Is the new iOS 15 Focus Mode feature helpful for parents? I tried it to find out.

by Caroline Siegrist | Tips and Tricks, Best Apps

Lately I’ve heard some mixed opinions about the Focus feature on the latest iOS 15. If you haven’t updated your iPhone yet, Focus mode is similar to the Sleep mode introduced with iOS 14 with even more detail and  more ways to customize your notifications...

44 cool things you can do with the Amazon Echo: From productive time-savers to just plain fun.

by Cool Mom Team | Tips and Tricks, Life and Home

There are so many things you can do with an Amazon Echo, something I quickly learned after getting an Amazon Echo Dot for Christmas a few years ago .(It’s no Echo Studio, but still…) I admit I was a little skeptical at first. What’s all the buzz...

7 elegant cord management solutions to help tame tangles and tidy your workspace

by Liz Gumbinner | Uncategorized

Taming cords is one of my own top tech challenges, even as tech becomes increasingly cordless. So I’m always on the lookout for new ways to get my home office desk more organized and keep tangles at bay. Despite what design magazines tend to portray in their...

What my teen daughter had to say about THAT article about Instagram and body image

by Liz Gumbinner | Social Media, Internet Safety, Kids

We’re all talking about “that” Wall Street Journal article about Instagram: Facebook Knows It’s Toxic for Teen Girls. You’re probably talking about it. Or your kids are. I know it’s all we’ve been seeing in our social feeds...

4 clever tech solutions that turn handwriting into digital text

by Kate Etue | Tips and Tricks

We recently had a mom reach out on our Out Tech Your Kids group on Facebook, asking for the best tech to help turn handwriting into text. Like so many kids today, her daughter is using her finger to write on a school issued iPad, and the messy handwriting is causing...

7 of the best news podcasts and programs for kids, from preschool to high school

by Kate Etue | Educational Apps, Best Apps

In our Out Tech Your Kids group on Facebook, a parent recently asked for recommendations for great news podcasts for kids. Our readers replied with some really good suggestions, so we wanted to round them up for you…and add a few more we discovered too. These...

Screen time saved us during the pandemic, so why are we bashing it?

by Kristen Chase | Tips and Tricks

If you do a quick Google of “kids and screen time,” you’ll find a myriad articles telling you how much they’ve had this past year and all the things it is doing to them, as if we haven’t been with our children almost 24 hours a day and know exactly what is going on?...

The vocabulary app my kids think is a game. Shhhhhh!

by Kate Etue | Educational Apps, Best Apps

Do you have a struggling speller? As a homeschool mom, I know first-hand how hard it can be to try to explain spelling rules to a kid who doesn’t quite get it, which is why I had to share the Wordcraft app that my kids have been playing lately. A vocabulary app...

Reader Q and A: What is the best stylus for kids who are budding artists?

by Kate Etue | Tech Toys

In our Out Tech Your Kids Facebook group, a parent asked for recommendations on the best stylus for kids who are getting into digital art, and the recommendations from our readers were so helpful that we wanted to share them here. From the top-of-the-line tools to the...

9 smart tips for spring cleaning your phone, inside and out.

by Kate Etue | Tips and Tricks

With spring nearly here, I’m getting antsy to clean up my yard and go through all my closets to get rid of all the junk we’ve accumulated over the winter. But I’m going to start small, literally, and follow these tips for spring cleaning my phone...