Honestly, we’re not trying to create a new language, but it might seem that way as you’re tapping around the HelloJoey app.
“What’s a kit? And a block? And for the love of Pete, will someone tell me how to unlock the bonus materials!?”
Never fear, explanations are here! To help you navigate around the app intelligently, we’ve put together a glossary. Part of the fun of creating something new, like an app, is deciding what to call this, that, or the other thing – but we also realize, it can be a bit confusing at first.
Here are the HelloJoey terms that will help you get the most out of your app experience.
Kit You’ll see this word everywhere – in our app, in our emails, on our blog. A kit in the HelloJoey world is one big collection of rich content in the form of audio episodes, articles, activities, and recommended resources that all address one particular hot topic, like:
Screens and technology
Discipline
and more
It's all that stuff that has many of us parents scratching our heads and typing frantically into Google.
Our researchers and hosts spend hours working to narrow down the topics that parents really (really, really) want to learn about, and that’s how we decide which kits to create. Then they spend hours upon hours researching topics and talking to experts, parents, and even kids before they create everything that goes into that particular kit. So, in short, a kit is a collection, and that collection is made of . . . (wait for it)
Blocks That’s right: We build each kit with blocks. That appeases the three-year-old in each of us, plus, a “block” is a great way to refer to all the content that helps you build a stronger parenting foundation.
Each block in a kit includes four elements:
an audio episode (kind of like a podcast, but better) with a transcript so you can read along
corresponding articles that support the episode
activities that allow you to apply what you’ve learned
bonus materials
Step one in each block is to learn by listening to an episode and/or reading the articles. We recommend doing both.
Step two is to build your parenting skills with the relevant activities.
And Step three? Unlock the bonus materials! It’s sort of like discovering a hidden treasure. Basically, it means you gain access to our experts’ recommendations for great books, articles, videos, and other resources that’ll take you on a deeper dive into the topic.
Episode This is our content in audio form, and you’ll find one episode in each block. Each one is typically 10–13 minutes in length, and you’ll hear from our hosts, experts (think childhood specialists, neuroscientists, pediatricians, etc.), and parents like you. You’ll laugh, you might cry, but most importantly, you’ll learn about your kid’s brain and why they do what they do.
Gems These are three quick snippets we feature in each block to give you a taste of the overarching messages we want to convey. They’re memorable takeaways you can file away in your brain’s compartment of "Stuff I Need to Remember When Parenting Gets Hard."
Activities This is the “build” portion of each block – where you get to put all your new knowledge to the test. Our researchers and experts create relevant activities that you can use to build a solid parenting foundation and practice the insights you learn from the episodes and articles. Knowledge is important, but what you do with it is even more so.
Bonus materials These are resources that our researchers recommend for a deeper dive into the specific topics for each block. They range from books to articles to cartoons to videos and more. You “unlock” bonus materials once you’ve finished learning the content and trying the activities in any particular block. That’s when you gain access to the additional materials that you can explore later on your own.
App tip
We always encourage you to use the activities in each block in order to see firsthand how the information and insights we provide can make a positive, practical difference for your family. Then, we’d love to know: How did they work for you? Feedback from the people who use our app is extremely valuable to us, and we pay attention to all of it. In fact, we’ve recently made several updates to HelloJoey based on customer feedback.
Have you chosen a kit? Unpacked the content from a block? Or given activity a try yet? If not, now’s a great time to get started, and then let us know what you think. We’ll be waiting to hear from you!