family activities Archives

5 free online courses that look fun to take with your mom for Mother’s Day

by Liz Gumbinner | Entertainment + Media, Mother's Day Gifts

So far, we’ve loved what’s happening with The We Time Project that we introduced last month: In order to help you connect more with far away friends and family around shared experiences, we’ve been offering our readers 30 days worth of unlimited...

What Do You Meme? Custom Cards make family game night waaaaay more personal (and hilarious)

by Christina Refford | Toys + Playthings

Here’s what I suggest for the weekend: Entice your teens out from their bedrooms for a hilarious family game night using your set of What Do You Meme? game cards. Only surprise them when they open the box, to find that you’ve booby trapped the deck with...

A free lesson plan about Amanda Gorman’s inauguration poem will make for some great dinner table conversation tonight.

by Kate Etue | Thinking : Parent

My kids and I were glued to the TV last Wednesday, watching history take place on Inauguration Day. We were sobered by the national guard presence, excited about the achievements of our new VP Kamala Harris, and just so totally and completely relieved to see President...

2021 inauguration activities and events for kids and families: Lots of ways to watch, learn, and celebrate with your kids

by Liz Gumbinner | Kids

As we move on from the worst president of all time, some wonderful organizations are coming together to help us collectively process, plan, and heal. You can find the full schedule of official Biden-Harris inaugural events here, but there’s more inaugural...

The best children’s books of 2020: All the award winners to read with your kids in 2021.

by Kate Etue | Books for Kids

I don’t think our annual roundup of the best children’s books of 2020 could come at a better time. As we’re heading into a winter of quarantining in 2021, my goal is to turn off the TV more and open up more books. This is my sixth year compiling all...

Gen Xers! We found 7 fun 80s movie-themed board games that are totally excellent

by Kate Etue | Toys + Playthings

At my house, we always start the new year with new board games found under our tree, and this year, it’s included some really fun board games inspired by 80s movies. As we face the fact that there’s a whole lot of winter to go (and stay-at-home orders and...

12 acts of kindness you can do with your kids over the holiday break, to make the season about more than presents.

by Christina Refford | Doing Good, Tips + Tricks

Acts of kindness have never felt more important than they do this year. And since kinds are naturally inclined toward kindness, we wanted to give this post a bump this year. Because when Christmas is over, Santa is back at the North Pole, the toys are all unwrapped,...

New Year’s Eve at home with the kids: These 13 festive (and easy!) ideas can make the night memorable.

by Kate Etue | Party Ideas, Tips + Tricks

New Year’s Eve at home with the kids isn’t a new idea for this year. In general, New Year’s Eve parties for parents are more about trying our very best to stay up till midnight (though 10 PM is more like it) and drinking sparkling cider with our kids...

Our giant list of more than 200+ homemade holiday gift ideas: DIY gifts for boyfriends, girlfriends, men, women, kids, neighbors, teachers…

by Liz Gumbinner | DIY, Holiday Picks

I can see in my social networks this year that so many more of us are looking for homemade gift ideas for the holidays. It’s not just that homemade gifts allow us to save some money (well, depending on the gift of course!), but they allow us to give an...

8 easy gratitude activities for kids this Thanksgiving

by Kate Etue | DIY, Doing Good

With Thanksgiving looking so different this year, we’re really trying to focus on gratitude and gratitude activities, so that we’re spending more time feeling, well, thankful, instead of resentful. With my own Thanksgiving family plans cancelled —...

Hi! We’re Kristen + Liz!

Kristen Chase + Liz Gumbinner of Cool Mom Picks

We started Cool Mom Picks in 2006 to help make life cooler, more meaningful, and more fun for parents of all kinds.

Trivia: It was called Cool Mom Sh*t for the first two days. (Yeah, we rethought that.)

We had no idea our site would grow to become a major lifestyle network, that we'd end up sharing our finds with the TODAY Show and Martha Stewart, that we'd be able to make a real difference for so many small businesses and women-run companies, or that we'd end up with an incredible community of the coolest readers on the planet. (If we do say so ourselves).

We still love what we do every single day. And we're so glad you're here.