This post is sponsored by Messenger Kids by Facebook There’s no doubt that screens can be fantastic tools to enhance learning, spark new ideas, and teach new skills. When kids are actively engaging with screens, they’re being productive but where do social interactions on digital devices fall? Any parent who has ever been irritated with…
Parenting
Sending Your Child to Sleepaway Camp? Read This First!
For parents and kids alike, achieving sleepaway camp status is a milestone but getting kids ready feels like training for an Olympic event. Last week our kids packed up their stuff and boarded a cross country flight for their two weeks of unplugged fun at sleepaway camp. Whether your kids are camp veterans like ours…
How to Talk to Tweens and Teens About Digital Safety and Screen Time
This post is sponsored by Google Family Link and Be Internet Awesome I remember when my kids were toddlers and keeping an eye on them meant ensuring electrical outlets were covered, visually sweeping the floor to ensure there weren’t potential choking hazards lying about, and latching baby gates so they couldn’t accidentally toddle down stairs before they were…
Better Hearing and Speech Month Twitter Chat (5/22): Recognizing Signs of Communication Disorders in School-Age Kids
This is a sponsored post When I taught first grade, my main objective was to teach kids to read. I started each year with beginning readers who transformed into fluent readers during the course of the year. But teaching kids to read wasn’t easy. It was often hard to tell if a stumbling block was…
How to Raise Successful People: Esther Wojcicki Shares Her Advice (Q&A)
As a mom who is on the brink of having two teens in the house, I look at Emily and Thomas and marvel at my parenting journey. There was an over-abundance of parenting advice available to me as a new mom but over the years I learned to trust my instincts resulted in two helpful,…
Why I’m More Excited for the Start of Baseball Season Than Ever
I sat back in my desk chair, shifting my focus from the work on my computer to the dreary landscape outside. It was another gray day where the sun wasn’t even attempting to come out. Cold rain pelted the windows, chilling me to the core and making me question if spring would really arrive. With…
Bake for Good: How We’re Giving Back One Cinnamon Roll at a Time
This post is sponsored by King Arthur Flour Bake for Good I’ve always loved to bake. Some of my favorite childhood memories revolve around baking with my mom. Whether baking a mind-blowing variety of cookies leading up to the holidays, quiche for a family gathering, or the pumpkin bread that’s still a favorite today, the time…
5 Ways to Keep Kids Safe on YouTube and YouTube Kids
Whenever YouTube or YouTube Kids is in the news for controversial content, we feel betrayed for trusting a brand that puts our kids at risk. This week, old news about the dangers of the Momo challenge resurfaced along with new reports of dangerous content on YouTube Kids masquerading as kid-friendly. My Facebook wall is filled with…
6 Ways Families Can Work Together to Be Internet Awesome on Safer Internet Day
This Safer Internet Day post is sponsored by Google It’s the first email I see in the morning as I open my inbox. It’s from an individual whose tone tends to range from passive aggressive to hostile. I take a deep breath and click to open it, not knowing if it will elicit an eyeroll…
6 Pro Tips for Keeping Kids Safer on YouTube Kids
As parents, our child’s safety is priority so it’s always comforting when companies that develop favorite our kid’s online platforms take this as seriously as we do. YouTube is one of the places where my kids spend a lot of time and fortunately, YouTube is one of those companies. Having served on the YouTube Parent…
