reading with kids Archives

Raising smart problem solvers: 4 tips to help parents teach kids | Life Skills Series

In the first post of our Life Skills Series, we shared tips to help you raise critical thinkers. And next up, we’re talking about how to teach your kids problem-solving skills. As adults, we know how important they are in our everyday lives, but it’s hard...

Raising critical thinkers: 6 expert tips for parents | Life Skills Series

by Cool Mom Staff | Tips + Tricks

If one thing has become abundantly clear over the past few years, our kids are growing up seeing all kinds of problems we face in the world, and they’re increasingly asking us what they can do, or how they can be part of the solution. That’s pretty...

5 must-read new children’s books about Black history in 2020, so you can keep learning all year long

by Kate Etue | Books for Kids

With the coverage of Black History Month winding down in the news, we actually think this is the perfect time to share some of the new children’s books about Black history that we’ve discovered over the past month. Because all children’s history...

Penguin Minis are the coolest, tiniest way to read your favorite YA books.

by Christina Refford | Books for Kids

As a life-long bookworm, I am always looking for ways to get my three teens to put down their phones and read more books. Sound familiar? Then check out the coolest, new-to-me concept in book publishing: Penguin Minis. These novels for teens and tweens are turning the...

The best children’s books of 2019 to read in 2020: All the lists in one convenient place.

by Kate Etue | Books for Kids

It’s time to make your 2020 reading list! This is our fifth year to round up all the year’s best-of lists of children’s books, all in one convenient place for you, so you can have quick access to dozens of ideas when you’re at the bookstore or...

Your kid’s craziest story ideas could win the Roald Dahl’s Imaginormous Challenge. Here’s how.

by Christina Refford | Books for Kids

As a mom of three, I have loved few things as much as hearing the crazy stories my kids have dreamt up, or reading the creative things they choose to write on paper. And so I am super psyched to hear about a contest that rewards kids for their most imaginative story...

Roll with It: The best full-of-heart read for kids since Wonder

by Kate Etue | Books for Kids

I’ve been looking for that next great heartwarming book to read to my kids after having fallen in love with Augie in RJ Palacio’s Wonder a couple years back. So when I saw my friend Jamie Sumner’s new book Roll With It in stores this week —...

5 wonderful new books for kids celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. You’ll love reading along too!

by Kate Etue | Books for Kids

Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 – October 15 each year, and our favorite way to honor the occasion is by sharing some of our very favorite children’s books honoring Hispanic heritage. So this year. I’ve picked five brand new books that celebrate...

Ever wish that Sleeping Beauty did more than sleep? Check out this new twist on an old fairy tale.

by Kate Etue | Books for Kids

Remember that part in Sleeping Beauty, where the evil fairy puts a sleeping curse on the princess via paper cut, and the kingdom is threatened to become completely devoid of all books as her parents try to make sure she’ll never get a paper cut again. No? Well,...

Free printables for kindergarten: Sight word help, 12 ways | Back to School Guide

by Liz Gumbinner | Back to School Shopping, DIY

Finding all of these free sight word printables for kindergarten instantly brings me back to those sweet early days of school, sniff. Now that I have a middle schoolers and a brand new high schooler (OMG) I remember how scary it could be to send your kid off to...

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).