LITTLE PIM BLOG
Little Pim Coming To Toys"R"Us
Little Pim is proud to announce that we will be featured in the new education expansion at Toys"R"Us stores nationwide and online at Toysrus.com. For more information read here: Toys"R"Us® Expands Year-Round Education Product Selection, Debuts All-New Imaginarium® Learning Line
Brazilian Fun and My Boys' Lemonade Stand MBA
Emmett (8 yrs old): Mom, I want to go to Brazil for the World Cup next year.
Me: Well, that's not going to happen. But here's an idea... why don't we save up for a bigger screen TV so we can watch it here and invite all your friends over?
Emmett: Great idea!
Me: Let's also give part of the money to charity. We can send it to kids in Brazil via Save the Children.
Emmett: Awesome! When do we start?
Thus began my kids' first lesson in entrepreneurship. Emmett and his little brother Adrian (5 1/2) ran their first lemonade stand outside our apartment for two weekends. And it also became a valuable lesson in geography, focusing on Brazil (the largest country in South American and the only one there that speaks Portuguese), and on charity, researching and donating to Save the Children.
We set a goal of earning $100 --- they squeezed over 50 lemons and it took three lemonade stand outings to get there. We sold chocolate chip cookies, too, because when Emmett did the math, he realized he'd have to sell 100 cups of lemonade (or limonada as it’s called in Portuguese) at $1 to hit $100, but if only 40 of the customers bought cookies at the same time, we'd get to our goal twice as fast.
5 Business Take-Aways from the Lemonade Stand
- Starting with Why. Engage potential customers with your mission statement. People were more likely to buy when told that part of the proceeds were going to help kids in Brazil via Save the Children. Emmett and Adrian compared notes on their favorite Brazilian soccer players with their customers.
- The Human Factor. To run a business, you need to beef up your management skills. On the second day of the lemonade stand, Emmett's little brother Adrian got upset because he was fired from his “loudspeaker” position (Emmett said Adrian’s constant "Lemonade! lemonade! lemonade!" was irritating). Adrian pouted and refused to participate for the rest of the day, so Emmett was down half his operation.
- Opportunity Cost. Save money if you can, but not at any cost. The boys created an estimated budget (cookie dough was estimated at a whopping $10!). But the day before the first lemonade stand, Emmett chose not to buy cups for $3 at Lot Less because he wanted to keep looking for cheaper. He was pleased with his thrifty decision until he was running out of time. In order to open on schedule, he had to buy cups from Gristedes for $5.
- Re-Branding. Know how to reel in your customers. After three days of gathering customer feedback, Emmett added farm-to-table flare to his "Lemonade" sign, changing it to "Fresh Squeezed Lemonade and Homemade Cookies." His successful rebrand doubled the number of people who stopped by.
- Delivering Happiness. When you say, "Thank you for coming over" to your customers before they even buy anything, they are apt to buy more. And sometimes they give you $5 for a $1 cup of lemonade and say "keep the change!" Now THAT is sweet.
I don’t know if my boys will become entrepreneurs like their mom, but learning how to start a project, see it through, tweak it along the way for success, and the power of please and thank you (por favor and obrigado) are great lessons for kids at any age and for any career. Plus, the chance to explore other cultures and customs is always welcome in our home. And an added bonus: soon I’ll be able to watch the new season of GIRLS on a bigger screen TV.
-JP
Who’s the Smartest Person in the Room? The Answer May Surprise You.
See those babies cooing in the corner? According to a recent Time Magazine article, they’re the best linguists in the room. Babies are born, Time’s Jeffrey Kluger says, with the inherent ability to speak and understand the world’s 6,800 languages, and that babies, and then children, are able to continue to easily learn multiple languages up into early grammar school. Kluger goes on to say that later in life, having gained these language abilities as babies and children, multilingual adults “are better at reasoning, at multitasking, at grasping and reconciling conflicting ideas. They work faster and expend less energy doing so, and as they age, they retain their cognitive faculties longer, delaying the onset of dementia and even full-blown Alzheimer's disease.”
Read the full, fascinating story, here.
National Teacher Day Memoirs
Guest blogger Thea Hogarth currently works in product development in Little Pim, and today shares some of her experiences as an English teacher in France. She taught in France during the 2011-2012 academic year. Today is National Teacher Day, and it’s hard to imagine that almost exactly a year ago today, I was preparing to leave behind a year of teaching English in France. This time last year, I was attempting to pack an entire bedroom’s worth of stuff into a suitcase. I had spent the previous eight months assistant teaching English in three primary schools in the French city of Angers with the French Éducation Nationale’s TAPIF program… and I was exhausted. Mind you, I had no reasonable excuse: I worked 12 hours a week and got two weeks of vacation for six weeks of school (totaling a whopping two full months!). Plus I was living smack in the middle of a wine region in the Loire Valley; I was living, by definition, the good life.
But many of my students weren’t. Two out of my three schools were officially classified as being in the ZEP (Zone d'Education Prioritaire), the French classification for high poverty schools - the kind of environment that can really wear a teacher down. I entered the school year expecting my students to be little French angels, enchanted by the idea of meeting an American straight from New York. And, indeed, my first few classes were peppered with adorable questions along the lines of, “Do you have to take an airplane home after school everyday?” but my novelty quickly wore off. Many of my students were born outside of France and were already familiar enough with the experience of the foreigner. Class time with me quickly became an opportunity to throw paper at the back of my head, imitate me to my face, and kick me in the shins (who knew how easily Simon Says could become a contact sport!). By the beginning of my second week, I was taking breaks to secretly cry between classes.
Yes, I was basically living the first half of “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit,” but with 8-year-olds… and in France. And, yes, my story also has a reasonably happy ending. By the end of the year, we had grown accustomed to each other; we had learned each other’s boundaries, but more importantly, we had learned to laugh together. Teachers in the ZEP and in schools around the world work hard to create safe, supportive classroom environments – becoming masters of the alchemy of turning aggression and frustration into laughter and trust.
As I said goodbye to the kids who made me cry, one boy came up to me on the playground and pulled this note out of his sleeve (transcribed exactly as written): “Dear Théa, We miss you already, you are fantastic. We were happy end when you were in our class room. We wish you good holidays. Hello Théa good bay thea!” Undoubtedly, he and his classmates had put their heads together to compose this masterpiece (with outside help, I’m sure), and I was grateful. Of course I was thrilled by this somewhat unexpected display of affection, but more than that, I was gratified that they had created something for me in English even though they knew I understood French. They had reached across a gulf much larger than that between teacher and student.
Today, of all days, I’m thinking back not only on my year in France, but also on all the amazing teachers who made my experience in France possible. My engaging, imaginative French teachers ultimately enabled me to apply (and be accepted) to this teaching program, and inspired me to smile through the tears. Today, let’s all think about the amazing educators in this country and around the world who practice patience and compassion to create a classroom environment that is both supportive and inspiring.
Raising Kids in a High-Tech World
If we parents are conflicted about how our young kids interact with technology – from Tablets and DVDs to iPhones, iPads, iPods and iDon'tKnowWhatElse – who can blame us? Not Hanna Rosin, who writes compellingly in The Atlantic this month about the plugged-in push-pull parents face.
Back in 2006, notes Rosin, 90 percent of parents said their children under 2 used some kind of electronic media. With over 118 million tablets sold in 2012, imagine how high much higher that number must be today.
The reality is our kids are exposed to technology every day. Rosin dubs them "the touchscreen generation," and explores the theory that banishing technology outright may be a simple, if dramatic, response, but perhaps not the most appropriate one. Maybe, she posits, technology – especially today's interactive technology - can be beneficial to our children.
“People say we are experimenting with our children,” Sandra Calvert, director of the Children’s Media Center at Georgetown University, told Rosin. “But from my perspective, it’s already happened, and there’s no way to turn it back. Children’s lives are filled with media at younger and younger ages, and we need to take advantage of what these technologies have to offer."
If we adults use technology not just to entertain, but also to enrich and educate ourselves, as you are doing right now, how can we help our children do that as well?
Rosin cites guidelines laid out by Lisa Guernsey in the book "Screen Time." Guernsey proposes what she terms the Three C's:
1. Content: "Think about the content of what your children see on screen." Programming or technology that is age-appropriate – designed for and directed to children -- and encourages the children to interact with what they see onscreen – by asking open-ended questions, for instance – may engage children more.
2. Context: "Think about the context -- who is with them, how are they talking about what they see, how much the DVD or online game dominates their day." Studies show that when parents sit with their young children as they watch and talk to their children about something that they are watching or experiencing together, they are enhancing their children's language-development readiness. One study showed that verbal media interactions between parent and child with educational programming significantly enhanced children's language skills eight months later. Researchers compare watching a video to reading a book, in that the experience is profoundly enriched when parents ask their children questions about what is on the page and what their children think might happen next.
3. Child: "Think about what makes sense for your individual child, whose needs and interests will be unique to him or her alone." What works for the neighbor's child may not work for yours, and vice versa.
The technological landscape our children have been born into is not likely to go away. Both Guernsey and Rosin contend that we parents ought not to try to run from it, but rather to find ways to help our children explore it so that media can enrich their lives, and maybe even teach them something useful, like a second language!
Basketball Around the World
During March Madness, as we carefully fill in our NCAA tournament brackets, we tend to think about basketball as a quintessentially American pastime. But the United States hardly has a monopoly on a love of hoops. The sport has thriving leagues and devoted fans across the globe -- in Europe, Asia and South America -- as well.
Here are a few countries where basketball's big:
Israel: Basketball has been bouncing around in Israel for decades. The Israeli Basketball Super League, known in Hebrew as Ligat HaAl, was founded way back in 1954 and has, over the years, exported players to the NBA and pitted its star players against NBA teams in exhibition games. In October 2005, the Maccabi Tel Aviv got a lot of attention when it defeated the Toronto Raptors in an exhibition game in Toronto. It was the first victory for any European or Israeli team over an NBA team on an NBA home court.
China: Hoops is one of China's most popular sports, with hundreds of millions of people both playing and watching the game. (It actually embraced the sport shortly after it was invented in 1891.) The country's most prestigious professional basketball league (yes, there's more than one) is the Chinese Basketball Association, founded in 1995, which has produced NBA players including Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian and Sun Yue. The CBA has imported talent as well, with NBA players like Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis and Gilbert Arenas traveling to play with teams like Beijing Ducks and Shanghai Sharks. Beijing even recently erected a life-size bronze statue of Marbury, who led the Ducks to their first-ever CBA championship win last year.
Spain: Yes, they're mad for soccer in Spain, but they're also big into basketball – or "baloncesto," as it's called in Spanish. Spain's Liga ACB is not only the top-tier professional basketball league in Spain, it's among the best in the world and has turned out NBA superstars like Barcelona-born L.A. Laker Pau Gasol. Last year, Spanish B-ball fans got something new to brag about, when their national team gave Team USA – a new dream team that included NBA superstars like Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryan and LeBron James – a serious run for the gold at the 2012 Olympics before ultimately settling for silver.
With basketball mania raging and rebounding through countries from Argentina to Australia, as well as Italy, Macedonia, Greece, the Philippines and France, basketball has become a big-time global sport, crossing cultures and languages. Turns out the whole world's mad for hoops – and not only in March.
¡Te Queremos! Happy Valentine's Day from Little Pim
Whether you usually mark Valentine's Day by cutting out homemade valentines with your kids, presenting a heart-shaped box of candy to your beloved or cooking a special family meal, why not use the occasion this year to express your love in a whole new way? Say it in another language and spark a love of languages and learning in your kids.
Here's how to say "I love you" in seven languages:
German:Ich liebe dich
Russian (transliterated):Yah tebyah loobloo
Spanish:Te quiero or (romantically) Te amo
French:Je t'aime
Hebrew (transliterated):Ani ohev otach (to a woman or girl) or Ani ohevet otchah (to a man or boy)
Arabic (transliterated):Ana behibek (to a girl or woman) or Ana behibak (to a boy or man)
Italian:Ti voglio bene or (romantically) Ti amo
What better way to say "I love you"? Of course, a shiny red box of bonbons is nice too!
Mommy tech and CES - the best gadgets for moms and kids
Like many of you I'm sure, I've casually followed the Consumer Electronics Show from afar - seeing articles and tweets here and there, heralding the coolest new gadgets of the future. This year, I was actually able to attend the show in person, and I can tell you that the future is 3D, tablets and - good news for moms - waterproofing! One of the coolest things to come out this year was a commercial pinball machine. I'm a comic book fan, so the idea of an Avengers pinball machine that takes up a fraction of the space of a regular pinball machine, sounds pretty enticing.
Crayola came out with a Light Marker, which uses an LED-tipped point to allow kids to draw on an iPad with a virtual pen.
Our partners from One Laptop Per Child just released a kid-focused new Android tablet called the XO, PACKED with great learning apps - including Little Pim of course!
The pick of the bunch though? A robot which massages tired moms. The line for that one was out of the door!
Two great holiday games from around the world!
The winter holidays are upon us. That means school breaks, family gatherings, and kids with a lot of excited energy looking for something to do. If the weather outside is frightful, and you want some delightful ways to keep your brood active and engaged indoors, try these holiday games from around the world that can also introduce children to different cultures and languages.
Schokoladenessen: A German party game that means "chocolate eating" (got to love that)
You'll need: a hat, scarf and gloves; kitchen utensils; dice; a wrapped chocolate bar.
How to play: Players sit in a circle. Each player rolls the dice and passes it along until someone rolls a double. The player who rolls a double then scrambles to put on the hat, scarf and gloves and then tries to unwrap the candy bar, using the kitchen utensils, and eat as much as he or she can, which is harder than it sounds, while the other players continue to roll the dice. As soon as another player rolls a double, the hat, scarf, mittens, utensils, and chocolate bar are passed to that player, who gets a turn trying to eat the chocolate. The other players continue to roll and the passing of the bar continues until all the chocolate has been eaten.
Pinata: In Mexico and some other Spanish-speaking countries, piñatas are not just for birthday parties; they're a Christmas tradition, too.
You'll need: A piñata, of course. But why buy one at the store when you can make one and get the kids involved in some messy, crafty fun? Here are instructions. Plus you can use recycled materials and do a good thing for the environment, too.
How to play: Do we really need to tell you?Fill your piñata with candy, fruit or small toys and hang it from the ceiling or a tree branch. Each child (perhaps blindfolded) then takes turns batting the piñata with a stick until the piñata breaks open and its festive contents tumble out. Nothing says Christmas like sticky, gooey hands and happy kids smiles – or embraces the New Year like helping your kids learn about other cultures and languages. Feliz Navidad!
Kids Night Out With Little Pim!
Little Pim will be at J&R Kids in Manhattan on Saturday December 15th, at 5pm.Come down for a fun-filled afternoon of singalongs, stories, and Little Pim! Join Sonia and Mona for this very special evening of bilingual fun, absolutely free. To learn more about this event, please click here.
