What's New

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Here are new items and links to the latest additions to our site:

New:
Young Writers Workshop Update
We discovered that when we changed servers months ago we lost links to many of our young authors' stories. We replaced the links at the beginning of February, 2019 and apologize to everyone who couldn't find the stories they had written and anyone else who wished to see these works but couldn't.

See the whole list of authors and our newest story here.

New:
Bigger Illustrations!
We've been busy updating various areas of the site. In particular, we are enlarging the illustrations of our earliest stories and activities. Check out the Pigmoose stories to see the dramatic results. See:
Pigmoose On The Loose,
Pigmoose On The Loose, Again, and
Pigmoose's Halloween Surprise.

New:
90 New Circus Pages
Le Cirque Bleu was created in 1989 and introduced to the World Wide Web in 1996. The circus has grown since then and we just took new photos. It is simply amazing. Plus, there are detailed instructions for you to use to build a similar circus for your family or classroom. Don't miss it!

More Fun With A Beach Theme
Going to the seashore is a delightful experience for everyone. We've added five new buildings and a bunch of people to our Miniature Village. Everything you might expect to find at the beach from a lifeguard stand to changing rooms and little shops.

COPPA Certification
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a Federal Trade Commission rule designed to ensure that parents remain in control of personal information collected from their young children online. Meddybemps.com has undergone a rigorous evaluation and certification by the Internet Keep Safe Coalition (iKeepSafe) to assure our users that it provides a "safe harbor" for young children.

The Young Explorer of Lost Lake
A pleasant walk in a state park turned into a delightful half hour of discovery as we followed a small, dark creature who seemed to be exploring the lake shore. Fortunately, we had a camera. Meet The Young Explorer of Lost Lake.

The Bean Cellar
If you have visited the Bean Cellar pages on our site, you are familiar with the legend of Chateau Meddybemps and the marvelous jelly beans that grow in the chateau's vineyards. You might also recall the curse that if you eat too many jelly beans, you might turn into one. Our latest Miniature Village structure is a candy store named The Bean Cellar. A close look will show you that some customers ate too many beans and turned into Beano Sapiens (human beans)!

Miniature Village Additions
Add a Cheery Pies shop and a Public Library to your collection. There are now 46 Miniature Village buildings that are perfect for playtime with those little wooden trains, cars, and trucks. They are useful in classrooms, too, for learning about communities.
-all FREE for you to download, print, and assemble.

20th Anniversary Exhibit
Meddybemps.com was 20 years old at the end of October, 2015. To celebrate the occasion, we assembled an exhibit for the Ohio Township Central Library in Newburgh, Indiana, that described many of the learning activities and stories that have been added to the site since it was launched. Framed photos and illustrations from the site accompanied the exhibit, which was be on display through October 30. It was interesting to see the contents of the website (and 20 years' worth of creative work) represented this way.

New:
Parent's Guide, Teacher's Guide and Store moved to new Companion Site
We moved content intended for parents and teachers to a new site called
the Meddybemps Guide (www.meddybempsguide.com) to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) established by the Federal Trade Commission.

The purpose of the act is to eliminate opportunities for personal information to be gathered online about young website users. Meddybemps.com did not collected this kind of information, but we did have links to advertisers, to book descriptions and pricing at Amazon.com, and to our own online "Store" in conjunction with Zazzle.com and CafePress.com. Visitors who went on to these sites from ours could create situations in which personal information could be gathered.

Income from advertising and Amazon sales referrals, and royalties from products designed by us and sold through our online "stores" helped pay for hosting, software, and other costs associated with maintaining and adding to Meddybemps.com. By moving content for parents and teachers and our store to the new Meddybemps Guide we can continue to have some revenue sources (on that site) while removing them from Meddybemps.com and eliminating opportunities for third parties to collect user information from children. You may still find some ads on the site through the month of September.

For more information, please see our Privacy Policy.

The following material has been moved to the Meddybemps Guide:
Parent's Guide
Teacher's Guide
Recommended Books
Meddybemps Store
Downloads Store
Meddybemps Blog

New:
Easier Assembly!
Finally, all of our Miniature Village buildings except the Central Station and Platform now have tabs and bigger bottom flaps to make assembly easier. You no longer have to use tape or glue, but you may for permanent construction. A redesigned menu and two new buildings make this FREE resource better than ever.

If your children love playing with little wooden trains, make a few paper buildings for them (and with them). It's fairly easy and lots of fun.

New:
No fences. No walls. No cages.
Did you ever wonder what it would be like to see animals in their natural habitat? Travel to South Africa with Jeremy and Nicole's African Safari. Enjoy an exciting collection of photographs and learn about eighteen fascinating creatures.

New:
ALA Site of the Week
Chateau Meddybemps was named Site of the Week in early January by the American Library Association's Great Websites for Kids! Visit this site to see all the websites these literacy professionals recommend. They have listed us for many years. We're very pleased to be named Site of the Week.

New:
Railway Magic
People of all ages like trains. Little wooden trains and tracks are great developmental toys. Train rides can be adventures for young and old. Writers, photographers, musicians, and artists have all been fascinated by the lure of journeys by rail. Business and industry depend on trains. Many travelers enjoy them.

We added notes and photographs from five more great train rides to our Fun With Trains area give you a sense of the pleasures of scenic railroads. We also wrote a short history of the man who invented Thomas the Tank Engine and an essay to encourage you to take your children to see a real steam engine.

New Illustrations:
Frogwart and the Tooth Fairies
Frogwart Witchet was introduced to the world on this site in 1996 in the story Frogwart and the Tooth Fairies. She was quite a sensation and the story offered a humorous explanation to an age-old question about a mysterious thing that happens to all of us every night. Jerry just finished a beautiful new set of illustrations for today's bigger computer and tablet screens. It's a great tale to read to or with young children. Grownups are welcome to read it for their own amusement, too.