Parent's Guide
Parents, welcome to Dizzywood. We're working hard to make sure that Dizzywood.com provides an entertaining and safe experience for your children. Please browse our guide to the site and feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns that you might have.
- What is Dizzywood?
- Who is Dizzywood for?
- Our Value
- Dizzywood in the Classroom
- Dizzywood Memberships
- Privacy
- Safety Tips
What is Dizzywood?
Dizzywood is an online game where the focus is on fun. Kids can play games, interact, and have a good time in a safe and positive environment. Dizzywood helps kids build self-confidence, develop positive social behaviors, express themselves creatively and have lots of fun while learning.
Kids start by creating a character and then they can explore the many areas of Dizzywood. Along the way, they'll have the opportunity to interact with other children, engage in challenging activities, and earn many rewards, such as items, achievement badges and even super powers.
Dizzywood encourages kids to play and interact in a positive and cooperative manner with other kids. We prevent children from revealing personal information online and maintain an extremely safe environment with an advanced technology platform and live, trained moderators.
Who is Dizzywood for?
Dizzywood is designed for children between the ages of 8-12, although children of all ages are welcome to participate.
Our Value
Dizzywood is a virtual playground where children can learn, play, socialize, express themselves and build self-confidence in a safe environment with their peers.
Build Self-Confidence
Dizzywood is a game built around goals, or “missions,” that kids must complete in order to advance to the next level of the game. These missions are story-themed and organized around certain topics, such as exploration and gardening. As kids progress in the game, they are building confidence and being rewarded for their achievements. More experienced players can often be found helping newer players complete challenges. Dizzywood offers children the opportunity to succeed in simple, but fun and rewarding tasks that help them to develop self-esteem.
Creative Expression
In Dizzywood, kids can express themselves in a variety of ways. They can:
- Change the look of their avatars
- Wear fun costumes
- Decorate their homes
They have control over their space and can change their style at anytime to fit their mood. Players also use the backdrop of Dizzywood to role-play, pretending to be TV hosts in the Dizzy TV Studios, or imagining themselves at a campout, toasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories by the campfire in Explorer’s Camp. Kids can also contribute stories, comments and ideas on the Dizzywood Explorer’s Journal.
Have Fun While Learning
There are many opportunities for kids to learn in Dizzywood. Because Dizzywood is based deeply in story, many of the activities deliver bits of that story in writing designed to encourage kids to read and expand their vocabulary. Mini-games consist of word games, puzzle games, riddles and trivia. In addition to brainteasers and vocabulary lessons, Dizzywood conducts events that teach about topics such as civics and environmental awareness.
- The Dizzywood Elections give players the chance to learn about voter registration, campaigning, and the importance of participating in real-word civics.
- During the replanting of Wildwood Forest, Dizzywood recruited kids to help rebuild the damaged forest by planting virtual trees, which translated into real-world trees being planted on Earth through a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.
Kids learn that their virtual activities can have real-world impact.
Develop Positive Social Behaviors
Dizzywood is built around the concept of collaborative play. Dizzywood players are encouraged to make buddies and help each other throughout the world. When growing a plant in Dizzywood, or digging through an archeological site, kids quickly learn that by getting others to help, the work gets done exponentially faster. The Pathfinder program has been designed to encourage players to be on their best behavior and help others learn about the rules and activities in Dizzywood.
Dizzywood in the Classroom
Dizzywood is excited to participate in an elementary school program with the Reed Union School District (Marin County, CA). The highly interactive workshop uses virtual activities to reinforce the school's character pillars, which include caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness. Students also learn about important issues relating to virtual worlds, such as digital citizenship and online safety, as well as complete storytelling and team-building exercises that emphasize creativity, writing and reading skills, and working together to achieve goals.
In addition, the YMCA recently completed a virtual learning program with its younger members in Dizzywood that was very successful in engaging them to learn important life lessons, such as the benefits of cooperating with others.
"Our goal at the YMCA is to provide children with educational activities that challenge them to learn new skills, develop self-confidence and to ultimately help them be successful in the world," said Troy O'Leary, senior director of community programs at the YMCA of San Francisco. "Dizzywood's unique virtual environment offers our kids a wonderful environment in which they can learn important lessons through activities that require thoughtful decision-making.”
Dizzywood Memberships
We believe in providing an advertising-free environment for kids, so they can play and have fun without being exposed to marketing by outside companies. In lieu of advertising, we offer a subscription membership to Dizzywood. With a "Gold Explorer" membership, kids can express themselves through unique home design and customization tools, get exclusive items only available to members, unlock special powers, and undertake the most secret and dangerous missions in Dizzywood.
A one-year subscription to Dizzywood costs less than a video console game. Your child can get significantly more value from Dizzywood, which is designed to provide learning opportunities and develop positive social skills. A full-year discounted subscription gives your child a year’s worth of valuable, constantly updated entertainment – a great value over a typical console or handheld game that only gets played for a few weeks until your child becomes bored!
Dizzywood also makes a great gift for children of friends, nieces, nephews, grandkids, and more!
Privacy
We take privacy very seriously at Dizzywood. You can read our comprehensive privacy policy for all the details. Here are a few key points:
- We utilize a combination of automated filtering systems and live human moderators to help prevent kids from revealing personal information online.
- We ask that a parent's email address (not a child's) be provided in order to activate a child's account and to provide automated services, such as password retrieval.
- We never send out advertisements, or other promotional material via email.
- We are a participant in the Privo Privacy Assurance Program. As part of participating in the Privacy Assurance Program, Dizzywood adheres to the strict information collection, use and disclosure requirements.
Safety Tips
- Help your children create a username that doesn't reveal any personal information, such as their name, nickname, or hometown.
- Help them pick a password that would be difficult for someone to guess, ideally at least 6 characters long including both letters and numbers.
- Insist your kids never give out personal information online, such as their home address, telephone number, or the name and location of their school without your permission first.
- Tell your kids to inform you of anything that makes them feel uncomfortable. Teach them to trust their instincts and report any behavior that makes them feel nervous right away.
- Be sure your kids know they do not have to respond to any messages that make them uncomfortable.
- Instruct your kids never to make plans to meet with someone they have spoken with online without checking with you first. Explain to them that online friends may not be who they say they are. If you agree to the meeting, be sure that the meeting place is public and you are present.
- Teach your kids that the difference between right and wrong is the same on the Internet as it is in real life.
- Set clear guidelines about when and where your children may use the Internet.
- Spend time with your kids online and encourage them to share their Internet experiences with you.
- Please report any questionable behavior to Dizzywood by contacting us.
