Hello JumpStart fans!
From Petz to Ridez to Buddyz, we’ve been adding all sorts of exciting new features to our online world recently – most of which sport a trendy “z” at the end of their names. Over the past week, a few of you reached out to us to say that, trendy or not, this naming convention might make learning to spell difficult for kids. And, based on your feedback we’ve decided to make a change!
In the upcoming weeks, we will be swapping out some of our wacky “z” spellings for the proper spellings for words such as “pets”, “rides” and “buddies”. We have, however, decided to maintain the “z”s on the store buildings inside the game (Petz Store, for example), because we feel this provides an additional learning opportunity for your kids. As our Curriculum Writer, Heather Tuttle MED, explains, “In a world of spell check, texting, emailing, instant messaging, and businesses using alternative poetic spellings – Flickr, Toys ‘R’ Us, and Rite Aid, etc – teaching kids how to speak and spell properly has become a tricky task. The key is exposure and observation of both formal and informal grammar and spelling. When kids can compare the two and distinguish between them, they are truly learning.”
In the online world at JumpStart.com, the combination of real words, nonsense words and words with manipulated spellings mirrors the types of words your child will be exposed to in the real world. Lori Berget, Executive Producer, adds, “Unlike most sites online, JumpStart.com provides dozens of valuable learning games that focus on the formalities of language and grammar to help children more easily distinguish between proper and stylized grammar.”
Thank you all for your input and please keep the comments and questions coming so that we can make our games the best they can be!
Best,
Erin Connolly, Product Marketing Manager- Community Development
Follow me on Twitter @JumpStart_Erin
Filed under: Behind the Scenes | Tagged: feedback, game, game design
We recently received an email from you asking us to upgrade and become members. It contained four obvious spelling mistakes and one misplaced word.
Nothing makes a parent doubt an educational company more than simple spelling errors. How do we know that the games our children play are free from such errors? We will never buy a JumpStart product again.
I am sorry to hear that an email caused you to doubt the quality of the JumpStart games. Please be aware that our emails do not go through the same rigorous testing as our learning content. However, grammatical errors are still unacceptable. Upon receiving your message, I reviewed our recent emails and believe the spelling errors you referred to may be “Petz” “Buddyz” and “Ridez”. Per the article above, the decision to spell these words in this manner has been reconsidered thanks to feedback like yours. We will be implementing the changes described above in future emails.
I hope you will reconsider your decision to avoid JumpStart products in the future. Thank you for your comment.
to much to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!