A few days ago, Garmin announced its newest wearable for kids: the vivofit jr. Despite the name being in lowercase, it sounds like a pretty neat device. Garmin claims that it is water-resistant, comfortable, durable, and that it has more than a year's worth of battery life. Like other fitness trackers, the vivofit jr. will monitor the child's steps, sleep, and physical activity.

If you read through the announcement post on Garmin's blog, you will eventually get to a discussion on the vivofit jr. companion app. Free and touted as innovative, it features a "mobile adventure trail" filled with facts and unlockables for the kids and task management for the parents. The latter will be able to see the kids' activity, goals, achievements, responsibilities, and sleep patterns. The app hopes to foster healthy competition amongst families for things like step counts and activity time.

One other important feature noted was that parents will be able to award coins to children for completing assigned tasks and chores. These coins can then be redeemed for agreed-upon rewards. And if your child is a procrastinator, the band itself features a countdown timer for when the task is coming due.

Garmin says this will cost $79.99 and it will come in five colors: Broken Lava (pretty awesome name), Digi Camo, Purple Strike, Real Flower, and... black. It fits wrists up to 145mm, and the XL version fits wrists ranging from 146mm to 170mm. It is available now at Target and Best Buy, with arrival at Toys'R'Us, Dick's Sporting Goods, Walmart, and additional retailers later this fall.

Source: Garmin Blog, Garmin Store