SOURCE: Tumblon

November 12, 2008 10:05 ET

Tumblon.com Helps Parents Track Child Development and Make a Positive Impact From Birth

New Site Is the Only Service to Offer Customized, Interactive Developmental Milestones Coupled With Safe, Secure "Baby Blogging"

MINNEAPOLIS, MN--(Marketwire - November 12, 2008) - Tumblon.com, a new Web site for parents of young children that helps them track their children's development and share it with family and friends, officially opened its digital doors today, welcoming anyone looking for help navigating the awesome responsibility of raising children.

Tumblon is the only online service for parents built around clinically established developmental milestones children achieve in their first five years. It allows parents to record milestones their child reaches and recommends age-appropriate toys, books, gear and activities based on the child's development. The site also gives each family a private, secure platform for sharing milestones, stories, photos, videos and status updates with family and friends.

"I like that I can record and share the milestones Jack reaches. Before, I'd mark them all on a calendar, and I'd keep the calendars in a pile -- this is really a lot more fun and effective," said Danielle Carter of St. Paul, a referring to her 3-year-old son. "When I click on 'See resources for Jack,' I find a great suggestion like the 'Wipe-Clean Early Learning Activity Book.' Right now, he's working really hard to learn his numbers, and this is a great book that will help him write letters, write numbers, draw animals and tell time."

Jonathan Dahl of Minneapolis and Graham Scharf of New York City, best friends since childhood who are now both fathers of young children, developed Tumblon to help new parents in their crucial role of shaping a child's character, competence and creativity. Their guiding principles are based on research that shows the first five years of life have a profound impact on a child's character, personality, abilities, and health well into adulthood. Most significantly, a child's brain grows from 25 percent to 90 percent of its adult size from birth to age 5, and that growth is affected by things parents do -- or don't do -- from day one.

"As a public school teacher in Brooklyn, I saw first-hand how important parent involvement is for children," said Scharf, a stay-at-home dad, husband of a pediatrician and community manager for Tumblon. "Jon and I had seen a lot of information online and off that was targeted at parents, but it was a struggle to make sense of it -- let alone figure out what was trustworthy. Our goal with Tumblon is to give parents a simple, reliable resource so they can spend more time engaging with and enjoying their children."

Tumblon will celebrate its official launch with a live presentation tonight at MinneDemo, a networking and demonstration event for the Twin Cities area technology community.

"As a parent and an entrepreneur, the need for a resource like Tumblon was pretty clear," said Dahl, Tumblon's CEO. "I've been a part of several startups -- as a consultant, advisor and founder -- and I'm really excited to be part of a project with the potential to make a positive impact on so many people's lives."

About Tumblon

Tumblon seeks to inform and inspire parents of young children to shape the character and competence of the next generation. Tumblon helps parents understand, nurture and remember their children's growth and development. It does this by bringing together timely and trustworthy content; secure blogging and photo and video sharing; and specific, interactive developmental information. Parenting starts with you. Tumblon can help. (www.tumblon.com)