Do your kids like to play at the Webkinz or Club Penguin websites? The main draw of these sites is shopping with pretend money that the children earn playing games on the site.
Expanding the Handiland area, Handipoints is launching an area on the site that will have the same draw for kids, but will also appeal to parents in a way that the blatant consumerism of the aforementioned sites generally does not.
Handiland will teach positive behavior rather than just pure consumerism. In other sites like Club Penguin and Webkinz, kids earn “money” by playing games, whereas at the Handipoints site you will earn points by doing chores in the real world and spend your points to play games or watch cartoons.
No kids begging for you to pay a monthly fee like at Club Penguin, a fee that goes toward what? virtual clothing and accessories?
The Handipoints site is going to have a theatre where kids can spend points to see videos.
The Cat Walk where kids can shop for their cat.
Even a virtual post office!
I personally love the idea of kids earning points by doing real chores, points that you as the parent assign.
My daughter is thrilled beyond belief. Her computer usage is fairly limited since she is only 4.5 years old. But she loves her cat, perhaps because I am a mean allergic mother who won’t buy her a real one. When I was showing her the new designs she wanted to know what kind of chores she could do to earn more points.
So what do you think? I know people have emailed and left comments asking if there were plans to expand the catalog and such.
I think it’s great to add more features the children can use their points for, and it works for ALL ages. My SIL got a Webkinz for my daughter, but once I signed her on, it looked like there was no way a mere 3-year-old could earn “money” to do anything. While she could easily do chores and get Handipoints!
Comment by Brigitte — January 19, 2008 @ 7:29 am
I just signed up for this today for my 7 yr old, 5 yr old and 4 yr old. They love it. But…
how on earth do you go about scheduling time for each on the computer so that they’re not fighting and arguing over who is next, complaints that he/she got longer than him/her, etc.?
Comment by Michelle — January 19, 2008 @ 5:22 pm
My kids are 7, 5, and 2. I log on each evening and check of task lists, grade, etc. The kids get to take turns on the computer with me cashing in their points and doing the games and such.
Comment by Crystal — January 20, 2008 @ 1:46 am
Michelle:
We set the timer for the kids to go on the PC. If they are going on to do thier handipoints only, a 5-10 minute block usually covers it. If they want time to play in handi-land or anything else on the PC, they earn the time with thier points and get 30 minute blocks of time that we use a timer to keep fair (we have 4 kids). The blocks of time are first come first serve, and the days chores must be finished first.
Comment by Nicole — January 20, 2008 @ 2:17 pm
Thank you both for your replies. Sounds like a timer is definitely needed by the computer.
Thanks again!
Comment by Michelle — January 20, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
Thanks for the great comments! Curious to hear what parents think about the idea of adding the feature of restricting time spent in HandiLand by deducting points automatically? For example, in order to enter HandiLand or play a game in HandiLand, kids would have to spend some of their purple Bonus Points.
Comment by Viva — January 20, 2008 @ 7:49 pm
We are all for it.
Comment by Anonymous — January 21, 2008 @ 10:01 pm
My daughter loves Webkinz, but her account is about to expire, meaning she has to buy a new webkinz to be able to keep playing. She does not need any more toys, but the site is really helping with her reading and computer skills. I think this is a great new idea!!!!!
Comment by Anonymous — January 22, 2008 @ 11:47 pm
I am LOVING HANDI POINTS!!! my kids 16,11,and10 are more eager to do their chores bcause of the instant gratification of using the bonus points for their cat and watching the videos. I like the idea of them having to deduct from their points to spend more time playing.. this teaches and reinforces a real world scenario… we as adults have to give up something whether it be time or money or both in order for us to spend ANY time JUST playing around.. Kids today are told by the media over and over again that they are ENTITLED to entertainment simply because they are alive. We are raising the kids that will be in government offices in our future. It is scary to think how my retirement will be affected by the then GROWN UPS who think they DESERVE something for nothing simply because they want it.
I would only ask one thing that the time spent loading and initializing the Handiland activities be exempt from these deductions of bonus points.
We are still on dial up iternet service. DSL not available out here in the boondocks yet. So when we first log on and first go the the site the graphics in Handiland take a pretty long time to load.
We have almost given up on the Happy Stamps (which is sad.)…because the audio automatically begins when the pages are turned in the “books” which SLOOOOOWS and then gets the graphics loading process completely halted.
if theres a way to fix this prob let me know
THANKS bunches for handipoints!!!
Comment by Dulcie — February 2, 2008 @ 1:32 pm
I just signed my 6 and 7 year old up for handipoints today. They like it so far. My 6 year old wants to save up so he can stay the night at a hotel so he doesn’t have to make his bed in the morning
. My problem is, for some reason, my computer wont let them get into handiland at all. I can do the tasks and grade them etc. I just can’t get into handiland so they can play. It keeps saying I need to download Flash 9? I know I already have it. I play another game on my computer that uses Flash 9 so I have no idea what is wrong. It upsets me because I am able to get into handiland on my computer at work. I loved it. I was playing on handiland today at work just to see if my kids would be able to play the games. Make sure they will understand it. It was simple and fun.
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Comment by aj — July 22, 2008 @ 4:05 pm