“POP” MOVIES

TRAVEL
LAP OF LUXURY
Launched in 1996, Travelwizard.com has made its mark as
an indispensable resource for the chic traveler by providing
excellent customer service. Praised by “The Today Show,”
Conde Nast Traveler and Forbes magazine, the site recognizes
that no two families are alike and creates a unique experience
designed around your family’s specifics needs, whether it’s a
personal chauffeur or a nighttime babysitter. As a member of
Virtuoso—a consortium of 300 of the finest luxury travel
agencies in the world—Travelwizard.com is remarkably wellconnected; families may visit museums after hours or dine at
restaurants that are booked for months in advance.
(www.travelwizard.com/family-vacations)
MOTHER-APPROVED
If you’re looking to book some tickets but are not sure
where to go, here’s your answer: Wejustgotback.com. Resolving
the “Boston or Bermuda” dilemma, this site relies solely on
family feedback—it tells it like it is and leaves the sugarcoating
and unnecessary hype behind. Only a few months past its one
year birthday, this newcomer has already been featured in the
New York Times and Family Fun magazine. Make sure not to
miss the site’s “tip sheets,” where parents reveal their traveling
secrets. (www.wejustgotback.com)
ARTS & CRAFTS IDEAS
MARTHA STEWART
Adding flair and sophistication to the world of arts and
crafts, media mogul Martha offers creative ideas for kids on
her acclaimed website, MarthaStewart.com. Suggestions
range from scrapbook parties to washcloth puppets, with
Martha even demonstrating some of them on video! The
instructions for each project are detailed and straightforward. While less frequented, message boards let parents swap
craft ideas. (www.marthastewart.com/kids)
BOOKS
READING PICKS
Ala.org, the American Library Association’s website, is a
great resource for parents itching for a good children’s book
recommendation. The ALSC (Association for Library
Service to Children), a subgroup of the ALA, lists awardwinning books for kids—big names, like Newbery and
Caldecott—along with their own qualified recommendations. Divided by age group and updated annually, these lists
include “100 Best Paperbacks” and “Top Ten List of All-Time
Classics.” (www.ala.org/bookmediaawards)
ONLINE GAMES
TODDLERS
Nowadays, kids are learning computer skills before they’re
even potty-trained—and Fisher-Price has taken notice.
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New York Family | May 2007
“POP” MOVIES
THAT EDUCATE
By Sarah Seltzer
Kids, stop playing those games and go stare at the computer! That’s what the writers and animators at BrainPOP
and BrainPOP Jr. hope parents and teachers will continue to
say about their award-winning website.
The BrainPOP site, which consists of videos, quizzes, and
other activities for grades K-12, is intended to achieve several
educational goals: help assuage kids’ curiosity, supplement
curricula, and in some areas, provide a solid lesson plan or
framework for educators.
The last goal is a particularly important one for BrainPOP’s
youngest users. According to founder and director Dr.
Avraham Kadar, BrainPOP Jr. is essentially an online textbook
for the 5- to 8-year-old set.
“Even for high-school level material, BrainPOP aims to be
more than a last minute skim in the tradition of sites like
Sparknotes.com or even Wikipedia.”
“BrainPOP is learning more, learning deep, understanding
concepts in a better way,” he says. “Teaching how to learn, to
grasp, understand and not just skim.”
HOW TO GET POPPIN’
In each BrainPOP video, cartoon characters Tim (a boy)
and Moby (his robot) explore a given topic. For regular elementary age brain-poppers, the videos function on two levels:
the first, to supplement what’s being learned at school (see
videos on “The Five Paragraph Essay,” or “Natural Selection”);
the second purpose is to satisfy kids’ wide-ranging curiosity.
Say your child is diagnosed with a nasty bug and wants to
learn about what’s going on in his or her body – sure enough,
Brain Pop has a video explaining viruses.
And for the more cerebral type, a video on the life and
importance of mystery-writer grande dame Agatha Christie
might help a bookworm put context behind the whodunit
they’re perusing.
More serious and to-the-point topics are also animated for
kids’ explanation; puberty, acne, death, war, feminism, and
terrorism are all there, to name but a few.
“We’re not afraid of presenting hard subjects to kids,” says
Kadar.
At the end of each BrainPOP video, viewers have the
chance to explore what they’ve learned with a pop quiz, or ask
the site’s creators for more background. And at the end of
each BrainPOP Jr. video, there’s more supplemental material;
an easy and a hard quiz, a fun game and a variety of activities
including vocabulary and writing exercises. The best bonus for
parents? An “ideas for grown-ups” section with detailed history of the given topic, lesson plans for teachers, and suggestions for family activities.
Avraham Kadar in his office.
THE FIRST POP
BrainPOP was born out of Kadar and his wife’s desire to
replicate their family conversations in the car: the back-andforth question and answer “Why?” and “How come?” style of
learning.
Officially, the move to make that kind of pedagogy electronic began with Kadar, a physicist, immunologist, and pediatrician who had been creating CD-ROMs to educate his patients
about asthma and diabetes. Although that project faded from
memory, the desire to answer questions using technology
stuck.
In 1999, they launched a site with about 35 videos that got
immediate attention and praise from the education media, and
has since expanded to offer over 600 videos for grades 3-12,
plus BrainPOP Jr.
Kadar is particularly proud of the way the site can foster
“quality time and bonding” among families.
He also likes the way videos on pertinent topics like hurricanes, terrorism, and AIDS help “alleviate fears” by clarifying
the mystery behind these frightening occurrences. He describes
how 1.5 million kids watched the video “Tsunami” within days
of the Southeast Asian disaster, and 1.8 million kids watched
“Hurricane” within two days after Katrina. The BrainPOP staff
has tackled other potentially confusing topics like SARS,
anthrax and war. These videos “give kids basic terms to be able
to deal with it,” says Kadar.
A LAUNCHING PAD
Not all online activities can boost brain function, as most
discerning parents know. Kadar believes that some activities,
like messaging programs and videos, can create partial “digital
attention deficit,” which he says can distract children and slow
down their learning process. But his site is meant to be a boost,
an explainer, and a launching pad for users. Before they can
look up Manet’s “Dejeuner Sur L’herbe,” after all, students need
to know what Impressionism is in the most basic and uncomplicated of terms.
Kadar sees BrainPOP as a prerequisite for even deeper learning, a non-condescending explainer for when mom and dad
aren’t omniscient, or just or aren’t home yet.
“Within five minutes you can learn a lot,” he says. “Fifteen
learn even more. And you can come again, anytime you want.”
5 Videos Dr. Kadar Adores
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“Bullying”
A “subject not addressed enough with kids.” Helps
kids understand what’s behind the too-common
schoolyard phenomenon.
“Tsunami”
Kadar’s staff put this together over their Christmas
break within days of the epic disaster.
“Stem-cell Research”
Explains a hot button topic in science and politics.
“Be Well”(on Brain Pop Jr.)
Dr. Kadar likes this because it “features me as a
character.”
“GPS”
Learn how you can track your position anywhere in
the world.