by Liz Gumbinner | Back to School Shopping, School Gear
Do you know how much the average parent spends on back to school shopping? Let’s just say, a lot. We love supporting smaller indie brands, and finding the cool school supplies out there that helps make this time of year a little more fun — but we also love...
by Liz Gumbinner | Books for Adults, Books for Kids
It may surprise readers of Cool Mom Tech, but I am pretty much a no-screens-in-the-car kind of a parent. Back when my youngest was still a toddler and four consecutive episodes of Dora meant a needed stretch of quiet. But now, unless it’s an extra extra long car...
by Christina Refford | Toys + Playthings
It may take special talent and years of study to compose music for a symphony, but we’ve discovered a fun shortcut with Think Fun’s new Compose Yourself, a creative, musical card game which lets kids 6 and up — and even adult neophytes like me...
by Christina Refford | Family Travel
One of the first rules of summer camp, other than Sunscreen Sunscreen Sunscreen, is to label every single thing your kids take with them. Including the sunscreen. While a Sharpie can do the trick on some products, we love colorful labels that affix to all of their...
by Liz Gumbinner | Doing Good
There’s not one of us who didn’t grow up facing some sort of bullying. Did I ever tell you about the girls who called my number in high school and hung up every half hour, for hours and hours into the night? (That was before caller ID.) Then there was the...
by Christina Refford | Party Ideas
We may look at our tweens and teens and think, How did they get so big so fast? But you only have to scratch the surface to find a playful kid hiding in there, and ready to come out. So, it wasn’t hard to come up with a whole bunch of messy projects for our...
by Liz Gumbinner | DIY, Toys + Playthings
Wow, is our email box and social media feed getting packed with parents stressing out about what to do with kids during downtime this summer. Seeing as how we can’t let kids play in the park by themselves without 8 “concerned” neighbors calling 911...
by Christina Refford | Toys + Playthings
When I first saw a picture of The Swurfer in my local toy store’s summer catalog, I thought that it looked like a nice wide swing for those of us who can’t quite, ahem, cram ourselves into our kids’ smaller swings. And while it can definitely be used...
by Christina Refford | Kid Style
My beach bum son loves everything about the beach except for the one thing that actually gives him beach bum: That mesh insert in his bathing suit. (I know, we’re very clever.) So, I’m so very thankful to find NoNetz swim trunks for boys that are made to...
by Kate Etue | Books for Kids
Every once in a while I come across a kids’ book I love as much (or more) than my kids do. It’s even more rare with board books, but the brilliantly creative BabyLit board books by Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver are definitely on that list. I have to...
