Have You Seen It?!: New Tools

Have you seen these new tools in our Construction Zone?!

Come get crafty and learn how the mechanics of each of these tools works and how they work together. What will YOU build when you come to play?

Random Act of Kid-ness: Saving His Sister From A Fire

This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from Louisville, Kentucky, where 10 year old Antoine Burks ran back into his burning home after he realized his 6 year old sister was still inside.

Says Antoine:

“The fire came right to us, and I didn’t know what to do, and it burnt my leg, so that’s when I ran out and I saw Trinity needed help, so I ran back in. I am her big brother, and I have to protect her.”

Read the fully story here.

Do you have a suggestion for our next Random Act of Kid-ness? Know a kid(s) doing awesome things in the world? Let us know!

Random Act of Kid-ness: Save-A-Pet

This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from Port Jefferson, New York, where a group of elementary school kids formed a club to help benefit the local Save-A-Pet animal shelter. These kids love pets, and they even thought of opening up a veterinary hospital one day. So they started small and formed the Animal Club of Port Jefferson. And on March 24, they will hold a bake sale to raise even money for the shelter.

“I believe it’s a small but important lesson in leadership for each of the children. What better way to learn than through something about which you are so passionate.”

                                                                                                                                         -David Keegan, father of one of the kids

To read more about the Animal Club of Port Jefferson and the kids behind it, click here.

Have You Seen It?!: Gear Wall

Have you seen our brand new gear wall, Connections?! 

Our new play space is placed thematically in the Zimmer’s building area right next to our giant pinball machine and Construction Zone. Connections is a stainless steel wall with a variety of sizes of gears that are removable. The combinations are endless! By seeing how the different gears affect one another, your little ones can learn how we are all connected and how each of our actions affects others. The gear wall is not only insanely fun, but it also teaches: cause and effect, fine motor and manipulative skills, problem-solving, colors and patterns, and principles of motion!

So what are you waiting for? Come learn about connections today!

Random Act of Kid-ness: Game that Grants a Wish

Random Acts of Kid-ness are not necessarily about specific kids who are help making the world a better place. Every so often, we highlight tools that might help kids learn random acts of kindness, and today we’re doing just that.

For this week’s Random Act of Kid-ness, we feature a partnership between the nonprofit charity, Wish Upon A Hero, and the Facebook game, A Better World. A Better World is a free game that focuses on encouraging people to do good deeds. Players can create characters, play games, care for pets, and much more, but the way the players progress in the game is by doing kind things for others, both inside and outside of the virtual game. The charity Wish Upon a Hero wants to grant a wish for Gracie’s Place, a special needs school for children. Gracie’s Place wants a new transport van to assist more children and families in need.

Through this partnership, people can sign into A Better World and visit the Sanctuary of Hope section of the game. Players can post a dream or hope, or support those of others. If 100,000 hopes are posted or supported, ToonUps (the creator of the game) will answer the wish of Gracie’s Place in order to help them fulfill the hopes and dreams of these special needs kids. ToonUps Vice President of Product Development, Gregory Hansell, says:

“Our players are absolutely extraordinary in their support and desire to do the right thing. We’re excited that this month, our players can make real world dreams come true for special needs children by sharing their own hopes and dreams inside the game.”

You can read a lot more about this story and how you can help grant a wish by playing A Better World here.

Do you know of other fun games that promote random acts of kindness? Share them below!

Random Act of Kid-ness: A Whole Bunch of Kind Kids!

For this week’s Random Act of Kid-ness, we are not just highlighting one good deed, but a whole list of them. Earlier this week, St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital announced the winners of its annual campaign, Kids are Heroes, for kids ages 5-18.

This year’s winners include children who have: sold gum to raise money for a family whose house had burned down, rescued another child from drowning, and donated books to underprivileged students.

Click here to learn more about these and other winners of the Kids are Heroes campaign!

Random Act of Kid-ness: Helping Hands Project

This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from Rhode Island, where second graders at Sowams School are saving up dimes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. For two weeks, the students offered to do chores at home for $1.00 each, that their parents would pay them in dimes. All of the dimes collected were put into plastic water bottles that are being sent to the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Kids for Wish program  that grants wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions.

What a great way to get kids involved in charity. Read more about the Helping Hands Project here.

Random Act of Kid-ness: Saving Grandma’s Home

This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from Wisconsin, where 12 year old Noah Lamaide raised $10,500.00 to save his grandma’s home from foreclosure. When his grandma Janice fell short on her
mortgage payments, Noah stepped in and posted on his website about how much his grandma deserved support:

“My Grandma incase you don’t know her has a heart of gold. She has given so much to our community since I can remember!!!” 

He asked for donations to help save her home from being taken away, and people listened!

Philanthropy is not new to Noah, though. When he was only 9 years old, his mom challenged him to do one community service project every year. Noah has given donations to food banks and even raised money for a trip to Disneyland for his family friend who had cancer. Noah is truly an inspirational kid.

Read more about Noah’s random acts of kindness here.

Do you know a kid who has done or is doing random acts of kindness? Let us know!

Random Act of Kid-ness: Paintings that Pay Off (Medical Bills)

This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from Missouri, where 3 year old Liam Myrick has started to sell his paintings to help pay for his parents’ $500,000 medical bills.

Liam was diagnosed with stage-four Neuroblastoma in July, and his sister battled with cancer the year before. Now, Liam wants to help his parents with their financial burden by using the energy he has to paint. His parents are auctioning Liam’s work on Facebook to subsidize the medical bills.

Liam’s mom Shawna says,

“He doesn’t care about what’s going to happen ten minutes from now. He cares about the moment.”

What an inspiring story of one kid trying to make the world a better place for his family. Read more about Liam’s story and how you can buy one of his paintings here.

Random Act of Kid-ness: A Zimmer Video!

For this week’s Random Act of Kid-ness, we wanted to give a shout out to 3 awesome kids who did a random act of kindness for their favorite nonprofit: the Zimmer Children’s Museum!

Russell Monkarsh, Gabe Freeman, and Ava Freeman are all kids who loved to play in the museum as little ones, so they decided to give back by creating a video about the Zimmer for us. Still in high school, Russell and Gabe started their own production company called SD Productions. You should check it out! And now, check out the world premiere of our brand new video!

Drumroll please….

What do you think? Thank you so much to Russell, Gabe, and Ava for doing this!