Shaping Youth BETA BLOG

Dec. 23, 2009 Shhhhhh…I’m snagging one of the new “Smencils” that just arrived today ’cause I figure ‘less is more’ and ‘variety is the spice’ when it comes to stocking stuffers…She doesn’t need a whole ’set’ right?

A whiff here and there and she’ll get the gist of the theme…100% recycled newspapers turned into a rainbow of scents and colors. I like finding inexpensive toys that appeal to big kids too (ahem, obviously) so I’m secretly coveting this little $5 waddling penguin as a desk toy because it makes the ‘She Geek’ in me smile, reminding me of the Linux logo!

It appears to be a typical wind up critter, but like the other scores in my post yesterday from Reach and Teach ‘ten under $10′ it’s FAR from some lame ‘kids meal’ toxic action figure, it comes from a green eco-sustainable company, Plan Toys with lots of feel good factor here…

Each lil’ fella is made of  “…natural rubberwood recycled from rubber tress no longer able to produce latex; wood is stabilized with a time consuming chemical-free kiln drying process. Non-formaldehyde glue is used in place of the traditional toxic wood glue. Non-toxic, water based dyes provides colors.”

So just by gifting it hopefully you’re tickling the imagination of what ‘can be done’ on a shoestring budget while imparting your own values of ‘choices’ when it comes to what companies get your hard-earned green.   (more…)

Dec. 20, 2009 In my last post I went for ‘free media finds that are priceless year-round,’ today I’ll nudge it up a notch to prove you can gift meaning and mindfulness without spending a fortune (not even a Hamilton!)

I attended the Peace and Social Justice crafts fair and barely made it past the Reach and Teach table and Free the Children’s Me to We booth finding tidbits to use in my own media literacy and counter-marketing work that ranged from the leather look Self Esteem Passport ($6.95) and Diary of a Would Be Princess ($8) to cartoon novels like “Dude, That’s Rude” ($8.95) and “Who Would Want Those Apples Anyway” about organic fare and kids’ perception of flawed fruit. ($4.95)

Like other favorite finds such as the Truce Toy Action Guide (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment) Reach and Teach is big on nonviolence, healthy living, anti-commercialism, and human rights, so it’s quite a good fit of cool, curated finds in a catalog of goodies…Kinda like one stop shopping at an arts fair with juried entries of someone with similar tastes! (more…)

Dec. 16, 2009 Got gifts? Not sure when we jumped from “Black Friday/Cyber Monday” to bold-type headlines of “last minute gifts!”—but I’m still holding my own on the ‘haven’t stepped in a mall’ front…

So today I’m going to add a few FREE ‘last minute finds’ that are literally and figuratively priceless.

To up the ante and make it tougher, I’ll remove the physical ‘givens’ like hugs and help and chore coupons and focus exclusively on media freebies beyond the obvious ‘iPhone apps’ since not everyone is a mobile maven.

First on my list? An excellent post by Koka Sexton (an avatar sounding name if ever I’ve heard one!) on “22 most unknown free things anyone can have,” ranging from distinguished MIT open courses to comic books, BBC language lessons to Sephora samples. Quite frankly, it puts my picks to shame…but since I’m focusing only on MEDIA magic, we’ll start off with free gaming that uses a charity spin!

Games That Give.net is a new site where worthy causes receive the ad revenue which makes the games free! Their theme line? “What are you playing for?” Choose which cause to champion, and their newly launched site (already about to turn over the $10K mark in donations!) will donate 70% of their ad rev to the charity of your choice on the site. So if kids are  gonna have extra screen time, blizzards or not this winter break…make it count! Here’s more about their team. Second find? (more…)

Dec. 13, 2009 In this season of giving (which often gets skewed toward “gimmes-n-gluttony”) I’ve been challenging myself to find THE most affordable, meaningful, creative media that serves as lasting inspiration to kids.

From ad-free subscriptions to amazing online communities that empower, like New Moon Girl Media, to the 3D richness of virtual worlds like Elf Island and Xeko’s new pairing where kids help endangered critters online and off, there are ways to make media messages count as more than just ‘screen time.’ There are also some new ad-based startups making media count, like the GamesThatGive free site that asks “What are you playing for?” and uses an ad model to support charities. (story to come)

Today I’m going to focus on manga graphic novels that ‘Reach and Teach’ in fun, fresh ways…Kids love ‘em, educators and orgs are using them, libraries and mobile  apps are starting to ’stock’ them, and Publisher’s Weekly is bullish on them to boot…Is this ‘dumbing down’ or rising up in reaching youth masses?

As one who lived overseas for awhile where comic books, Mad Magazine and Snoopy paperbacks were mind candy for me as a child (media was in Japanese so TV was pointless) I realize some of my ‘life lessons’ came from good ol’ Charlie Brown (particularly that kick the football one). Comics have always struck me as an ‘opportunity’ to reach kids in a somewhat subversive way to impart serious content with engaging, whimsy. (more…)

Nov. 23, 2009 Like many of you, I’m trying to figure out how to ‘go over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house’ while reducing my carbon footprint, cranky kids and car time, or being locked in a transportation vehicle of any sort (plane, train or automobile) when we really just all wanna be OUTSIDE playing on our day off, eh?

When my folks left Hawaii to be ‘closer’ to us all on the mainland, little did we realize to reach them using public transport it would require BART to Amtrak to an hour ride in a car for their spot in the Sierra foothills in order to avoid the snarly gnarly backups on the Bay Bridge mass exodus toward Tahoe. We want to be as ‘green’ as possible be flexible with traditions, and yet still connect in person not via webcam or Skype, ya know?

So what’s a family to do? We WANT to unite, but dangit, we don’t want to dread the travel exhaustion and money madness as we calculate ourselves like pricey imported “food miles” traveling too far to a destination adding to greenhouse gases, the planet’s plight, and the country’s debt sans fiscal fitness.

Don’t know what’s to come of us this year (still deciding!) But here are a few tips for helping sort out priorities, a ‘coming soon’ instant audio iPhone app for masterful kids storytelling at Tales2Go (Facebook page here)…101 road trip tips from MomsMiniVan and my favorite freebies, the ol’ verbal icebreaker games and intimacy builders, adaptable for any age & theme much like these ‘TableTopics’ I wrote about to get conversations goin. As I run the gauntlet of choices with as much calm, care, and consideration possible (staving off the stress) I give thanks for our bounty of options that so many don’t even have… (more…)

Nov. 5, 2009 New Moon Girl Media had a massive makeover last year giving girls 8 and up a vibrant, social, supportive space to express themselves without being bombarded by pop up ads for diets, hoochie mama fashions and (pre)teen profiteering…

I wrote about it extensively here and here and here (the latter being my favorite one, interviewing the girls themselves!) so let’s just say I was slack-jawed to hear they might have to close their doors by year’s end if the subscription model they’re using doesn’t get juiced with a boost of girl power, pronto!

I feel like Chicken Little peeping and tweeting around the Twitterverse, “ack! What can I do? What can I do?” along with several other femme forward orgs like HGHW (Hardy Girls Healthy Women, story to come on an exciting massive girl-driven movement we’re helping out with, help name it here!) and  RespectRx, who have all signed on as affiliate partners to spread the word as well!

Truth is, the sky really IS falling…We have a limited time to help keep New Moon Girl Media ad-free, direct-funded and purely girl-driven, fueled by creative authenticity and UGC by girls for girls, rather than ideas put forth with intent to sell stuff and regurgitate media influence of what being a girl is all about. Please join our entire ‘Dream Team’ of youth advocates eager to help girls spot the spin, ground themselves in their own identities and counter-market the toxic cues coming their way. And here’s new word of their all stops out rally via Facebook event, “Save New Moon” where you can join in and help just by spreading the word… (more…)

Nov. 3, 2009 Here’s a marketing campaign kids LOVE (me too!)

No secret I’m a huge Fido fan…Flash animation? Not so much.

It often freezes my Firefox and fouls up the works more often than not on a business site but here in this ‘oldie but goodie’ (‘06-’07ish?) this viral video making the rounds again proves to be pure gold.

Give that ad agency a biscuit for its viral ‘legs’ designing “I Do Dog Tricks.’ Here’s more about ‘viral video done right’ with more animalia (gorillas & chocolate) via MediaPost and here are some of the top ten viral faves, which we still use often in our work with kids, particularly the timeless (and time-lapsed!) Dove Evolution which gets more pertinent by the day. So what makes some flash animation ‘go viral’ and others fall flat? (more…)