Tech For Parents

Last year i was surprised when I heard some some of my kids' friends were going to see the movie, Coraline. Really? Even though it's animated, it looked like a horror movie to me. Sure enough, I later heard that many of the kids were having nightmares for weeks after seeing it. But how do parents really know what a movie is going to be like before they see it? Or a book, website, music or video game, for that matter? There is one website that I turn to for media reviews whenever I'm in doubt.

Twitter has become a great resource for finding cool things to do with kids in New York City. Pretty much all of the institutions are on there, letting us know about their events, plus there's lots of parents and bloggers sharing tips too. I've been scouring the NYC Kid event tweets for great tips to share and "re-tweeting" them, so if you are following me [@mommypoppins] you can always find out the latest.

But if you want to get all the tweets right from the souce, here's my list of the Top Ten people to follow on twitter for NYC kids Events, Activities and News:

Do you twitter? Have you figured out what it is or how to make it useful? That's something I've been wondering myself and think we might have come up with one answer: to create a cool tool that will update NYC families with the hottest, most up to the minute news of what's going on in New York for kids.  

Twitter is like "micro-blogging". You can update the world with any news you want to share as long as you can say it in 140 characters or less. Then everyone who is "following" you can see what you've said on their computers or mobile devices.

Now, I'm not a big social media person...I'm actually not a big social person. I don't chit chat, the art of small talk is lost on me and I don't really care what you had for breakfast, so, while I have the obligatory Twitter account, I have been waiting to figure out something cool to do with it before I really decided to use it.

So Karen from A Child Grows in Brooklyn and I put our head's together and figured out how we could use twitter to create a crowdsourcing tool (doesn't that sound cool?) that will let all of us get the word out to other NYC parents about the latest news for kids in New York.

Say hi to KidBuzzNY, The Inside Scoop Written by You. It's our twitter group that will let all of us spread the word about the latest and greatest for kids in New York.

Santa and technology are not two things that immediately seem to go together. Santa has been the ultimate luddite; 1500 years old and he never even upgraded to a motorized vehicle, for pete's sake. But this year Santa is getting his geek on with some fun hi-tech tools and social media solutions that bring the jolly old elf to life for kids.

Check out how technology has upgraded Santa Claus this year:

On Friday evening, people all over the East Coast will be able to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor launched into orbit on it's way to rendezvous and dock with the international space station. If you want to see it look low along the southern horizon around 8pm, Friday, November 14th, 2008.

The bankers and the artists may get all the press, but NYC is a great city for science too. There are many wondrous places in New York where kids can soak up, explore and create scientific knowledge for themselves. From Science Museums, Programs, Shops and more, we've rounded up the best places for kids to get scientific in New York City.

America is moving forward by looking backward. As they compare Obama to JFK and anticipate his bringing some forward-thinking good old retro energy to the White House, I am also looking back for some great ideas for Christmas gifts back in the day when kids got presents a little more stimulating than a Nintendo DS or the latest iteration of Tickle Me Elmo. I'm not thinking about BB Guns, a la A Christmas Story, I'm thinking about science kits like chemistry sets and electronics sets.

I don't know when science kits stopped being the cool gift kids wanted (gee did it have something to do with the video game?), but I can't think of anything cooler than finding one of these sets under the tree. I have to admit that I wasn't all that psyched about trying out the chemistry and electronics sets in our science kit review process, but we had more fun with these kits than with any other.

With the colder weather ahead it's time to start planning for how to pass the time indoors. If your kids are anything like mine, they love being on the computer and playing games on sites like Webkinz, Club Penguin, and Nick Jr. But I noticed they can be just as happy and have just as much fun if I put them on an educational site, it's just a matter of remembering about the good ones.

There are dozens of great, smart, fun sites where kids can play games and learn about science. I've rounded up some of the best educational science websites for kids to help keep those indoor activity times a little smarter:

All kids love science. At least they do until someone teaches them it's not fun. So grab the opportunity by the horns and get your kid some of these cool science kits for the holidays this year. It may not be what they are asking for, but they will have an amazing time and you will too.

Me and my crack team of toy reviewers (aged 4-10) set about working our way through no less than fourteen of the coolest science kits that we could find. In this post I will be writing about the best ones for little kids, aged 4 and up.

The thing we found when trying out all these science kits is that there are three kinds of science kits:

1. Project kits. I call it a project kit when a science kit is really about the packaging and has one or a couple of activities with a thinly veiled connection to science. It might be fun to make rainbow crystals, but it's not really a science kit, it's a project kit, in my opinion.

2. Bad Science Kits. The second category of kits are ones that are either not fun or the science is not made relevant to the kids so they don't really learn anything from this. I have coined the term "bad science kits" for these ones (trademark pending).

3. Great Science Kits. The third type of kit we found were the winners. To be a great science kit for kids, there had to be enough different experiments to make it fun to come back to again and again and the science had to be fun and made relevant to the kids so they really could learn the basic principles involved.

It seems like too much to ask, but we did find some great science kits, perfect for preschoolers, and we want to share them with you.

In my last MP² post, I wrote about why every parent should have an iPhone. I talked about a lot of great features, but I didn't even really scratch the surface of all the apps that are available for the phone. Of course, there are more than 10 great apps for parents, but this round-up will get you started with some fun, useful and just silly iPhone apps, particularly for parents. (By the way, most of these work with the iPod Touch also)

Scribble (FREE) —Lets kids (or parents) draw with their finger right on the screen and then shake to erase, like an etch-a-sketch. Great for little kids.