Christina Refford

Though your kids may not be able to find their shoes when you are running out the door, they are sure to love finding the solutions to the problems posed in Alien Assignment , a fun, free app for kids as young as three. Created by the Fr…

In this week's Spawned podcast, our editor Liz's Cool Pick of the Week is Brain Pop, a website I have turned to for years with my homeschooled kids to find smart, kid-friendly videos about topics as diverse as William Shakespeare, the Ci…

The first word that pops into my head after I hear "spring" is "cleaning," probably because three kids plus one dog equals a lot of cleaning at any time of the year. And with today being the first day of spring (yay!), my free app of the…

When your preschooler wants to play, but you really need a few uninterrupted minutes to finish some work or get dinner on the table, we've found an entire menagerie of adorable friends who will be happy to set up a playdate at any time. …

Whether your travels this year take you halfway across the world, to your favorite beachside resort a few hours away, or to the campground you've been visiting since the kids were toddlers, I've found an easy, beautiful, and free app for…

We went crazy for the incredibly cool 3Doodler 3D-printing pen when we first saw it back in 2013, but it wasn't really a toy that our younger kids could safely use on their own. Until now. With the upcoming launch of 3Doodler Start , our…

At first glance, Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector may look like a cute cartoony app for young kids to waste a few minutes of their day. Yet, it's one of the few apps in my household that has the parents, teens, and my younger tween all hooke…

As much as I love the vastness of the internet, sometimes I just want to find the perfect little black dress (should Liz and Kristen not be around to tell me just what to buy!) or the name of a great family restaurant at the beach withou…

My kids get really excited about President's Day because it means a day off from school. But I'd like to make sure that they spend a little bit of time reflecting on our former presidents too, so I love an app that helps with just that. …

Since starting to Konmari, or "tidy," my home almost a year ago, I've found myself avoiding certain categories of stuff left to purge, like the four large bins of CDs we've had stored in our basement since switching all our music over to…

With Valentine's Day coming up, always love looking for fun printable geeky Valentine's cards for those kids less into doily hearts, and more into zombies, Star Wars, Minecraft, and outer space. Here are 12 of our favorite geeky-cool pri…

Welcome to our new weekly series on Cool Mom Tech that introduces you to some of our favorite free apps to download to your devices. Because as much as we love all the useful, fun, and entertaining apps we recommend here, admittedly we l…

One of the sweetest things you can share with your kids on the 14th, well, in my opinion, is this brand-new compilation album of kids' music for Valentine's Day called Heart Beats , featuring a whole bevy of artists whose music we've lov…

Roses are red, violets are blue, but neither will put a smile on your Star Wars-loving valentine's face like one of these quirky Star Wars Valentines bouquets from our favorite geeky shop, Think Geek. Just imagine handing your beloved a …

With both my editors buried in winter storm Jonas and at least six inches outside my own suburban Boston window, it seems apt that today's kids' music download be one that sings of every school kids' favorite day: A snow day. Snow Day by…

If you're tearing through the list of snow day activities to keep the kids occupied when you're stuck indoors, allow us help you with two beautifully designed, really fun new apps we've discovered from Seedling . As in, the same company …

We were all saddened and shocked to hear of the passing of David Bowie earlier this week whose voice so many of us group up listening to on the radio or on our favorite albums and cassette tapes. I know that many of us at Cool Mom Tech i…

Sundays are a great day to turn up the tunes and dance around the house. And to help ward off winter's chill or maybe break up a long day indoors, our download of the week is a boogie-filled number called Rooms off the Grammy-nominated a…

I've retired our collection of Christmas music for another year, but there's one song that has been such a favorite wintery tune on my playlist for the past--gulp--25 years, that it will remain on heavy rotation until the first days of s…

With only a few days until Christmas, we want to make it really easy for you to finish up your holiday tech gift shopping with some last minute holiday gift ideas. In other words, no need to drive yourself crazy -- or drive yourself to 1…

When I heard that View-Master had updated and gone full Virtual Reality, I was intrigued. Had the toy I'd grown up peering through to see tiny photos of animals in the wild really gone high-tech? All for under $30 -- or even under $25 on…

If your kids' Christmas music playlist is already feeling worn out, we've got a great tune for you to check out, with the funky Santa Flying In Your Sleigh , by singer-songwriter Todd McHatton . And it's free! The song contrasts a young …

As we approach the final week of Christmas shopping, I plan spend a few minutes to make sure that I'm buying toys and games that will feed my kids' brains as much as their need for play. And while "math toys" has never appeared on any of…

We know that not all of us can expect a white Christmas, but most Christmas songs are definitely written for those of us who open to the door and realize, baby, it's cold outside. But now you Southern Californians have your own holiday a…