By Role Mommy Writer, Danielle Feigenbaum
Memorial Day Weekend kicks off summer travel for many people. You may be packing up the car for for a road trip, hopping on a train or getting ready to board a plane. Wherever you go and however you get there, you will want to make sure you are prepared with activities for your kids. Here is where Fingerprint comes in and saves the day.
There are over 25 educational apps to chose from with more on the way by the end of the year! The Fingerprint platform is a first-of-its-kind hub for learning and fun that offers multiplayer gaming features and enhanced safe social capabilities for children as young as 3 years old. The platform is a portal to Fingerprint’s expanding library of great educational games that promote early reading, character values, finance/money skills, music and so much more.
Fingerprint is a three time family choice award winner and 2013 iKids winner. With apps from your kids favorite TV shows such as Sid the Science Kid and more, you will be ok with letting your kids play away because they are learning and using their imagination.
Below are some of the apps that my kids loved (they are ages 9 and 6).
With Scribble My Story, kids can illustrate their own audio stories or create a book based on Fingerprint’s wildy popular Big Kid Life or Whole Wide World Adventure.
A collection of 4 Step-by-Story apps: The Goofy Gift, Thanks for the Franks, Larry’s Missing Music and I am the Hero!
There are new apps coming out all the time, all reasonably priced. It’s good, clean learning fun! So click here and start downloading right away! Happy Travels!
Virtual Piggy
My husband and I have tried to instill the value of a dollar onto our kids from a very young age. For example, they both wanted iTouches last year for their birthdays, so we made them “earn” the money themselves by doing chores around the house and helping out in many ways. My daughter is at the age where we can start giving her allowance and she can really learn how to budget. Financial responsibility is an important part of raising smart and savvy kids in the digital age and Virtual Piggy is the safest way for children to save, spend, and give online.
How Does it Work?
A parent registers their account, providing information such as their preferred credit card for future purchases, and a shipping address. Then, the parent can create accounts for each of their children and establish detailed parental controls (such as approved merchants, transaction limits, levels of transaction approvals). Because financial and shipping information is stored in the parent account, the child never has access to it.
The child is then able to check out at Virtual Piggy merchants, using only their username and password.
Why is it Safe?
For parents: Your credit card information is kept under our PCI-DSS Level 1 Certified security, the highest level available. Because this information is stored under your parent account, your child never has access to it.
For children: Because the child only needs their Virtual Piggy their username and password to checkout, they never use your credit card, or provide personal information like their name, age, birthdate, contact information or home address. Virtual Piggy is also a certified licensee of the TRUSTe® Children’s Privacy Program, which has been approved by the Federal Trade Commission as an authorized safe harbor under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule.
What Controls Do I Have?
Virtual Piggy provides you with lots of options when it comes to controls on your child accounts.
You can set monthly allowance amounts, savings targets and charity goals.
You also have the option to require approval on every purchase your child makes, or just some of them. You can set a maximum limit per transaction, per day or per week, or restrict which merchants your child is able to shop at.
How Does Virtual Piggy Teach Financial Responsibility?
Research shows that teaching financial literacy for their kids is a major concern for 97% of parents, but many are not sure how to start. By using Virtual Piggy, you can empower your child to make his or her own financial decisions within the budget and controls you set up. It’s a great way for parents and kids to sit down and discuss how to manage their money.
Virtual Piggy also offers an online store (shop.virtualpiggy.com) with gift cards from major brands, such as Papa John’s, Foot Locker and Regal Theaters. Many of these gift cards can be printed and used at regular stores.
How Can I Learn More?
Visit their website at www.virtualpiggy.com. We can also be reached at www.facebook.com/virtualpiggy and www.twitter.com/followpiggy
*Don’t miss TONIGHT’S TWITTER PARTY!
Date: 12/13
Time: 9-10pm ET/6-7pm PT
Hashtag: #virtualpiggy
More details and an RSVP here: http://splashcreativemedia.com/2012/12/virtual-piggy-twitter-party-1213-rsvp-to-win/
Check out MVP Deals (Available from 11-14 to 1-15): http://bit.ly/MVPiggy
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post from Splash Creative Media on behalf of Virtual Piggy. All opinions are my own.
Fingerprint is giving away 4 iPad Minis to one lucky family!
Fingerprint is the first kids’ mobile learning and entertainment platform, providing sharing and engagement opportunities between kids and parents across mobile devices and the web. The Fingerprint platform invites kids to explore and discover learning game apps on their own and then share the fun with their grown-ups via the one-of-a kind, in-app Mom Comm.
Every Fingerprint Play app, whether first-party or ‘fingerprinted’ by third-party developers, is selected to promote academic, social, and emotional skills with a heavy dose of just plain fun. Fingerprint offers an easy-to-integrate SDK that allows 3rd Party Content Developers to participate in the network.
Most Fingerprint Play apps are free to play, with an option to enhance and extend the experience for an additional charge as your child further engages with the App. Fingerprint is currently available on iOS platforms (iPhone, iPod touch and iPad), and will expand to Android devices in early 2013.
There are currently 15 Apps available including top titles like – Big Kid Life Firefighter with non-stop logic and math action, Whole Wide World which introduces kids to history, culture and geography, and DoReMi 1-2-3 which inspires creativity through music. Every Fingerprint Play App whether first party or ‘fingerprinted’ by third party developers is selected to promote academic, social and emotional skills with a heavy dose of fun.
Here are the new apps being released throughout the month:
Scribble My Story (ages 3-8): Based on the award-winning Scribble Press app for iPad, this new app lets the youngest readers write, illustrate, and customize their own stories. Kids can customize their very own audio stories or create a book based on Fingerprint’s wildly popular Big Kid Life or Whole Wide WorldAdventure. (iPad only)
Green$treets: Unleash the Loot! (ages 5-8): The brainchild of Neale Godfrey, creator and leader in the “Kids and Money” field and bestselling author, this app teaches kids goal setting, budgeting, the value of money, and financial decision making while saving the planet. (Available now)
Panda Panda No More Mess (ages 3-6): A fun sorting game and interactive book that teaches shapes and colors. Children help Panda, a happy little bear armed with a vacuum, clean up by dragging and dropping toys, blocks, clothes and even snacks into the right toy chests.
Step-by-Story: The VeggieTales Collection® (ages 3-6): Featuring the beloved characters from VeggieTales, this Step-by-Story collection helps kids associate words, sounds and pictures in preparation for reading. Plus, the apps focus on key character values (i.e., share your gifts, use your imagination, make new friends). The new collection includes The Goofy Gift, Thanks for the Franks, Larry’s Missing Music, and I am That Hero!
For your chance to win this great prize, simply go the website, fingerprintplay.com and enter! The winner will be picked on December 7th, so enter now!
The Company:
Fingerprint Digital is a San Francisco-based mobile entertainment company for kids. It was founded in 2010 by Nancy MacIntyre, a former executive at Leap Frog, and K2 Media Labs. They launched their first kids’ edutainment platform, Fingerprint Play, in December 2011, with a mission to help kids grow through learning made fun. To date, kids have played over 34 million minutes on the Fingerprint platform.