A Cool Chore Tool For Older Kids
June 17th, 2008 by Amy
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Chore charts are great for younger children and can be a very effective way of establishing good helpers in your home. What do you do though when sticker charts just don't work anymore? Well, Handipoints is an an online program that you can utilize to get your kids to accomplish their chores and to make it really cool & fun them too. Best of all, this website is free to use and is a wonderful way to motivate your children.
It is set up with a virtual world where they earn points to get things for their very own character. You set your child up with their very own cool character and by completing points, they can cash in to make cool costumes for their character or get games or cartoons by using their points. Children can also spend time interacting with other kids using canned phrases for discussion.
Here is an excerpt from TechCrunch about the company:
"Founder
Viva Chu started Handipoints in January 2007 with the notion that chore
charts would be both more fun and more effective if they were moved
online. So he created a site with two main parts: one that helped
parents track how their kids helped out around the house, and another
that consisted of a virtual world on par with the other pseudo-3D
services kids have come to enjoy.
These
two parts work closely with one another to create sufficient incentives
for kids to do their work. When kids successfully complete activities
(such as cleaning their room, taking out the trash, or even brushing
their teeth and eating an apple), they gain either of two types of
points: so-called “handipoints” that can be redeemed for real-world
items such as Nerf guns and toys; and “bonus points” that can be used
to buy virtual goods in the online world. Parents determine which type
of point, and how many of them, is rewarded for good behavior.
Setting
up a system for kids to redeem points for physical goods (or money) was
easy enough; all they had to do was hook up Amazon’s APIs and create a
custom storefront. But a significant effort has gone into creating an
entirely new and appealing virtual world, one that’s replete with
different settings, activities, items, and other users.
Like Webkinz,
kids can walk around the virtual world and talk to each other using
canned chat (where you pick statements from a list instead of typing
them). This prevents inappropriate behavior. The graphics are
impressive and the functionality is rather sophisticated. In addition
to buying items and socializing, users can play in-world games and
watch movies (these require points, too).
Most
of the service’s virtual goods are free, but the company plans on
making money through selling premium goods to parents who want to make
them available for their kids."
Are you a parent of a tween? How do you motivate your tween to do chores and help around the house?
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