Technology

For the past few years, I have dreamed about having a party with a photo booth. Not only does it seem like a fun party activity, but the guests end up with great favors: The funny photos that show everyone together, having a blast. You can rent a photo booth from a local company, but the prices start in the high hundreds and go up from there, so I looked into different options for DIY photo booths.

After much research, my photo booth solution ended up being incredibly simple and free, and it was a huge hit at my last gathering. We got terrific pictures of all the guests, but the biggest surprise was how great having a photo booth was for the kids. We had children ages 3 to 12 completely occupied, snapping away, leaving the grown-ups to eat, chat and mingle.

While this easy DIY photo booth works for grown-up parties, I think it's a particularly great addition to a kids' party. The only downside is, if you want the kids to do anything else, it might be hard to pull them away.

A few years ago, getting a child up to speed in math meant flash cards. Solid, white paper stock... that didn't actually flash. Now, as my math teacher husband will tell you, kids who need to catch up in (or want to get a jump on) mathematics have an abundance of electronic options to choose from. And some of them actually flash!

I've compiled a list of my family's go-to math apps that have worked wonders for our three school-age kids. Best of all, many of them feature our favorite number: zero, as in they're FREE.