We have always enlisted the help of parents like you to make Togetherville the best place for kids on the Internet. You play the most important role in raising a healthy, savvy digital citizen by setting limits and engaging with your kids. Now you have an opportunity to benefit all families using our site by sharing your thoughts, ideas and concerns.

We’re currently recruiting new members for our Parent Advisory Panel. As a panelist, you’ll be part of a select group of parents that we turn to for feedback on the latest products and features for Togetherville.  And yes, there are perks!

Ready to help out? Fill out an Interest Form and we’ll be in touch!

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss

This week’s roundup is dedicated to the love of reading… and what a fun week for children’s literature! In honor of Read Across America Day, we played a little game on Tuesday, tweeting passages from our favorite kid classics. Did you catch it? Could you identify the children’s classics we referenced? You might have recognized Curious George, The Velveteen Rabbit, Harry Potter, Winnie the Pooh, A Wrinkle in Time, and of course, Dr. Seuss. If you’re not following Togetherville on Twitter yet, start now!

	Michelle Obama – First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated the 106th birthday of Dr. Seuss at the National Education Association’s (NEA) 2010 Read Across America Day . Read Across America Day’s goal is to celebrate the importance of reading and education. In honor of Dr. Seuss, one of the most beloved children’s author of the 20th century, the First Lady read The Cat In The Hat and then took questions from the children in the audience. Check out the Top 100 Books for Children from the NEA. We can’t argue with #1, Charlotte’s Web.
	The Exquisite Corpse Adventure - A fun, reading and writing project that brings authors like Natalie Babbit (Tuck Everlasting) and Kate DiCamillo (The Tale of Despereaux) and 18 others in a writing game, where one person begins a story, then passes it down through a chain of writers to continue the narrative. Inspired by the writing game is a K-12 contest called The Exquisite Prompt, a monthly writing challenge from Reading Rockets. The next deadline is March 31, and the contest ends in June. If your kid is a storyteller, give them an opportunity to shine on the national stage. Read January winner Isabella D.’s letter to the Tooth Fairy here.
	Eco Bean, Our New Hero – Cute little Eco Bean and his sidekick Lil Sprout are the heroes of a new series created to promote Earth-friendly attitudes and behaviors in young kids. The well-designed Eco Bean website is a fun experience for kids and adults, full of resources for teachers, parents and kids. Free downloadable Teacher’s Guide and Lesson Plans bring Eco Bean into the classroom – just in time for Earth Day coming up on April 22. Topics include recycling, saving water and energy, and just being green. Someone should let Kermit know: Eco Bean makes it easy.
	Green Eggs and Ham at School – How do you get under-served school kids interested in reading? Show them that role-models love to read and make it fun. Feitshans Academy in Springfield, a pre-k through fifth grade school, celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday this year with a breakfast of green eggs and ham and by inviting members of the community to come read with students. We really like the concept, and we LOVE the great kids featured in this YouTube video posted by the Illinois Education Association.Want to attempt your own green eggs and ham? Check out Rachael Ray’s video.
	Teachers in Costume – Think of the moments that have endured in your memory from your childhood school days. For me, I’ll never forget my homemade Rainbow Brite Halloween costume and the school-wide costume parade. With orange hair and multi-color legwarmers, I got oohs and ahhs from  classmates and teachers alike. This week, Togetherville kid Alexander’s class dressed up as their favorite book characters for Read Across America Day. Everyone looked the part, but it was his teacher’s costume took the cake for most memorable. Those kids will never think about Chicken Little without remembering the teacher who encouraged them to love the fable as much as she does.

In 2005, Travis Price and David Shepherd decided to wear pink shirts to show silent support for a younger student in their school who was being targeted – for wearing a pink shirt. Today, 1500 schools and workplaces are wearing pink to identify themselves as a source of comfort and support to those targeted by hurtful teasing, taunting, exclusion and physical bullying.

Today, people of all ages are wearing pink in order to:

1. Send a loud, non-confrontational message of resistance to bullies
2. Identify themselves to victims as a source of support willing to help
3. Draw attention to the effects of bullying, and stimulate passive bystanders into action

Learn more about the origin of Stand Up to Bullying Day.

When it comes to bullying behaviors, research has shown that close, connected relationships to caring adults can be preventative for kids. At Togetherville, we are creating an online space for kids to play together with the biggest influencers on their behavior – their parents, caretakers, and friends. We are just as committed to creating a place that is socially and emotionally safe online – a place where kids can be themselves without fear of being cyberbullied.

Today, we’re proud to wear pink.

This week got us talking about the powerful draw of the random experience. The anticipation of a game of chance. The amusing element of surprise. From the early days of Peek-a-Boo to the more grown-up offering of Chatroulette, we love the thrill of not knowing what might happen next. Today’s round-up features 5 fun – and SAFE – randomly fun online experiences for kids!

	The Wheel of Wow - The social web is ruled by user generated content, and this is one of those online-to-offline activities we love. One of the most popular features on Webkinz is the Wheel of Wonder – spin it to receive special stuff. In a world where themed birthday parties rule and crafty moms can construct fantasy worlds that could (gasp!) rival their online counterpart, this real-world game adds another goodie to a mom’s bag of tricks. Will the Wheel of Wow mitigate fights over who got the best gift? Probably not. All is fair in games of chance; you can blame Lady Luck.
	Free Rice - An awesome non-profit website operated by the United Nations World Food Program and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.  Sponsors pay for rice to be donated to hungry people.  Here is how it works: vocabulary questions pop up and for each correct answer you get, Free Rice donates 10 grains of rice through the World Food Program to help end hunger. It doesn’t just test your vocab; you can try other subjects like art and math.  It’s a great opportunity to discuss the persistent topic of world hunger while living in a commercial society, and a meaningful way to spend your learning time online.
	Magic 8 Ball – Will I get straight A’s on my report card this quarter? Absolutely. Does Johnny like me? As I see it, no. So much random fun to be had with the classic Magic 8 Ball! Now, like many of our beloved childhood toys, the Magic 8 Ball is online. ask8ball.com cleverly claims to have a “general prediction success ratio (GPSR) reaches up to 82.6% as proven by numerous secret and dangerous experiments.” With that reassurance, you can’t go wrong. Safety factor is high – there are no social features or inappropriate predictions. Will I be adding the Ask 8-ball widget to my iGoogle home page? (real question) You may rely on it (real answer).
	Earth Cam – What’s happening in Times Square right now? Find out with a birdseye view, looking up and down Broadway and 7th Avenue.  Not only can you see the weather and the awesome electronic billboards, you can also see traffic and little people rushing to and fro.  The bustle of yellow taxis has us dreaming of New York, New York. Check out the Eiffel Tower Cam. Nashville Cam. Wrigley Field Cam.  Imagine the conversation starters that you can experience with your child. Don’t log on with your child too close to bedtime, the site is addicting!
	United States Antarctic Program – Ok, so there is not much action on the Amundsen – Scott South Pole webcam.  However, in a world full of beeping and buzzing, it’s nice to know and to share with our kids that scientists work around the clock trying to unlock the mysteries of the polar ice caps.  How were they formed, and what their destruction could mean to our planet. The South Pole webcam updates every 24 seconds. At 5pm today, we checked and the weather was -30.1 C with a -41.4 C wind chill. When you are done checking out this quiet cam, check out an arial view of the McMurdo Station at Ross Island.  Brrrrr….

Amusing. Titilating. Creepsville. Just some of the words used to describe Chatroulette, the latest strange stop on the windy Interweb. Created by a Russian teenager, Chatroulette connects two random people via webcam and chat window. Clicking “Next” ends your connection and moves you on to the next random person. Next, Next, Next – until something clicks.

Your interest is piqued purely on appearance, and first impressions rule here. I was passed over a number of times by single young men and a group of teen girls. Then, I landed on someone that did not hit “Next” when they saw me; someone sharing highly inappropriate content with a desktop screenshare.

Microsoft researcher and youth advocate danah boyd appreciates the randomness of Chatroulette, yet acknowledges the concerns of potential exposure to inappropriate visuals. I experienced the those visuals first hand and can attest: This site is absolutely not for young kids.

But it’s not the young kids that I worry about. Parent monitoring is sufficient here – block the site and move on. For teens, Chatroulette can be enticing. It’s funny. It’s strange. It’s potentially shocking. Chatroulette has a low-threshold entertainment value that teens will gravitate towards.

To protect your kids, Larry Magid of ConnectSafely recommends a strong first line of defense: a conversation about the dangers of chatting with strangers. If that’s not enough, you can remove or disable your webcam (though this does not prevent the other person’s image from appearing).

CNET’s Natali Del Conte reviewed Chatroulette and put it this way: For ever 1 normal person, you have 25 weirdos. You’d have better odds walking the streets of New York City.

We’ve got a YouTube rich round-up this week! Here in the Togetherville office, we’re trying to find the right balance between watching the Olympics and working on our private beta. It’s been tough. Good thing we’ve got plenty of Olympic content in Togetherville or we’d be going at each other with hockey sticks to get in front of the tube. Thanks to NBC, we can sneak in some highlights during the day. That’s how we found out about 17-year-old U.S. figure skater “Reliable Rachel” Flatt. Check out Rachel and our other round-up stars below – and share the videos with your kids!

P.S. If you’re a Togetherville Beta tester, all of these videos are in TVideo Player. Your kids might have already watched them – and that could make for some fun dinner conversations this weekend!

	Kit the Otter On February 18, 2010, a sea otter pup named Kit became the youngest otter ever to go on exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Kit came to the aquarium as a five-week-old stranded animal.  The caring nature of the Monterey Bay Aquarium staff coupled with the fighting strength of baby Kit has us all saying, “Awwwwww!”
	We are the World for Haiti Our tester kids have been deeply moved by the earthquake in Haiti. “We Are the World 25 for Haiti” is an awesome collaboration of over 80 artists and performers raising money for Haiti relief efforts.   The same great song we remember as kids is inspiring a new generation to awareness and compassion. Quincy Jones and Lionel Ritchie have done a great job of enlisting stars that our kids can recognize. Download it today on  iTunes if you haven’t already! 100% of the proceeds are going to the We Are The World Foundation.
	The NEW Electric Company - Great music, New York City locale and hip graphics make The Electric Company fresh and hip for a new generation of kids.  We like that!  It’s got the celebrity guest appearances (from Wyclef Jean, Tiki Barber, Jimmy Fallon, just to name a few) that kids now expect from their educational programming. I remember watching this when I was a kid! Now we’ve got the old and the new in Togetherville, where the kids will be humming Wyclef Jean’s song, “Welcome to my city filled with electricity, where you can be anything you wanna be.”
	Rachel Flatt, the 17 year old Olympic skater, is a rockstar on the ice and in the classroom.  The 2008 world junior champion, “Reliable Rachel” Flatt is one of the most consistent and down-to-earth skaters on the U.S. team.  U.S. Figure Skating named Rachel to the 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Scholastic Honors Team. In addition to academic success, Rachel is one of the faces for the new “I compete clean” campaign for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.  We know who we are rooting for!
	Ellen DeGeneres has done an amazing job of filling Paula Abdul’s chair on our kid user’s beloved American Idol.  Season 9 has some amazing talent, and we know she is going to be up dancing when the show goes live.  She’s a judge that will be sure to entertain…  she is so fun to watch.  We think Ellen is definitely going to bring out the best in the contestants.

Another week, another collection of Togetherville inspiration. Preparing for a busy winter break (kids out of school…) and battling a cold bug going around the office, we leaned heavily on our kids to inspire us. Luckily, they came through. Sweet Valentines from our art creator combined with fun stories, suggestions, articles and photos from our testers pushed our new features ahead of schedule. Need some motivation? Read on.

	Valentine Creator - Alright, alright! It’s time for us to toot our own horn! This week in Togetherville has been all hearts, cupids and conversation hearts. Our beta tester kids have been rocking out with Valentine Creator and sharing their creative greetings with friends and relatives. It’s amazing how many grandparents were the lucky recipients of these digital “I love you’s” If you’d like to show the love this weekend in Togetherville but haven’t received a beta invite, email us.
	2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia – Meet Sumi, Quatchi, Miga and Mukmuk! The 2010 Winter Olympic Mascots have personality!  Mukmuk is so cute.  Miga loves snowboarding. Quatchi love to play hockey. And, Sumi has amazing powers!  Watch videos, play games and take personality quizzes on the Olympic mascot’s official site. Hmm, this roundup item is reminding me of another history-making event this week… what could it be? I know it has to do with snow…
	100th Day of School - This isn’t a pat on the back for perfect attendance – it’s a school-day holiday all about math - place value and counting! Teachers ask students to bring in 100 “somethings” from home – and it’s quite fun to watch young kids figure out 1. what they can find 100 of and 2. how they can fit it in their backpack. One Togetherville tester sent in this picture of a kindergartner methodically counting popcorn kernels.  Another friend of ours asked her Facebook friends to email a prayer to her son – hoping to reach 100. Togetherville mom, Jessica Reid, loved her necklace made of string and 100 Apple Jack cereal pieces.
	Google Buzz – Buzzing may not be the accurate word to describe how our team is reacting to Google’s Buzz, but their latest social media product is certainly reflecting the demand for connective features in our day-to-day lives. When I opened my Gmail this morning, I was prompted to set up my account and provide my birthday. While we’re not overwhelmed with excitement about Buzz (we’re already a Yammer team), we are asking ourselves, “What does this mean for kids?” We all know youngsters that use Gmail for one purpose or another. In set-up, Buzz asks your age, requiring users to be 18-years-old. I don’t think our Mathletes will have any trouble fudging that one. We’re just wondering how pro-active Buzz will be at keeping minors out of the “interesting” conversations. And should they try? If your kids are using Gmail, make sure to check out the buzz on Buzz privacy.
	Technology - The latest book in the Navigator series by Peter Kent is an instant favorite. When your kid cries for more screen-time, hand them this book. Our techie kids became so engrossed learning about space travel, robotics engineering and eco-travel that they didn’t notice they were reading. Bueno! Other titles in the Navigator series include: Dinosaurs, Oceans and Seas, Ancient Rome and Killer Creatures. High interest topics, amazing photography and great prices have the approval of parents and kids alike.