Video games are fun… but when it comes to a child’s time spent playing video games, here are some unhealthy gaming habits to watch for.

Today’s guest post article comes to us from Kyle Ford from HDDMag.com and he writes about 7 unhealthy gaming habits to look out for and how to help your kids deal with them. Video game addiction is a real thing and just like spending too much time on tablets and mobile devices like iPads, Kindles, and iPhones, it can affect a child’s development. Parents need to always be vigilant in the technology and digital media that their children consume, including my own family. My kids spend a lot of time on their devices and this list of identifying unhealthy video game habits is a great place to start in determining whether your own children are spending too much time in front of the screen playing video games. Kyle, thank you for the great post and contribution to Windy Pinwheel.

Enjoy.
– Will

7 unhealthy gaming habits to look out for – and how to help your kids deal with them

21st-century childhood looks a lot different than the childhood of even 10 years ago. Studies show that children spend almost 6 hours a week playing video games. That’s a lot of screen time! And it’s increasing drastically. Schools have integrated games and apps to help with learning math and language skills. Most schools have computer literacy programs that also use online games, and classrooms have even developed their own social networks.

Though some forms of gameplay can improve brain function, as well as cutting down on stress, and even helping with ADHD, that doesn’t make your child immune to the dangers of video game addiction. If you’re worried about the amount of time your kids spend in front of a screen, keep these unhealthy gaming habits and signs in mind, and work to limit your child’s video game time.

1. Preoccupation with video games
   First in our list of 7 unhealthy gaming habits is a preoccupation with video games. If you’re noticing a lot of your child’s conversations revolve around his favorite video games, you might be seeing the effects of a video game addiction. Spending quality time with your child, away from the computer and without the iPad, can help develop new interests. Remember to leave your phone at home if possible, or at least turn it off. Kids model behavior from their parents.
2. Drop in grades
   Extra time with a video game coupled with a drop in grades can signify an addiction forming and why it is among our list of 7 unhealthy gaming habits. Some game addicts report up to 14 hours a day in gameplay. That doesn’t leave much time for studying. Also, when you add in the loss of concentration, it can have an impact on grades. If you notice your child’s grades slipping, encourage time away from the game, and find fun ways to get back to learning.
3. Increased irritability
   If your child flies into a rage or temper tantrum each time you tell her to turn the games off, that is classic video game addict behavior. Treat it like any other behavioral problem, with reasonable limits and proportional punishment. If your child can’t handle having limits placed on video game time, it’s a clear indication to turn the game off for a while and encourage your child to find something else.
4. Losing interest in other activities
   Speaking of finding something else. Has your child lost interest in other activities? If you’re noticing a usually extroverted and energetic child keeping to himself and losing interest in other activities, he may need your help to reengage with old activities. Along with limiting screen time, spending family time outside, or involving a child in after-school activities like sports or art programs that don’t involve electronic play.
5. Using video games to cope with bad moods
   Kids deal with much stress these days, and plenty of it is due to technology. Between the demands of school, and the dangers of social media, children are more susceptible to stress than in previous generations. That increases the likelihood of depression and anxiety. There are even video games designed to help with stress, for kids, teens, and adults. However, when video games become a crutch for dealing with a bad mood, it becomes easier to indulge in addicted behavior that can be destructive among other unhealthy gaming habits. Instead, encourage your child to talk things through. Play physical games to burn off anxious energy, and spend more time in the sun. Endorphins produced by exercise has been shown to have a positive effect on mood disorders, even in children.
6. Sneaking game play
   Many parents choose to keep personal electronic devices out of the hands of children before bed. If you’re noticing your child is sneaking game against house rules, more drastic measures might be needed. Change passwords often, so kids can’t get into your phone or tablet after hours. You might draw up a chart to mark the amount of time your child spends on games. If they’re being dishonest, or unaware of exactly how much game time they’re putting in, it’s an excellent way to keep them accountable.
7. Sleeping problems
   The effect of solar-imitating LED lights on sleep has been well documented. Kids need more sleep than adults, so interrupting sleeping patterns with even the most casual games can have a significant impact on cognitive function throughout the day, including affecting a child’s ability to retain information, ability to regulate moods, and hand-eye coordination, among other things. Worse, sleep problems in childhood often escalate to insomnia as an adult. Turn all devices off when natural daylight fades, and develop healthy sleep habits.

What can you do?

If you’re worried about your child’s unhealthy gaming habits, there are things you can do to encourage healthier gameplay. The first thing you should do is to limit screen time. Health experts say kids should have less than two hours a day of screen time.

Create media-free zones in your home, and set rules for bedtime, busy mornings, and mealtimes, so the kids don’t have unpoliced access to their games. If your child has a personal device, like a tablet or phone, set a clear list of rules and responsibilities, as well as the consequences for breaking the rules.

Keep on top of what your child is doing in front of a screen, and spend some of that play time together. Encouraging more cooperative games is a great way to avoid obsessive and antisocial behaviors, chief among our 7 unhealthy gaming habits list. Have family game nights, and let everyone choose their favorites to play. Mixing up your gaming can help pull your child out of a game, and avoid addictive behaviors and unhealthy gaming habits. And playing with family keeps the play social and fun, instead of getting too intense.

Video games have become so ubiquitous that we use them at work, at school, and on our commutes and developing unhealthy gaming habits is all too easy. Too much screen time isn’t good for anyone, especially children with brains still developing. Too many video games can cause stress and anxiety, impact your child’s sleeping, and cause them to withdraw socially. Find ways to limit your child’s screen time, and watch for these 7 unhealthy gaming habits, to make sure your child keeps and healthy attitude, and doesn’t rely on video games for stress management, socialization, and fun.

About the Guest Post Author

I am Kyle Ford, and I am the creator of HDDMag.com!

HDDmag.com is your one-stop destination for all types of information and updates regarding external hard disk drives! Since site creation, we have since expanded. We now cover technology products and services such as video games, technology news, and much more!

At HDDmag.com, we are passionate about hard disk drives, and we are determined to offer high-quality and well-researched reviews to our readers and subscribers! We hope you can stop by and thanks for taking a look at our list of 7 unhealthy gaming habits and how to help your kids deal with them.

Sponsor this article for $1.00

Enter sponsor title and e-mail.

Enter website URL. Sponsor title will be hyperlinked with this URL.

By sponsoring this article, your sponsorship will display for a period of 180 days (6 months). If, for any reason, and it is up to the discretion of the authors of Windy Pinwheel, we feel content linked to or the name provided does not coincide with the objectives of this site for our audience we will issue a refund and pull the sponsorship of the article. This action does not limit you from sponsoring an article on our site again. However, by sponsoring again, we will issue the same review criteria as the prior sponsorship and if it fails, we will follow the same process as before and issue a refund and pull down the sponsorship. We truly appreciate the support of our audience and hope you can help offset our costs of operating this site by sponsoring our site articles.

For all reviews, please exercise discretion. If the sponsor of the article is in conflict of the topic of the article, we will pull down the sponsorship to remove any conflict of interest with the article at-hand. For instance, there is an article about a hamburger restaurant and a competing hamburger restaurant sponsors the article; we will pull the sponsorship and issue a refund.

By clicking the button below, I agree with the Terms & Conditions.

The good, the bad and the ugly of being a work from home dad

I have seen many posts around the internet about being a stay-at-home dad (SAHD), but none about dads who works from home either as a blogger or as something else. Me, I am a remote employee for a NASDAQ traded company. The work I do as a work from home dad is very fulfilling, as I help nonprofits every day in the work that I do. I have found over the years that what I do is typically more than a 9-to-5 job where I find myself working well beyond the 5 o’clock mark for various clients I have who are nonprofits to meet deadlines on either a fundraising website or email communications platform so that nonprofits can share their missions with their supporters.

Working these sorts of hours got me thinking lately. In what ways am I blessed and in what ways do I differ from the normal commuter parent. I realize I am more fortunate than most that my company can be based on the other side of the United States and I am here in Reno, NV. However, being at home has its drawbacks among many advantages. Just like any employment position.

Here are a couple of advantages and drawbacks that I want to confess where it rocks to be a work from home dad and some ways things could be different as a work from home dad.

Ways that this gig, being a work from home dad, rocks!

1. Commute time.
   My commute is about 1 minute from the top of the stairs to the bottom and into my dedicated office space in my home; unless the dogs or kids are between me and the office, then I consider that to be rush hour at 1 minute 30 seconds.
2. Dogs at my side.
   I have my dogs at my side every day and they are great companions to have at my side as I meet with clients over a WebEx screen share and conference phone calls. There is a drawback, however, and I will mention it here while I am on the topic. When they fart… I could do away with catching a waft of their flatulence. They also snore a lot, but that doesn’t bother me as much as their air buscuits. But overall, it is an advantage, hands down.
3. Break for a siesta.
   I can take a break in the middle of the day and come back to my work later that night… a siesta, if you will, to run an errand, go to a dentist or doctor’s appointment, etc.
4. Break for “honey-dos”.
   I can break from work, mow my lawn, clean a bathroom, change the laundry, etc. and get back to work once those “honey-dos” are completed.
5. Time of day to go to the store.
   I can run to the store at an off-peak hour to avoid crowded stores for things like milk, dog food, etc.
6. Dress code.
   I can work in whatever clothes I want to wear and no one would be the wiser. For me, it is typically shorts or jeans and a button up t-shirt or regular t-shirt.
7. Bus stop adventures.
   I can take a break and walk my kids to the bus stop and pick my kids up from the bus stop and be there for my kids.
8. Multi-tasking on personal and work tasks.
   I can multi-task like a mad man on personal things as well as work on my job-related things at the same time and no boss will see over my shoulder or micromanage me since I am remote; as long as my work is on-time and on-budget, things are all good with my supervisors.
9. Pandora Radio for the win!
   I can listen to any music I want as loud as it needs to be to get me pumped while working on my tasks at hand
10. Coffee shop office hours.
    I can take my laptop, go to a local business and work from there, any time I want (not that I ever have though because my desktop monitors are so large that it helps me get my work done much easier than looking at a laptop screen). Staring at a computer screen all day can do a number on your eyes after a while and that is why I insist on very large monitors so that my eyes don’t strain as much.
11. There’s a restaurant in my house.
    Lunch is always on the other side of the wall to my office and I can cook anything I want without having to pack a lunch every day.
12. Time with my kids.
    I get to see my kids from the minute they wake up and go to school until they get off the bus getting home from school.
13. Sick kiddos means I still can get work done.
    If a kid is sick, I can keep on working while they are resting in the other room.
14. Soccer dads unite!
    If a kid has an appointment or an extracurricular activity like soccer or gymnastics, I can stop what I am doing, pick them up, drop them off or wait until practice is over and return to work later that evening to finish what needs to get finished.
    

    

15. Does this thing get UHF?
    If I wanted to, but I really don’t, I could leave the TV on in the background to catch up on the news or a TV show while working.

16. I can steal a car in GTA V (for those not in the know, GTA stands for Grand Theft Auto and this is a video game).
    If work is slow, I have other things to entertain me like video games, TV or even working on a blog or website.
    

    

17. My home office. My own hours.
    I can choose when I am on the clock, unless there is a meeting with a client, to get administrative or client background tasks completed as long as I have 40 or more hours logged for the week.
18. It’s so cozy in here.
    I get to choose the temperature of my office environment. For some it can be too cold or hot while working in an office environment and those people have no control over it other than to bring a fan or sweater to work. Me, on the other hand, I have full control over my thermostat and I can keep it the temperature I want at all times.
19. “We’ll be there between 10AM and 5PM” says the cable guy.
    If I have a maintenance worker or installation of something scheduled, I can schedule it at any time of the day as I will be there working while someone installs cable or repairs a refrigerator, etc. No stressing over when a person is going to show up and taking a day off of work for it.
    Source: GIPHY
20. I feel so zen about this whole thing.
    Work-life balance is almost complete with all things where the minute I am done working, I am then engulfed in family time.

Some areas where being a work from home dad falls short

1. “Hello? Is it me you’re looking for” – Lionel Richie.
   First, I have to admit, working from home is very isolating. I don’t see people face-to-face that often. Although, I do have adult conversations during my WebEx conference call meetings, but it is not that face-to-face water cooler chit chat. You know the kind that builds trust with colleagues and clients alike. I do “jelly bean” at the beginning of my conference calls, but that is to wait for everyone to join as well as melt the ice before the meat and potatoes of the call begin. My friends nearby, geographically, see me as somewhat of a hermit at times. I find that I often have to work hard at my interpersonal relationships outside of work because I don’t venture out of the house much. Often, I can go a week or two without getting out of the house for anything other than shopping for groceries.
   Source: GIPHY
2. I just love my wife so much.
   I rely on my wife for face-to-face interactions. Much more than I should. She is my saving grace in working from home and my recreational outlet. My muse on all things in life when I should rely on friendships with others as well.
3. “He gets like that when he’s writing” – Stand By Me.
   When 5 o’clock comes rolling around and I am still glued to my computer due to a deadline, because I have glass French doors to my office, I feel like my wife and kids are staring at me waiting for me to get off my computer and turn it off. It is like that scene, in the movie “Stand By Me” at the end when the kid says, “he always gets like that when he’s writing.” I feel that I get so engrossed in my work it is 6, 7 or 8:00PM at night before I realize I am still working. Maybe it is because I love my job so much or maybe because of my deadlines, but I tend to almost always work past 5 o’clock and not realize it without getting a nudge from my kids or wife that I have been working much later than I should. Speaking of “Stand By Me” it is my favorite movie of all time, the ending scene is certainly one I can relate to. I always get like that when I am coding…

4. You get a snow day, you get a snow day, you don’t get a snow day.
   There is never a snow day or day off due to inclement weather. I am always there, rain or shine for my clients.
   

   

5. I’m not here. You never saw me.
   My kids don’t realize when I am working and come into my office and start talking to me when I am on the phone with a client, even if it is past 8AM (the time I start work each day). They also don’t realize when I am still working in the evenings. I find myself saying, and it nearly breaks my heart when I do, “I am at work. I am not here. Go ask you mother.” Even when I don’t know what the question is. It hurts to say to my kid, I haven’t stared my fictitious car to drive home yet from work. Of all of the drawbacks of working from home, this has to be among my top drawbacks.
6. “Work, work, work, work, work.” – Rhianna.
   The work is always there. There is no turning things off and leaving the work to be done the next day. The work is always there and I can always go back to it. With my personality, I find myself always working until things are done and not putting it off until the next day if I can. Maybe it is because I fear being let go and that motivates me to give my boss every reason not to let me go or maybe it is my powerful work ethic that I saw in my own father than I am emulating, but I can’t leave things unfinished and fight to keep going until the tasks at hand are done.
7. You’re, like, such a burn out, man.
   Burn out can happen very quickly if you work from home and aren’t careful. As mentioned above, the work is always there. As such, there is a temptation to burn the midnight oil, literally. I have been known to work past midnight on several occasions when a deadline is lingering. Productivity can turn into challenge and further disdain if one isn’t careful and paces themselves when working from home.
   

   

8. There’s refreshments?
   When the home office, for me it is in Charleston, South Carolina and Austin, Texas have a meeting and there is food, and/or if it is a meeting right up until 5 o’clock locally, and afterwards there are drinks offered by the company, we remote employees are left to our own food without any consideration that we might want to get some food or drinks on the company’s dime as well and feel like we are appreciated as employees. There might be other companies out there that do reimburse for these things, but through 5 years on the job, most of these meetings are something where remote employees (remotes) are just that, remote and really not given consideration to join in on the refreshments offered, even in a virtual capacity of expensing food during or after the meeting to share in the goodies offered by the company to those who are on-location and in attendance for the meeting.
9. See that corporate ladder over there? It’s not for you unless you move over there.
   Promotions and advancement opportunities are very few. If you are out of sight, you are also out of mind when it comes to those considered for promotions or advancement or even an open position. I admit that not all companies might be this way, but most of the managerial positions in my company are held by those who are on-location and not remote. It is difficult to compete with someone who can attend a meeting in-person because facial expressions, interpersonal relationships are often stronger in-person than they are in a remote capacity. Here is a good article on the topic for anyone else reading who is a work from home dad.
10. “Everyone get down with the sickness.”- Disturbed.
    When one or more of my children are sick, even a small child, I am on the hook for being there to pick them up from school or being there while they are sick, even while I am still “at work”. This is a tough one for me. Even though I have a lot of sick/vacation/PTO time available working for my company (seriously, I have never seen as much leave as this company provides for even new employees and it is one of the reasons I love working where I do), I find that I can’t claim a sick day out of the blue because of pre-scheduled meetings that if I were to take one, I would fall behind on project deadlines and deliverables. I really like the fact that I can be there, don’t get me wrong, for my children, but being there when anyone is sick is often a job in itself when checking in on them to make sure they are drinking enough water, aren’t face-down and not breathing (I am just exaggerating here, but really, I need to be there checking in on them while working) and are resting instead of watching their iPad or playing with toys or video games. Keeping their volume down while I am on a conference call is often a challenge too.

11. Wake-y, wake-y, eggs and bake-y.
    My commute is so short, I can’t mentally get ready for my day quick enough. I am a person who needs to amp up for work. To get my mind in the game and think about my meetings I am going to have during the day and how I am going to manage my daily tasks. My commute is often so short that I find my brain just waking up during my earlier calls in the day.
12. I had better build an ark for this flood of emails.
    

    

    This may or may not be a work from home thing, but it is worth mentioning, as my company is a worldwide company, with employees in Australia, England, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Chicago, Austin, San Diego, and remote employees sprinkled everywhere in between, work never really ends and emails come in as early as 5AM and I find more than 20-50 emails each day in my inbox to sift through when starting my day. I am sure it isn’t as bad for remotes living on the east coast, but for me, being on the west coast, I find myself catching up every day with email before I technically start at 8AM. I also find myself checking my emails before I begin work each day to get ahead on the deluge of emails that come in through the day. On the flip side, however, around 2PM on the west coast, emails tend to die down where I can get work done, so this one is both a positive and a negative when you walk away from looking at it closely.
13. Did you get your chores done before you went out to play?
    If you are not disciplined enough, you can get caught up in the time you can take to yourself during the day and not get the work done you need to get done. With the TV in the other room or for some, in the same room, or the ability to go grab a bite to eat that could be a 2 hour or more affair, if a remote employee isn’t disciplined, you can get caught up in all of those things and not get your work done on time or on budget. I am glad I have this discipline, but it is always something that can creep up on a remote employee if they aren’t careful.
14. They’re so close I can practically reach them.
    Family time can be a huge draw to working at home, but you can miss a lot, even while in the next room. Just as I mentioned above, when 5 o’clock comes around, I find myself working well beyond that time. My family could be having a good time without me, making dinner, eating dinner, or playing in our backyard or more and I might not be aware of what is going on and miss important opportunities to bond with my wife and kids. It is really stressful knowing that they are there and I can’t do much about it with deadlines looming and I am so close to everything yet so far away from it all while it is happening.
15. Excuse me, did you see me here trying to work?
    Having an office means I can close the door, however, family members can just walk in or pile things in my office space, like mail on my desk. It can be a challenge to keep things organized when things like that happen. Also, when a family member comes into the space, even if I am doing tasks and not interfacing with clients, it can be disruptive when they are shuffling things around or nearby making noise and making it difficult to concentrate.
16. Job description includes cleaning toilets and mowing the lawn. Are you good with that?
    Being responsible for chores while working is often a challenge. Working remote as a work from home dad means that I am responsible for my own bathrooms, floors, etc. I don’t have a night janitor to vacuum, clean toilets etc. Also, I am not reimbursed for any kind of housekeeper expense, although it may be a write off, so that means, I am taking up time I could be working cleaning things during the day or during the weekends that get heavier use than if I were in an office out of the house.
17. “I wish this old train would break down, so that I can take a walk around.” – Jack Johnson.
    To add to the thought above, the wear and tear on things like air conditioning, toilets, water faucets, etc. and other things around the house is much more than if I were in an office as well because I am using these things throughout the day rather than only when home in the evenings and on weekends. That means that I will be replacing or fixing these items sooner than when working out of the house in an office. So, as a part of my taxes, I make it a point to write off the dedicated office space and portion of the utilities that I use while working, as those are not reimbursed by my company as well.
18. “Coffee’s for closers” – Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross.
    It may seem like this is inferred from the discussion above about meetings and food, but really, most offices supply coffee, breakfast at times and much more for their employees to use during the day. I must supply my own. Sure, I get to pick what I want, but I must pay for these things if I want them while working remote as a work from home dad.

19. “Have you seen my stapler?” – Office Space.
    Computer equipment. Computer equipment, a laptop and cell phone were provided when I started with my company 5 years ago, but things like USB keyboards and USB mice (I think that would be its plural there) were not. The company only provides basic mice and not good/quality ones, so I am on my own for these items if I want to have a good one like this Logitech MX510 I use every day. I am sure this is the same for those who work in an office environment as well. But it is something that I call a drawback, supplying all of my other equipment like computer monitors that are not on an approved list, mice, wrist rests for keyboards, etc.

20. “McFly, you bozo. Those boards don’t work on water, unless you’ve got power!” – Back to the Future Part II.
    Phone and other utilities. I briefly mentioned this during my comments about wear and tear on the house as a work from home dad but no utilities are reimbursed from phone, to water to electricity. They are tax write-offs, sure, but not reimbursed by my company. For other companies, that might be the case, but for mine, they aren’t. I often get notices from Nevada Power about how much my household is above the average for this area, but if only they knew I worked from home, I likely wouldn’t see them.

I am sure my list isn’t completely comprehensive on the advantages and drawbacks of being a work from home dad, but for those considering a remote position, I have to say it takes a lot of discipline and patience to be a work from home dad and I wanted to remain balanced in this discussion so as not give one side more credit than the other. Some of these might be great reasons to work from home dad.

For some other dads out there, this write up might perhaps, help you reconsider a position, but I ultimately hope to help you make an informed decision on whether to take a remote position while raising your children.

For me, I am absolutely in love with my day job. I love what I do and I love how I get to work with nonprofits every day, especially from Reno, Nevada since the nonprofit industry here isn’t as robust as say Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin or even Washington, DC, but I get to work with each of those organizations in those locations and beyond. I love being able to stop work in the middle of the day, take care of what needs to be taken care of personally and then being able to go back to work later on in the day. Sure, I don’t like that I never get a snow day, yet get to shovel snow and watch my kids while they have their snow day, but overall the perks, for me anyway, far outweigh the drawbacks of being a work from home dad.

I find that my work-life balance, like all things in life, is something I should always consider, but, at the moment, it is perfect and what fits for me and my family. What about you? Are you considering a remote position with a company? Have you considered these advantages and drawbacks yourself? What did I miss, if anything, that would make this list stronger? I’d love to hear from you about it. Let’s start a discussion about this topic. Thanks for stopping by.

Sponsor this article for $1.00

Enter sponsor title and e-mail.

Enter website URL. Sponsor title will be hyperlinked with this URL.

By sponsoring this article, your sponsorship will display for a period of 180 days (6 months). If, for any reason, and it is up to the discretion of the authors of Windy Pinwheel, we feel content linked to or the name provided does not coincide with the objectives of this site for our audience we will issue a refund and pull the sponsorship of the article. This action does not limit you from sponsoring an article on our site again. However, by sponsoring again, we will issue the same review criteria as the prior sponsorship and if it fails, we will follow the same process as before and issue a refund and pull down the sponsorship. We truly appreciate the support of our audience and hope you can help offset our costs of operating this site by sponsoring our site articles.

For all reviews, please exercise discretion. If the sponsor of the article is in conflict of the topic of the article, we will pull down the sponsorship to remove any conflict of interest with the article at-hand. For instance, there is an article about a hamburger restaurant and a competing hamburger restaurant sponsors the article; we will pull the sponsorship and issue a refund.

By clicking the button below, I agree with the Terms & Conditions.

Do you like Disney movies? Do you have Disney Movie Rewards? This Disney Movies Anywhere app review and how to stream Disney movies to your TV using Chromecast is for you.

View in iTunes
View on Google Play

Have you heard… Disney took a huge step in the world of digital movies this past month when they released a new app on iTunes. Disney Movies Anywhere actually syncs with iTunes, so if you purchased a Disney movie digitally through iTunes or you registered a digital copy with your Disney Movie Rewards account, you now have access to them through the app and/or iTunes. You even get a free movie (The Incredibles**) for signing up! How cool is that?

To take this exciting app further, a couple weekends ago we tried it out using our Chromecast system to watch Frozen and Mary Poppins on our TV through our Disney Movies Anywhere account using my laptop to “cast” through my Chrome browser. The days of even buying a DVD and/or Blu-Ray are soon going to be a distant memory.

Check it out, definitely a simple and easy way to get more use from your digital Disney movies.

Disney Movies Anywhere

I have but one question about this move to digital for Disney. When movies come out or move back into the Disney vault, how will Disney capitalize on the next wave of digital advancement if movies are already in high definition? Just like we have to get the latest version of Bambi or Pete’s Dragon on Blu-Ray, even though we may have it on DVD or, if you’re really holding on to your copy, VHS, what will be the next wave to replace this new digital version we will own? Time will tell, but for me, I love this new digital era and you can consider me an early adopter when it comes to less discs in house which equals less clutter in our lives while still sharing the magic of Disney with our own kids.

*You must have a Disney Movie Rewards account to make this work, but it’s a free account and you can earn points to enter vacation sweepstakes, use points to purchase Disney memorabilia and/or Disney experiences.

**The Incredibles movie offer is listed on the Disney Movie Anywhere website as for a limited time and the free movie can change at anytime to another movie or end altogether, so act quickly if you hope to “cash in” on this deal with a free movie.

“Disney is in talks with other platforms – such as Android – about carrying Disney Movies Anywhere,” reports the Los Angeles Times, but for now, it is only available through iTunes or through the Disney Movies Anywhere website.

What: Disney Movie Anywhere app

Where: iTunes and Disney Movies Anywhere website.

When: Act now or any time. Act now and receive a free copy of Disney Pixar’s The Incredibles.

Need to know: Can synchronize with iTunes purchases and Disney Movie Rewards digital copies.

Extra Extra: Log into the Disney Movies Anywhere website with the Google Chrome browser on a laptop or WiFi accessible connection and you can Chromecast the movie to your television.

Website/Contact Information: www.DisneyMoviesAnywhere.com.

Get your own Google Chromecast today!

Sponsor this article for $1.00

Enter sponsor title and e-mail.

Enter website URL. Sponsor title will be hyperlinked with this URL.

By sponsoring this article, your sponsorship will display for a period of 180 days (6 months). If, for any reason, and it is up to the discretion of the authors of Windy Pinwheel, we feel content linked to or the name provided does not coincide with the objectives of this site for our audience we will issue a refund and pull the sponsorship of the article. This action does not limit you from sponsoring an article on our site again. However, by sponsoring again, we will issue the same review criteria as the prior sponsorship and if it fails, we will follow the same process as before and issue a refund and pull down the sponsorship. We truly appreciate the support of our audience and hope you can help offset our costs of operating this site by sponsoring our site articles.

For all reviews, please exercise discretion. If the sponsor of the article is in conflict of the topic of the article, we will pull down the sponsorship to remove any conflict of interest with the article at-hand. For instance, there is an article about a hamburger restaurant and a competing hamburger restaurant sponsors the article; we will pull the sponsorship and issue a refund.

By clicking the button below, I agree with the Terms & Conditions.

In the High Tech Kids segment series we will share our favorite apps and child-friendly technology. Today, we review the JumpStart® Blast-Off Early Reading app for iOS, Android and Amazon Kindle devices.

[pinwheel_dark_organge position=’left’ title=’Dark Orange Pinwheel’]We focus a lot on early reading in our house. Our children do not really have a choice since their mom is a literacy specialist. We have Bob Books, we have early reading books, and we have alphabets and all kinds of other things around our house to help our children learn to read. I am always on the hunt for new early reading apps for the kids to work on their skills. We know the hard work is paying off because our Kindergartner recently got her second quarter report card and she is flying high with her reading scores. She surprises us every day as she gets better and better. She is even starting to read the words all around us, the guide on the TV, billboards, street signs. I guess our days of spelling things out as parents are officially over. But hey, we get to look forward to the next step, right? Let’s review the JumpStart® Early Reading App

When the folks at JumpStart® contacted us again (we reviewed their Madagascar App here) to look at two apps for kids in Math and Early Reading we jumped at the chance.

Upon first starting this app, you are asked to log in. This is to be able to “save” the data from your child’s activity. That being said you can play as a guest. Once you get to the menu screen you do need to help your child the first few times playing, as the menu is a list of options. You choose which skill you want the child to work on, what curriculum level (each level would be equivalent to a grade level, 1 is late Kindergarten and early first grade and so on) and then you have to choose if you want easy, medium or hard game play. When all those options are chosen, you can also choose if you want to play left handed or right and it shows you how to deal with the joystick or tilt.

Once in the game, you begin to navigate your spaceship, make sure your volume is on here as the narrator tells you what letters/words, etc. you are looking for. Working the spaceship through the game is pretty exciting for a five year-old. Our daughter was really into it and the sound effects started pretty quickly for her. She cracks me up how looking at how into the apps she got.

The app did require a lot of parental help for us because she is only five years-old. That being said, I can easily see her being able to quickly pick it up and an older child would do very well with the app. Similar to video games, you have to really use both hands to manage the controls, which is another reason it can be tough at first for younger children and may require parental participation.

We will continue to use this app in the future to practice her early reading skills and improve her confidence with those skills. Overall, I am mostly happy with this app, but would love to see the introduction menu be a little more kid-friendly perhaps, with pictures and less options on one screen.

From the developers:

Help your child learn key early reading skills! Perfect for your 6-8 year old!
Explore a mysterious cavern packed with reading skills and fun with your child in JumpStart® Blast Off: Early Reading! Armed with their brains, jetpack and blaster, your child will blast through correct answers and zap away the incorrect ones as they race for top score. Beware of the pesky punk punks that are out to stop your child.

With 19 lessons designed to teach key early reading skills, this educational game will help children master the skills to excel in school.

Equip your child with a strong reading foundation. Your child will develop key educational skills such as word recognition and sounds, early grammar classification, and more. Through listening and interacting with words, elementary school learners will enjoy a comprehensive reading and learning experience found only through JumpStart® Blast-off: Early Reading!

Game Features:

• 19 lessons focusing on beginning phonics and early reading so your young learner can get ahead!
• Key educational skills your child will learn:
  • Word recognition and sounds
  • Early phonics with key emphasis on word pronunciation
  • Grammar classification and usage
• Many progressive levels of game play for your young learner to master!
• Amazing 3D graphics and catchy music that your child will love!
• Choose Tilt or Joystick controls so your child can pick up and play immediately!

JumpStart®, a key children’s educational publisher, has created learning games such as JumpStart® Blast-off: Math, Madagascar Math Ops, Math Blaster, JumpStart® Pet Rescue and more!

Where: iTunes App Store Google Play, and Amazon.

What: JumpStart® Blast-Off Early Reading

Need to know: This app is designed for children as young as Kindergarten. However, it may require some parental guidance in getting to the game play.

Extra Extra: Check out JumpStart Moms for parenting tips and ideas to printable worksheets and fun activities for kids.

Website/Contact Information: www.jumpstart.com.

But wait… There’s more.

In celebration of the Blast-Off Series of apps, we at Windy Pinwheel, in conjuction with JumpStart®, are giving away a download code for both Blast-Off Math and Blast-Off Early Reading apps for your children to enjoy. Just enter the giveaway below and be sure to come back every day before 8:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time Friday, March 7, 2013 to enter.

This giveaway contest is open to residents of the United States and Canada only. You must be 18 years-old to enter or have your parent’s permission. Void where prohibited.

Sponsor this article for $1.00

Enter sponsor title and e-mail.

Enter website URL. Sponsor title will be hyperlinked with this URL.

By sponsoring this article, your sponsorship will display for a period of 180 days (6 months). If, for any reason, and it is up to the discretion of the authors of Windy Pinwheel, we feel content linked to or the name provided does not coincide with the objectives of this site for our audience we will issue a refund and pull the sponsorship of the article. This action does not limit you from sponsoring an article on our site again. However, by sponsoring again, we will issue the same review criteria as the prior sponsorship and if it fails, we will follow the same process as before and issue a refund and pull down the sponsorship. We truly appreciate the support of our audience and hope you can help offset our costs of operating this site by sponsoring our site articles.

For all reviews, please exercise discretion. If the sponsor of the article is in conflict of the topic of the article, we will pull down the sponsorship to remove any conflict of interest with the article at-hand. For instance, there is an article about a hamburger restaurant and a competing hamburger restaurant sponsors the article; we will pull the sponsorship and issue a refund.

By clicking the button below, I agree with the Terms & Conditions.

In the High Tech Kids series we will share our favorite apps and kid friendly technology.

Our Kindergartener recently got her second quarter report card and along with her report card came a “Math Award” we were so incredibly proud of our little girl, she is testing beyond where she is expected to be in math. When the folks at JumpStart® contacted us again (we reviewed their Madagascar App here) to look at two apps for kids in Math and Early Reading we jumped at the chance, because as an educator myself, who spends most of my work hours on the Common Core State Standards implementation and a parent of a young child who is currently learning these early skills, we love any chance to help her improve her them and to share great apps with our friends who have young children as well.

Upon first starting this app, you are asked to log in. The reason for logging in is to “save” the data from your child’s activity in the app. That being said, you can play as a guest as well. Once you get to the menu screen you do need to help your child the first few times playing, as the menu has a list of options. You choose which skill you want the child to work on, what curriculum level (each level would be equivalent to a grade level, 1 is late Kindergarten and early first grade and so on), then you have to choose if you want easy, medium or hard game play. When all those options are chosen, you can also choose if you want to play left handed and it shows you how to deal with the joystick or tilt.

Once in the game, you begin to navigate your spaceship, make sure your volume is on here as the narrator tells you what numbers/shapes, etc. you are looking for.

Working the spaceship through the game is pretty exciting for a five year-old. Our daughter was really into it and the sound effects started pretty quickly for her. She was cracking me up just watching how into the app she got.

The app did require a lot of parental guidance for us because she is only five years-old. That being said, I can easily see her being able to quickly pick it up and an older child would do very well with this app. Similar to video games, you have to really use both hands to manage the controls, which is another reason it can be tough, at first, for younger children and may require parental participation.

We will continue to use this app to practice her mathematics skills and improve her confidence with those skills. Overall, I am mostly happy with this app, but would love to see the introduction menu to be a little more child-friendly perhaps, with pictures and less options on one screen.

From the creators:

Help your child learn key elementary math skills! Perfect for your 6-8 year old!

Explore a mysterious cavern packed with math skills and fun for your child in JumpStart® Blast-Off: Math! ! Armed with their brains, jetpack and blaster, you child must find the correct answers to help them race for the top score! Beware of the pesky punk punks that are out to stop your child.

With 28 lessons designed to teach key elementary math skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, this game is the perfect way to help your child master and in a fun, cool way.

Equip your child with a strong math foundation JumpStart® Blast-Off: Math. Your child will develop key educational skills such as math operations, shape and number recognition. Elementary school learners will enjoy a comprehensive math learning experience found only through JumpStart® Blast-Off: Math

Game Features:

• 28 lessons of fun math skills for your young learner to get ahead in elementary school!
• Key educational skills your child will learn:
  • Math operations: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division
  • Shape and number recognition
• Many progressive of math game play for your young learner to master!
• Amazing 3D graphics and catchy music that your child will love!
• Choose child-friendly tilt or joystick controls so your child can pick up and play immediately!

JumpStart®, a key children’s educational publisher, has created learning games such as JumpStart® Blast-off: Early Reading, Madagascar Math Ops, Math Blaster, JumpStart® Pet Rescue and more!

Where: iTunes App Store Google Play, and Amazon.

What: JumpStart® Blast-Off Math

Need to know: This app is designed for children as young as Kindergarten. However, it may require some parental help in getting to the game play.

Extra Extra: Check out JumpStart Moms for parenting tips and ideas to printable worksheets and fun activities for kids.

Website/Contact Information: www.jumpstart.com.

But wait… There’s more.

In celebration of the Blast-Off Series of apps, we at Windy Pinwheel, in conjuction with JumpStart®, are giving away a download code for both Blast-Off Math and Blast-Off Early Reading apps for your family to enjoy. Simply enter the giveaway below and be sure to come back every day before 11:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time Friday, March 7, 2013 to enter.

This giveaway contest is open to residents of the United States and Canada only. You must be 18 years-old to enter or have your parent’s permission. Void where prohibited.

Sponsor this article for $1.00

Enter sponsor title and e-mail.

Enter website URL. Sponsor title will be hyperlinked with this URL.

By sponsoring this article, your sponsorship will display for a period of 180 days (6 months). If, for any reason, and it is up to the discretion of the authors of Windy Pinwheel, we feel content linked to or the name provided does not coincide with the objectives of this site for our audience we will issue a refund and pull the sponsorship of the article. This action does not limit you from sponsoring an article on our site again. However, by sponsoring again, we will issue the same review criteria as the prior sponsorship and if it fails, we will follow the same process as before and issue a refund and pull down the sponsorship. We truly appreciate the support of our audience and hope you can help offset our costs of operating this site by sponsoring our site articles.

For all reviews, please exercise discretion. If the sponsor of the article is in conflict of the topic of the article, we will pull down the sponsorship to remove any conflict of interest with the article at-hand. For instance, there is an article about a hamburger restaurant and a competing hamburger restaurant sponsors the article; we will pull the sponsorship and issue a refund.

By clicking the button below, I agree with the Terms & Conditions.

Tiggly Shapes: Tiggly Christmas is an iPad app for children 18 months to 4 years-old. It’s learning about shapes with a holiday twist.

View in iTunes

Recently we, at Windy Pinwheel, posted a review about Tiggly Shapes, a spacial learning tool for the Apple iPad designed to improve motor skills, creativity and language development of toddlers between the ages of 18 months to 4 years of age. We, at Windy Pinwheel, were invited by a representative at Tiggly Shapes to try out a set of these shapes for ourselves and as luck would have it, our children are just about in the correct age range for this product so we agreed to test out the product for ourselves; 5 year-old daughter, 3 year-old son and a newborn (born December 31, 2013). “Tiggly Shapes are the first interactive iPad toys designed for toddlers. We collaborate with educators and parents to design toys and games that are developmentally appropriate for children between 18 months and 4 years old.” – Tiggly.com The shapes sell in the range of $30 – $45 at places like Amazon.com, The Apple Store, The Grommett, Grand St., and Nordstrom.

Along with providing us with a set of Tiggly Shapes, Tiggly also provided us with a code for their most recent iPad app, Tiggly Christmas.

As you can tell from the information above, my wife and I welcomed a new addition into our family on December 31, 2013 and we were preparing for her arrival. As such, we are a bit late for the 2013 Christmas season to inform you about the app prior to the holiday. However, we hope to keep you updated about this app during the 2014 holiday season when shopping for new apps to take a look at by talking about it now. For the most part, if your little ones are anything like ours, Christmas is a holiday without end. Our children will play with this app whether or not it is in December and have a great time learning with it either way.

To briefly review, there are four apps that pair with the physical Tiggly Shapes, Safari, Stamp, Draw and most recent, Christmas. Each app has vibrant colors and as you can see in the video below, a child can interact by using a specific shape to find out what animal will be revealed after matching a given shape or used to create a picture of their own creation to either save and share with friends and family (with mom and dad’s help, of course to send/save the image) or just make picture after picture using each of the four shapes.

And now about Tiggly Christmas

Tiggly Christmas is a rather enticing app taking you through a festive house duing the holidays. You are first taken over by a tree in the room and given shapes to match with your Tiggly Shapes. Each shape makes an ornament that you can move anywhere you like on the tree. Once enough ornaments are placed on the tree, you then move to a location in the room where you build a train out of your shapes. It comes together before the child’s eyes. Finally, you are able to build a shape above the fireplace mantle that ultimately becomes a picture frame. The app then gives a limited amount of time to take a picture with the iPad’s camera of your child and inputs that into the picture frame.

Finally, when the kid has taken the picture, a digital post card is created to save to your iPad Camera Roll or to share with friends and family (*with mom and dad’s help).

My first completed post card, when using the app for the first time, is below. I know, I look pretty handsome, right?

The app is great for a child in the suggested age range for using Tiggly Shapes. However, the there are some tings that could be improved with the app. First, is the forced movement throughout the app. A child always has to start at the Christmas tree and then to the train and then to the picture frame, in that order. If the child were given free reign to choose where they wanted to go first, it may make for a more dynamic in-app game play experience.

Second, letting the little one choose when the picture is taken is also something worth noting. The app counts down when the picture will happen whether or not the little one is ready for it to happen. To be able to retake the picture, the kid will have to start the app again and get through the Christmas tree, train and picture frame before they have another chance at a picture. I can see why the app developers chose to handle the picture this way, however. It is becuase young children may not know how to work the camera right away and this is there to assist them in making sure the camera takes a photo.

Overall, this app is perfect for the young developing genius in assisting them with learning about shapes. It has the potential for repeat game play for anyone 18 months-old to 4 years-old. The colors are vibrant and even though this is a holiday-specific app, I can see kids ignoring that fact and being willing to play with their Tiggly Shapes all year-round.

Other Tiggly Apps Available in the iTunes App Store

The final thing I want to note, as I did not mention it on the Tiggly Shapes review earlier is that my kids have the tendency to switch apps quickly. As such, keeping the Tiggly Shapes out may only be for a short period at a time because with so many apps, if your kids are like mine, they will tend to move on to the next app very quickly. That is not to say that they won’t return to this one or the other Tiggly Shapes apps, but make sure that you are there to clean up and store the shapes once your toddler or little one decides to move on to the another app that might not be made to interact with Tiggly Shapes.

Here is a video review about Tiggly Shapes:

Where: iTunes App Store.

What: Tiggly Shapes: Tiggly Christmas App

Need to know: Tiggly Shapes is rated for toddlers 18 months-4 year-olds. Any older and the entertainment value is “limited”. This app moves from one part of the scene to the next in a specific order. There is minimal independent game play.

Extra Extra: Tiggly has a great blog discussing a wide variety of topics related to children, the parent’s role in educating their children, and the intersection of technology and education.

Website/Contact Information: tiggly.com.

Sponsor this article for $1.00

Enter sponsor title and e-mail.

Enter website URL. Sponsor title will be hyperlinked with this URL.

By sponsoring this article, your sponsorship will display for a period of 180 days (6 months). If, for any reason, and it is up to the discretion of the authors of Windy Pinwheel, we feel content linked to or the name provided does not coincide with the objectives of this site for our audience we will issue a refund and pull the sponsorship of the article. This action does not limit you from sponsoring an article on our site again. However, by sponsoring again, we will issue the same review criteria as the prior sponsorship and if it fails, we will follow the same process as before and issue a refund and pull down the sponsorship. We truly appreciate the support of our audience and hope you can help offset our costs of operating this site by sponsoring our site articles.

For all reviews, please exercise discretion. If the sponsor of the article is in conflict of the topic of the article, we will pull down the sponsorship to remove any conflict of interest with the article at-hand. For instance, there is an article about a hamburger restaurant and a competing hamburger restaurant sponsors the article; we will pull the sponsorship and issue a refund.

By clicking the button below, I agree with the Terms & Conditions.