Website of the Week: PBS Kids Play!

What in the world has Little Miss Techie been up to these days?

Besides enjoying her recent trip to the circus and delighting in the world’s largest collection of blocks that now fills our dining room, she’s been spending her computer time enjoying our free trial of PBS Kids Play.

Launched less than 2 weeks ago, PBS Kids Play is already a hit in our house! The new subscription site is designed to help children ages 3 to 6 learn through interactive play to teach subjects like math, science, literacy, language development, creativity, healthy development, and social studies. PBS Kids Play contains all-new interactive games and activities that Little Miss Techie has enjoyed doing with favorite characters such as Thomas and Friends, Curious George, Bob the Builder, Franny’s Feet, Mama Mirabelle’s Home Movies, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Super Why, and The Berenstain Bears.

As an educator, I appreciate the fact that all of the games and activities that are part of PBS Kids Play are designed to meet nationally recognized educational standards and benchmarks.

What does this mean and why is it important?

It helps to ensure that the learning experiences that your children are getting through the site are recognized as learning benchmarks for their age and grade level. For example, in one Curious George game, Little Miss Techie used a counterweight to raise and lower George to decorate a huge floor-to-ceiling cake which taught her how to measure with a scale. In Mama Mirabelle’s Home Movies, she loves playing hide-and-go-seek with the animals. The game gives here clues to their hidden location such as “near,” “between,” or “behind” to help reinforce prepositions. Both measurement and prepositions are key concepts taught in school. To help Little Miss Techie learn these concepts, practicing them at home during homework or through the PBS Kids Play site helps to reinforce them.


As a parent, I love the Parents Center. It is my dashboard to helpful tools like the Progress Chart, Activity Search, and Curriculum. There’s also a link to update my account, TV program listings, and a direct line to PBS Kids Play customer support.

My favorite Parent Center feature is the easy-to-use Progress Chart that helps me see how Little Miss Techie is advancing through the curriculum. The chart is specifically tailored to her and includes an indicator of how far she has progressed in each skill area. It also recommends new activities for her to try based on her skill level.

The Progress Chart serves as a way to personalize your child’s learning experience which is an important aspect for teaching children. It ensures that your child is working just above their comfort level by challenging them in a supportive environment. The Progress Chart allows parents to click on skill areas to learn more about progress in specific areas and to get suggestions for additional activities that will advance the child’s knowledge and skills.

Other features that I love about PBS Kids Play include:

• A safe desktop environment that does not allow sharing of personal information or any communications among users.
• Ability to pre-set a timer to enforce breaks and limit their child’s time on the computer.
• Learning games adapt to each child based on their individual progress
• PBS Kids characters suggest games and activities appropriate to the child’s skill level in order to keep kids challenged and engaged
• Ability for the child to save and edit creative projects like drawings and musical compositions
• Picture based navigation that allows pre-readers to easily navigate the site
• Favorites list that shows a thumbnail of each activity that makes it easy for kids to bookmark and find activities later
• Ability to add up to 4 children to one account

The PBS Kids Play site also streams select TV episodes on demand inside of a child-friendly Flash player and has 24/7 technical support is via toll-free phone and email.

Now that our free trial is coming to an end, I am certain that this is a site that we will continue to use. I’ve always been a fan of PBS and while many of their sites with great content for kids are free, like PBS Kids Island and PBS Kids!, the difference lies in the ability to provide tailored learning experiences through high quality educational games that have advanced Little Miss Techie’s learning.

Ok, well not priceless but with a subscription to PBS Kids Play costing $9.95/month (or $79/year), paying a fee to access the content on this site is certainly money well spent.

If you want to check out PBS Kids Play, they offer a free 15-day trial that you can experience without having to enter any credit card information.

Chick-Fil-A Kids Meal Comes with Free Software!

Fast food and Tech Savvy Mama usually don't mix. But Little Miss Techie and Captain Computer happen to love their chicken nuggets, fruit, and milk from Chick-Fil-A and an outing there is a total treat.

Well we're planning to go back soon because for a limited time, all kids meals come with educational software from The Learning Company. The 5 CD-ROMs that you can get with your meal include esteemed programs like Reader Rabbit Thinking Adventures, KidPix4, Zoombinis Island Odyssey, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego 2, and Star Flyers. The software is for Macs and PCs and retails on Amazon for $9-18!

I used KidPix, Zoombinis, and Reader Rabbit in my first grade classroom and my students loved them. Carmen Sandiego is a classic....I remember honing my sleuthing skills while practicing geography while searching for the elusive Ms. Carmen Sandiego in the summers when my mom’s classroom Apple II lived at our house. Shout out to the 5" floppy disk!

So far Little Miss Techie loves Zoombinis and Star Flyers which is why I see more nuggets in our near future!

2009 White House Easter Egg Roll Update: Beg, Barter, But Don't Buy from eBay

The thought of possibly getting Easter Egg Roll tickets became yesterday's obsession.  Sure, I wanted tickets for my family and was frustrated by the online ticketing system but while the tickets provided families all over the country with the chance to go, it also opened up ticketing to those trying to make big bucks off of selling their tickets.  

Fortunately the White House is not condoning the sales of any tickets through eBay and you can read about what the current administration is doing about it in this Washington Times article.

When Good Technology Goes Bad: 2009 White House Easter Egg Roll Tickets

How did you spend your day today? Living near DC, I joined legions of other DC Metro Area parents, ticket hawkers, and other moms and dads from all over the country online trying to score White House Easter Egg Roll tickets only to experience hope, disappointment, and frustration repeatedly throughout the day.

This year the White House abandoned the old practice of waiting in line on the Ellipse the weekend before the event. When I first heard that tickets were going to be distributed online, I thought this was a brilliant idea. No longer would families be camping out, trading parenting shifts to secure highly coveted tickets and families from all over the country would come to gather on the White House Lawn for this great event. Going online to reserve tickets seemed like a much more humane method of ticketing.

Or so I thought. Since the ticketing information was quite vague, there was a lot of speculation about the process for obtaining tickets. The official website did not say what time today the online ticketing portal would open and there were also rumors of a lottery system. Speculation abounded on my various DC mom listservs, Twitter, and through my friends on Facebook.
When ticketing finally became available, it was clear that the Obama Administration and/or the online ticketing system powered by Front Gate Tickets did not to understand the lengths that parents will go to for White House Easter Egg Roll tickets whether waiting outside in the cold or camping out online.

Messages on my listservs, Tweets from strangers who answered my query about tickets, and friends on Facebook reported checking all day long. I was doing everything right. We were doing the same thing but the game was just about waiting, clicking, and refreshing the screen. Over and over again.

Every once and awhile I was lucky enough to wait, click, enter, wait, hope, wait, wait, and wait only to be kicked out by a server error. Or the ticketing server crashing. Or my browser timing me out from having to wait too long for the screen to update. Numerous times I was lucky enough to click on the link allowed me to enter the Front Gate Ticketing portal, select the number of tickets for my desired time, and get to the verification page only to have the Front Gate server time out due to overwhelming demand. Then it became another round of waiting, clicking, and refreshing in hopes that the ticket portal would open up for me again.

I never got my tickets and realized today that my love of technology only goes so far. As much as I love all things digital, I prefer when everything works and when it isn’t riddled with frustration.

Perhaps the Obama Administration will reconsider the ticketing system for the 2010 Easter Egg Roll and revert back to distributing tickets on the Ellipse. If so, I’ll take my chances waiting for my tickets with the masses in potentially cold weather rather than chance it on inadequate technology.

Or if the online system is as bad next year as it was this year, I’ll worship eBay or CraigsList when I give up and just buy a set of tickets for my family. Earlier this evening I watched 6 tickets sell for the Buy It Now price of $979. *rolling eyes*

And if they switch to TicketMaster then I might just vote for another president in 4 years.

Website of the Week: PBS Frontline's Digital Nation

Yesterday I had the pleasure of participating in conversations about digital technologies for PBS Frontline’s new multi- platform project called Digital Nation. While the site just launched, it is informative, fascinating, current, and is unlike anything I've ever seen. And this is just the beginning.

Digital Nation is an experimental, participatory web site seeking user generated content where content such as video reports from the production team, regular blog updates from the field, and live online forums with a variety of digital mavens, and roundtable discussions will contribute to a one-hour documentary that is scheduled to air Fall 2009. The project aims to capture life on the digital frontier and explore how the Web and digital media are changing the way we think, work, learn, and interact.

User generated content will be a major portion of the Digital Nation site. Everyone is invited to share stories about life in the digital age through Your Digital Nation. Video, photo collage, audio, or animation are forms of user generated content that Frontline is looking for.

Right now the Features section on Digital Nation includes footage from a trip to South Korea which is hailed as being one of the most advanced digital societies in the world. Frontline’s correspondent, Doug Rushkoff, and producer, Rachel Dretzin, traveled to Korea and captured stories about featuring a professional online video gamer, Korean 3rd graders singing a class song about netiquette, a mother who is concerned that her son spends too much time playing online games. There’s also a piece about an Internet Rescue Camp, a boot camp detox program designed for those afflicted with internet addiction. If you are curious to know what internet addiction counseling looks like, click here.

I also love the Extras section of the site that contains an interactive feature about digital natives. Digital who? Digital natives are defined as those born after 1980. Digital immigrants are anyone else. Digital native is a new term for those growing up in a world of fast emerging digital technologies. The interactive feature on the Digital Nation site deconstructs the body parts of the digital native (head, hand mouth, eyes, ears, etc.) and provides statistics to state how technology is changing them and their interactions with society for better and worse.

Regardless of how old your child is, your child is a digital native. And, like it or not, it’s just like learning to drive. (Thanks Sharon!) It’s coming so fasten your seat belt and be prepared. The best thing that parents can do is to become informed about all aspects of technology and ensure that your children are responsible digital citizens.

Frontline’s Digital Nation site helps raise the issues around an increasingly digital society and helps start a conversation about the effect of technology on our kids, where we are heading, and makes me wonder if our future won't be too different from what things look like in South Korea.

I can’t wait to see how everything will come together for the hour long documentary that will air this fall!

Huge thanks to WGBH and PBS Frontline for inviting me to participate in today’s conversation and share my thoughts with you. It was truly an honor to be among opinion leaders, policymakers, writers, journalists, and fellow parents and teachers!

How Do You Like Me Now?

There have been a few changes at Tech Savvy Mama! Like a super stylish new header, a brand spankin' new navigation bar, and this great little button. Yes, my very own Tech Savvy Mama button that you can add to your site if you want!

If you are like me and read most of your blogs through a reader, feed, or have them sent via e-mail, click on over and take a look. I know you will like what you see!

For all your graphic design needs, Jo-Lynne at DCR Design is the absolute best! She’s talented, reasonable, incredibly patient, quick when you need her to be (she had my button ready in just a few hours!), and just a dream to work with. Thanks Jo-Lynne!

And while you are clicking, visit Being Savvy Washington DC and leave a comment to win a Friends Forever Girls Doll, an ethnically diverse doll collection with a positive message!

Looking For a Few Good Reviewers!

The team at MomSelect likes to keep me informed about the latest and greatest technology stuff that is coming out by connecting me with trials where I get to scrutinize the site and write about it just for you. Now MomSelect is looking for parents review a new online game about the animal kingdom.

To be eligible to review this program, you must have at least one child in the 7-12 age range and live in or near one of the following geographic locations:

• Illinois
• Minnesota
• Greater New York Area (NY, NJ, PA, CT)
• Southern California
• Washington DC
• Maryland
• Georgia
• Texas

Any Tech Savvy Mama readers out there who met the above qualifications and are jumping out of their seats to volunteer, here are more details:

Focused on the animal kingdom, this online game is not only entertaining but teaches positive lessons about nature and cooperation. Moms will feel comfortable with the safe and secure nature of the online world and the educational aspect of the activities, while kids will love rescuing and caring for the baby animals they encounter during their game play.

Best of all, it's free to join! Compared to pricey subscription sites that run up monthly costs, or closed sites that require purchasing expensive toys for access, this site gives your kids the rich and engaging online experience they've come to expect, without the hefty price tag. And with the game's "Bring a Pet" feature, players can create a virtual version of a favorite stuffed animal or pet they already own!

If your child would be interested in being part of the first group of kids to experience this exciting website, MomSelect will send you a unique access code. The code will be valid during the entire site sneak peek testing period (approximately 4 weeks) and your child will be given special benefits and access within the site.

After testing out the site, you will fill out a brief online survey for MomSelect with your thoughts regarding the site. Your feedback, along with the thoughts of your children, will directly impact the final product launch. And as a thank you for your insights, we'll be holding a drawing among survey respondents - 3 lucky moms and their kids will each win a $50 Target gift card!

By participating in the sneak peek testing program, MomSelect asks that you:

• Visit the site with your child to get a sense of the website
• Encourage your child to play as much as possible during the sneak peek testing period
• Fill out the online survey within the requested time period*

If you are interested in participating in this sneak peek testing program, please click HERE to register. If you also know other moms that fit the above requirements and would be interested in this program, please feel free to forward this message on.

After registration, you will receive an email with detailed instructions, including sneak peek dates*. If you have any questions, please send an email to Amy at amy {at} bsmmedia {dot} com with the subject line "Sneak Peek Testing".
Thanks to all my readers for volunteering to help try out this new game. I'm excited to check it out too and you can be sure I'll be reviewing it here. If you are blogger who is selected to review this new online game, be sure to send me the permalink so I can link to you in my review!

Happy First Day of Spring!

Two of my favorite things...Art by Eric Carle and Google for today's First Day of Spring Google logo.  

DC Metro Area: The Circus is Here & I Have Discounted Tickets For You!

Last night we went out on a school night and let Little Miss Techie and Captain Computer stay up way past their bedtime. (I know, the horrors!)  But it was worth it because Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey is in town and it was fabulous!

We went early to hang with some of my favorite mom bloggers (and meet new ones!)and catch the three-ring preshow that begins an hour before the performance. During the preshow, you can get up close and personal with the performers and even participate. Captain Computer jumped in the ring to beat the clowns at a game of tug-of-war and Little Miss Techie loved watching Kelly Anne, one of the elephants, paint. Yes, paint! And of course there was the guy on stilts, costumes to try on, lots of clowns, and ladies in sequins. It was 45 minutes of pre-circus fun!

The Over the Top performance itself is certainly over the top! You'll see 7 motorcycles zooming around in a cage, tons of sequined costumes, crazy frisbee catching dogs, acrobatic aerials, a parade of elephants, a team of tigers, fireworks, silly clowns, a motorcycle that zooms overhead on a tightwire as a trapeze artist performs below, and so much more! While we thought last year's Bellobration show was great, this year's performance was spectacular! To say that Little Miss Techie and Captain Computer loved it would be an understatement!

Over The Top is at the Verizon Center from now to March 22 and at The Patriot Center from April 8-19.

Thanks to MomCentral, all Tech Savvy Mama readers in the DC Metro Area can get 4 tickets for $44 for all performances. Just enter "MOM" into the MomCentral promotional box when you make your purchase from TicketMaster. Also, a select amount of Front Row and VIP seats have been reserved for you to buy before they go on sale to the public and if you score one of those lucky seats, you just may be invited on stage to be a circus celebrity during the performance. Just enter the code "MOM" when purchasing those seats.

Have a great time at the circus and special thanks to Feld Entertainment, MomCentral, and Ringling Brothers for a memorable night!

Fine print: You must purchase a minimum of 4 tickets; additional tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each. Offer not valid on Gold Circle Seating, Circus Celebrity Seating, Front Row and VIP seating or combinable with other offers. Other Restrictions May Apply.

Website of the Week: Scholastic’s Free What Can I Do Journal Helps Kids and Families Cope with the Economy

As adults we are painfully aware of each new downturn the economy takes. Every time I turn on the news, the unemployment rate reaches a new high which means increasing numbers of families are struggling with their household budgets trying to make ends meet. The financial difficulties faced by families certainly affect children too. Being in a school, I can feel the effect that the economy is having on some of my students.

Thanks to Scholastic, there’s a new free online publication designed especially for kids to help them through this difficult time. Scholastic’s What Can I Do? My Journal for Caring and Sharing in Tough Times is a free downloadable journal is designed for kids ages 6-11 whose parents have lost jobs or are struggling in the current economic downturn.

Parents can present the journal to children and use it as a way to discuss the current state of the economy as it affects their family because it contains kid-friendly language and a layout that encourages elementary age children to express their ideas. What Can I Do? helps children identify their support systems while reinforcing self-esteem and open communication, strengthening their perception of themselves and their families with an emphasis on self-worth. Activities include writing or drawing to express thoughts on topics like changes in the family, how other family members are feeling, and listing the reasons why parents are special. It encourages children to seek out caring people that they can talk to, develop a list of things they can do to feel better when they are upset, healthy ways to express anger, and to ask questions. The journal is certainly something that a 3-5th grader can do independently or one that a parent can do with a child in the early elementary grades.

What Can I Do? was created by Denise Daniels, a prominent child development expert who provides guided counseling for children in families facing hardship and prompts children to identify, express, and manage feelings of loss and change through a series of guided lessons and exercises.

“In times of family transition, children can often feel powerless and confused,” said Daniels. “They become afraid of what the future holds for them and worry about how these difficult moments will impact their lives. What Can I Do? guides children to acknowledge these feelings of displacement and provides constructive ways kids can work through tough times in a positive way.”

Scholastic’s What Can I Do? website also includes a Parents’ Letter and a Parents' Guide with tips for parents on helping children cope with tough times, and a video message from Denise Daniels. The Letter to Parents and Parents’ Guide is available in Spanish and English.

Click here to download your own absolutely free copy of the What Can I Do? journal!

Thanks Scholastic for creating such a timely resource for kids and families!

Staples Ink Cartridge Recycle Program Update

Tricky Staples!  Last month I wrote about recycling ink cartridges and featured Staples since they give you a $3 coupon good towards the purchase of new ink when you drop off your old cartridge.

Well it seems that they have changed the rules of the game since February.  Tonight we had an ink crisis and Tech Savvy Daddy took our empty cartridge to Staples to buy a new one and found they wouldn't accept our old cartridge without a Staples Reward Card.  Staples now attaches your $3 reward to a "monthly ink recycling reward" which comes separately from your Staples Rewards statements.  For details, click here.

I'm not sure about the changes to Staples' ink recycling rewards program.  I liked the instant gratification of getting and spending my $3 certificate.  And to be honest, I've had a Staples Teacher Rewards Card since I started teaching and have never received a dime worth of rebates for all the stuff I've bought from them.  You would think that bulletin board borders, stickers, pencils, and all the other miscellaneous items I spent my own money on through the years would have added up to some kind of teacher rebate...

So just know that if you head to Staples, take your reward card and know that you are limited to returning 10 cartridges a month.  And let me know if you get your ink rebate in the mail so I can stop being a skeptic!

Don't forget to enter my See's Candies giveaway that ends on Wednesday and the Leapfrog giveaway that is ongoing throughout March in honor of National Reading Month!

Cyber Bully Update

The Palo Alto school system has notified the parents of 6-8 perpetrators in the recent cyber bullying incident.

Read the story in the Palo Alto Online News or watch an interview with Jill Asher, founder of Silicon Valley Moms Blog, and contributor, Myrna, on Bay Area news channel KTVU.

What are your thoughts about how the cyber bullying was handled?  Should the schools be more or less involved?

And have you checked your child's Facebook account? They may not think it is cool to be friends with Mom and Dad but a kid who has nothing to hide shouldn't be resistant to adults in their lives friending them!

For ways to spark discussion about Facebook, social network, cyber bullying, etc. here's the link to last week's Tech Savvy Mama cyber bullying resources.

The "I Love See's Candies" Giveaway!

So maybe this giveaway has very little to do with technology but what do you do when your favorite candy company in the whole wide world gets in touch with you to offer a giveaway to your loyal readers? Turn the deliciousness down? Never!

This winter I named the See’s Candies Custom Mix Creator a Website of the Week and See’s returning the love and offering a Tech Savvy Mama reader a $25 shopping spree on their glorious website.

After all, spring is upon us and with it comes the Easter candy I always woke to find in my basket left by the Easter Bunny. Ah, the sweet memories of Chocolate Butter Eggs, Scotchmallow Eggs, the fruity Jelly Bird Eggs with their non-pariel coatings, and the bunny boxes….

This year Little Miss Techie and Captain Computer are going to wake to find the Large Novelty Eggs in their baskets. And since my Mom is coming to visit for Easter, I know she’ll bestow more chocolately goodness upon her grandchildren in the form of fun novelty eggs but I hope she tucks some of the Springtime Truffles in her carry on just for me. After all, such precious cargo should never be checked on the airplane! (Hint hint. Thanks Mom!)

And if you are observing Passover, don’t worry! Many of my See’s springtime favorites are also Kosher certified too. Mmmm…Krispys and Toffee-ettes!


To enter the See's Candies gift certificate giveaway, visit their website and tell me how you would spend your $25 and if you plan to horde or share with your kids.

For extra entries, do any or all of the following:

• Join the Tech Savvy Mama Facebook blog network and leave a comment with your Facebook name
• Tweet about this giveaway and include a link to your Tweet in your comment and feel free to Tweet this: @techsavvymama is giving away $25 to See’s Candies
• Learn a little bit more about me by clicking here to read my original See’s post and leave a comment telling me what important See’s related skill I learned from visits with my grandmother.
• Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with your permalink

Leave a separate comment for each entry! At least 1 of your comments must contain a valid e-mail!

With all this chocolate talk, I’m off to do the Shred! Thanks for entering and good luck!

Fine print: To be eligible, enter by completing the above tasks and leaving your comments by Wednesday, March 18 at Midnight. One person can enter up to 5 times by completing each of the tasks as outlined above. Winner will be chosen at random by random.org and will need to reply with their mailing address 48 hours to claim their prize. Products will only be shipped within the United States.

Website of the Week: SmartyCard, A New Online Educational Entertainment Site for Ages 6-12

Interactive multimedia sites are the new way to learn. Each week I seem to get more and more pitches about new subscription sites for parents to purchase to enhance their children’s learning. Since I pledged to always write about the best of the best, I’m really excited to tell you tell you about SmartyCard!

SmartyCard is a brand new parent-approved "learn, earn, play" website for kids ages 6 to 12. It launched last week to rave reviews at DEMO09 in San Francisco and I had the pleasure of being part of a pre-launch demo with Chris Carvalho, General Manager of SmartyCard, and Aaron Burcell, Vice President of Marketing. Chris and Aaron have amazing resumes but what really impressed me during our call was that they are dads who have used their professional background to figure out how education can prosper in a fun environment.

SmartyCard is the first “learn, earn and play” experience to provide real and virtual-world rewards to millions of families that believe learning at home can be fun and rewarding. The online site features educational content from e-learning leaders such as Learnstar, Ignite Learning, and Learning.com and gives kids ages 6-12 the opportunity to engage in fun and interactive online games, quizzes and lessons.

The site is very easy to navigate from the minute parents set up an account. Parents must sign up and create an account for their child before they can enter SmartyCard. Once on the site, children roll over animations to select activities in subjects like reading, math, social studies, and science and set the level of difficulty (easy, medium, or hard). Right now the site includes quiz based content and science and social studies tutorials from Ignite Learning. I like that the site provides helpful hints if a kid is having difficulty answering a question and then the positive reinforcement of earning points for play. All the game play occurs on a single easy to use dashboard on a completely ad-free site.

I love that all of SmartyCard’s learning activities have been correlated to state standards for education and provide real learning experiences that reinforce classroom instruction. I can be assured that when Little Miss Techie or Captain Computer get a little older that the learning they are doing in SmartyCard directly relates to the state curriculum standards being taught in their schools.

As the kids learn, they earn and redeem points for popular rewards at iTunes, ClubPenguin, WebKinz, Star Doll, BellaSara, and other popular prizes. Parents put money into their child’s account with a credit card and the dollar amounts become points in the SmartyCard world. If the minimum $10 is added to the account, a child can play to earn 5000 points and redeem them for rewards. While some rewards unlock online worlds especially designed for children (BellaSara, Club Penguin, etc), a child can elect to use points to buy products from SmartyCard’s Amazon store. All Amazon rewards have been carefully screened by a group of SmartyCard employees who are parents too. If a product is something that won’t go into the home of a SmartyCard employee then Chris and Aaron said it won’t appear on their site.

SmartyCard’s incentive based learning model reinforces the universal values of hard work and educational achievement and can function as a digital allowance. Some parents have told SmartyCard that the digital allowance for educational learning on SmartyCard replacing the traditional type of allowance of chores for pay. You can try SmartyCard for free but you can unlock more interactive learning activities when you create an account and fund play through the point system.

Unlike other e-learning tools, this online edutainment platform is extremely parent and kid friendly. It puts out-of-the-classroom learning in the hands of both parents and their children, allowing the entire family to grow together in achieving educational success.

There are distinct child and parent portions of the site. Parents can access Play History, Reward History, and Purchase History. In the Play History portion of the site, parents can see each activity their child is engaging in including their performance, their responses on each quiz question, whether their child has passed or failed a quiz, and the amount of time spent logged into SmartyCard. Reward History allows parents to see what their child has obtained for points and Purchase History enables parents to see what has been purchased.

As you know, I’m pretty picky when it comes to sites and even more critical when it comes to naming sites as my Website of the Week. I was most impressed with SmartyCard's curriculum content, ease of use, and selection of incentives for children to earn. It is truly a site that I would recommend to my colleagues to use with their students in our 3-5th grade classes and something that I would let our kids use to reinforce classroom learning when they are older.


For another tech savvy parent perspective, visit Beth Blecherman’s TechMamas site for her SmartyCard review where she discusses how SmartyCard has developed a safe online educational gaming experience for kids.

Celebrate National Reading Month and Win a LeapFrog TAG Prize Pack!

While Read Across America Week is winding down, National Reading Month is just getting started! To celebrate reading, I’ve teamed up with LeapFrog and the National Education Association (NEA) to spread the word about the TAG Reading System’s 1 Million Reading Hours Pledge to celebrate National Reading Month.

Throughout the month of March, LeapFrog wants to encourage families to spend more time reading together. You probably spend some time each day reading to your child so pledge to set aside at least 10 minutes a day every day this month and contribute to the national goal of 1 million reading hours and reinforce the importance of shared reading time in your own family. Whether you pledge to read 10, 15, or 30 minutes a day to your child, you’ll receive a fun certificate, reading calendar, and coupons good for discounts on LeapFrog products at Toys R Us.

To reinforce reading and to add to your home libraries, LeapFrog and Scholastic are hosting a Love of Reading Sweepstakes where 10 winners will get a TAG Reading System, TAG books, and books from Scholastic! LeapFrog and Scholastic together in one giveaway! This sends my heart a-flutter and is truly an awesome giveaway!

To share my love of reading with you, LeapFrog has offered me the opportunity to give away a TAG prize pack to a very lucky Tech Savvy Mama reader. One reader will receive a LeapFrog TAG Reading System with 5 amazing TAG books along with an expanded-memory LeapFrog TAG Reading System with 10 books to donate to their local library.

Seriously!?! How cool is this giveaway??? I love LeapFrog and Little Miss Techie absolutely adores her TAG! Now you win one with a library of books and share the love with your local library!

Your first step to entering is to go to the 1 Million Reading Hours site and pledge to read at least 10 minutes a day to your child. Then come back and leave a comment below telling me how much time you will be reading per day.

For extra entries, feel free to do any or all of the following:

• Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with your permalink
• Join the LeapFrog Community and leave a comment with your username
• Read my posts in the LeapFrog Teacher Tagvocates Blogs and leave a comment telling me the title of one of my entries
• Tweet about this giveaway and include a link to your Tweet in your comment and feel free to Tweet this: Celebrate National Reading Month with @techsavvymama and win @LeapFrog TAG. Enter here: http://tiny.cc/Rdld5
  
• Subscribe to my feed and leave comment telling me you’ve subscribed
• Follow me on Twitter (@techsavvymama) and leave a comment with your Twitter ID
• Add me to your blogroll and leave a comment containing the URL of your blog

Leave a separate comment for each entry and be sure at least one of your entries contain a valid e-mail address!

This giveaway will be ongoing throughout the month of March. I’ll select the winner from all the comments using Random.org on April 1.

Good luck and go pledge!

Fine print: To be eligible, enter by completing the above tasks and leaving your comments by Tuesday, March 31 at Midnight. One person can enter up to 8 times by completing each of the tasks as outlined above. Winner will be chosen at random by random.org and will need to reply with their mailing address 48 hours to claim their prize. Products will only be shipped within the United States.

Websites of the Week: Cyber Bullying Resources for Parents

Cyberbullying is the topic of the week both here, on DC Metro Moms, Silicon Valley Moms, on City Mama, and even among my colleagues at school.

While I urged schools to include digital citizenship lessons in their curriculum in my post, a child’s education about cyberbulling and the proper use of social networking tools, like Facebook, needs to occur at home. But where to start? Much like talking about the birds and the bees, this could be a touchy subject that is hard to begin a dialogue about around the dinner table.

While there are many more sites that discuss cyberbullying, these are the best of the best to get you started and are well worth my designation of Tech Savvy Mama Websites of the Week.

StopCyberbullying.org is one stop shopping for all things about cyber bullying. Learn what it is, how it works, why kids cyber bully, how to prevent it and take action, and how law enforcement distinguishes between flaming, cyber bullying, harassment, and cyberstalking. This site also features pages for kids, tweens, and teens with age appropriate for each age group about cyber bullying.

If you are looking for some statistics about cyberbullying including how common it is, who the victims are, and the most common methods used, then visit Stop Bullying Now. This site has helpful tips about how to prevent cyberbullying and how to deal with it if your child has been a victim. There are also suggestions for educators.

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, take advantage of Facebook for Parents' classes, talks, and seminars. The classes are designed to help parents understand more about Facebook by empowering you to think about the social networking tool in a way that will prepare you for what comes next as your child. Not local to Silicon Valley? Not a problem! Sign up for the Facebook for Parents Newsletter. Sent three times a year, this newsletter “helps parents recognize the most important aspects of Facebook, as it relates to their family’s well-being” and includes the latest research, positive aspects of Facebook, and best practices for parents with kids under 18 on Facebook.

WiredKids.org is a site whose goal is to help prevent and investigate cybercrimes. The site has age appropriate pages where they discuss topics like online issues, online safety, and SMS safety in a way that relates to kids (ages 7-10), tweens (11-13), and teens (14-17). I think that their online safety resources for parents are outstanding and worth a look by any parent who has a child that uses technology. Be sure to check out the tip about protecting your children when they aren’t at home. It may sound silly but a colleague of mine recently told me that her daughter was a cyber bully when she visited a friend’s house and together they sent hate e-mail to another one of their friends. Oh, and there’s also a quiz that you can have your kids take to help them determine if they have ever been cyberbullied.

The Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General’s Operation Safe Surf site has an entire section dedicated to cyberbullying which links for students, parents, and teachers to learn more. I especially like how the student sites (K-5, middle school, and high school) include ways that kids can be encouraged to handle cyberbullying and wording for a pledge that your child can take to prevent cyberbullying. Sure the pledge may sound cheesy, but as Little Miss Techie gets older, I want her to know to tell us if she is being cyberbullied and to not be mean to others while on the computer, whether alone or with a friend.

Even if your child vows to you that they have never been a victim and will never victimize a peer, you might want them to watch NetSmartz’s series on cyberbulling. This highly regarded site has a three part series contains real life stories that will help convey the serious nature of cyberbulling to your child.

Do you have have a tip about how you have talked to your child about cyberbullying? What other cyberbullying sites do you think are worth a mention on Tech Savvy Mama? Leave a comment!

Cyber Bullies CityMama Style

While I scan the web to compile cyber bulling resources to share with you, the fabulous Stefania (aka CityMama) has a great post reminding cyber bullies that their moms are on Facebook.  Yes, we know what you are doing and who you are targeting! Beware!

Read Stefania's post here.

I Hate Spam! (a.k.a Do You Think I'm Stupid)

The e-mail I received today:

From: Eva John Garang
Subject: Hello Dear
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2009 00:13:15 +0000

Hello Dear,

Kindly accept my apology for sending mail to you.I believe you are a highly respected personality, I am writing this mail with tears, sadness and pains. I know it will come to you as a suprise since we haven't known or come across each other before considering the fact that I sourced your email contact through the internet in search of trusted person who can assist me.

I am Miss Eva Garang 25 years old female from the Republic of Sudan, the Daughter of Late Dr. John Garang. Before my late father’s death in Uganda on 31st of July 2005, was vice president and former rebel leader of Sudan and was kill by Sudan President Omar al Bashir in helicopter crash. You can read more about my father in the link below. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2134220.stm.

I am constrained to contact you because of the maltreatment which I am receiving from my step mother. She planned to take away all my late father's treasury and properties from me since the unexpected death of my beloved Father. Meanwhile I wanted to travel to Europe, but she hide away my international passport and other valuable documents. Luckily she did not discover where I kept my father's File which contained important documents. Now I am presently staying in the Mission in Burkina Faso. I am seeking for longterm relationship and investment assistance. My father of blessed memory deposited the sum of US$12.7 Million in one bank in Burkina Faso with my name as the next of kin. I had contacted the Bank to clear the deposit but the Branch Manager told me that being a refugee, my status according to the local law does not authorize me to carry out the operation. However, he advised me to provide a trustee who will stand on my behalf. I had wanted to inform my stepmother about this deposit but I am affraid that she will not offer me anything after the release of the money.

Therefore, I decide to seek for your help in transferring the money into your bank account while I will relocate to your country and settle down with you. As you indicated your interest to help me I will give you the account number and the contact of the bank where my late beloved father deposited the money with my name as the next of kin. It is my intention to compensate you with 20% of the total money for your assitance and the balance shall be my investment in any profitable venture which you will recommend to me as have no any idea about foreign investment. Please all communications should be through this email address only for confidential purposes.

Thanking you alot in anticipation of your quick response. I will send you details in my next email for you to know me well.

Yours Miss Eva

*******************

Dear Miss Eva,

I'm not falling for your sob story complete with link to your "father's" obituary. As sad as your story may sound, there's no way in hell I'm giving my my bank account number to "let" you transfer money into my bank account.

If you knew more about me and my "highly respected personality," you would know you picked the wrong person to spam. Oh, and by the way, my readers aren't falling for your little story either so please refrain from sourcing their e-mail through the internet too.

Yours,
Tech Savvy Mama