Easy scrolling for faster chatting!

To get started, just click on the chat icon and browse the subcategories. Choose from various greetings, questions, and answers. There’s even a special Pirate lingo section if your kids arrr feeling nautical, which will come in handy in the Pirate Fun Zone coming soon!

Jumpeez can use fun pirate lingo as they sail through the new Pirate Fun Zone coming later this week!

Take a look at the conversations we have to offer. We think it’s a great way for kids to interact and express themselves, all while staying protected!

Other Jumpeez will see the end phrase displayed!

Of course, our chat is completely safe and comprised only of canned phrases written by JumpStart. As always, if you prefer to disable the chat function altogether, just head to “Manage Account” > “Online Game Pref” on the JumpStart.com homepage and turn off MMO.

Jumpeez can safely talk to each other using canned phrases approved by JumpStart!

We hope you enjoy our new chat and find it more user-friendly. Check it out and let us know what you think!

“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.

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Forget what Miss Manners once said and start encouraging your kids to talk while they eat (after they swallow, of course)!  Dinnertime is the perfect time to hear about their day, their opinions, and what’s going on in their little heads.  Get past the one word answers and make your kids give you a mouthful of conversation.  While getting to know your kids on a deeper level, you’ll also be giving them practice at thinking quickly, forming arguments and opinions, and expressing their thoughts.

Simple conversation starters will get the ball rolling and before you know it, your kids will be bringing a lot more to the table than hungry bellies.  Try some of these conversation starters or make up your own:

• What was the __________ (choose one: funniest . . . most surprising . . . most predictable . . . dullest) thing that happened to you today?
• If you were writing a newspaper article about your day, what would be the headline?
• Teach us one thing that you learned today that you think we don’t know yet.
• If you had one hour alone with the President of the U.S., what would you want to discuss or talk about?
• Which cartoon character would you most like to have as a next door neighbor?  Why?
• If you won the lottery (or won $100) what is the first thing you would buy?
• Imagine you had an identical twin; name three things that would be really great about having an identical twin and three things that would be “not so great.”
• Which fairy tale character would you most like to take a vacation with?  Why?
• If you were a plant and could be planted anywhere in the world, what kind of plant would you be?  Where would you like to be planted and grow?
• If you could go on a vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?
• If the sky suddenly started to rain candy, what candy would you want it to rain?
• If you were to take a time machine 50 years into the future, what do you think life will be like?  What will you do with your free time?  How do you think people will communicate or prepare food?
• What kind of car would you say you are most like?  If you could be any car, which one would you choose?
• If you could invite any famous person to your birthday party, who would it be?  Why?
• If you could create a national chain of restaurants designed for kids, what would you call it?  What kinds of food would you serve?  What would the theme of the restaurant be?
• If you had to choose one modern convenience, appliance, or technology that you just couldn’t live without, what would it be?
• What was the best birthday party you remember having?  Tell what you remember about it.
• Where will you be, and what do you think you will be doing in 10 -15 years?
• If you had a choice, would you rather live in the city or the country?  Why?
• If you could be a TV producer, what would be the name of your new show?  Who would you get to star in it?  What would your show be about?
• In the movie about your life, what actor would play you? Your best friend? Your family members?

Another way to get the table talk going is to play a little game.  President Obama plays a game with his family called “Roses and Thorns.”  Everyone takes a turn describing a good thing that happened that day (rose) and a low moment or tough problem they had to deal with (thorn) during the day.  Whatever the approach, set your dinner table with conversation to strengthen relationships and make memories to last a lifetime.

Tell Your Buddies to Set the Table!

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.

Round up some Buddyz to fill out that list!

Here’s how it works!  Once logged in to JumpStart.com, you can visit Manage Account to print out a series of cards with your child’s unique buddy code. Your child can trade these cards with his or her friends and you can input your child’s friend codes under manage account.  Once this code is inputted into the game, their friend’s name will show up on their “Buddyz” list. If you see that one of your “Buddyz” is online, you will be able to click on their listed name and jump into the same game server as them and interact immediately!

Take the Stage with Your Buddyz

Now your child will be able to show their friends that cute Petz kitty they just bought or their awesome pirate costume for Halloween! Friends can also be added by clicking on their Jumpee during game play and clicking on the “Add to Buddyz list” option.

It's Nice to See You, the Bandana Looks Great.

As always, parents have the option of turning off the “Buddyz” feature, as well as turning off the MMO feature completely. This can be done from the Manage Account section of the JumpStart.com website. However, this new buddy list function will not open up any free chat or other interaction possibilities between players – it will simply allow kids to be in the same instance of the game as their friends so they can see each other’s Jumpeez. Players will still only be able to interact using pre-programmed phrases, dance moves, and emoticons. In the future, when neighborhood areas come out, your child will also be able to see their “Buddyz’” houses they have created!

Stay tuned here to find out more about Buddyz at JumpStart.com!

How Many Buddyz Can You Spread the Word to?  Feel Free!

“Where are you going?” asks Jack SlothSprout.

“I am going to explore JumpStart,” Bugsy FlameCloud replies. “Follow me!”

JumpStart.com is taking children’s gaming to new heights with the addition of canned chat! Jumpeez can now communicate with one another using pre-selected words and phrases. We know kids love to chat online with their peers, and sometimes dance moves alone won’t cut it. We’re dedicated to keeping your little ones safe and happy, and we’re confident that the new canned chat function will do just that!

Canned chat is now available at JumpStart.com!

Here at JumpStart, we want to make sure your kids are both having fun and, of course, learning. The great thing about canned chat is that while your kids are socializing with their Jumpee friends, they’ll also be learning sight words that are important to their reading skills.

Edward William Dolch is famous for his creation of a list of important words that occur frequently in children’s (and indeed, all!) books. The Dolch words are now known as “sight words” because most of the time, they cannot easily be recognized by pictures or sounded out according to normal phonetic rules. There are 220 sight words and another 95 nouns that should be standard knowledge by third grade. A full list of the Dolch words and additional nouns is available here.

The words that appear in our brand-new canned chat function are based on Dolch’s research. As children use “sight words” repeatedly to communicate with other players in the virtual world, they will become more familiar with them and recognize them more readily. By including many “sight words” in the canned chat menus, we hope to advance the reading levels of our players and build their confidence in school!

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With our new multiplayer feature, the world at JumpStart.com is more exciting than ever. It still has all the same fun learning adventures as before, but your child can now learn and play alongside other kids. Yes, that means that all those other cute Jumpeez running around are actual players, learning at their computers just like your child!  Plus, we’re developing group activities and challenges that will teach participation, sharing, and teamwork.

To celebrate the release of our multiplayer features, we’ve added a dance floor in the center of the JumpStart world so that players can boogie down together! We always let the newest feature take center stage, so access to AdventureLand has been moved to the submarine near the ocean.

Jumpeez boogie on the JumpStart.com dance floor!

Safety is always a top priority at JumpStart, so we’ve built this new multiplayer feature in a way that allows for playful communication without the ability to share any personal information. Participating in the JumpStart world will reinforce safe, positive habits for your child as he or she begins to use the Internet. To learn more about the new multiplayer feature of JumpStart.com and its benefits, check out our earlier article here.

See it for yourself at JumpStart.com today!

Please note: If you and your child are more comfortable with the single-player learning environment, you may opt out of multiplayer. (But be warned, you are sure to be missing out on an exciting dance party!)  To opt out, visit “Online Game Preferences” under “Manage Account” and click “disable.”

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With this exciting new feature, your child will be able to celebrate his or her achievements with friends by sharing all the cool accessories and extras earned for completing learning games! Plus, the new interactive world will soon have organized events to teach teamwork and more.

Because you’ve chosen JumpStart for your child, we know that learning and safety are very important to you. We have compiled the following important FAQs to help you better understand how these new features will enhance your child’s learning adventure with JumpStart:

Will my child be safe?

Of course! Your child’s Jumpee (personalized avatar) will only be identified by its special Jumpee name (for example, “Sandra SpeedySnake”), and no personal information will ever be shared. Plus, only 25-30 Jumpeez will be interacting at JumpStart.com at a time.  We feel that this provides a calmer, more controlled environment for your child to learn and play in.

How do the Jumpeez communicate with each other?

The Jumpeez interact through dance moves and emoticons (super-cool smiley faces).  We recognize the potential dangers of unrestrained “free chat” and that the challenge of typing words can be frustrating for children this age.  To keep everyone safe, we have restricted communication to dancing and facial expressions.  Soon, we will have “canned chat,” which will allow players to choose from age-appropriate, pre-selected phrases and greetings to send to each other.

Jumpeez express themselves with floating emoticons

What are the benefits?

We thought you’d never ask! First and most importantly, these new features provide incentives for your child to continue playing the learning games at JumpStart.com.  By interacting with other Jumpeez, your child will see all the cool new things their hard-earned coins can earn. Nothing motivates better than the possibility of having tiger-striped skin or an awesome new set of antennae to spruce up your Jumpee! Your child will be able to celebrate learning successes by dressing up with friends – such fun!

Plus, your child will build confidence and learn teamwork while making friends and working with others to accomplish missions in the online world. We’ve got all sorts of exciting events planned that will give Jumpeez everywhere the chance to work together and accomplish amazing feats!

Jumpeez form a conga line and dance through JumpStart!

Stay tuned to the JumpStart blog for updates on when you can expect your new friends to appear at JumpStart.com – it should be by the end of July!

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Here are some reasons why family game night may be beneficial:

1. Family time, of course! This is time taken out of your busy life to enjoy the company of loved ones.
2. Playing games together teaches and monitors sportsmanship and good healthy competition.
3. Playing together promotes communication. By disguising communication practice in fun games, parents and kids will not even notice the discourse with each other improving over time!
4. Family game night is inexpensive! It definitely beats the cost of going out for dinner or buying video games.
5. You get a chance to create life-long memories with one another. When all family members participate and really get into the games, laughter, friendly competition, and family quirks are sure to make an appearance!
6. Lastly, family game night allows for good, old fashioned fun and time to relax!

One suggestion, aside from the traditional store-bought board games, is to make up a game that is based on your family’s knowledge and familiarity of each other! The game we came up with is called Family Game Show. This can be played with friends or family, and it is especially fun to play when extended family is over.

Here is how you play:

1. Individually, write down questions about each other that everyone can answer. Some examples: What is your favorite kind of ice cream? If you could be any superhero, which would it be? What is, or was, your best subject in school? You can come up with as many as you want, but only about nine questions are necessary.
2. Assign one member of the family to play Moderator.
3. The Moderator asks Person A a question, and that person writes down their answer on a private piece of paper.
4. Then, the rest of the family writes down what they think Person A’s answer to the question will be.
5. The Moderator then asks everyone to reveal their answers. Whoever correctly guessed Person A’s answer scores one point.

This game promotes family cohesion by building knowledge about each other. It also brings about a ton of laughs!

Life Skill #4: Communicating with Authority Figures

We talked about how homework can improve your kids’ communication skills with their peers. But it is also a great tool to teach kids how to communicate with authority figures. First of all, sometimes there is just too much to do – your kids plug everything into the calendar and see that they have a five-page paper, a science project, a social-studies test, and a math mid-term all on the same day, and that day happens to be the day after they get home from band camp. Whether they have conflicting assignments, band camp, a school performance, or a family vacation, it’s important for your kids to start assessing their workload and admitting when they just can’t get it all done.

“Well, that’s great,” you say, “but what does it have to do with communication?”

I’m glad you asked! One important aspect of communication is giving plenty of notice ahead of time that you can’t get something done. By assessing the workload and admitting they can’t do it ahead of time, your kids will be able to communicate their situation to their teachers well in advance and give them time to find a solution.

Another great skill your kids can learn from homework is the ability to ask questions. It’s never too early to develop the habit of clarifying assignments, which is a good communication skill to have with any boss. Your kids can learn to approach their teachers with any and all questions. If your kids find they don’t understand a lot of assignments, they might want to start talking to the teacher after class routinely, to double-check that they get how to do everything.

Lastly, your kids can learn how to admit when they made a mistake. Assignments get overlooked. It’s a fact of life. If your kids can man up… er… kid up, admit their mistake, and propose a solution (i.e. turning in the assignment late for a lesser grade, or doing a make-up assignment), any teacher worth their salt isn’t going to turn their back and force your kids to take a zero. It’s great practice for your kids to approach their teachers and learn how to take responsibility, since, odds are, that’s a skill they’ll be using at some point once they get into the working world!