“Following and creating patterns, making comparisons, cause and effect, hand-eye coordination, following multi-step directions, life skills, goal setting, computer use, interaction with technology, etc. are all elements involved while playing in JumpStart”, says Heather Tuttle, Curriculum Writer.

Let’s take a look…

It takes quite a bit of hand-eye coordination to get to navigate Free Fall Mountain.

And navigating that chocolate maze requires pattern and letter recognition skills.

Even the pre-programmed chat words in the game are based on Dolch’s sight words, a set of words that should be standard knowledge by the third grade.

Plus, dance moves and emoticons help kids learn about social cues and body language. (After all, the Jumpeez showing angry emoticons are never as fun to make friends with.)

And the Jumpee Creator teaches body parts, colors and more.

Heather explains, “When a kid is playing at JumpStart they are drowning in opportunities for learning. Without even realizing it, this child is exploring, discovering, and beginning to make connections with prior knowledge, creating new knowledge.”

So tell your kids to go explore, chat, and play at JumpStart.com. You can relax, knowing that they are learning math and reading…but also much, much more.

Liked this Post?  Share it!

Have Your Friends Check Out These Awesome Videos

Jumpeez can pump up their brains and earn coins at the Brain Training Center!

What you may not realize is that lots more learning is available in FutureLand, at the IQ Actionizer!  FutureLand is a great place to check out if your child is toward the older end of JumpStart’s age range.

Your little adventurer can kick butt at learning games in FutureLand!

The IQ Actionizer is packed full of learning content for students in the third, fourth, and fifth grades, which means reading, writing, and arithmetic feature prominently.

Looks like we’re going to need a pencil and paper for this one…

Of course, there’s a lot more math content than just multiplication. Players can also practice addition, subtraction, division, fractions, place value, counting money, and much more!

In the reading games, students will learn about complete sentences, parts of speech, prefixes, suffixes, spelling, capitalization, and homonyms, among many other topics.

We’re glad Uncle Max is happy, but is that a complete sentence?

Geography games will teach your explorer about world and U.S. geography, states and capitals, U.S. government, world currency, reading maps, and units of measurement.

Science questions round out the learning with information about astronomy, science history, critical thinking, and graph reading.

Reading graphs and charts is an important skill for many subjects, particularly science.

Best of all, this is a great opportunity for players to earn lots of coins, so they’ll be jumping at the chance to learn. Next time your big kids are on JumpStart.com, make sure they check out FutureLand for a great chance to learn and earn!

Share the learning!

One of the most fun concepts to teach young children is that of the stoplight. Red, yellow, and green lights not only drive home basic colors but also the important, associated meanings of stop, caution, and go. What better way to teach children about this traffic safety instrument than through easy, tasty treats? We’re thrilled to introduce the Traffic Stoplight Treat, an easy, little dessert that kids can make themselves!

Traffic Stoplight Treat

What You’ll Need:

• Graham crackers
• Peanut butter (Allergic? Consider using a light layer of regular butter, which goes well with the graham cracker.)
• Butter knife
• M&M’S Chocolate Candies

Instructions:

1. Take a large graham cracker and break it into its perforated quarters.
2. Spread peanut butter on one side of one of the quarters.
3. Place a green, a yellow, and a red M&M down the cracker in a row, spaced like a traffic light.

Taste buds say go.

We suggest using regular M&M’S, but we only had Peanut M&M’S at the office, which are pictured in our example.  We made do all the same.    Enjoy!

Green Light on Sitting Down to Make These with the Kids

The Peacock Hat Craft

Peafowl are awesome birds. The word “peafowl” refers to the birds most commonly represented by peacocks; the word “peafowl” is used when discussing both males and females.  Males are called peacocks, and they are well-known for their brightly-colored feathers and amazing tails they use to impress females, which are called “peahens” and are mostly colored a more somber brown.  These photos were taken by a JumpStart Team member while visiting Arcadia, California, a lovely city in Southern California that features peafowl as its city bird, allowing them to roam freely throughout the city.

A peacock cruising down a residential street.

In our hat craft, we’ll be attempting to create a hat that captures the essence of a peacock for kids to enjoy and run around in, brilliant blue crest and all.  However, if your child has another favorite animal he or she would like to capture, feel free to take it in an entirely different direction after the first instruction.

The Peacock Hat Craft

What you’ll need:

• A bowl that fits over your child’s head
• 12 pages of newspaper
• Scissors
• Tape
• Tempera paint – blue, green, white, and black especially
• Paintbrush
• Glue stick
• Access to a working sink

Instructions

1. Place the bowl upside down on your workspace. Soak a page of newspaper in the sink and lay it over the bowl making sure the overlapping edges are pressed down flat.  Repeat with nine more sheets, shifting the direction of the page with each placement over the bowl so no gaps are left.
   

   Compress the soaked pages.

   Soak two  more pages and place them directly on top of each other, separate from the bowl pages; these will be used for the tail and crest.  Let them dry overnight. You should be able to remove the newspaper from the bowl the next day and have it retain the shape of the upended bowl.

2. Use scissors to trim the edge of the dried newspaper into triangular points. Don’t trim points into the area you decide to be the front; this part will be folded up to create the beak.
   

   Triangular Support.

3. Fold and the points up into the inside of the hat. To make the beak, cut a rectangle shape out of the newspaper’s overlapping edges that make up the front you decided on.  The rectangle shape should be made by dedicating one of the length-wise sides to remain attached to the main body of the hat, and fold the two opposing edge corners back towards the hat body, creating triangular folds. Tape these triangles together and then to the front of the hat (use double-sided tape or loops of tape preferably to hide the attachment).
   

   Make the triangle folds out of the rectangle's corners and bring them together.

4. Paint the hat like a peacock’s head!  Reference the photo of the peacocks below.
   

   Two peacocks moving through a front yard.

5. Add on some iconic features of the peacock from the two separate pages you molded together.  Use the upper half of the conjoined pages to create the larger, bright green tail.
   

   The extravagant tail.

   Use the lower half to create the crest; after you paint these with embellishment and let it dry, tape them to the body of the hat to complete the look.

   

   Time for some fun!

Enjoy your excellent peacock hat!

Tell Your Friends’ Families to Strut Their Stuff!

The Exterior

In fact, the learning games previously housed in the arcade will be migrating over to the Brain Training Arcade right away. All the favorites, including Kite Delight, Monkey Madness, Lucky Ducky, Hops Jetpack, Bubble Trouble, Cow-abunga, Bunny Hop, and Ladybug Learning, will be accessible in the Brain Training Arcade’s electrifying IQ kiosks.

The Interior

Remember, JumpStart learning games, like those that will live in the Brain Training Arcade, allow Jumpeez to earn coins more quickly. For example, in one round of Monkey Madness, a Jumpee just might rake in 10 coins – what a steal! By now you’ve probably realized that the sportiest of rides and cuddliest of pets cost a fair number of JumpStart coins. Clearly, the new Brain Training Arcade will be the new one stop shop for quick coin round ups!

Get ready to exercise those synapses; the Brain Training Arcade is scheduled to arrive soon!

Tell Your Friends About the New Arcade in Town

Practice Numbers with the Monkeys.

Practice Letters and Memorization with the Duckies.

To play, select one of the games above from a learning kiosk in the arcade (just look for the big brains!). Choose whether you would like your child to practice ABCs or 123s and let the learning and earning begin!

Visit the Learning Kiosk in the Arcade!

Don’t be surprised if these learning kiosks disappear from the Arcade in the future!  They’re set to be relocated to the separate, learning-focused Brain Training Arcade in DownTown.  Read about the new learning center here!

Tell Your Friends to Have Their Young Kids Cash In!

Christmas lights, Hanukkah menorahs, the Kwanzaa Kinara…the holidays are full of symbols that represent a variety of cultures, beliefs, and traditions, making this the most wonderful time of year to help your little ones notice that not everyone celebrates the season the same way they do.

Oftentimes limited experiences and infrequent interactions with backgrounds different from their own lead kids to make assumptions or judge others who do things differently than they’re used to.  You can make the season even brighter by helping your kids realize that our society is a mixture of people- no two the same.  All of these differences bring new ideas, energy, and flavor, enriching the world we live in.

Many kids are way ahead of us when it comes to acknowledging and respecting differences.  Playgrounds, play groups, and classrooms are increasingly diverse, and we as a society have become more aware of tolerating and embracing a variety of cultures, traditions, and beliefs.

Still, as parents, it’s our job to ensure our kids are prepared to live, learn, and work in a diverse world.  Teaching tolerance is important not just because it is the principle our country was founded on, but because the child who learns to be open to differences will have more opportunities in life.

Like all attitudes, tolerance is often taught in subtle ways when we don’t even realize it.  Even before they can speak, our kids watch us closely and imitate what they see.  Modeling tolerance, respect, and acceptance early on can help set your child up to positively embrace differences.  There are a variety of other things you can do at home to help your kids realize that being unique and different is good.

• Encourage your kids to ask questions – Kids are naturally curious about the world around them. Instead of letting them reach their own conclusions or assume things, make sure your kids ask questions when they wonder about things.  Many times a simple question can spark valuable conversation and learning for both you and your little questioners.
• Answer questions – When your kids come to you questioning their own traditions or the values and beliefs of others, take the time to listen.  Spend time learning, researching, and exploring other cultures together. Attend festivals and events around town to expose your family to new celebrations and practices.
• Respect and honesty – Model respect and acceptance for your kids.  Teach your kids to appreciate their own differences and those of others. Be sure the words you use are not offensive and do not convey judgment.  Help your kids realize that every person deserves to be judged as an individual, not grouped in a category that’s based on religious beliefs, skin color, or cultural differences.
• Learn together about other cultures and traditions that are different from your own.  Honor your own family and teach your children to be proud of their traditions.  Discuss how your family traditions began and what they mean to you and your ancestors.
• Make sure your kids have a positive self image and strong self-esteem.  Confidence and self-respect lead to respecting others.  Also, a strong sense of self will help your kids be proud of who they are and where they come from, so they can help share their culture and experiences with others.
• Give your kids opportunities to play and interact with others who are different from them.
• Help your kids understand that images and dialogue they see and hear in the media are often biased and do not represent an entire group of people.

Of course, celebrating differences of others doesn’t mean giving up your own heritage. Your family may have its own long-standing cultural and religious traditions that are something to be proud of.  You can find ways to celebrate differences of others while continuing to honor and pass down your own cultural heritage and traditions.  May this holiday season be a joyous celebration of the diversity around you.

SnO-J-flakes

Materials:

• Two Styrofoam or plastic cups
• Water
• Orange Juice
• Freezer
• Spoon

Directions:

1. Fill one of the cups with water, the other with orange juice.
2. Put them in the freezer, let them freeze thoroughly over a few hours.
3. Once they’ve frozen, take a look.  The water is frozen ice, and the OJ is frozen, but it has a sticky sort of unfrozen syrup on top.


See the syrup hanging around the cup's rim?

4. Let both sit for 5 minutes.
5. Take the spoon and try scraping off some of the ice and then some of the juice; taste the juice scrapings you can get off.



6. Continue to scrape at the frozen juice and water every so often.  You’ll begin to notice a difference.

Weren’t the juice scrapings good?

As you continued scraping and the cups began to warm, you probably noticed that the juice came apart easier, separating into small, flat crystals.

Tasty.

Why is this?

Dissolving substances like sugar in water lowers water’s freezing point so that it must be colder to freeze. As the juice gets colder, some of the water in it begins to freeze.

The amount of dissolved sugar stays constant, but there is less and less water as it is taken up in the growing ice crystals.  The juice sugar ends up trapped between them.  The sugar acts as separations in the frozen water, and lets the ice crystals come loose easily, when you scrape at them.

With the pure water that you froze, the crystals were unified, making one solid block of ice with no separations created by other substances among the crystals.  When the frozen water cup warmed up, the exposed surface melts, but the rest stays solid. It does not come apart like the OJ did.

You’ve probably noticed a similar syrupy coating on your popsicles.  The same concept applies here!  Hope you enjoyed your ice scrapings!

Like this simple experiment?  Share it with friends.

This ‘hands on’ experiment will help your child understand the very special insulation polar bears and penguins use to keep warm during the coldest season. Now, prepare to get a little messy and test your tolerance for less-than-tepid temperatures!

Polar Bears and Penguins in Parkas

What you need:

• Butter or margarine
• Bucket of ice water
• Stopwatch

Directions:

1. First, set the bucket of ice water in front of your child and have them dip their hand into the ice water. Time how long they can keep their hand in the water. It shouldn’t be very long, considering ice water is not fun to expose yourself to.
2. Write down the length of time your child was able to hold their hand in the ice water. Then allow them about 5 minutes to warm up their little hands.
3. Now for the really fun part! Take a stick of butter, or margarine, and have your child completely cover their hand in a thick layer of butter. Make sure that they really cake it on.
4. Have them dip their buttered hand into the ice water bucket and, again, time it with a stopwatch. When they take out their hand notice how the water beads off their buttered-up hand. They will be surprised to discover that the coldness of the water doesn’t affect them as quickly the second time!

Why’d the butter layer help?

Explain to your child that butter is a fat, and winter animals have a very thick layer of fat under their fur that comfortably wraps up their insides like a blanket. Polar bears for example, have a layer of fat, or blubber, up to 11 centimeters in thickness! This blubber helps animals insulate their bodies, especially in the freezing water while swimming. Also, fat works as a natural water-repellent, as your child saw when the water beaded up and slipped off his or her skin.

You can learn about other ways different animals stay warm in the cold by clicking here!

Your friends have buckets, ice water, and stopwatches too?  Get’em on board!