In November, parents call upon the “Elf on the Shelf” as a means to make sure their children behave during the holiday season. Be mean to your sister or forget to put your dish in the sink after dinner and the elf will report back to Santa – effectively lowering the child’s chance of receiving the gift they desire for Christmas. Williamstown’s Doris Letts noticed the concept and wished to improve upon it.
Enter “Wishing Pixies,” an application developed by Letts that works similar to “Elf on the Shelf” but with two-way communication.
Like the elf-doll, which comes from the North Pole, the pixie-doll comes from a world called Draiocht. There are two pixies a family can adopt – a girl pixie called a Cailin or a boy pixie called a Gasur.
“They come from a world called Draiocht because earthlings are loving and caring. They need a safe haven,” Letts explained. “Children adopt them, and when pixies are happy they will grant you wishes.”
Once the application is downloaded from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, the parents create tasks for their children ranging from completing homework, cleaning after yourself or having good manners in public places. The parent then decides how much pixie dust each task is worth. When the child completes the task, pixie dust is added to a bank the children can use to redeem a wish.
The wish is something the parents and children decide together. They can be something as small as taking a trip to the beach or the park to larger things like getting a new bike, cellphone or a trip to Disney World.
The app has other features, such as daily affirmations, meditation, minigames where a child can pick vegetables from a garden or clean a room, and sing-along songs.
Among other things, the app can teach kids the value of saving. They could use their pixie dust on a smaller wish like going to the park or getting a candy bar, or they could save their dust for a bigger wish like a new bicycle. If you’re a parent worried about being held accountable for a trip to Disney World, the beauty of the application is the two-way communication that allows parents to communicate as the pixie. The two-way communication is the feature that makes the app unique.
“It’s never been done before where it’s parent interactive,” Letts said. “We had a patent search done and it’s never been done before. It’s now patent-pending on us for the last year. Hopefully we’ll hear something this year.”
The app can be downloaded onto smartphones and tablets, but the parents communicate through the Wishing Pixies website, wishingpixies.com. The app went live in December but the dolls didn’t arrive until January. The dolls are available online and at the Berlin Market.
The target age for Wishing Pixies is 3 to 4 with an expected age-out at 9 or 10.
“If a child gets a hold of this at age 3 or 4 and uses it for another four years, I imagine them so emotionally strong by the time they hit fifth grade they are what I like to call ‘Bully Proof,’” Letts said. “Somebody can say something to them, make fun of them and they won’t be upset because they know who they are by now. Doing daily affirmations every day of the week for four years, they know who they are. They’re like grandmom, no one can offend grandmom. She knows who she is.”
With the dolls in hand and the app available online the next step is trying to find a buyer. Letts is in the process of going to toy shows around the country pitching her Wishing Pixies to the big wigs of the toy and game industry. Her next stop is a Pittsburgh convention in June.
For more information about Wishing Pixies, visit the website www.wishingpixies.com.
