Apps, Children's Books, Education, Kids, Parenting, Reviews, School, Tips and Tricks

2020 Back to School Guide – School Supplies, Apps, Children Books and More

2020 Back to School Guide

2020 Back to School Guide

Welcome back to another guide full of seasonal topics. Our 2020 Back to School Guide is here! This is all about school from getting your supplies ready, finding the best educational apps or books and more. If it fits the education topic, we will feature it.

Keep checking back throughout these school months and see what new topics and brands I have added! In August we will have a fun giveaway for visitors so stay tuned on the blog!

Make sure to also visit our  Summer Guide and stay tuned for the Fall-ing for Baby Series and Love Your Pet Guide coming soon!


Pick Up Sports – Virtual Sports Classes for Kids ages 3-6



Learning a Musical Instrument Has Lifelong Benefits for Children



DEAL!! Learn any Language online from anywhere with LearnLanguages24


They keep bringing the lunchbox back with veggies uneaten! You need ENOF!


Face Masks for Kids and Adults that filter particles and droplets


Paleo Pro – Primal Protein Bars to get your student through their long study nights


Wear your sunscreen and hand sanitizers for easy access! – Send your student to school with HandiGURU


College Care Packages: Succulents Subscription Boxes


Add some baked cheddar straws to their lunches – made with aged Wisconsin cheese from Mama Geraldine’s


Wander Puzzle Co is making connections with women through their designs – great for College roommates to connect!


Send the kids back to school with their personal collapsible water bottle from Nomader


Mary’s Gone Crackers – a plant-based snack for lunch


Parents of tween girls – resources as you shop for her firsts! Bleuet Girls


Calm Strips are sensory adhesives you can stick to just about anything to provide stress and fidgeting relief


Election Night, a family game that teaches math, geography and about the electoral college for ages 8+.


The New Art of Raising Happy Kids: Today’s Guide to a Strong, Confident & Caring Child – new book


Trust me! Your child will love to be rewarded for their hard school work this year from Cuddle Clones


More coming to this link up above…keep checking back!

2020 Back to School Giveaway coming soon…..

Apps, Education, Infant Toddler Products, Parenting, STEM Learning

Animal Island Learning Adventure (AILA) Sit & Play for Babies and Toddlers

Photo Source: AILA Sit & Play Lifestyle

I think I found the most genius learning screen ever made for babies and toddlers and the only problem is my oldest is 11 now and missed the boat on this one! I would have surely had him using Animal Island Learning Adventure (AILA) Sit & Play as a toddler for many reasons! Instead we had DVD’s and bulky tablets we always feared he’d drop, spill on them or navigate into unsafe content.

AILA box

Animal Island Learning Adventure (AILA) Sit & Play is safe! It comes pre-loaded with early preschool curriculum that supports your infant, toddler or preschooler’s cognitive growth, without interruptions from ads, apps, or inappropriate content.

AILA Sit Play

About Animal Island Learning Adventure (AILA) Sit and Play:

  • Original exclusive series: a fun and robust curriculum filled with animations, songs and stories designed to prepare toddlers for preschool over the course of 18 months
  • Along the way, young learners will reach key milestones in literacy, numeracy, communication, creativity and socialization
  • Activities are delivered in 10-15-minute learning sessions, in accordance with the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidelines for screen time for young children
  • No ads or inappropriate content, free lifetime updates with no subscription required
  • The AI adapts to each child’s engagement, allows for a tailored learning experience and offers the right content at the right time
  •  The AILA Parent App lets parents set learning sessions, check in on their child, send photos and videos, and control the screen time

The characters are engaging and there is a good mix of talk, song and even dance to get them moving. Even in screen-free homes, you can’t ignore the benefits of technology to assist in child development so this is the perfect solution. It is hands-free and worry-free. Once you press power it starts teaching-no touchscreen/play required. If you have to walk away and power it off, AILA remembers where your child left off and starts right back up again at their last learning session. It is designed to walk your child through a progressive learning plan.

The free parent app allows you to make some customized adjustments. You can monitor screen time and progress. You get alerts and updates on content your child is currently mastering. The fun part is you can monitor your child as in, you can see their face as your phone app becomes the screens point of view. Make sure they are still engaged. Available for Android and iOS.

If you need to move from learning to nap time, simply put AILA in lullaby mode and slow animation with sleepy-time music will play. Traveling? AILA is portable as learning and sleep help.

Get learning now because the earlier the better as we now know. AILA is best for ages 12-36 months. This learning program is simply the best value and best curriculum I have seen yet in all baby and toddler products I have seen involving a screen. I highly recommend for families looking technology but not game play. Remember, they don’t press the screen or buttons. They sit and learn (only instead of a Teacher they get fun and engaging animal friends). Buy AILA today – It’s at Amazon!

Apps, Healthy Living, Tips and Tricks

Mental Fitness is the new Physical Fitness and Bloom App is Your Therapy

Anxiety! It’s a word I hear all too often. We are quick to call ourselves anxious and about anything or everything. Anxiety is why my relationship isn’t healthy; anxiety is why I didn’t get out of bed today. Is it?

Anxiety is real and we all show some form of it throughout our lifetime, but what if all we need is some help, some guidance? What if we are throwing the word ‘anxiety’ around too loosely or holding ourselves back because we can just say that word and get ourselves off the hook? What if we just need a different mind set or learn more positive self talk? Maybe we just need a little mental fitness for 2020.

Where do we start? Am I suffering from anxiety? Have I formed a negative mind set? Is it a bit of both? Can I do more and live better? Yes! How? I found this new amazing app called Bloom and I am hooked. It’s like a digital therapist in your pocket or like self-therapy. It’s guided video sessions with exercises that help you work on stress, anxiety and help you work on confidence, self-awareness and also purpose.

If you were to go to your Doctor, get a referral to see a Therapist, set that appointment and show up in office to talk with them it may start with, “How are you feeing today?” That’s where Bloom starts. (disclaimer: Bloom is not to replace a Therapist when one has been recommended). Bloom asks you How you are feeling today and you decide your mood, level of that mood and what you are feeling and then the session starts.

With guided sessions, including small note taking prompts, you get to learn more about positive self-talk, motivation tips, reducing stress, breathing techniques and so much more. Just follow along in your session with Mike as he becomes your digital assistant.

Who is holding you back? Is it you? Find out with Bloom. You should give it a try as your first 7 days of Bloom are free. A lot will happen in 7 days of Bloom!

Apps, Parenting

Qustodio: Internet Parental Control App for all devices

Qustodio: Internet Parental Control App

We are in the thick of a booming digital world. It is all around us as we shop, communicate and learn. It is also a big part of our children’s lives as they communicate and learn as well. This is all new to us and we are the first generation of parents learning about this technology so that we can keep our kids safe and healthy as they are online.

Qustodio provides powerful monitoring tools and parental controls that do all of the thinking and tracking for us. Qustodio is for things like screen time, adult content and games. I use it for my 10 year old!

The best way for me to show you what Qustodio can do is to run down a few screen shots form my son’s activity summary. For this I am showing you his tablet activity during a weekend we went on a road trip to the coast and he was in the back seat with headphones.

I cannot see his tablet while driving and I cannot hear what he is doing when he has his headphones on for driving so Qustodio is great as I can see what he is doing right away.

Here you see that Anthony spent the most time watching YouTube videos and also looked at something on Amazon and Search (Google). The Facebook shows because a video he was watching had a contest he asked me to click and it took us to Facebook. He does not have a Facebook account himself. Because he does not have a Facebook account I showed you a Qustudio-branded shot of what the social media monitoring looks like a few photos up.

About that Google search I saw in his activity dashboard? I can see the pages he went to. Looks like he was looking at Fortnite articles.

Each time he was active on his tablet I can see where he was located. It’s like a little GPS tracker which is great when he is with friends and I can track his phone usage and see where he is as he uses his phone. The ‘unknown’ locations say that because we were driving to the coast and reception/GPS is spotty plus we are moving at highway speeds.

Once we got to our destination it picked up tracking again. What is the full list of Qustodio features?

  • Block inappropriate content with our smart web filters
  • Limit games and apps and block inappropriate ones
  • Track your children’s Android or iOS device on a map
  • Manage and limit your children’s screen time by device
  • Monitor their activity on social networks
  • Monitor and block your children’s calls on Android
  • Qustodio works on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

There are THREE plans to choose from. They range from about $4.50/month to about $11.40 for a large amount of devices in large families.

START HERE!

Comment: I was given a membership subscription for feature. Opinions are my own