If you read nothing else this week, take a look at the new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Some of the top line findings are worrisome. Kids still rank TV their fave for media—spending as much as seven to eight hours a day watching (that’s a full time job). Turns out that there’s little [...]

Never mind you, which netbook will your kids be carting to and from 1st grade this year? Will it be the one with SpongeBob or with Little Mermaid? This week Dell announced a new netbook designed for the 6- to 12-year-old: the Inspiron Mini Nick Edition.

Before File-Open-Save and Lacoste were the standard for applications and their developers, there was Kai Krause. Kai’s Power Tools, or KPT, were a collection of psychedelic digital effects that extended the capabilities of PhotoShop. Goo and PowerGoo were consumerized versions of these effects. You could take a photo and apply a few creative stretches and [...]

In the old days (just last week), before Nintendo’s new portable game console, the DSi, was available, portable game consoles were for kids with good eyesight, fast reflexes, and too much time on their hands. The DSi, the next generation of Nintendo’s DS, is going to shake things up by changing the nature of the [...]

Parry Aftab is the Pied Piper (Piperess?) of kids’ Internet safety. Long before it was fashionable to invite kids to join in the conversation regarding best practices and safety on the Internet, Parry was not only listening to kids, but she was teaching them to become safe Internet leaders who would influence other kids.
Yesterday, in [...]

Many parents are just about ready to give their kids two cans and some string and send them out to play. The days of $300 robots and $100 learning systems are fading fast. At Toy Fair this year, there was a nod towards austerity. But, while lower in costs, the toys did [...]

“Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.” —Walt Disney
For a child, today’s play is tomorrow’s work. Whether it’s playing with a toy doctor kit, a tea set, a digital camera and editing software, or inside of a virtual world, the skills they’ll need tomorrow are being honed.
But their skills will only be [...]