsewhere or gets help with various aspects of the project. Judges always react positively to honesty, but will mark down projects where they suspect another’s work used without attribution.
• It’s okay to include background research in your final presentation, such as a report.  Even quoting Wikipedia works for me, if I have a feeling the child actually read and learned from it, rather than just hit copy/paste.  But make sure the background information is not the centerpiece of the offering. Judges want to see more than a book report, they want to see true creative, experimental effort on the child’s part.

One of the best ways to instill  a love of learning in kids is to find the teaching moments in everyday life, not just in school.  Well why not try the Olympics?

Recently we caught wind of an amazing partnership between NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation to create a project called Science of the Olympic Winter Games. Through the partnership, NBC Learn and the NSF have produced 15 short, engaging videos where Olympic athletes – many of whom are starring in the 2010 Winter Games – explain the mechanics behind their sport.

In one video, figure skater Rachel Flatt practices her routines in front of a phantom camera that captures her motion at rates of up to 1500 frames per second.  Sports science professor Deborah King then breaks down each of Rachel’s moves – from her quadruple toe loops to her basic spins – explaining concepts like angular momentum, vertical velocity, and other laws of motion.  Deborah even uses the spinning chair in her office to demonstrate the concepts herself!

The dynamic videos, which you can watch at NBC Learn, use the thrill and competition of the Winter Olympics to teach physical concepts like the air lift in ski jumps, the forces involved in a hockey slapshot, and the careful design behind ice skates, snowboards, safety gear, and even the suits athletes wear.

Pair these videos with their accompanying lesson plans at Lessonopoly.org, and you’ve got a slew of amazing science lessons in your back pocket.  Elizabeth Rhodes, the developer of the curriculum, said her hope was that kids would watch the Olympics and realize,

“Science isn’t something that’s in a book; it’s out there on the ice, it’s there with the skiers, it’s in the hockey and curling.”

When the Olympics are over, the learning doesn’t have to stop there.  Thousands more math and science lessons can be found at Lessonopoly.org, an ambitious project supported by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation that lets teachers share their materials and make them freely available online.

Read more about this partnership in the San Jose Mercury News article, “Students learn the science of Olympics.”

Are you a teacher who’s tried to use Zoodles?  Whether your school has SmartBoards and computer labs, or nothing at all, Zoodles is interested in hearing about your experiences using Zoodles in the classroom.

Teachers today have interesting ways of using Zoodles – whether it’s playing games as a class on the Promethean board, or setting up multiple student accounts in the lab – one per grade – we’ve been fascinated by all the ways that teachers have adapted Zoodles to meet their needs.

With that said, we’d really love to make Zoodles something that adapts to you, rather than the other way around.  So if you or anyone you know is a teacher who’s interested in giving Zoodles feedback, send us an email at feedback [AT] zoodles DOT com, and we’ll work with you to set up a 20 – 30 minute call.  In exchange for your time and good will, we’d be happy to give your school a year of Zoodles Premium in return.

Thanks so much, and we hope to be talking with you soon!

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.

Here’s how it works:

1)  You read how we rate the games.

2)  You choose what rating level is right for your child.

3) We take care of the rest.

Zoodles will only include games in your child’s Toybox that respect your settings.

Why we built it

If you do a Google search for “violence filter,” you’ll quickly realize what a huge need there’s been for something like this.  A combination of all the filters out there will probably get you something that filters gambling sites, pornography, adware, pop-ups, chatrooms, and even social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace.  All this and more, but not violence.  And even if, after hours of searching, you found one, it would predictably be just like the others – essentially a big on-off switch.  With issues like gambling and pornography, an on-off switch probably makes sense.  But with violence, there are wildly varying opinions on what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate for children of different ages.

It comes down to this.  Parents have preferences when it comes to the media that their children consume, whether it’s their book at bedtime, the show on TV, or their favorite site online.  When it comes to movies, parents have no choice but to rely on the G-PG-PG-13 rating system developed by the Motion Picture Association.  It’s not great, but it’s something.  It’s a universal standard that all shows and movies are held accountable to.

There’s no equivalent universal rating system for your child’s media content online.  So how can a parent feel confident that their children are safe? The answer is, they don’t.  They let their kids go online, but with the deep, nagging fear (only worsening as their kids grow older) that something will slip through -  that new content will be put on the site, or that their kids will wander somewhere new, somewhere they don’t belong.  Even the parents who do their fair share of homework screening sites ultimately have to take a leap of faith about what brands they can trust, and can only hope that they live up to their kid-friendly promises.

Here at Zoodles we’ve taken it upon ourselves to be the place online you can trust.  Any time we add content to Zoodles, we take into consideration its educational value, its entertainment value, and its appropriateness for children.  But even a team of thousands would fall short in knowing your child as well as you do.  Parents know best.  That’s why we not only pre-screen all our content and restrict your child to these pre-approved sites, but we give you sublime control over what parts of this content make it through to your child.  The violence filter is one more step in this direction.  The way it’s been designed is simple:  We tell you how we rate the games, and you choose what rating level you think is appropriate for your child.  We take care of the rest.

To try the violence filter out for yourself, visit the Parent Dashboard under Education and Parental Controls. As always, let us know what you think!

We’re happy to welcome two new members to the Zoodles Education Team, Jason and Yaa!  Content is king in the Zoodles world, and the Education Team is our front line in ensuring that the games on Zoodles are the best of the best.  Whether your family uses Zoodles for entertainment, education, or both combined, it’s the quality of our team and the strength of their experience that makes Zoodles the go-to web destination for parents and children alike.  We’re very proud to have Jason and Yaa join our team, and we look forward to getting the games they’ve reviewed in front of kids everywhere!

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.

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

In the spirit of the new year, Zoodles is proud to announce a new interface for older kids!

With the new interface, we hope to give older Zoodles kids (ages 6+) more ways to find the content that they want.  Notice the new look and feel of the tabs at the top – including new destinations like Subjects, Characters, and Animals.  Each of these tabs leads to different categories of games and activities.

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!

What’s your favorite tab so far? If you haven’t been back to Zoodles in a while, now’s the time to come on by! And as always, please be sure to send us your feedback and help us improve. We hope you’ll enjoy this new Zoodles experience!

Visit our blog next week to read about Zoodles’ trip to CES, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas!  (And if you happen to be in the area, swing by Kids at Play to say hello!)

What a year!

With the close of 2009, Zoodles marks its first year as a company! 2009 has treated us well: we’ve seen the growth and development of our team, our product, and most importantly, our network of families and supporters. We couldn’t have asked for a better first year, or a better group of people to help ring in our second. Who knows what 2010 has in store…but we’re turning one! It’s time to celebrate!

Being a parent, like most of you, my last couple of weeks have been incredibly busy.  With family visiting, gifts to purchase, and work to be done I forgot to blog…. sorry about that!  I want to take this moment to wish you and your little ones a happy holidays!  We hope all of your child’s dreams came true and that the holidays were relaxing and enjoyable to you.

Best,

Mark

Give the Gift of Zoodles!

We’re kicking off this holiday season by asking all our friends and family to consider sharing Zoodles as a gift with loved ones big and small!   Zoodles is truly the gift that keeps on giving, as it harnesses the power of the Internet and stays unbeatably fresh with the best educational content on the web.

Whether it’s Zhu Zhu pets, a new Lego set, or the latest Leapfrog game, no gift has better staying power than Zoodles.  As every Toybox gets filled daily with new games and activities, Zoodles will continue to entertain and educate your loved ones’ children long after the holidays are through.

And children aren’t the only ones who benefit! With the gift of Zoodles, you provide parents with unmatched insights into their child’s latest interests, and complete control over their child’s safety online.

You’ve experienced the joy of Zoodles yourself, now reach out to friends and family and share with them an award-winning product with long-lasting benefits.

Give the Gift of Zoodles!

With the start of this warm holiday season, we couldn’t be more grateful for all the love and support, time and energy, and straight-up hard work that everyone has poured into Zoodles. It’s hard to believe this is our first Thanksgiving together, isn’t it?  A deep thanks from all of us, to all of you who have contributed to our growing success.  There’s a lot of work left to do, but we will never stop thinking how we are so, so thankful for you.

]]> http://www.zoodles.com/blog/index.php/2009/11/happy-thanksgiving-from-the-zoodles-team/feed/ 0 http://www.zoodles.com/blog/index.php/2009/11/greedy-or-grateful-teaching-our-kids-to-be-thankful-beyond-the-holidays/ http://www.zoodles.com/blog/index.php/2009/11/greedy-or-grateful-teaching-our-kids-to-be-thankful-beyond-the-holidays/#comments Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:18:02 +0000 rachel http://www.zoodles.com/blog/?p=671

As the holiday season fast approaches, many of us are scrambling to think of a new gift to pile into our child’s crowded laps.  Whether it’s a Leapster, a box of Legos, or the holiday craze that is Zhu Zhu Pets, we all want the best for our children.  We want them to feel delighted by our present, excited to share it with friends, and ultimately loved and provided for by their parents.

We hardly ever think about gratitude, and how teaching our children to feel gratitude may actually be the best and most long lasting gift we could give them.  When kids are taught to appreciate the people and things around them, they learn to be delighted, excited, and loved by even the smallest of gestures.  Conversely, kids raised on a steady diet of the latest hit, can slowly become fueled by greed, and oftentimes become materially and emotionally hard to satisfy.

Inspired by Thanksgiving and looking ahead to Christmas, we thought we’d pass on some of Parenthood.com’s tips for teaching thankfulness.  So without further ado!

Tips for Breaking Down Greed, and Building Up Gratitude

• Get the wish-list habit. Holidays are a perfect time to start. Explain that your child won’t be able to have everything on the list, so sorting them in order of priority is helpful. When children have to choose among alternatives, they have to consider what’s important to them. You can help them do some of this thinking aloud.

• Encourage saving. Children who get everything they want without having to wait lose the joy that comes with saving their own money to get some of what they want. Some children are ready by the age of 4 or 5 to begin saving for a special item on their list.

• Introduce hobbies that last. Collecting is fine, but encourage free and inexpensive possibilities, too, such as the bookmarks given away in bookstores, leaves, stones or shells. Postcards are inexpensive, and your child can write something about where she bought it on the back of each one. The best hobbies are those that encourage creative or inventive or persistent activity, not continuous buying.

• Opt for real experiences. Some families overplay the importance and value of things by making shopping a family event, a substitute for adventure, notes Jerry Stubben, Ph.D., a psychologist with the Institute for Social and Behavioral Research at Iowa State University and the co-leader of a family-oriented substance abuse prevention program in which non-materialistic values play an integral role. Stubben advises teaching children to think “beyond what the rest of the world has produced and to make something for themselves.” The good feelings that come from surmounting a challenge, learning something new, producing something creative or helping someone often last longer than the temporary boost derived from buying something new.

• Be creative. Taking your child on picnics and hikes can be a wonderfully grounding balance to shopping and other more artificial entertainment. One evening, turn out all the lights, give everyone flashlights and camp out on a blanket in the living room. Challenge your child to help you find ways to keep busy and entertain yourselves without any high-tech distractions.

• Be charitable. The holidays – but really anytime – are good for introducing the idea of charity. Even a preschool child can benefit from having a little “giving box” into which you and your child put change to be given to a charity. Consider hosting a party for which guests are asked to bring a donation for a charity instead of a gift. Take your child with you when you make donations and explain why you’re doing it.

• Teach media savvy. Confront media influences with your child. Whenever you see commercials together, talk about how the company is trying to convince you that you need it when you probably don’t. When your child says, “Buy me that,” help him weigh the pros and cons of each potential purchase. Is it less exciting than it looks? Will it last? You won’t always convince your child, but you’ll open his eyes to the way we can easily be swayed by bright colors, sounds or seemingly overjoyed paid child models playing with some trendy toy.

• Give your child a broader context. By the age of 6, children can begin to understand the perspectives of other people. As your child grows, try to share with her a broader view. Point out that much of the world’s population has never even made a telephone call, much less played the latest computer games. Many millions of people walk wherever they have to go, with only an occasional donkey, bicycle or bus ride. There’s probably a neighborhood not too far from your home where you can show your child a glimpse of how little some other people have.

• Understand and combat peer pressure. School-age children want to look like their peers and own what their peers own. They need to learn that you’re not a soft touch for this, that they can spend their own money on such extras. They’ll be much more discerning if they see how hard it is to stretch an allowance or baby-sitting money to cover brand name clothes.

• Finally, look to yourself. Do you have multiples of every piece of sports, kitchen or high-tech equipment? Do you make negative remarks in your child’s presence about how people dress or how their homes or cars look? Do you ever buy goods for your child because you are bored or because you’ve been short of patience with her lately? If the answer is yes, perhaps you and your child can work on curbing your materialism together.

The tips above were gratefully drawn from Parenthood.com’s “10 Simple Ways to Combat Greed,” which can be found in full text here.

Product recalls are not an area that we typically write about, but given that so many of us have little ones in cribs we wanted to spread the word about an important crib recall that was announced today.

Earlier today the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) along with Stork Corporation (a Canadian company) announced the recall of over 2.1 Million cribs.  These cribs were sold under the Stork Craft brand name as well as the Fisher-Price brand name.  The problem with the crib is that the “drop-side” can detach from the rest of the crib creating a highly dangerous situation.  Here are the relevant photos that show how the detachment of the drop-side from the crib and create a potentially tragic situation:

So what should you do?  First, determine if you have a crib that meets the recall.  Here are the instructions from Stork and the CPSC:

“The manufacture date, model number, crib name, country of origin, and the firm’s name, address, and contact information are located on the assembly instruction sheet attached to the mattress support board. The firm’s insignia “storkcraft baby” or “storkling” is inscribed on the drop-side teething rail of some cribs. In Stork Craft cribs that contain the “Fisher-Price” logo, this logo can be found on the crib’s teething rail, in the manufacturer’s instructions, on the assembly instruction sheet attached to the mattress support board, and on the end panels of the Twinkle-Twinkle and Crystal crib models.”

Below are photos showing you where to check on your specific crib:

If you have a crib that is included in this recall first you need to find an alternative sleep environment for your child.  Some options to consider would be co-sleeping for a short period of time, using a “pack & play” or some other sleep alternative.  Next contact Stork Craft to get your free repair kit.
Here is the contact information for Stork Craft: (877) 274-0277 or go to www.storkcraft.com.

Bedtime routines are a tricky business.  They’re time-consuming, they’re sensitive to change, they’re hard to implement, and even harder to undo.  But scientific research shows that without them, kids have a tougher time sleeping through the night, or won’t fall asleep at all, or even if they do, it’s only after a frustrating bout of resistance that puts you in a bad mood for your bedtime.  After doing a little in-house research with the parents and babysitters among us, along with some mom blog and child psychology perusal, we’ve collected these tips from the battlefront:

Use the day as your ally.

Keeping the nighttime disasters down to a minimum actually depends a lot on how you schedule your child’s day.  Make sure your kids have plenty of time to run around and expend their energy.  If an afternoon nap is part of the lineup, make sure to follow it with some physical activity before dinner.

Master the after-dinner wind-down.

Many parents view the time after dinner as their best chance at having a peaceful rest of the night.  Watching a favorite DVD or playing quietly with toys is often slotted here, as neither requires much supervision, and both give parents a much needed period to relax and clean up after dinner.  This is also the time many parents have told us they use Zoodles.  With the added benefit that it’s educational, Zoodles gives parents a painless way to slow kids down and keep them quietly entertained at the same time.

Remember, timing is everything.

The bedtime routine should start at the same time every night, approximately half an hour before you’d like your child to fall asleep.  Take into account that children need anywhere between 11 and 12 hours of sleep a night!

Give plenty of fair warning.

Nothing’s worse than being interrupted in the middle of a game!  Give a half hour warning before the start of the bedtime routine, and then a 20 minute, 10 minute, and 5 minute warning.  This gives your child plenty of time to adjust to the idea of sleeping.

It’s never too late to start.

Sure, old habits die hard, but it’s never too late to introduce a bedtime routine to an otherwise unruly night.  If your child’s gotten used to falling asleep at 10 (or later!), and you’d like to scale that back to an earlier hour, introduce the routine by starting off at 9:30.  Stick to that start time for a full week while your child adjusts to the new world order.  The next week, move the bedtime routine ten minutes earlier.  Rinse and repeat until your bedtime routine is starting at 7:30, and your child’s droppin zZz’s by 8.

Choose your activities carefully.

Consistency is king, so make sure and choose activities that you’d be happy to do hundreds of thousands of times, night after night, year after year.   Some of the most popular ways to wind down?  Take a warm bath, change into PJ’s, brush teeth, comb hair, read a book together, sing a lullaby.  What all these things have in common is that they keep your child’s volume and energy low.

Keep it the same, every time!

Aside from the occasional trip to the movies or the late night out for Thanksgiving dinner, keep your regimen of bedtime activities consistent.  Don’t add, remove, or switch things around!  This includes special snuggle sessions and extended trips to Mom and Dad’s bed, even if it’s just “five more minutes!”  Your child will start to derive massive amounts of comfort from the regularity of your schedule together.

No negotiating, ever.

Nobody knows this better than you – some nights, no matter how hard you try, or how smoothly things run, they just- won’t- go.  The offending tactics are all over the spectrum.  Some little ones will tiptoe out and wander around in the hall, others will simply kick and scream in your arms, and many a devious child will flip the lights back on as soon as you shut the door.  Nestor Lopez-Duran, PhD from Child Psychology Research advises parents to be firm and repeat the phrase “It’s time to sleep,” without qualifying the statement or entering into a negotiable conversation.  Guide them back to bed every time, for as many times as it takes.

This was the advice that we found, but there are bound to be things we missed.  The important thing is to find what works for you.  Take it from us, it’s a worthwhile investment.  Without a bedtime routine, you’ll be fighting a war that’s hard to win… at least until they hit their teens, when your new daily struggle will be getting them out of bed. 

Jodi A. Mindell, Lorena S. Telofski, Benjamin Wiegand, & Ellen S. Kurtz (2009). A Nightly Bedtime Routine: Impact on Sleep in Young Children and Maternal Mood Sleep, 32 (5), 599-606

With the end of fall comes parent teacher conferences, and many parents have just experienced, or are nervously anticipating, one of the few chances they have to sit down with their child’s teacher and hear how their child is doing in school.

In her article “Preparing for the Parent Teacher Conference,”  long time teacher Diane Milne mentions a number of helpful ways to ease your nerves and communicate or understand everything you’ve been wanting to know about your child in half an hour.  We’ve boiled her thoughts down into 8 basic tips:

1. Write your questions down beforehand, in prioritized order.
2. Touch not only on your child’s academic performance at school, but their social well being.
3. Ask how you can help your child do better in school.
4. Be honest when the teacher asks you questions in return.
5. Even when you disagree, keep an even temper and do not accuse or insult the teacher.
6. Work towards a solution that involves both of you.
7. Be willing to share what is going on in your child’s home life that may affect his time at school.
8. End on a note that makes the teacher feel supported and appreciated.

Supporting your child’s education extends beyond his or her teacher – there are also a number of ways to support your child by supporting their school, their local community, and other parents.  Read what the PTA (Parent Teacher Association) suggests as 100 Ways to Help Your Child and School Succeed.

Still left in the dark?

Of course, no matter how effective your parent teacher conference is, half an hour with the person who spends 30 hours a week with your child will never feel like enough.  No matter how well intending, busy parents plus busy teachers make for a *very busy* combination.   The result?  You start to feel left in the dark.  Increasingly disconnected from what your child can or can’t do, what they like, or what they’re good at.  You start to battle this constant worry that you’re not doing enough, this guilt that you’re not there every time your child learns something new.

It was this feeling of helplessness, and our desire to empower parents to be part of their child’s development, that drove us to create many of the Parental Features on Zoodles.

Our hope is that the weekly email updates, the vibrant graphs and pictures, and all the powerful controls we afford you, will help you feel more like a participant in your child’s learning journey.  Whether in school or at play, your child is growing every day, and we don’t want any parent to feel like they might be missing out.

Last night Abbie, my 5 year old daughter, got out of bed and told my wife & I that she was too scared to fall asleep.  When we asked why she said she was afraid of robbers breaking through her window and that they would have guns.  We were shocked that these thoughts were in her mind, and upon further questioning we found the following illustrations in a book entitled “Pinkerton, Behave!”

Robber climbing through a window

Robber holding a gun to the head of the person in the bed!

Robber pointing the gun toward the person in bed & a child!

Needless to say my wife and I were shocked and after comforting Abbie to get her back to sleep we talked about how we trusted the book because it came from her school library.  We didn’t “screen” the book, and if only an adult had screened the book they wouldn’t have let a kindergarten child take it home.

This is the very reason why we at Zoodles have trained education & content experts personally review all material that is entered into Zoodles.  I never thought I would feel more safe with the content my child plays with online than I would with the books she would bring home from the library, but I am proud of our Zoodles team for giving me that piece of mind as a parent!

Cold season is upon us, and many parents and children have told us they’re suffering from swine flu, a fever, or just a plain nasty cold. It’s gotten so bad, some have said, that they’re pulling their kids out of school to avoid the spread of germs between classmates. But what do you do once you’re home? Combined with the rainy days and darker and darker nights, families are spending so much more time cooped up inside, it can be hard to stay entertained. Today we thought we’d share a few fun ways you can avoid the flu and have fun at the same time!

Tips for Avoiding the Flu

First and foremost, it’s important to review all the CDC’s basic tips for avoiding the flu.

1. Get the flu vaccine
2. Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue
3. Avoid people who are sick
4. Throw away used tissues
5. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth
6. Disinfect common surface areas in the home
7. Wash hands often with soap and water

There are TONS of fun ways to turn each of these tips into long-lasting habits, but we’ll just focus on a few:

Catch ‘Em!

Regardless of age, it’s almost a universal truth that people don’t cover their sneezes or coughs with a tissue.  So how can we expect kids to?  Who has time to run to the Kleenex box when an awesome episode of Sesame Street (woot, 40th Anniversary!) is on?   As a result, parents find themselves inexplicably crouched in front of their 3 year olds with an open tissue in hand, waiting to catch the next nose-twitch-turned-explosion.   Any parent could testify to how hard it is to catch them all, especially once you turn your back to get the remote, or get up to grab the laundry.  Ah-choo!

Instead, why not make Kleenex fun again?  All kids love having their own personal items, and what they love even more is carrying these things around.  Why not use this to your advantage and create an emotional affinity with a travel pack of Kleenex?  Stickers are a MUST, but the real highlight is making it portable.  All you’ve gotta do is punch holes in the sides of the plastic and use yarn to make a Kleenex necklace!  Even a fun Kleenex fanny pack might do the trick.  If crafting isn’t for you, you could also check out Germy-Wormies, slightly overpriced arm bands that encourage kids to sneeze into the crook of their arm rather than into their hands.

Toss ‘Em!

Sure, you might be saying, it’s easy to imagine a toddling 3 year old wearing a Kleenexlace, but it’s equally easy to see the trail of dirty tissues littered behind them.  Save yourself the headache and turn the disposal process into a fun game too.   In the time-honored tradition of office workers around the world, make the toss a matter of skill.  Set up an open trash can in a corner of your house and put a line down on the floor using tape.    Demonstrate a few times for your toddler and then have them try!  The fun will never end, and, depending on their aim, the trail of Kleenex will.

Wash ‘Em!

Once again, hand washing is something that adults can’t even get right.  We don’t do it often enough, and we don’t do it long enough.  An important lesson for us all to learn is that proper hand-washing requires 20 seconds of scrubbin’!  For the younger kids, we suggest coming up with a fun jingle that’s — wait for it — 20 seconds long, so we start raising a generation of healthy, serenadin’ kids!  Need ideas?  Check out this hand-washing song.


For the older kids who might scorn such shenanigans, we scoured through our Zoodles games and found “The Case of the Filthy Fingers!” an interactive quiz game that helps your child recognize the right times to wash. And come to think of it, if none of this works, you could always make a Purell necklace and complete the collection

Don’t Forget Zoodles!

Last but not least, if you do find yourself with a sick little one, do not despair.  Despite all your best efforts, sometimes the bug gets all of us.  If you find yourself cooped up at home, Zoodles is always the best solution.  We’ll keep your kid engaged and make sure they’re keeping those minds sharp even on a sick day from school, without overly taxing their bodies or spreading their germs around the house.  More importantly, if you’re stuck at home too, or maybe even sick yourself, their independent play on Zoodles frees you up to take calls, answer emails and work from home.

I am pleased to announce that Zoodles has won a prestigous NAPPA Gold Award!  NAPPA (National Parenting Publications Awards) is the well known guide for the best products for parents and kids.  Zoodles was recognized as a great product for families and especially for children preschool aged and up!  NAPPA awards are sought after by companies large and small and we are proud to be recognized along other award winning companies such as Leapfrog (Tag Reading System), Disney (Club Penguin), and PBS (Word Girl Website).

I want to recognize our team and extended team who helped to develop the Zoodles offering.  Our team of engineers, designers, content / education specialists, product managers, and advisers all worked incredibly hard to make this happen.  Finally, I want to thank all the parents and children for giving us valuable feedback on how to improve Zoodles.  Please keep the feedback coming so we can improve the product for you and your little ones!

Mark Williamson
CEO & Co-founder of Zoodles