Christina Refford

While there has been a lot of gaming going on in our house since the start of the pandemic, no game has quite gripped my family like Among Us . This easy and free-to-download game, which launched in 2018, has became HUGE during this pand…

It's ironic that I chose the word "connect" as my 2020 word, just to find myself practicing "social distancing" three months into the year. Suddenly, instead of looking forward to coffee shop meetups, long chummy walks, and dinners with …

If there's ever a time when we deserve some extra hours parked in front of a screen, it's the week after Christmas when we are all coming down from the excitement of the holidays. And if you are a Roku customer, make sure you check out R…

Whether you have a LEGO fanatic that is nine or 49, FamousBrick's LEGO minifigures lets you put anyone from Bill Gates to Luna Lovegood into their Christmas stocking. Though can we leave Elon Musk in there? (Just kidding! Sort of.) Made …

With three kids, one dog, and enough stuff to fill a suburban house, I quickly became a convert to the KonMari method of organization, or "tidying" as founder Marie Kondo puts it. Her simple and direct way of weeding through all the stuf…

Before my family headed out of the country on vacation, I spent weeks learning Italian using the free and very popular Duolingo app . And now Duolingo lets you practice not only your foreign language skills, but your knowledge in any are…

Beyond cropping out background noise or scrolling through a few Instagram filters, I don't usually spend a ton of time messing around with my photos. But after downloading the new and free Prisma app for iOS this week, I've discovered ho…

We just returned from a family vacation to Italy, and boy do I wish I had discovered the Rome2rio app before our trip. It could have saved us countless moments trying to decide the best way to get around the various sites with three kids…

The kids have been out of school for a bit and chances are you've heard the "bored" word at least once. Or maybe you have a toddler who is ready for a new activity approximately every three-and-a-half minutes. Either way, check out the f…

Summertime is the perfect time for the kids and I to explore nearby Boston--hey, we need to do that Freedom Trail someday, right?--but, oy, do I hate driving around looking for parking. So, when a well-traveled friend told me that she'd …

When it's time to unplug the devices and hit the pool, lake, or ocean to cool off, I know my kids love stretching out and relaxing on a comfy pool float or raft while they talk to their friends. And, whoa, they would go nuts for any of t…

If there is one gift I could give to all new parents, it would be the ability to make their baby fall right asleep on command. But since my super powers were never really strong in that area, I'll have to settle with telling you about a …

Mis Amigos! One of our favorite early-reading apps, Endless Reader , has gone espagñol with the Endless Spanish app , an adorably playful and educational preschool app for both iOS and Android users. Similar to the awesome Endless Reader…

Summer nights are perfect for staying up late, lying on the lawn (or roof deck if you're a city dweller) and looking up at the stars. But, often, streetlights and other ambient light can make it hard to see everything that is up there cl…

If you're into taking video, have I got a reco for you! It's AfterCam , a sort of "after-the-fact" video recorder that helps you capture the past 5, 10, or 20 seconds in time without clogging up your phone with tons of extra video data. …

Now that so many of us have a zillion photos stored on our laptops or phones, I love creating any gift that takes the best of those photos and puts them onto something we can hold onto So, for some of my favorite people, I've turned rece…

With all the time I spend outside of the house waiting for my kids to finish a class or practice, I'm always trying to find something new to do on my phone. You know, other than continually refreshing my Facebook feed or checking to see …

With the school year ending soon, I know that my kids aren't going to stand for games or apps that feel too much like a school lesson. Nor do I want them to spend their summer days doing nothing but memorizing math facts. But after playi…

I sometimes think I have the sense of humor of a ten-year-old, which comes in handy since I do have a tweenage son who thinks things like talking cupcakes and singing basketballs are pretty hilarious. What's even more hilarious is when w…

I have fallen into a dinner rut, relying on a few tried-and-true recipes that I can whip up before the kids get too peckish at the end of a busy day. But now that I've download the free and gorgeously designed Yummly app , which is avail…

If you're hoping to get your future mathlete ready for preschool in the fall, or just want to find a new ways to help practice counting, adding, and subtracting with your first grader, download the free version of King of Math Junior . T…

It's Sunday morning and your kids' friends just had to cancel their afternoon playdate. Or, you are on vacation with your toddler, and rain has just ruined your plans to visit that cool new park you read about online. What to do? Well, n…

Coding is certainly one of the new buzzwords in education, along with STEM, STEAM, and now, believe it or not, STREAM. And while a lot of learn-to-code apps toys, and games, like Robot School, Dash Robot, and Code Master , are targeted p…

If your kids have a need for speed, and you have a need for keeping them safe, you have check out Actev Motors' new Arrow Smart-Kart , one of the coolest ride-on toys I had the joy of seeing at NYC's Toy Fair earlier this year. This high…