Articles
The Loop
November 10, 2022
Are You in the Loop?
Designed to endlessly engage, educate, and entertain your kids, the Loop combines breakthrough technology, top-tier frum performers, and behind-the-scenes creative geniuses to bring you the first-of-its-kind interactive phone line.
Elisheva Braun
I don’t know about you, but I’ve tried it all.
My home has a profusion of toys and games, towering stacks of books, and even, despite my better judgment, containers of slime, sequins, puff paint, pipe cleaners, Bingo markers, and a lifetime supply of Popsicle sticks.
But when I’m really desperate for some quiet, the kids just won’t keep busy. It seems like the more important the task I need to do, the more desperately my children suddenly need my attention. Despite my careful planning, I’m usually left flustered, frazzled, and frustrated when trying to leave the kids to their own devices (so I can calm the baby/bake those kugels/send the email).
Are you finding yourself mime-mediating fights, ear mashed to a shoulder-held phone, straining desperately to make out the words of the woman at the other end of the Very Important Call?
Frantically concocting a story for an exacting audience while kneading challah dough?
Are you senselessly holding your too-old-to-be-carried, suddenly desperate-for-love child with sudsy hands, warm water streaming wastefully into a dish-filled sink?
Meet your brand-new parenting superpower.
It’s a phone line offering endless hours of recreation, imagination, and education. (It’s like having a fun and fascinating mother’s helper on hand at all times!)
The Loop’s high-tech, 3D audio software is designed to keep kids enthralled, engrossed, and entranced. (Finally bake those kugels!)
New stories, segments, and contests are released every single week, so there’s always a brand-new batch of fun. Cutting-edge technology ensures that listeners never play the same game twice. (Have the Loop on speed dial to keep calm on a busy Friday afternoon.)
Instead of trying to pass the time, your children will be gaining, growing, and learning.
The Loop’s content is carefully crafted so the messages are subliminally absorbed into the listeners’ hearts and minds. Kids will learn valuable lessons, develop crucial life skills, and gain a wealth of information, all while being too busy enjoying themselves to notice! (Even adults may find themselves fascinated by the Loop as Route Nine traffic seems to whiz by.)
What is that I hear?
It’s the proud lilt in Shimmy’s voice as he recites Mishnayos along with the Loop Mishnayos lessons and game show.
It’s the sound of shy fifth-grade Tzippy belting out a song in the privacy of her Loop account (where nobody laughs at her lisp).
It’s the whir of the mixer: Chava is baking a cake, guided by the Loop Sunday Clubs.
It’s the sound of children all over the world as they unearth treasure troves of talent, creativity, and wisdom from within.
Kids will:
- Uncover buried gems of advice—from their own hearts.
- Tap into problem-solving and predictive skills.
- Be spellbound by their power of storytelling.
- Exercise memory, learning, and language muscles in the most exciting, original ways.
- Unleash their inner superstar singer.
Fun? Lots.
Educational? Absolutely.
Skill-building, confidence-boosting, wholesome, hilarious, heartwarming, and adventure-filled? You better believe it.
Call 848-777-8888 or visit circmag.com to subscribe.
Sidebar:
Hey, Loopkid!
Cook and craft
You’ll never be bored again! Follow instructions at the Loop Sunday Clubs for creative activities both in and out of the kitchen. Learn to make masterpieces using only items found around the house.
Perform
Now’s your time to shine!
Record a professional script and produce your very own story CD set to awesome sound effects and music. Sing your heart out along with a beautiful soundtrack. Develop a creative storyline and articulate it within the allotted time frame to compete in the Loop Story Champ Contest. Watch your confidence soar!
Hear on-the-edge-of-your-seat stories
Hold onto your hat! The captivating adventures on the Loop strike the balance between entertaining and educational with sublimely infused messages sure to resonate. Told by storytelling virtuosos, all stories are set to music and sound effects for an immersive, entrancing experience.
Skillfully strategize
Play an FBI agent in virtual mystery mazes. Utilize predicting, strategizing, and reasoning skills to follow the stories and select the next steps.
Become a junior adviser
Burning questions? Here’s your chance to ask advice in a safe and nonjudgmental space. Questions are answered by Mrs. Spice (the beloved Mrs. Hindy Housman), and other listeners can weigh in. Dig deep into yourself and find the solutions to real everyday challenges, becoming a fount of wisdom and advice. (Carefully moderated by experienced educators and mechanchos. Featured in Girls’ World.)
Navigate life
Shmoogie Boogie is a young, rambunctious kid who learns safety and social skills as he explores the world around him.
Grasp gibberish-free grammar
The Loop’s original, off-the-charts-hilarious grammar song will help you learn grammar concepts in no time. Teachers everywhere will sing the Loop’s praises!
Learn from leaders
Have you ever itched to interview a menahel, rebbi, fire fighter, Chaverim member, camp director, or pilot? Learn about the world around you and the people who use their gifts to benefit it. Join live conversations moderated by R’ Yoeli Kar.
Conquer computations
Think you don’t like math? Think again! Velvel’s numerical escapades are sure to make your head spin—and train you to think like a mathematician.
“It’s obvious which of my students are subscribed to the Loop; their math skills have really improved,” noted mechaneches Miss Cat A. Pult notes with her own “tender touch.”
Master Mishnayos
Answer questions and interact in the live Mishnayos game show after following R’ Mutty Zeiger’s (of Darchei Torah of Far Rockaway) Loop Mishnayos segments. Get to know and love a whole host of hysterical characters, each brimming with personality as they act out the examples of the Mishnah.
Speak some Español
Learn to count in another language and apply the knowledge with speed through an unusual version of Bop It. (Hey, you’ve got to admit, it will be convenient to know Spanish numbers…)
Sidebar
Future plans
Even as the Loop goes live with the fantastic abovementioned features ready to be enjoyed, plans are already in the developing stages for even more delightful learning.
Pssst…here’s a sneak peek.
How many kids—and adults—are clueless when it comes to balancing a budget? Achieve money managing mastery at the Loop Mall! Kids will go shopping with a specific allowance and shopping list. They will have to choose between luxurious or convenient products and the more affordable options. Will they leave some cash for saving or investing? Are they equipped with the judgment skills to decide between purchasing an $8 latte or a homemade coffee; a tub of ice cream from the supermarket freezer section or a single soft serve at the ice cream parlor; or a ready-made café lunch or the ingredients for a made-from-scratch dish (including the dressing)?
Sidebar
Circle Live! Event
Hi again, Loopkid!
If you’ve been living under a rock, first of all, can I offer you a pillow?
Comfortable? Great!
I’m here to tell you about the once-in-a-lifetime, absolutely unmissable, shout-it-from-the-rooftops Circle Live! Event.
Come one, come all to the greatest bash of all!
Not a subscriber? Not a problem. The Circle Live! Event is open to everyone—free of charge.
When you’re done dancing a jig, grab a pen and write down the deets: call in at 7:30 p.m. on Motza’ei Shabbos, November 12. (The call-in numbers are listed at the end of this page.)
Alongside thousands of kids worldwide, join as we celebrate 300 issues of the Circle’s cover-to-cover immersive awesomeness and the launch of the Loop, an off-the-charts-incredible audio world of laughter and learning beyond your wildest dreams.
Here’s a peek into the two-hour Circle Live! Event program:
- Participate live in the original interactive game show Are You a Circle Champion? hosted by game show host extraordinaire Boruch Perlowitz.
- Split your sides as you listen to a rip-roaringly hilarious story by master storytellers Shimmy Shtauber, Rabbi Yoel Ferber, and Meir Ben-Dayan.
- Pose your political questions in a live Q&A hosted by special guests former president Donald J. Trump, President Joe Biden, and President Moe Robbins.
- Discover Super-Agent Gizmo’s personal backstory in a never-heard-before reveal.
- Get to know Loop mascot Sir Conference along with some of your favorite Circle characters.
- Joint raffles for jaw-dropping instant prizes—the stuff of kids’ dreams. Think a year’s supply of Shabbos party, e-bikes, e-scooters, Segways, dirt bikes, full-sized trampolines, water slides, a complete carnival package, a minute in a toy store to fill your cart with your wish list…and much more! Winners will be called on-air and their gifts will immediately be shipped to them.
- For the uber-organized Loop pre-subscriber, the early bird definitely catches the worm. A prize drawing during the Circle Live! Event will give Loop pre-subscribers the chance to win a family vacation anywhere in the United States or a $250 toy store gift card for each family member.
To join the Circle Live! Event, call 571-360-3300/631-430-3300/774-399-3300/848-214-3300/240-635-3300.
Can’t wait to meet you there!
Sidebar
What’s Your Mothering Mantra?
Mommy, test yourself with this personality quiz to discover your top inborn talents and your secret Mothering Weapon.
- What is your favorite thing to do on a snow day?
- Organize a spring-cleaning party! You know it’s the dead of the winter, but it’s never too early to put your house in order.
- Do? When do you have time to do in between feeding the kids, refereeing the fights, and fielding the kvetches?
- You’ll pull out your set of mugs, personalized for each member of the family, and get out those hot cocoa bombs that you have handy just for days like these.
- Eh, the kids take care of themselves. Perhaps you’ll make dinner. Maybe.
- What does your average supper look like?
- You keep a week’s worth of dinner in the freezer. You’ll put out the day’s labeled pan, heat it up, and voilà! Dinner is served.
- Macaroni and cheese. If you have time. Otherwise, it’s each man for himself.
- Pulled beef tacos with pickled red onions, herbed horseradish sauce, and a side of marinated slaw, plated to perfection.
- Each of your kids prefers something else, and what can you do if your kids are picky eaters? You try to accommodate, but you’re usually left with almost as many leftovers as you started out with.
- Which conversation is heard most often in your home?
- “Ma! I can’t find my shoes!”
“Did you check the shoe rack, where they belong?”
(Shoe is found in its place, as usual.)
- “The bus is coming! Hurry, hurry!”
(Honk.)
“It’s here! Let’s go! You cannot miss the bus again this week!”
- “Ma, can you make a triple-layer mocha-caramel cake in the shape of a tent for my class siyum?”
“Sure, zeeskeit.”
(Makes triple-layer mocha-caramel cake in the shape of a tent for the class siyum, packaged in a massive box covered in Bubble Wrap for protection.)
- “It’s bedtime.”
“Can I have five more minutes? Please?”
“Hmm… Okay, but this is the last time”
(Twenty minutes later) “You have to go to bed now.”
“Can I have five more minutes? Pleeeease?”
“Hem, haw… Okay.”
- Where is your child’s sock?
- In the sock drawer, of course.
- Probably under the couch.
- You don’t let those $35 socks out of your sight.
- You have no idea. Who cares?
- Which of the following songs do you relate to the most?
- “It’s Cleanup Time, It’s Cleanup Time, Time to Put the Toys Away.”
- “Always Late, Aaaalways Late, They Just Have to Wait, ’Cuz I’m Always Late.”
- “Hey There, Mr. Showoff; You Think You’re Really Great” (But you really are, contrary to the song’s lyrics).
- “Who Spilled the Milk on the Kitchen Floor?” (followed by silence).
- What’s your favorite time of day?
- Ten p.m. Nothing like getting the house in order after a hectic (but organized) day.
- Three a.m.—if you get to bed by then, that is. (Cue crying baby.)
- One p.m. You love meeting all your sisters for lunch after a good workout.
- Nine thirty p.m. No matter what the house looks like or how many kids are awake, you’re up for a bit of me time with your favorite magazine.
Count which letter you answered the most and see what’s your mothering mantra!
- An organized home is a happy home. Or at least a happy mother. You have a penchant for the labeled, boxed, and put away. But your kids don’t always agree, or at least follow your rules. Secret weapon: a Loop subscription! Busy kids are clean kids. Phew.
- You don’t have time for a mantra. Your life is busy and hectic, and you’re barely keeping up. Secret weapon: a Loop subscription. Then you’ll finally have time for that much-needed nap. Shh…maybe you’ll even be able to grab a bite to eat.
- Sugar and spice and all things nice. If it’s gorgeous, showstopping, or the latest trend, it’s sure to appear in your life somehow. Secret weapon: a Loop subscription. It’s the newest thing, and everyone’s got it. You are definitely going to get one too.
- Keep calm and drink coffee. Naturally cool as a cucumber, nothing can faze you. But your kids sometimes go a little nuts from the lack of structure. Secret weapon: a Loop subscription. The best part: you’re not tasked with entertaining your kids ever again.