Do You Want To Build a Snowman?

Frosty. Olaf. The Abominable. For children who grew up in areas where snowfall is rare, these famous snowmen are possibly their only reference for the real thing. Although Kentucky has its fair share of snowstorms, many children in warmer climates never get the experience of building a snowman for themselves. That’s why this winter, when the holiday spirit kicked in the door at DBS, we began working on a solution to this great tragedy. Over the past few weeks, we’ve worked extensively on a new website that allows anyone to realize their dreams of creating the perfect snowman. After designing their snowman, users can add a personalized message and share their e-card with family and friends. Build Your Snowman here! Props and accessories range from the iconic corncob pipe and charcoal eyes to a tuxedo T-shirt. Heck, why even stick to the traditional 3 tiered snowman? Let your creativity run wild and develop something that defies the stereotype of a typical snowman.

 A Teaching Tool

We're living in the digital age. Computers are such a mainstay in modern life, that not providing your children access and proper training with computers is both a disservice and a disadvantage. To that end, not only is the snowman builder fun, but it is also a great educational tool! You can use our snowman builder as a platform to enhance computer literacy. Using the interactive builder, skills younger children (pre-school age group) can develop include:

• Use a mouse to point, click and select objects
• Scroll
• Manipulate images
• Preview and save progress
• Add text
• Follow directions

The application also gives us a great educational and entertaining tool for children in elementary school. Using the interactive builder, grade school students can develop the following skills:

Recognize Category Structure

Younger children will typically just add objects for the sake of adding objects. They'll see a hat, and add a hat. They'll see a carrot and add a carrot. They simply lack the understanding of object relationships. Whereas, children a little older will recognize patterns and understand the greater relationships among objects. A hat goes on the head and the head goes on the body. They'll know to organize processes in a manner that makes sense, or at least make more sense than putting a hat on a carrot, because they understand the relationships and parameters of the shapes.

Understand Layering

The concept of moving up or down a layer is one that is lost on younger children. However, older children will be able to understand the nuances better. The goal is that they'll be able to realize that they can place objects in a hand, or a stick, add accessories like a belt, or hide certain elements behind an object.

The understanding of layering dynamics is important for down the road. Modern day image editing programs like Photoshop and Illustrator require a high-level of layer understanding and a modern web design practice called z-index is required for stacking layers on a website. We actually used z-index for our snowman builder!

Understand Image Rotation

Younger children have a default object perspective. That is, they will add objects only as they are presented. The process of object perspective and customization is one that a child a little older will be able to recognize and manipulate. So go ahead and create that sideways snowman, you earned it kid!

An increased understanding of problem-solving skills, object recognition and creative imagination are just a few of the many benefits that accompany this content. Our snowman builder helps foster computer literacy for younger generations to ensure their academic success, in addition to their future job prospects.

Who wouldn't want to give their children a competitive advantage and start them on the fast track for learning? Who knows, your child might be the next Bill Gates! Try it now!

Winning!

Jill Holtz of My Kids Time (opens in new window) says that, "We love this Build Your Own Snowman Game created by DBS>Interactive. And they even have a great prize to give away for the best design too!" In fact, the most creative design (as reviewed by a panel of DBS experts) will receive a Playstation 4 gaming console valued at $399.99. View the Official Rules for more details. Check out some of the awesome and creative snowmen that have we've received. How clever can you be?