Parenting Stuff

Allowance

We use Greenlight to manage allowance. Our kids can use the app on their iPads to divide their weekly deposit between their savings and spending accounts, or pledge an amount towards a big goal. Parents can also set an interest rate to encourage saving. Premium features allow kids to invest in securities as well as donate to charities. Accounts come with a debit card with fine-tuned spending controls. The card itself also has the kid's portrait printed on it for security. Our kids are too young to use the cards – most stores won't even let them pay without a parent around – but they'll come in handy when they're teens.

For now, we have an easy answer when we're shopping and they ask, "Can I have this?" We reply, "I don't know, how much have you saved?"

Math

We're flash card people and we like the quality and design of Think Tank Scholar Flashcards. We mostly use their math cards, but they have language options, too.

Over the summer we try to expose our kids to some of the math concepts they'll encounter in the coming year. We've found the IXL Math Books to be the best mix of instruction and pacing.

Handwriting

We only recently learned that grooved handwriting books are a things. Our kids' favorite part is that the packs usually come with pens filled with disappearing ink, so you can use the books over and over again. They never get tired of that magic.

Drawing

Paper was the first app we let our kids use on an iPad, but just recently our 10yo transitioned to using Sketchbook. I assumed it would be too complex for her – the UI has Photoshop levels of complexity – but she quickly figured it out. She bought herself (savings goal!) the very fair priced Metapen Pencil A8 to pair with the app, and her drawing has leaped to a new level.

Games

We travel a lot, and when we're traveling one of our favorite things to do is find someplace in the sun to linger and play card games. It's almost time to switch to a 52-card deck, but up until now we're mostly playing either Cardline: Animals and Monopoly Deal.

If you're unfamiliar with Monopoly Deal, it's a concentrated version of Monopoly that allows you to wrap up a game usually in less than 30 minutes. It's just as fun – maybe even more? – but I also think there is more opportunity for strategy than the board game version.

Cardline: Animals is clever way to learn more about life on Earth. It's basically a game of trial and error to guess the size, weight and lifespan of various animals. Equally fun for adults and kids.

Music

Hands down, the AKAI Professional MPK Mini Play MK3 is the highest ROI toy we've bought for our kids. It's a little different from a conventional musical keyboard because it's a MIDI keyboard, which means it can trigger notes on other devices attached to it. For example, if you buy a MIDI cable, your kid can connect it to their iPad and start composing music using Garage Band. If that's too advanced, this model has a built-in speaker so you can play it like a conventional keyboard.

Reading

Our kids love their Kindle Kids – an obvious recommendation – but I want to make sure you're using Libby to take advantage of your local library to check out books so they can be read on those Kindles.

Spanish

This one is pretty niche, but if your kids happen to be learning Spanish, our kids were introduced to Cuadernito de Escritura (Volumes 1-3) by their school in Spain and they always love being assigned one of the creative writing prompts in them.

We also love everything else that the publisher puts out, for kids and adults.

What are your favorites tools and resources? DM me.