Caroline Siegrist, Author at Cool Mom Tech

We found an animated storybook app that’s a great YouTube alternative

by Caroline Siegrist | Educational Apps For Kids

I’m always on the hunt for YouTube alternatives for my son, and I’ve just discovered a good one in Vooks, the app that streams animated children’s books. If you’re wanting your kids to be entertained by something other than toy cars being...

Curb Your Screen Addiction series: Using screen time monitoring apps

by Caroline Siegrist | Tips and Tricks

This week in our Curb Your Screen Addiction series, we’re talking about how screen time monitoring apps can help you rein in your phone use. If you’re like me, then you found yourself quite surprised by your screen time stats when Apple updated iOS to...

Curb Your Screen Addiction series: Narrating your phone use aloud

by Caroline Siegrist | Tips and Tricks

Next up in our Curb Your Screen Addiction series, we’re featuring our easiest tip yet. This one comes from Kristen and Liz’s interview with The Art of Screen Time author and NPR commentator Anya Kamenetz, who offers some excellent, non-alarmist advice on...

How to use the Siri Shortcuts app to make your life a whole lot easier

by Caroline Siegrist | Lifestyle Apps

I’m always discovering new tricks on my iPhone, but figuring out the Siri Shortcuts app has been a total game changer. This feature lets you set up voice commands to automate the tasks you perform over and over again, like navigating to your kid’s school...

Curb Your Screen Addiction series: Turning off your notifications

by Caroline Siegrist | Tips and Tricks

Next up in our series on how to curb your screen addiction, we’re tackling the issue of notifications. Back when I first got a smartphone, those little red numbers next to my apps filled me with excitement. Someone had messaged me! Or liked my photo! Today, I...

Curb Your Screen Addiction series: Using the grayscale setting on your smartphone

by Caroline Siegrist | Tips and Tricks

As we continue our New Year’s series on how to curb your screen addiction, I’m excited to share our next tip since it’s been one that’s been so helpful in managing my own tech habits. Plus, it’s a change you can make in literally 5...

Curb Your Screen Addiction series: Make a tech-free sacred space in your home

by Caroline Siegrist | Tips and Tricks

Who else here is planning to curb your screen addiction in 2019? As parents, we often spend so much time worrying about our kids’ screen time (and how to preserve my sanity during a 700th viewing of Cars 3), but everything I’ve heard and read points to me...

14 last-minute tech gifts that will still arrive before Christmas. Thanks, Amazon Prime!

by Caroline Siegrist | Holiday Tech Gifts

Even if you haven’t finished your holiday shopping yet, we’ve got you covered with these tech gifts you can still order on Amazon Prime and receive before Christmas. Brilliant, right? And, true to form, these last minute Amazon Prime tech gifts are all...

7 fantastic iPad apps for 6 year olds that our readers swear by

by Caroline Siegrist | Fun Apps

Anyone on the hunt for fantastic iPad apps for 6 year olds? This topic came up recently in our Out Tech Your Kids Facebook Group, and yay, our members shared their tried and true favorites, both educational and just for fun. So whether you’re just looking to...

The new Secret Code book and app teach girls to solve problems with coding

by Caroline Siegrist | Fun Apps for Kids

I loved the Secret Code book when it came out two years ago, and so I was especially pumped to see the new Secret Code app bringing the book to life with its recent launch. Where the story of Rox’s Secret Code introduced kids to the possibilities of coding...

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Hi! We’re Kristen + Liz

Kristen Chase + Liz Gumbinner of Cool Mom Picks

We started Cool Mom Tech in 2010 to help make our increasingly digital lives easier, more organized, more meaningful, and more fun, however old your kids may be.

We love that it's grown to become the go-to source for millions of parents who want commonsense info about tech delivered with a smile.

We even have the privilege of sharing our tips + tricks with The TODAY Show, CNN, HLN, GMA, Nightline, newspapers and magazines around the country, and our favorite -- regular parents who stop us at PTA meetings and ask us how old kids need to be to get a smartphone, and whether they really need to panic about Snapchat.

(Answer: It's complicated.)

We're so glad you're here! And we hope we can help you too.