The holiday season will look a lot different this year. You may be looking forward to video calls with family and friends but they often lack the excitement and fun kids are looking forward to. Caribu, the first multi-platform video calling app for kids is perfect for families hoping to virtually continue their holiday traditions by baking, playing games, reading together and more.
Caribu just launched their holiday bundles which are carefully crafted based on a child’s age range and interest, and for the first time will include physical books sent to your home.
Your little ones can virtually celebrate Thanksgiving with loved ones using the following activities:
Bake cookies, holiday day themed treats, snacks and more in the “Let’s Cook Together” category
Enjoy tons of Thanksgiving activities including coloring sheets, puzzles, mazes and more
Read together about Thanksgiving, family, being thankful, and more in the “Celebrating & Being Thankful” category
Complete Gift Set ($99.99): Available for three different age groups, from 4 and Under to 5-7 Years; Includes 3 physical books that will be mailed to you; Include a 1 year subscription of Caribu
Gift Bundle ($49.99): Available for three different age groups, from 4 and Under to 5-7 Years; Includes 2 physical books that will be mailed to you; Includes a 6 month subscription of Caribu
Starter Gift ($29.99): Available for three different age groups, from 4 and Under to 5-7 Years; Includes 2 physical books that will be mailed to you; Includes a 3 month subscription of Caribu
Classic play has had a big year and one category that’s been taking off with families spending more time at home is an old favorite: ride-on toys. The 6-volt NCAA College Mascots ride-on assortment from Dynacraft brings famous mascots from the University of Georgia, University of Alabama, Auburn University, University of Arkansas, Louisiana State University, and Clemson University from the sidelines to the sidewalk just in time for the holidays. Kids ages 3 and up can rock the neighborhood at a maximum speed of 2.5 mph activated by an easy-to-operate foot pedal. Each ride-on comes with a special “team bus” where the mascot lives for charging in between playtime.
The Toy Insider is the go-to source for product information and the latest news about children's toys, tech, and entertainment. Its team of toy experts publishes two annual gift guides—one for summer and one for holiday—and reviews toys 365 days a year on thetoyinsider.com, a trusted resource for parents.
C is for cookies and comfort! Last week, Bombas launched their 4th annual Sesame Street collection. This limited edition collection of Bombas socks are inspired by your favorite fuzzy Sesame Street friends.
Bombas, the mission-driven comfort apparel brand that disrupted the sock category. In line with Sesame Street’s commitment to helping others, every pair of these socks purchased leads to a pair of socks directly benefiting homeless families in need.
The socks are available in Men’s, Women’s and Youth sizes. Singles retail for $14 – adults, $8 – youth. Gift boxes sell for $104 – adults, $60 – youth, $44 – toddler. They even have gift sets including socks for parents and children which makes for the perfect family gift.
Grab your movie-loving crew to flex their knowledge on all the best movies from the past decade. Big Potato just released the party game sequel you’ve all been waiting for. Blockbuster Returns, the sequel to the 2019 hit, The Blockbuster Party Game is now available at Target.
The game features four brand-new categories of Movie Cards (Heart Warmers, From Another World, Not for Kids, and Remakes & Reboots) and new Head-to-Head Cards. Don’t worry if you don’t have the original game. Blockbuster Returns can be played as a standalone or combined with the original game for more movie fun.
To play, open up your VHS box, flip open the gameboard, and split into two teams. First, face off in the Head-to-Head Buzzer Round. One player from each team tries to think of a movie title to match the description on the Head-to-Head category card (e.g. “Movies where someone got lost”) before the 15-second timer runs out, hitting the buzzer to put the ball back in their opponent’s court. The first person to run out of time loses this round.
Next, in Triple Charades Jeopardy, it’s time to see how well you know your movies. Each player gets three Movie Cards and has 30 seconds to get their team to guess all the movies using one of three methods— using just one word, quoting a line from the film, or acting it out. When a team gets one right, they add the card to their collection. The first team to grab two cards from all four categories wins.
From medical costs to the safest car seats, parents-to-be make dozens of decisions about their family’s future every day. But when it comes to giving birth, what state is the best for new parents? WalletHub recently released their findings that compared 32 key measures, from cost to healthcare accessibility to baby- and family-friendliness. Read on for the findings and to see where your state falls on the list.
WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia to evaluate four key components: 1. Cost, 2. Healthcare, 3. Baby-friendliness and 4. Family-friendliness. They broke it down further by evaluating each category using 32 relevant metrics like average insurance premiums, cost of newborn screening, quality of women’s hospitals, parental-leave policy score, and childcare centers per capita (check out all metrics here). Below are their findings:
Best States to Have a Baby:
1. Massachusetts
2. Minnesota
3. Vermont
4. North Dakota
5. Rhode Island
Worst States to Have a Baby:
1. Alabama
2. South Carolina
3. Mississippi
4. Louisiana
5. Georgia
Direct from WalletHub, here are some more interesting findings:
Mississippi has the lowest average annual cost for early child care, $4,060, which is 3.9 times lower than in the District of Columbia, the highest at $15,860.
Alaska has the lowest share of childbirths with low birth weight, 5.85 percent, which is 2.1 times lower than in Mississippi, the highest at 12.12 percent.
The District of Columbia has the most obstetricians and gynecologists (per 100,000 residents), 26, which is 13 times more than in Louisiana, the fewest at 2.
Massachusetts has the highest parental leave policy score, 160, while 9 states, such as Alabama, Michigan and South Dakota, tie for the lowest at 0.
You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream. Summer ice cream season is in full swing and Instacart searched buying data to understand buying preferences and predict the next big ice cream trends. Are people meaning towards the tried and true favorites or are they stepping out of their comfort zones and trying something new?
Instacart found that while there’s something nostalgic and comforting about traditional ice creams from our childhood, consumers’ carts show that preferences are changing and people are gravitating toward something a little less vanilla these days. Non-traditional ice creams formats and categories such as Keto-friendly, vegan, plant-based and by the bar are beating the competition.
The low-carb, powered-by-fat Keto diet continues to take the country by storm. Instacart data confirms Keto’s surging popularity with consumer searches for “Keto ice cream” increasing 1,175% year over year.
“As more and more people experiment with the Keto diet, the demand continues to increase for Keto-approved products. Ice cream brands have also taken notice,” said Laurentia Romaniuk, Instacart’s Senior Product Manager and Trends Expert. “The number of ‘Keto’ or ‘high fat’ ice cream products available on Instacart has increased 93% year over year and purchase data shows that the category grew more than 561% within the same time period. In particular, we’ve noticed unprecedented growth for Keto-approved Rebel Ice Cream — in fact, the indicators we’re seeing with Rebel look a lot like what we saw with Halo Top before it burst onto the ice cream scene”
Instacart reports that according to the FDA upwards of 50 million people are lactose intolerant in the United States. So it is no surprise that non-dairy ice creams are rising in popularity. Customer searches for “dairy-free ice cream” on Instacart increased 25% year over year.
Here are the top five fasting-growing non-dairy ice cream brands, according to Instacart purchase data:
Chloe’s Pops
Magnum (non-dairy line)
Enlightened
Hakuna Banana
Cado
With two plant-based ice creams in the top five list, Instacart dug deeper to see if these varieties are rising in popularity. Searches for “plant based ice cream” are up 658% this year as compared to the same period in 2019. Additionally, avocado-based ice cream Cado shows 122% growth over the past year while Hakuna Banana has experienced a 117% rise in year over year sales via Instacart.
Next Instacart wanted to see what the preferences were regarding pints, popsicles, sandwiches, cones or bars. Somewhat unexpectedly, ice cream bars have caught the attention of dessert enthusiasts with the category experiencing a nearly 92% increase in items ordered from January to June this year. Coming in behind ice cream bars are sundae cones (18% increase) and frozen fruit pops (14% increase). In comparison, growth for traditional ice cream by the pint remained relatively stable with the smallest swing in overall fluctuation.
“We believe the bigger appetite for ice cream bars may be related to the onset of COVID-19 and the stay-at-home order issued in mid-March,” said Romaniuk. “We saw the first spike in ice cream bar sales on March 13 and the category has experienced tremendous growth since then. When consumers are looking for a quick snack for themselves or to satisfy their kids at home, grabbing an ice cream bar is an easy option — often preferable over a container of ice cream because they are pre-portioned and have a fixed amount of calories.”
These are the top five fastest-growing ice cream bar brands according to Instacart purchase data:
Binggrae Ice Cream Bar
La Michoacana Ice Cream Bar
Kaurina’s Kulfi Ice Cream Bar
Sundae Shoppe Ice Cream Bar
PICS Ice Cream Bars
There’s no doubt about it, no matter how you serve it, people love ice cream.
Are your kids obsessed with YouTube? Since 2015, With so many children logging on each day, the demand is high for fresh and exciting content. Frugal living blog Top Dollar researched every country’s most popular kids channels to help your little one find a safe new channel to enjoy.
As well as mapping the top channels, the team also found the top earning child YouTubers.
In order to find out the most popular YouTuber in each country, the Top Dollar team used statistical websites Social Blade and Vidooly to find out which YouTuber has the most subscribers.To calculate each channel’s earnings, researchers then used Banner Tag to find the average daily views for each channel and estimated how much it was earning using a site called Noxinfluencer, which estimates earnings based on views and subscribers.
To find the top beauty, gaming and kids channels, the team studied the most subscribed channels, read ‘About’ pages and watched the videos to see if they fit into these categories. It proved difficult deciding what channels would fit the ‘influencer’ category for some countries, especially those with obscure content. In these cases, if it looked like it was an individual making the videos, they counted them as a YouTuber. For some countries, the team were not able to find any reliable channels. For others, they couldn’t find the CPM rate. In many cases, a channel claimed to be from one country when it was obvious from their videos that they lived elsewhere. Any channels that did this were not included.
Have you lost your rhythm? Trident Gum and T-Pain have collaborated to launch #ChewTunes. The brand-new customizable experience allows fans to drop their own beat using the #ChewTunes Instagram filter.
The limited edition Trident Gum Chew Tunes packs are available in four iconic flavors – Original, Spearmint, Watermelon Twist & Tropical Twist – and each corresponds to a unique instrumental sound for a completely original tune. Whether it’s a funky sound with Original or an island-inspired rhythm with Tropical Twist, fans can chew through their day and jam out with their #ChewTunes beat!
For a chance to win, fans can drop a beat using the #ChewTunes Instagram filter and post their beat on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtags #ChewTunes #Sweepstakes and #TridentGum. One lucky winner will win his or her choice of a Cash Prize of $10,500 OR a trip for two to attend the 63rd GRAMMY Awards.Trident Gum is giving more chances to win via the sweepstakes website chewtunes.com. Fans can visit the site for a chance to score instant win prizes including Bluetooth stereo turntables, streaming music gift cards and Bluetooth headphones.
“The Trident Gum brand knows life can sometimes get off track and throw you off your game. We’re working with T-Pain to encourage fans to create and share their own #ChewTunes beat through an interactive experience,” said Iryna Shandarivska, Senior Category Director at Mondelēz International. “Chew Tunes gives consumers a tool to restore their rhythm in a fun and engaging way.”
The Trident Gum #ChewTunes Sweepstakes is open through Nov. 1, 2020. The grand prize drawing will be held on Nov. 2, 2020.
Ferb, I know what we’re gonna do today! The out-of-this-world animated movie Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe, from Disney Television Animation, will premiere exclusively on Disney+ Fri., Aug. 28. The soundtrack, from Walt Disney Records, will be available the same day.
Executive-produced by the creators/executive producers of the Emmy Award-winning Phineas and Ferb series, Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe is an adventure story that tracks stepbrothers Phineas and Ferb as they set out across the galaxy to rescue their older sister Candace, who after being abducted by aliens, finds utopia in a far-off planet, free of pesky little brothers.
Voice talent reprising their roles from the original series and movie include: Ashley Tisdale as Candace Flynn; Vincent Martella as Phineas Flynn; Caroline Rhea as their mom, Linda; Dee Bradley Baker as Perry the Platypus; Alyson Stoner as Isabella; Maulik Pancholy as Baljeet; Bobby Gaylor as Buford; Olivia Olson as Vanessa Doofenshmirtz; Tyler Mann as Carl; and Povenmire and Marsh as Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz and Major Monogram, respectively. David Errigo Jr. joins the cast as Ferb Fletcher.
The movie also stars: Ali Wong (American Housewife) as Super Super Big Doctor; Wayne Brady (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) as Stapler Fist; Diedrich Bader (American Housewife) as Borthos; and Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley) as Garnoz.
In addition to Povenmire and Marsh, the crew includes: director Bob Bowen (Family Guy), composer Danny Jacob (Phineas and Ferb) and songwriters Karey Kirkpatrick (Something Rotten!), Emanuel Kiriakou (Whitney Houston’s “I Look To You”) and Kate Micucci (“Garfunkel and Oates”).
All four seasons of the original animated series Phineas and Ferb, along with the Disney Channel Original Movie “Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension,” are also available to stream on Disney+. Beginning Tues., Aug. 25, all episodes will be presented on Disney XD leading up to the movie’s premiere.
In addition to the soundtrack for the new movie, brand extensions for the movie will include cross-category products available at Hot Topic, BoxLunch and Amazon this August.
Children across the world are staying inside and experiencing distance learning. Along with virtual experiences, they are finding themselves in front of screens more and more. Minecraft announced the launch of a new Education category within the Minecraft Marketplace so players all over the world can now access the same types of Minecraft lessons students are using in the classroom, free of charge through Jun. 2020.
An Xbox Wire blog post authored by Head of Xbox Phil Spencer about the role of gaming to empower human connections and learn through play.
You can find these lessons from Minecraft: Education Edition over at the Minecraft Marketplace in a brand new Education category. These educational worlds can be played on your own, with your kids, parents or friends. Users can tour the International Space Station and explore the inside of a human eye. There are even ten worlds from the Marketplace creator community. The worlds include lesson plans like creative writing activities, build challenges, and tricky puzzles.
Explore more about distance learning with Minecraft: Education Edition on the site.
