Shopping for Kids

Archive for the ‘shopping games’ Category

“Many have tried. Many have failed. Do you have what it takes to be a hero?” is the tag-line with which a little free online game presents itself to you.

The name of the game is Shopping Cart Hero. It features a little shopping cart and a funny looking stick figure. The goal of the game is to run downhill with the cart, jump high and propel yourself as far as possible, do funny tricks and land correctly.

At the end of each jump, you earn a number of points based on your performance which you can use to buy in-game upgrades such as improved wheels for your shopping cart as well as more propelling power for your next jump.

Developed in 2009 by the folks at MonkeyWantBanana.com who have a history of creating fun and addicting free online games, Shopping Cart Hero is no exception. The game enjoys great popularity and is being played online hundreds of thousands of times each month!

The game is available in Flash format and is playable in your web browser but it’s also available as an iPhone and iPod Touch application on iTunes. The iPhone / iPod Touch version costs $0.99 to download and play and it’s worth every cent. Imagine guiding the cart with the gyroscopic feature of your iPhone!

If you enjoyed playing the game, you will be happy to know that the developers at MonkeyWantBanana.com have rolled out a sequel which features improved graphics, better game-play, more upgrades, more tricks and more fun!

The game is high score enabled so you can present your score to friends or the entire world in online leader-boards and see how well you’ve done!

In honor of “Cyber Monday,” the newly appointed noteworthy date of the winter holiday season, it seems fitting to take a look at what’s hot in the new and improved bag of online retailer tricks. Lately, the buzz word is interactive! We’ve been seeing a move towards more and more interaction on shopping sites. Based on the belief that more interaction equates to more views, more time on site, and ultimately more sales, even many long established retailers have added interactive applications to their webstores in recent months.

Interacting with customers through social media quickly became a staple in internet retail, but many have now seen fit to go above and beyond engaging their audience through Facebook, twitter, and blogs with games that sort of resemble those you might see in a grammar school lesson. Just a few months ago, a “fill in the blank” application could be seen on one major high end department store’s front page. Shoppers were encouraged to end sentences like “fashion is…” Macy’s has been going interactive by offering periodic challenges to their Facebook fans. Questions like “What would you wear to chaperone your daughter’s homecoming dance?” are presented to fans who can then go to a page attached to Macy’s online store, choose pictures of merchandise, and make their own collage/outfit to answer the challenge question. Other applications “quiz” users to find their style and then suggest pieces that might match it.

With the advent of Polyvore, an application that allows shoppers or internet browsers to clip items from webstores and create their own outfits and collages, even smaller name retailers are now taking advantage of the ease at which they can hold outfit making based contests to engage audiences. With today’s new technologies, it’s certainly easier for young brands, even those without large development budgets, to get in on the interactive shopping game.

Interaction in itself is even becoming the very basis for several internet shopping business models – those who are clearly following the old Burger King adage of “Have it your Way.” In the jewelry industry, Sheyna.com and Gemkitty.com are two examples of sites that allow users to interact to create a custom product, but similar shopping sites have popped up for just about any industry you can think of from chocolates, to t-shirts, to bobble head dolls.

From social media conversation, to simple games, to interactive product creation, it certainly seems like interaction is the new sought after puzzle piece de resistance for internet retailers but is all the interactive shopping hype just much ado about nothing, a result barren quest to keep up with the next big thing?

Psychology and even Elementary Education 101 would tell us that engaging our audience will translate into more desirable results, but when the results we’re looking for or straight up sales, does this basic principle apply? The answer certainly varies depending on who you ask, and with all the different possible interaction, might certainly be hard to generalize. Retailers like Nordstrom that seemed to embrace interaction head on by making it part of their landing page just a few months ago, seemed to have shied away, moving interactive features to positions of much less prominence.

Interaction may arguably backfire, engaging a less targeted and on the fence audience at the expense of distracting already buying focused customers. One frequent online shopper called the new features “annoying and confusing” when talking about the move towards interaction as part of one of her frequented online department store shopping sites, begging the question, how much is “too much?” One other internet shopper mentioned that while an interactive game on a site from which he he planned to purchase anyway “didn’t influence his purchase…but was fun.” When it comes to internet retail, the line in the sand can be hard to draw but the numbers should surely tell in time. For now, complete the following sentence. “Interactive online shopping is ________.”

Having a good memory is important. It is vital to remember things that you’ve read and discussed with others. You can improve your child’s memory (and your own) with practice.

Here are a couple of fun games that you can play anywhere. They can help to keep your brains active when travelling or waiting for an appointment. No equipment is needed – always a handy thing!

Shopping List Games

1) Children need to practice to develop their short term memory. A good game to encourage this is the shopping list game.

Adult -’I went to the store and bought an apple’

Child -’I went to the store and bought an apple and a sausage.

Adult -’I went to the store and bought an apple, a sausage, and some carrots.’

Child -’I went to the store and bought an apple, a sausage, some carrots, and a cake.’

Take turns. Each time repeating the list that has been said before and adding an extra item.

2) This type of game could be played using a meal theme.

Adult – ‘For lunch I had a bowl of soup.’

Child – ‘For lunch I had a bowl of soup and a slice of bread.’

Think of other themes that you could use. If you were playing this while you are on holiday it could be things that you would pack in a suitcase.

For Older Kids

To make the game more difficult you can start each new item with the next letter of the alphabet. For the shopping list game the items could be Apple, Beans, Cookies, Doughnuts and so on.

This is a fun way to spend time with your child and keep your brains active too.

There are many different memory tools parents can use nowadays, and there are always new-fangled techniques on how to develop your child’s memory coming onto the market. However, if you take a step back and look at the activities you and your child do on a regular basis you can develop your own memory games and make learning fun for your child. It really is true that learning starts at home!

As an example, one easy technique is the shopping game. The aim of this is to develop your child’s memory by getting them to remember 5 or more shopping items which you will both choose before you go shopping. As you go round the shop you should then prompt your child to remember the different items on your list. You can use memory triggers such as a high five on entering the shop and as you go round the aisles talk about all the items on your list that you need to buy. Make it as easy or difficult as you like, and increase or decrease the number of items dependent on the age of your child. Everyday items like milk and bread will be easier to remember than one off items such as oxo cubes and vinegar.

Before you go to the shop sit down with your child and make a list of five items you need. A recommendation is to include items that your child knows and uses, such as bread, apples, biscuits. Alternatively it might be fun to make up a funny story involving the items you need to buy. The more humourous the story the easier it will be for your child to remember.

An example would be…

“Aggie Applewent to the fair with Mr Tomato and Butter Bob. They went on the big swings and ate blueberries until their tongues turned blue. Farmer Tom gave them some milkto wash down all the blueberries.”

Cover the list up and leave it alone for ten minutes. After that time see how many your child has remembered. You can leave it for a further hour, or even until the next day, and see if they still remember their list items. Remember that the older the child the more items you can add to the list, and if you start out with just a couple you can add to the list as time goes by.

Another option is to give your child an incentive to memorise the list. If your child is older or you have more than one child you could play a game to see who can make up the zaniest story or who can remember the most items.

There are lots of ways to develop your child’s memory and this is just one example. Look at the things you do every day and see if you can make a game out of any of those activities. Remember if you make it fun your child will get more from it!

There are several online shopping spree based games on the internet which do a great job teaching kids about money, making change and keeping budgets, while practicing computer skills. The age range for these games range from preschool to upper elementary level and many maintain the interest of the older girls just because the characters of the game are very cute and require the assistance of the player to survive. While the shopping spree games seem frivolous initially, they are actually very good tools in teaching children the basic concepts of everyday math as well as practicing earning and responsible spending habits.

Many of the most popular current shopping spree games involve online registration of actual toy pets, and the subsequent shopping for required items for the pets including food, clothes, and shelter. Additional aspects of this shopping spree game include purchasing property for the pets after earning money through various activities on the website. If the pets are neglected, they will become ill, requiring access to activities which will restore their health and happiness. If the player very good at providing the necessities for their pet, they have the option to purchase exclusive gift items.

Educational websites are organized and promoted by the public school system and provide links to money exchanging shopping spree online games for various age brackets on the elementary education level. A visit to one of these sites will provide parents with links to various games involving allowances and shopping spree games by selecting the “money” link in the left panel menu. These shopping spree games are highly recommended by elementary school teachers, and many are practiced right in the classroom.

If you’re a purist, and are trying to bring your kids back from the age of computer based everything, there is a good shopping spree board game available for preschool aged children which practices basic addition and subtraction while teaching the ideas earning and spending money while planning ahead for future purchases. In this fun game, children must be the first to purchase a certain number of items while remembering to save enough money to pay for parking before leaving the shopping center. If the player runs out of money, or otherwise loses it, they have to earn more before continuing the game. Again, the EducationalLearningGames.com website is very useful in providing resources for shopping spree style board games which will help teach children about money, spending and saving habits.