Suspensing Information: Storytelling Textbooks

Textbooks can be dry and tedious. But suppose they were written in a livelier fashion by using suspense. Intrigue with foreshadowing titles (“The decision that decided the war”) and keep hooking ’em with mysteries, puzzles and precarious predicaments. Add in all sorts of amusing and interesting asides (quizzes, quotes, cartoons, even jokes) and kids might enjoy learning more.

How about a ‘Rocky & Bullwinkle’ blog?

As I mentioned before, it’d be great to revive Rocky and Bullwinkle in a series of novels.  Loony spy adventures … deadpan humor … chapters with punny titles … somebody sign me up, please! But he’s a more up-to-date idea, blog these new adventures, featuring a new installment every day. Perhaps written as a diary by Rocky or Bullwinkle or Read More …

Vocabulary Balls

Who says Jack can’t play and learn at the same time? Suppose balls and bats and hockey sticks were covered with vocabulary words. With definitions, of course. Casually, those words would work their ways into minds and conversations. Heck, maybe cover a whole playground with words, names and ideas worth learning. Those in some jokes for Read More …

Self-Healing Sick and Injured Dolls

You’ll probably think I need brain surgery myself as this idea unfolds. But the aim isn’t to glorify or mock diseases and conditions. No, rather it’s to foster sympathy and caregiving in kids, who, after all, like to pretend to care for babies and animals. You could put bandaids on Polly Patients skinned knee, wrap her twisted ankle, or even be Read More …

Jellied Sweetener Cubes

Ever make Jell-O Jigglers? They stay semi-solid at room temperature, and they’re firm enough to cut into shapes. Why not make intense mini-shapes to use as fruit-flavored sweetener for tea? Put them on the end of flavored toothpicks if the “can’t touch any actual ingredient” issue is a problem. Make them so they dissolve in cold liquids, Read More …

Put Rolled-Up Life-Saving Tips in Rolls of Lifesavers

Little promotional gimmick. Inside every package of Lifesavers is a tunnel made of holes. Write some life-saving tip (excerpts from The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook series?) on slip of paper, roll it into the slimmest scroll, and slide it down the row of Lifesaver holes. Just be a cool way to get new buzz Read More …

Instant Hot Chocolate Kisses

I was telling a young shoe designer, Layla Hassoun, about my idea for “Marshmallow Duckies for Hot Chocolate,” and she said if the duckies themselves were chocolate, as they melted they could turn hot milk or hot water into hot chocolate. Take that a step further. Why couldn’t Hershey’s create Instant Hot Chocolate Kisses? They pack cocoa and Read More …

Amusements Magazine

Or call it Pastimes. It’s weekly or monthly publication that aims to get people’s minds off their tribulations and troubles with puzzles, humor, comics, funny fiction, amusing photographs, observations/essays about TV and movies and video games and other distractions we love. Not news. Not gossip. (Better sources exist for those.) But things to do and things that make you smile. Read More …