Handipoints Creates New Educational Virtual World

Family Web site combines virtual community, positive reinforcement and teaches
the value of savings and work

OAKLAND, Calif., March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Launching today, Handipoints is
an online community and powerful parenting tool with over 140,000 users.
Handipoints marries offline tasks and responsible habits with online fun to
teach children the value of their work and foster good behavior. Handipoints
actually solves important problems all parents have: "How do I keep order in
my house" and "How do I teach my kids the value of saving." In addition to
the company launch, Handipoints is also announcing unique features including
HandiLand, an interactive game where kids adopt a cartoon cat and play with
other kids online and the Parent Portal, a rich set of parenting tools for
creating printable chore charts and reward certificates to hang on the fridge.
To enjoy the benefits of Handipoints, parents create printable chore
charts and set up an allowance program organized into Happy, Healthy and Smart
categories. As kids complete real world chores, they earn points and with
those points are able to unlock cartoons and play games in HandiLand, an
online virtual world similar to Club Penguin and Webkinz. In addition to
virtual rewards like games and cartoons, kids can save their points for real
world rewards like a new bike and allowance money. The economics of
Handipoints more closely follow real life and teach kids important life
lessons.
"I supervise several Sylvan Learning Centers and use Handipoints for my
7 year old and have recommended it to friends as well as clients," said Dulce
Aguda, from New Orleans, Louisiana. "Its nice to be able to find a resource
that is positive, motivational, technological, and makes chores FUN! Hello!
What's not to love about that?!"
In beta testing since November 2007, Handipoints users include 92,000 kids
ranging in age from 4-12 and 48,000 parents. Handipoints reaches kids at an
early stage of development, helping to lay the foundation for good habits and
a strong work ethic.
"Club Penguin and Webkinz are great games and very fun to play, but these
games provide no value to the parents and teach kids the wrong lessons about
consumerism," said Viva Chu, CEO of Handipoints. "Kids end up spending hours
in these worlds playing mindless games in order to earn enough coins to buy
clothing. Handipoints is completely different. In our game kids earn points by
staying healthy and active in the real world."
Handipoints plans to expand its virtual world, HandiLand, adding new
games, cartoons, and collectables each week. All of the kids' features are
centered on how to make chores fun and giving kids many different options for
spending the points they earn and save from doing their chores. Another
unique aspect of Handipoints is the parent involvement in the site. Parents
sign-up for the website as they are looking for an easy, organized way to
create a printable chore chart or tips on how to setup an allowance program.
The HandiLand games are a nice bonus for parents and become powerful, fun
motivators for their kids.
Handipoints is currently free to all users, but eventually Handipoints
will begin charging a subscription service tied to virtual rewards. There
will always be a free version of the Web site available but families will need
to subscribe in order to buy certain clothing and play premium games on the
site.
About Handipoints
A privately owned company, based in Oakland, CA, Handipoints is a virtual
community for families where children's daily "real world" chores earn big
prizes and new adventures in a safe online environment controlled and
monitored by parents. Unlike other children's Web sites, Handipoints marries
offline tasks with online games and entertainment to teach children the value
of their work and foster good behavior through positive reinforcement. While
they're having fun online, children learn about saving money and building
responsible habits in their daily lives. More information can be found at
http://www.handipoints.com.
Media Contact:
Abbey Korthals
Porter Novelli
512-241-2240
Abbey.Korthals@porternovelli.com

SOURCE Handipoints

Abbey Korthals of Porter Novelli, +1-512-241-2240,
Abbey.Korthals@porternovelli.com, for Handipoints