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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Knoala

You know that feeling when you're pleasantly surprised by something you weren't expecting?

That's what happened to me last week when I started using the Knoala app.  I was so touched by the level of customer service they offer that I had to share.  I'm not being paid to write this post, I just wanted to showcase a burgeoning company that has good things going on.  And lets face it, with all the negative we see most days, a little good goes a long way.


So, first a little back story.  I found out about Knoala by a company called weeSpring. Wow, just look at all the good suggestions you're getting for new websites to ponder in your spare time.  ;)

Anyway, weeSpring lets parents rate baby stuff for other parents so you can get more info on all the crap you purchase for your precious little snowflake babies.  It's actually really cool, think Amazon reviews on steroids.  If you have very strong feelings for baby stuff you can post your own suggestions, like I did.  Or you can get advice on things you're browsing.  They also send you updates once in awhile on cool stuff they've found.  Enter Knoala.

The premise behind Knoala is to "Raise Happier Kids."  They provide activities specially geared for your child's age and even explain what types of skills (Artistic, Cognitive, Emotional, Motor, etc) your baby is working on while they do them.

If you're anything like me you've got lofty expectations for playtime with your child.  Visions of Montessori activities on every surface.  Every moment is packed with educational opportunity and your baby positively glows with happiness.  In reality, playtime with a baby is a lot of the same thing over and over again.  Assemble toys, soothe whimper, talk about what we see, wipe up drool, read a book, calm baby who smashed a toy into his own face, try some tummy time, Sing "The wheels on the bus" for the 70th time today because you can't remember any other songs at the moment.  When you're sitting on that play mat with your kid, all those good ideas zoom back to Pinterest and I'm often left just staring at my beautiful boy, trying to remember that I should be singing or talking to him.

I was really excited to try Knoala, because I like the idea of being given an idea that I can use with Q right now.  So I downloaded the free app, entered his age, looked through the first few activities that were offered.  Pretty simple stuff like, "Read a story", "Play Peekaboo", "Hold Baby's Hands and Walk Around".  I wasn't unimpressed, just figured huh, we're already doing all that, there really isn't all that much to be doing with a 9 month old.  Score, I don't suck at this parenting things as much as I was beginning to think!  Then it was time to go change a diaper, or wipe a snot bubble, so I closed the app and went about my business. I'll look into it more later, I thought.

A week went by, and like many things in life, I totally forgot about it.

That's when the unexpected, pleasantly surprising thing happened.  The owner of Knoala sent me an email.


And what I loved about that email was Cathy was checking to see what could be done to make my experience with her product better.  A product that I didn't even pay a penny to use.  It was personal, it was brief, and it made me go take a second look at the app and realize how much I had missed with my initial cursory glance.

There are a lot more activities available, we've started building towers and knocking them down, and I have a bunch of activities bookmarked to try when he is a little more mobile.  You can set goals for how many you'd like to be doing each week.  Then it even tallies which skills you've worked on and sends you a weekly summary.


It was a pretty profound experience for me to feel a personal connection with someone who runs a business.  I've been feeling a growing disconnect in terms of personal service lately, haven't you?  So that's why I wanted to share my experience with Knoala.  Really cool app, but more importantly, really cool people behind the scenes.  It makes this big bad world feel a little smaller when we can connect. 

I was even more impressed when I got the email yesterday saying she'd just had a new baby!  Kudos to any woman sending personal business emails with a newborn.    

Thanks Mama Cat, I really enjoyed our email conversation and hope this blog brings more people to your very useful service!  

Go check out Knoala, it's fab!





4 comments:

  1. Nice post and good find, thanks Devin! We'll see if Nicholas like this too. :)

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    1. You should check it out, I think Nicholas would really like some of the activities! They also have a story starter part of the app where they give you ideas for story time. Such a good idea! Enjoy!

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