I will admit to being addicted to certain endless runner type games on my iPhone.  All in the name of research as The iPhone Mom! But when it comes to my children, I try to limit their time with this style of app and direct them to more productive apps instead.  One area that iPads and iPhones are very useful in is education.  In fact, some schools even provide iPads for students use to reinforce classroom learning.  I feel that children learn best through repetition and there are many engaging and fun apps that accomplish this goal.

There is of course great potential for distraction when it comes to any electronic device.  I am the queen of procrastinating and my Subway Surfer score gets quite high whenever I have a deadline looming.  I heard firsthand that in one school that provided iPads to each student, some students handed them back in after a few months because of the distractions it caused.  I do try to monitor my children’s screen usage and guide them towards educational items.

There are some really fantastic math apps I would like to briefly highlight.

• Math Fun 1st Grade and Math Fun 2nd Grade are two separate apps from the same developer.  These are among the most comprehensive educational apps I have seen. Both apps have 10 activities with over 200 equations to focus on different aspects of addition & subtraction and multiplication & division. With exercises in number families, vertical equations, place values and so much more, children will become comfortable in important aspects of elementary school math.
• Mathmateer (formerly Rocket Math) is a great math game with the goal of building a rocket. You’ve got a set amount of money to spend and you can use it to buy boosters, fins, decorations, etc. You can choose between the following mission categories: numbers, counting, time, US money, shapes/patterns, addition/subtraction, multiplication/division and challenge. You can also choose a mission based on one of these difficulty levels: beginner, novice, intermediate, advanced, expert and genius. Completing your missions earns you money for rocket improvements.  For me the hook was trying to get my rocket to work the way I thought it should. In order to do that I needed money which meant I had to do the Math. I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I think that’s the general point of the app. So mission accomplished Rocket Math!
• Splash Math features sixteen chapters that cover over 200 skills that third graders will learn in Math
• Squeebles fractions, our current favorite, where answering fraction problems correctly earns you ingredients to bake a cake to enter into a bake show!
• Little Digits, great introduction to counting for the younger crowd, ages 3 – 7.

I could go on and on about different math apps which I feel are really fantastic for reinforcing skills.  Particularly when it comes to multiplication tables!  However, I’d also like to point out some notable apps in other subjects.

In geography, science and social studies:

• Stack the States
• Stack the Countries
• Presidents vs Aliens
• Our Amazing World: Antarctica
• Monster Physics
• Disney American Presidents

Letter and Sound Recognition:

• Goodnight ABC
• ABC 123 Fun
• Antique ABCs
• Pre-K Letters and Numbers
• Letters with Pooh
• Pre-K 123, Pre-K Rhyme and Pre-K Paper
• LetterSchool
• Share my ABCs
• KidGlyhps

These are just a small sampling of educational apps which should give you a taste of the value a smartphone or tablet can add to furthering your child’s education.  Used in conjunction with regular classroom learning and homework assignments, these apps can help your children progress to the next level.

As we enter this busy back-to-school season with just a few nods of the head you may find that suddenly you need another income and a time machine in order to meet the commitments of your childís after-school life. Below are five tips for building a family schedule that everyone can live with.

Start with a Budget

To keep from over-scheduling activities, instead of working to fill a calendar, it is helpful to work off a budget for each child. For small children who primarily take classes only a few weeks in length, a monthly activities budget will work best. For older children, it is easier to create a seasonal budget (Fall, Winter, Spring).

Expenses for certain activities may ramp up at the end of a season and expenses for other activities may ramp up towards the end of the school year. When budgeting be sure to consider things like costumes, pictures, holiday and thank-you gifts for coaches/teachers, and contributions for end of season parties.

Consider All Special Events and Commitments

When considering a time commitment for an activity, donít just plan for the weekly practices/classes that an activity requires. Be sure to include in your calendar planning additional time commitments such as tournaments, special performances, and added practices.

For seasonal sports these typically ramp up at the end of each season and for hobbies such as dance and acrobatics these events can gather steam toward year-end, where you will quickly find entire weekends can be taken up with recital and tournament preparations.

Calculate Pick-up and Drop-off Times

Especially when building schedules for multiple children, it is important to remember to build in time for picking up and dropping off. Consider if your child will be in a place where a late pickup will have them waiting alone and in a situation that might not be acceptable if you are running late. Also take into account building added time for situations where practices tend to run late, or sports/hobbies where your child may need time to change out of equipment (i.e., ice hockey) or put things away (i.e., riding).

Talk to Your Children about their Contribution

Speak to your children about what you expect them to contribute. Participating in sports and activities is a privilege that often requires sacrifice on the part of parents. Appreciating that activities are a family commitment and participating in that commitment can give a child a sense of purpose when they approach their activities. Their contribution may be money saved from a part time job that needs to go towards extra expenses; it could be responsibility in the form of caring for their equipment, or packing their bags; it could be agreeing on a certain number of practice hours on their own.

Schedule Family Time

Make sure that there is at least one block of time on your weekly calendar that allows your family to come together and talk. Whether it is a meal, or a half hour sit down one evening a week before bed, maintain a time where everyone can sit down and discuss their accomplishments or re-live the best moments of their week. Hobbies and activities are full of moments where your child may succeed and where on occasion they may fail, having a dedicated time to discuss those experiences and to learn from them is just as important as providing a place for them to happen.

Every parent knows that organization is key to running a successful family.  That is why we created, HATCHEDit, a site where families can easily build a better, easier way to communicate and coordinate their busy lives.   And of course, we hope that HATCHEDit.com is the tool you choose to use to hatch your family plans, to manage them throughout the year, and to coordinate them with your support structure (friends, family, sitters).

So you have lost your Center have you? Let’s face it you would not be reading this if you haven’t.  I would like to Congratulate you for taking the first step in regaining that little piece of you which you misplaced so long ago in a time you can no longer remember.

In this ever changing world of ours, loosing ones Center is not all that unusual so don’t feel that you are alone in the quest. You are not!

Misplacing ones Center is not limited to parenting, although that seems to be one of the times when most people notice that their Center is missing in action. Misplacing ones Center can happen at any time in your life – you can be at work and realize that it is missing, it can happen during a conversation with a spouse, family member or friend, it can happen when you are caring for an aging parent, it can happen as you deal with a tragic event in your life.

Misplacing ones Center can and does happen whenever we take our total being and give it to another to help them through their own situations.

Part of the journey to find your center is to realize why it went missing in the first place.

How many times have you heard yourself say the following?

When this baby comes I will be able to… Once the baby is a toddler I will be able to… Once my child is in school I will be able to… Once the kids move out on their own I will be able to… If only I didn’t live alone I would…

Do you see the pattern here? Are you putting off living until tomorrow? As you are living in this moment you are waiting, wishing for the next. Each time you do this your Center moves further away from you, becoming more hidden. The dust is building on that shelf!

When did you first realize that your Center was missing?  Chances are you will not be able to pinpoint the exact moment – or perhaps you will, either way is ok. The point is we are going to work on getting it back!

Go ahead speak it out loud, I am the only one listening, and I won’t tell.

About two months ago, my daughter Charlotte came to me with a book in her hand.  She handed it to me, then held open her arms for me to pluck her up on my lap.  And then she began to flip the pages and listen as I read her a story.

It was the very first time that story-time in our home just CLICKED.

I receive a few e-mails a week from people who have questions about reading to their children.  Their baby is trying to eat the books!  Their toddler is ripping apart the pages!  How do they stop their kid from flipping the pages at lightning speed?  How do they convince them to sit still during reading time instead of running around like a loon?

They appeal to me, they tell me, because they’ve seen the photographs of us reading with Charlotte.  And it looks like we know what we’re doing.

I tell them all the same thing: we don’t.

Some days, my daughter tries to eat the books.  Some days, she rips out pages.  Some days, she flips the pages at lightning speed and runs around like a loon while I read passages out loud from books I’m reading.  At fourteen months, Charlotte has heard just as many excerpts from Michael Crichton as she has from Mem Fox.  Some days, she screams during story-time.  Some days, she walks over a pile of books or bends back the spines.  Or throws them off the shelf.

Most days, she wants me to read the same book fifteen times over.  And then fifteen times over again.  And maybe again while we’re at it.

The truth is that reading to your young child is like any other part of parenting: an evolution.  There is no one-size-fits-all cure for the kid who loses interest after two pages, there is only patiently enduring your baby’s reading-related phases and keeping your fingers crossed that they will come out on the other end loving books.  The key is to listen to them, watch their cues, follow their lead, and just keep trying.  Keep visiting the library.  Keep talking about books.  KEEP READING.

If you do, one day you’ll look up to see your child climbing into your lap, eager to share a story together.  And it will make your heart sing.

What do you do to keep your child(ren) interested in reading?