Generation ‘S’ for Scooter: do you zip?

Kids have certainly gone mobile and not only on their parent’s iPads which they have now claimed as their own, but on their own modes of transport. It is also handy that their favourite mode of transport now comes in as many colours and models as an adult’s car. Pink, neon green, subtle blue, yellow or red, the choice is theirs. Yes, it’s the Scooters.

Colourful scooters and happy kids zip about the London streets all day long and smart parents have nothing else but to find a stylish matching solution… So fastforward 2 years, it’s not the car parking lots or the electrical parking charges – it’ll be the scooter lanes that we will need.

Yummy & Olympic is voting for Scootering as Britain’s favourite kid sport and Athena, the goddess of Exploring and Scooter certainly agrees:

Athena is wearing sportswear for kids by Yummy & O.L.M.P.C

Custom orders available now, please email katerina@yummyolympic.com

Full collection launching soon on yummyolympic.com

What Kids Want

Kids want Binganimal.

Described as ‘angry birds for kids’ by some, this newly launched game is part of the effort by the company to introduce engaging experiences for kids but with an educational element. Rather than pure consumption of the ‘angry birds’ which seem to have gripped the world, Binganimal allows parents to be involved by reviewing the cloud based ‘parent dashboard’, which holds the performance data for their kids and allows voice and features customisation.

Both kids love the game and love the split screen interface which allows then to play together. Highly recommended and available on all major mobile platforms.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/binganimal/id499627847?mt=8

I am counting down to 3

Numbers are powerful things, and when laid out in a specific way, they become irresistible. That way is a countdown.

Countdowns are the biggest cliff hangers of our time. A rocket launch? A penalty? A New Year’s celebration? A fashion show? A startup launch? A countdown is a must-have, no matter what, and in the true olympic spirit, we are counting down…

10 , 9 , 8 …

7 , 6 …

5 , 4 …

3 … Every kid and parent’s favourite: ‘I am counting to 3′

2 …..

Lately, even fashion events have tapped into the power of numbers. Burberry have placed a live countdown over the Cromwell Road flypass. You bet we are excited…

1 …

Finally, startups of the new century just must have a countdown…

And on that note, there are bright things ahead. We are counting down…

Head Teacher’s Award

It’s after a badge like this, that you realise that even when you are a grown up adult, even if you have your own company or are an employee, there is a higher authority. The Head Teacher. And their endorsement or consent is a bloody amazing occasion. It’s a happy Friday!

How to Not Lose your Kids – ‘Me Finder’

When kids come about, there are some inventions that every parent dreams of but thinks that it is only the premise of the books, that come as part of the childcare – fairytales.

So when one of the dreams materialises into an actual product, available to buy and affordable – the joy is overwhelming.

Such dream was to prevent kids from getting lost and Claire Bardener, a UK mother of 3 has found the answer. Claire has created a wristband, which holds key phone numbers, and enables kids to ask for help in case they are lost.

The screen holds up to five numbers and the kids can access select numbers one by one by simply pressing the button. More than that, the ‘Me Finder’ website has an array of useful activities and tools to teach kids about awareness and rehearse the logistics of emergency situations.

We think it’s such a simple and useful idea, that every parent should get one.

Wristbands are available for purchase at £14.99. More details on mefinder.co.uk

And thank you to the Evening Standard for pointing this out to us!

A 12 year old app developer – we have stepped into a new age

Thomas Suarez did everyone a favour – he created an IPhone app called “Bustin Jeiber,” where you can freely release your anger in a whack-a-mole fashion on ‘moles’ closely resembling Justin Bieber with a mustache.

Now, he has an after-school class where the teaches his peers to build apps and use technology in a creative manner. With children embracing technology as such young age, a digital revolution seems to be growing up with our kids, all we need is a small but mighty leader.

With the words ‘Nowadays…, usually…, students know a little bit more than the teachers’, Thomas confidently  marches into the digital world of endless possibilities – age has never been a boundary.

Talk on TED.com:

http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_suarez_a_12_year_old_app_developer.html?awesm=on.ted.com_TSuarez&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=on.ted.com-static&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=awesm-publisher

Scarlet M

Oink! Generation ‘P’ (P for Peppa Pig, of course)

Ask a parent of a 3-5 year old about their life without Peppa Pig and the answer would be ‘grim’. No lie-ins on weekends; long exhausting flights with kids getting frustrated by take off and bargaining getting to an all-time low.

Yes, it is that big of a deal. Kids and parents are ‘peppapigging’ it big time! Peppa Pig-owner Entertainment One more than doubled pre-tax profits to £19m in the six months to the end of September, growing revenues 26% year on year. The figures also showed 150,000 iPad downloads – the Peppa Pig generation have assimilated tablets into their daily routine with impeccable speed.

If there was one cartoon of the growing up generation, it’s gotta be the oinking family. And I am happy for that: a friendly, warm and very human touch, I would rather that, than the American dream of the Disney princesses and their doomed expectations of real estate, the prince and surreal amount of bling dresses.

Homework can be fun!

Salman Khan is trying to change education. It started 6 years ago, when he created a simple tutoring video to help his cousins perform better at school. Now he has a website featuring more than 2,600 educational videos, a school promoting a new concept of a reverse classroom and the backing of one of the wealthiest people in the technology field – Bill Gates. This non profit organization is trying to promote an idea of humanising the classroom.

The idea is simple, instead of forcing kids to learn a subject at school and then face problems at home whilst doing their homework, the student’s routine is reversed . The teacher would choose a Khan Academy video for the pupils to watch at home,at their own pace, where a soft, interesting voice can teach anything from simple subtraction, to money and banking tutorials, on a virtual blackboard with multi-coloured pen. The lesson time is, in turn, treated as a tutorial time, where the teacher directly interacts with each student in the classroom helping tackle each individual problem on the subject. Salmon Khan believes this is the key to a better education.

The idea is simple. The results are taking the world by storm.  Judge for yourself.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Scarlet M

Social Network for Kids. Essential

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As the weekend began on a hot Saturday morning, both kids were crying for the playdates with respective best friends of that week from their schools.

Requirements were’t limited to one friend each and the list soon became a sizeable mini party. As I was looking for phone numbers, and the names of the mothers I thought how much easier it would be for parents to have a simple interface ‘at a touch of a button’ which would take care of the logistics of keeping on top of the social lives of our little ones.

Having sent 7 text messages and sipping coffee awaiting reply, i have formulated my ‘kids social network’ needs into the following:
1. A simple interface app for parents where you can send ‘pings’ to other parents within your network with an update of your plans and location.

2. A child’s interface where they can post pictures and photos and ping their friends to keep up at times when they don’t see each other.

This is really top of my wishlist now. Interestingly, there is a startup which is cracking this riddle as we speak…

KatiaCavallo
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Teaching Kids how to Code and Parents how to Cope

Fast forward 5 years and popular TV programms like XFactor and Britain’s Got Talent will be auditioning a different kind of hopefuls altogether. The new generation of stars is ‘wired’.

That is not to mean that they would merely use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for self promotion and clever e-commerce tie-ins. Most of all, they will be hackers at heart. They will know how the new world order works and will be taught how to ‘break it’ and put it back together again.

Britain is already reaping the benefits of entrepreneurial minds and digital  skill. Most new innovations are brought in via the web, dramatically increasing the quality of life and laying foundation for healthy improvement. There are a umber of schemes to recognise entrepreneurial efforts and reward their efforts with funding (Seedcamp is a good example).

Now, that is only sustainable if we can bring up the new generation with the right skills and provide enough developers to continue the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We need to teach enough kids how to code. So here comes ‘Rewired State‘ and ‘Young Rewired State‘ – a learning programme for kids as young as 6 and up to 18, which teaches kids how to code. The programme already has 150 alumni, each of whom has become the mentor for upcoming classes. The founder, Emma Mulqueeny @hubmum started the project 2 years ago having seen the complete lack of adequate, inspirational teaching of coding. Over a quick coffee Emma says that ‘bringing up a generation of developers will be key to our future and we have to start young. The kids can’t start from scratch when 18, it’s too late and their University degrees end up being the course of the basics rather than a creative journey to learn and experiment’.

Now I am signing up my kids for sure. Digital skills are their future – not being merely the passengers of Google’s algorythms and Facebook’s data hoovering but having the knowledge and skills to understand the new world order and influence it. The problem of transition will not be so much the kids, but their parents and tackling their fears through education is a key place to start.

Rewired State – Coding a better country, Young Rewired State and their events like Barcamp and Hack the Government are in Emma’s blog

http://mulqueeny.wordpress.com/

http://rewiredstate.org/

Other Relevant reading: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/jul/27/mini-seedcamp