Which way to Woogi World
The internet continues to be more popular and more appealing and a bigger part of our daily activities. My son TJ’s class has access to resources including some books online. Kids are wooed from a young age with website addresses flashing across the screens of some of their favorite television shows and channels. I’m sure there are many parents like myself that limit their children’s website usage and monitor what they do online. We have to because we have to do everything we can to keep our children safe. I’m always interested in learning about safe, child friendly websites of a positive nature. Thanks to Mom Central, I’ve learned about exactly such a site – Woogi World.
The mission of Woogi World is, according to the website: “Through our safe, and engaging virtual world, www.woogiworld.com, elementary age children worldwide are becoming responsible Internet users and goodwill ambassadors, learning and implementing the character traits that are helping them be good influences in their homes, schools, and communities—ultimately leading out in the global “Woogi phenomenon” of kids driving good works.”
Woogi World is a safe online community for children where kids can learn how to use the internet responsibly while positive character traits and skills are reinforced. Parents have their own account where they can monitor and limit their child’s activities. When signing up children must create a unique Woogi name, real names are not allowed. Then parents must verify their child has permission to join. Once that’s done children are able to play inside of Woogi World, creating and personalizing their Wigwam (think of it as home) and playing with other Woogis. Completing offline tasks, playing games and carrying out random acts of kindness to other Woogis earns a child watts, which is the equivalent of Woogi money.
A basic account on Woogi World is free for any child that is of elementary school age or younger. An upgraded account with expanded features is available for $6.95 per month. On an even broader basis, Woogi World is being made available to more than 50,000 schools. Through a partnership with Studies Weekly and the Humane Society launched on September 1, 2008, students in participating classrooms will receive a secret code to log in and have access to information pertaining to their course materials.
The site is fun and the graphics are colorful. The stores are full of things children are familiar with. The games are entertaining and reinforce education and safety. I myself played with it for almost an hour after we registered. TJ is a little old for the site at 12 but my niece has been having a blast with it. Woogi World is a terrific example of computing and internet technology put to good use in that it provides kids with a safe, fun and healthy place to learn and play online that incorporates real life activities.
Kids all love to play games. Hasbro has created the 
The Learning to Listen Pizza Palace Game comes with 2 pizza boxes with pizzas, 2 sets of pizza toppings, 25 pizza topping cards, 2 pizza topping holders, a chef’s hat place keeper and a score board. To play children need to take the customer’s order and then make and serve the pizza to them. In order to make the pizza correctly children need to pay attention, actively listen and remember what they’ve been told. The player that makes the most pizzas correctly wins. The Learning To Listen Pizza Palace game is for 2-3 players age 4 and up and will retail for $19.99.
The theme for this week’s Heads or Tails meme is Doctor. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the word Doctor is the way my sons play pretend Doctor.
We have a small travel trailer. We go camping in upstate New York every year. The reason we don’t camp more is because the trailer is so small we have no room to move and cannot enjoy ourselves. Lately we’ve been doing some heavy consideration of getting a bigger trailer, so we can enjoy some family time. Camping can be much less expensive than flying and staying in hotels. Some people don’t like the driving aspect of camping, but they probably haven’t seen the award winning TripFLIX dvd.
When you start the TripFLIX dvd you’ll be presented with a map of the US, divided into six regions. Each region features descriptions of several places to go or see within that region. A couple of the stops are well known, such as Sea World, California, but for the most part the stops are places offering something fun and educational and won’t cost your family an arm and a leg. I’d never ever heard of some of the places, but found them interesting.
