WEEK 2: Jumping into JumpStart.com

Art and Progress Reports Oh My!

Sassy my 8yrold 'overheard' a twitter conversation I was having with Erin from Jumpstart.com. I had seen this TwitPic rough draft image and was giving Erin a hard time that my kid could draw as well as that! (She was home from school with Pink Eye.)

Anyway, the next thing I knew.. Sassy had pulled up the JumpStart.com site and was 'sketching' this picture. I thought she had put the paper up to the screen and copied it.. NOPE she assured me she just looked at it and then drew it later. (The computer screen was off when I walked in on her.) I was all, should we skip the 2nd grade and go straight to art school?? @Jumpstart_Chris (one of the artists with Jumpstart.com) what do you think??

Last week Angie from Seven Clown Circus asked:

What's most important to you in helping your children learn?
My answer... hmm... That's hard to put into words?
I agree with Angie, they need to be having fun while learning. But also, they need to know they can do it... which doesn't always mean giving in when something's hard. My little boy wants badly to be able to tie his shoes. He knows there's a bunny and a tree but what the heck to do at that point!? He gets frustrated. I think it's important to help them learn while at the same time help them see their potential even though they need to have patience to reach it... Am I even making sense here??

And Jenna from over at StopDropandBlog points out how safe the online game is.

I hadn't really given that much thought.. my kids are getting older now and they have a whole 'tab' on the computer of their 'safe' games and such.. but for a second there she reminds me that it's time to have a chat with them about online safety, you know? Remind them that we don't give out any personal information for any reason.

It's nice to be assured that 1) Jumpstart is a single player game, there is no interaction with outside other players, and 2) You the parent register and log in.

Which leads me to another part of Jumpstart that I'm in love with:
They send you little tracking newsletter progress reports right to your email box. How cool is that... No, not grades or anything, take a look at this screenshot of TKs report:

If you click to enlarge it you can see there are all these areas of learning that he has passed off or is still working on. There are a LOT of these areas. See the dots above the chart? there are 4 total pages with that many dots each!? (Note the low score still in following directions!)I love seeing his progress nearly in real time.. He passed off the calendar area the other day, I was all what? You know the days of the week? Sure enough on a real calendar he pointed out how it all works.. 'duh' mom!

Now I'd like to introduce you one of the marketing Queens behind JumpStart.com...

This is Erin, ain't she cute??
She said she has in fact put on that costume before and it's all hot and dank inside..

Part of the reason I wanted to try out a 3 week campaign with JumpStart was to create a conversation with my readers and friends not just with me about a product I love... but to help you see the real people behind the scenes.

A great way to do that? TWITTER.

I'd like you to send
@jumpstarst_Erin
And @jumpstart_Paul
And @jumpstart_Chris
And @jumpstart_Glenn
some questions you have about kids and learning and problems with learning and how you can help your kids with various areas from Math to Social Studies... That's right...

STEP one: head over to twitter and follow each of them.. tell them Carissa sent you and that you have a question for them.

STEP two: ask away.

They have all promised to be very nice and not bite.

I'll go first: (pretend I'm on twitter...)

@jumpstart_chris What do you suggest for a budding artist inside an 8yrold body? Let her do free form stuff, give her a class, what??

Or

@jumpstart_paul How does one even start to create an online virtual world? How many ppl hours go into something like this?

See that didn't hurt.. Now it's your turn.

~~~~

Also if you have any comments and you are okay with it, someone from Jumpstart.com will be contacting you to answer any questions you may have! Thanks to everyone last week who helped out with the internet speed testing, Erin was very grateful!

Please follow up with Angie and Jenna's week 2 posts as well... and stay tuned for the giveaways next week! (hint: following the Jumpstart team will be required so get started!)