We’ve spent our last Christmas shopping at Toys ‘R Us.

Beth came home this year and, holding a receipt in her hand, declared, “I’m never shopping at Toys R Us again.” She went on (I’m transcribing in the first person):

1) That partial refund debacle. I had a Toys R Us credit card and would earn points for every dollar spent.

When I used those points to make a purchase, if I had to return something, they would only give me the value of the dollars I spent, not the full value (including the value of the points).

I wouldn’t let the store pull that crap on me. I stood there saying, “Let me talk to the manager.” And when he showed up, I said, “It’s illegal to do this. That’s my money. You need to refund me for the total purchase. If you want to turn the points into a store credit, that’s OK, but it’s my money.” They did this to me twice (and I did get a full refund both times).

I later found out there was a class-action suit about this and I got a few pennies back. I think they don’t do this any more but it was the first straw.

2) Returns. Toys R Us wasn’t taking returns without a receipt – including returns of their private-label brand – clearly marked Toys R Us. Finally, a few months ago, they changed their computer systems over (like Target) to be able to reverse look-up purchases based on the credit card you hand them. But the fact they wouldn’t take their own private label stuff back? I mean, c’mon! That was the second straw.

3) Online purchases. I made an online purchase from toysrus.com and, even WITH the receipt, they would only give me an in-store credit stating, “Online is a separate entity from retail.” I said, “Not to the customer it isn’t!”

I said, “Either you make this right for me or you’ll lose me as a customer. I’m done with your ‘policies.’ Your policies are not customer-centric.” They STILL wouldn’t give me my money back!

Beth’s Brilliant Get-Her-Money-Back Trick

Not about to put up with that bullshit (my words, not hers), my brilliant wife devised this plan.

She had already bought something else at the store that day. She returned it. And re-purchased it with the online store credit she reluctantly received.

So there, Toys R Us.

Good luck selling to someone else. We’re done with you.

Love,

:: Joe and Beth Hage ::

P.S. Yes, I know the title says “my wife” instead of “we.” That’s because Joey doesn’t do the shopping. Think of it as a division of labor. It works for us.

SecretBuilders is a virtual world game going after the kids market currently dominated by Disney properties like Club Penguin and ToonTown, on the one hand, and commercial tie-in sites like Webkinz on the other. My boys (6 and 9) like to play games online. Unfortunately, the games they like to play aren’t always the games that I’d prefer they play. For this reason, I was intrigued by the noble intentions of SecretBuilders’ creators, namely, to create a game site that BOTH parents and kids would like. As they put it:

SecretBuilders is a world where children will be entertained by the geniuses and intellects that gave rise to the best in human civilization rather than mass marketers. At SecretBuilders, children will not be tracked for revenue purposes or as potential consumers but rather as creative, ingenious beings that will help build a vibrant virtual world that will also impact their real world. In all, a tall order but then most of us behind SecretBuilders are parents ourselves so we are catering to two very demanding audiences – our children and ourselves!

A “tall order” indeed, and one that is not quite filled by SecretBuilders in its current incarnation. It’s a hard row to hoe if you want to get into the online gaming game, and I think there are several obstacles that stand in their way:

1. Reading

I first asked my six year-old to try it out. Unfortunately, you need to be able to read to understand how anything works in this game and he cannot (yet). While I could see this “forcing” a father-son interaction, what I actually saw was how it frustrated him. As he put it, “I don’t like it one bit.”

2. Competition

Frankly, there are a lot of games out there, and not just inappropriate and sketchy ones, that are already more established. SecretBuilders reminded me most of Club Penguin and that game already has legs (or fins, as the case may be). The question is: Why would a child choose this game over any of the options they already know? The answer is: I’m not sure. Nothing immediately differentiated this game in a “this is new and better” way.

3. Performance

I went on the game myself to try it out. It was easy enough to get started, but I was a little frustrated that you can’t really explore in the sense of just start walking and see what you stumble across. There are browser based games, such as Runescape, where this is possible and I think this capability makes a world automatically more engaging. Waiting around for the next place to load, is a buzz-kill.
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Like I said, the intentions behind this game are noble and if the idea is for it to serve as a platform for teachers, for example, then I could see it working. On the room-for-improvement front, my three recommendations for the creators are:

1. Add Explorability

The more explorable, the better. This is what makes WoW, Second Life, and Runescape interesting even to the novice. You can just jump in and start looking around without encountering immediate loading road-blocks (though, of course, you might get killed, but how else are kids going to learn?).

2. Add Constructability

The designers want kids to participate in adding features to SecretBuilders, but the way you do this is my emailing in ideas. Why not allow people to build basic structures or objects like in Second Life? There may be technical hurdles to implementing this, but they are not insurmountable. I think it would be cool if kids were able to make things that other kids could use or play with.

3. Colonize or Borrow Another Game/Platform

If you think it’s a good idea for kids to learn about history and culture through encounters with famous figures from fact or fiction, why not recreate these characters in a world that already exists (like Runescape, for example) and invite people to meet you there? If Runescape is too PG-13 for you, I’m sure there are PG or G-rated virtual worlds out there where you could basically take kids on field trips. Or, push coming to shove, ask one of the virtual world vendors to sponsor you or lend you server space so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. I could actually see one of these vendors being attracted to the idea first as a PR opportunity and secondly as a way of cultivating future users.
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Anyway, that was my take. Anyone else checked out this game? Did I miss something?

Adjustafresh did a great post on bedtime books back in October, and I noticed a bunch of people commented on it. I found a few new ones there for my older kids, including the hilarious and genuine Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

I thought I’d do another one, this time focused on a different kind of bedtime story. These are for younger kids, maybe 2-5, and what they have in common is the pairing of a kind of quiet cadence with a story line that reflects the deeper truths of life, nature, and humanity. You might call them “mystical” bedtime books.

If you know any of the below, you know what I mean. Each of these five classics uses a simple story and beautiful illustration to communicate something universal and profound in about ten minutes. There’s something special about these books, something magic to both soothe and enrich your sleepy toddler.

First up is the charming Can’t You Sleep Little Bear? The book tells the story of a little bear trying to sleep despite a fear of the dark, while his papa goes to greater and greater lengths to show he is safe and warm at home. Whether your little one is afraid of the dark or not, this book is sure to leave them feeling the same.

My next pick is Owl Moon, which carries some of the same messages of a loving father figure and a shared connection to the natural world as Little Bear. This book perfectly captures the feeling of moonlit snowfall on a deep, Winter night, and the unspoken camaraderie between a father and son as the former crosses into boyhood. There’s a reveal in the book, an illustration that marks the finding of the owl, that will light up your kids just like the glowing landscape throughout this minor masterpiece.

Speaking of a masterpiece… Sophie’s Masterpiece is the third book. It tells a story of personal sacrifice and the blessings of children, from the perspective of a tiny spider with a special gift. This is a sweetly sad book for grownups, who can fill in the blanks that might trouble a toddler. But the story is beautiful, and helps your child understand the preparation and anticipation that marked their entry into the world.

Fourth is Min-Yo and the Moon Dragon. All three of my kids love this one, and even the 8 year old will sit in when I read it to the youngest. It’s probably my favorite as well, with it’s magical Moon Dragon and story of bravery and friendship. Min-Yo is the heroine of the story, a child chosen to save the world simply because she is the only citizen both light and brave enough to climb the wispy silken strand that leads to the rapidly descending moon. Her clever choices and innocent pragmatism save the day, and make a friend of the mythical beast so poorly understood by the people below.

Finally, another story set in the China of long ago, the wise and brilliant Stone Soup. In it we meet three nomadic monks who come upon a town beset by trouble and suspicion, and set it on the right path with a recipe for brotherhood and community. Stone Soup unfolds with a subtlety and a sharpness that matches its pen and ink illustrations, to teach a lesson that – well learned – could do nothing less than make the world a better place.

Check ‘em out, let me know what you think, and what books have a magic for you and your child.

It makes no difference where we put it, what precautions we take or how much we don’t want them to get into that candy cache, my kids are like thieves in the night.  Not only are they good at it, but they change their tactics as they learn them.  Like the machine that teaches itself, my children learn from their mistakes so they cannot make them again.

We have been making sure to ration the latest candy rush that was Halloween in our house.  My son learned from his old man and decided that a stupid glow in the dark pumpkin was not cool and certainly was not large enough for the 15 neighborhoods he intended to cover in the 4 hours allotted following darkness.  He decided this year he would take the pillow case from that linen closet, and just in case he would make another pillow case part of his costume in case of the need for a backup.  Like I said, they are getting smarter, even if he is only 7.

The real Ninjas in my household however are not the older children, but the masters are those two youngest boys at 3 and 4.  They are the ones that are home most of the time and can make a plan and carry it out in the finest detail.  For example, my 3 year old was recently caught moving a chair across our hardwood floors to reach the candy bucket that Dad unfortunately left on the counter.  (I left the stash out while I was recently checking those peanut butter cups for poison – it’s a dirty job but a sacrifice I am willing to make for my children’s safety.) He found that if you use the cushions from the couch in the living room, they are not able to be heard and we cannot detect when he is sneaking the last of the Junior Mints.  Can you see what I am dealing with here?  They are like Ninjas!  I would not be so upset except for the fact that I love Junior Mints!  I’m going to call in the guy from "Over The Hedge" and have him install the Turbo Pelter 2000.  Yeah, it might be illegal here in this state, but I can assure you it won’t be that effective with the Genuine kids!

If you are reading this blog, you more than likely understand technology, Web 2.0 and actually use the Internet. And if you do, you are may be like me and have a lot of articles and post you really want to read. The problem, not enough time in the day. However, there might be an answer.

The other day, we had to take our son in for some oral surgery. This meant I was going to be semi-unplugged for most of the day. And for me, that is an awful feeling. I live and breathe online. I get my news, communicate with family and friends, interact with others and do my business online. I also do most of my reading online too.

What this day of being unplugged did was cause me to think about how I could take advantage of this time and actually get some reading done. Actually get a chance to read some of those articles and post I wanted to read. The answer was right in front of me. I use three particular tools in my everyday bookmarking of post I want to file away. And I use an iPhone which allows me to not be completely unplugged. The iPhone also gives me the ability to use some of these tools even if my trusty MacBook is sitting in my Timbuk2 bag. And while I was sitting in the outpatient surgery waiting room, I used my iPhone and these applications to catch up on some reading.

The Tools

First and the one almost everyone knows about is Delicious which I use everyday to file away for later reference, post I want to save. I don’t see myself as a power Delicious user. I do save a number of post per day. And, there is a Delicious app for the iPhone. The Delicious app for the iPhone looks and works very similar to the one you are use to using on your computer. And it allows you to catch up on reading some of those bookmarked post when are you sitting around in a waiting room.

Next, and a recent addition to the playing field is Evernote. Evernote is more than a bookmarking tool. However, we are talking about taking our reading with us and Evernote does allow this. And you can “tag” the post and articles you save to Evernote so they are easier to find. Just like the other tools we are mentioning, Evernote also works on the iPhone. Which means, like Delicious, you can read those post and articles on your iPhone while you are unplugged from your computer. However, unlike Delicious, Evernote does have a desktop clients so you don’t have to be plugged in to the Internet to read the saved articles and post on your computer. (Evernote has a ton of other features and uses and I will do a future post here to discuss them).

Finally, and the one I use a lot is Instapaper. Instapaper is easy to use. You place a bookmarklet in your tool bar on your browser. And when you want to save a post or article to read later, you simple click the “Read Later” button and it is saved. And like the other two application, Instapaper also has an iPhone application that also works offline.

What each of these tools allows you to do is to save articles and post to read later. And each works with the iPhone. Two of the three also allow you to read those saved items while you are unplugged from the Internet. So the next time you are sitting in a waiting room or just sitting around waiting on the wife at the mall, you can catch up on some reading and mark that off your to-do list.