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KinClub Weekly · Issue #1 · Week of July 8, 2026
Our first weekly digest: what the new screen time research means for your family, fresh KinClub games and features, the latest magazine issues, summer activity ideas, and an easy frozen yogurt bark the kids can make.
Welcome to the very first issue of KinClub Weekly. Each week we round up the family tech news worth knowing, the newest ways to play and connect on KinClub, and a couple of low-effort ideas to make the week at home a little easier. Here is what caught our eye this week.
In the News
Pediatricians are done counting minutes. The American Academy of Pediatrics has moved away from a single daily screen time limit and now points parents toward quality, context, and conversation instead. The guidance still holds a firm line for the youngest kids (no screens before 18 months, about an hour of good content a day for ages 2 to 5), but for school-age children the advice is to balance screens against sleep, activity, friendships, and family time, and to keep bedrooms and mealtimes device free. Read the summary from CHOC.
Kids are online more, and connecting more. The 2026 Children's Wellbeing in a Digital World Index found children now spend about 23 hours a week online, up from 16 hours in 2022, and 83 percent say being online helps them stay close to friends and family. The report also names the harder part: 46 percent keep scrolling content they are not even enjoying, and 40 percent turn down real-world plans to stay online. One encouraging sign for parents is that the use of parental controls has climbed to 50 percent. See the Internet Matters report.
Children now spend about 23 hours a week online, up from 16 hours in 2022, and 83 percent say it helps them stay close to friends and family.
New Features & Tools
KinClub shipped a run of updates aimed at making calls feel less like logistics and more like hanging out. A few worth trying this week:
- Watch together on a call lets you host a synced watch party inside a video call, so a long distance grandparent can share story time or vacation photos
- Give KinClub as a gift sends a few months of games, calls, and creative time to grandparents, cousins, or friends
- The game rules chat assistant explains how any of our games work, so nobody has to leave the conversation to look it up
- Widget snapshots let you share a drawing or a puzzle in progress straight into a chat
On KinClub: Watch together on a call lets your family play a video or a slideshow in sync right inside a video call, so a faraway grandparent can share story time as if they were on the couch with you. It is a simple way to make screen time something you do together, which is exactly what the new guidance encourages. Try it at kin-club.com
New Games & Activities
And if you just want something fun to do together, these are the newest additions to the games shelf:
- Pochle, a three dimensional strategy puzzle where every tile scores by shape, color, and number at once
- StoryWeave, where kids and grandparents write and illustrate their own books with AI as a helper, one page at a time
- Doodle Dash, a fast drawing and guessing game best played out loud with everyone in the same room
- Story Circle, a round robin story your family writes together in chat, one short page each
Fresh from KinClub Magazine
No brand new issue dropped this week, but if you have not explored the magazine yet, here are the latest issues to read together:
Spring — Issue #4: a spring themed issue full of outdoor discovery and hands-on activities to do together.
2025 Holiday Issue: a cozy holiday collection of stories and puzzles to work through together.
Try This Week
A couple of low-lift ideas for the week, plus one habit worth stealing:
- Run a screen free first hour: keep the morning device free and let everyone ease into the day before anything lights up
- Try a backyard scavenger hunt: write down ten things to find outside and send the kids off while you finish your coffee
- Steal one habit from the research: pick one show or video to watch together this week and talk about it afterward, since co viewing is the single most recommended move right now
In the Kitchen
A no-cook summer treat the kids can basically make themselves:
Frozen Yogurt Berry Bark
Ingredients:
- 2 cups plain or vanilla yogurt
- 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
- 1 cup mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, chopped strawberries)
- A handful of granola (optional)
Steps:
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Stir the honey into the yogurt, then spread it across the tray in an even layer about a quarter inch thick.
- Scatter the berries and granola over the top and press them in gently.
- Freeze for at least three hours, until solid.
- Break the bark into pieces and serve straight from the freezer. Keep any leftovers in a container in the freezer.
Until Next Week
That is issue one. Whatever this week looks like at your house, we hope a little of it feels lighter. See you next Friday. If you want more ideas any time, the whole family lives over at kin-club.com.
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