free or close to it

My six-year-old came home this week asking about Rosa Parks, impressed with what she knew of her story and, very shocked by it. I feel so fortunate thats she's growing up in such a diverse community, that she couldn't even comprehend a w…

I’m usually not one for New Year’s resolutions, but, in the spirit of getting more done in 2014, I decided to tackle my email--like so many of you who ask us how to clean up your inbox when it's overrun with more emails than anyone can k…

Why would a parent consider a selfie app ? Let us count the ways. First off, the eleventy bazillion visitors you'll want to capture memories with this holiday. However, unless you have a camera shutter remote for your DSLR or phone (hint…

If your kids are budding creative types, but they still love to get techy with their masterpieces, you'll want to check out this cool new app that allows them to add voiceover narration to their photographs or artwork. Because next Spiel…

If you have some serious LEGO appreciators in the house or you never got around to the perfectly posed group family photo for the annual holiday card, we have you covered. With the DIY LEGO minifigure family holiday ecard . If you--and y…

My son has told me at least four times today exactly how many days away Christmas is. I think you could say the countdown is officially on. So, I'm going to set the default home screen on our kitchen computer to Google's Santa Tracker —a…

If you're anything like me, your mornings are crazy--waking everybody up, making breakfast, walking the dog, packing backpacks, getting the kids dressed, and more. Sometimes it's hard to find time to also put together a chic outfit that …

Every year I try to make a Halloween playlist for my own kids and for trick or treaters who visit our door, but this year, two of my favorite online music services, Spotify and Rdio , have done it for me. And the best part, they're free!…

These days, I rarely have any reason to use a printer let alone a scanner. All I need is Hello Fax and I can pretty much avoid the printing, faxing, and scanning all together. But just a few days ago when I had to scan a few receipts for…

Want some family-friendly and totally cool tunes to get your little ghosts and goblins in the mood for Halloween? We've scared up a collection of nine great kindie tunes from Cool Mom Picks' favorites like Justin Roberts and Key Wilde & …

I'm the type of person who loves to be organized. It's embarrassing admitting that school supply shopping tops my list of fun stuff to do. But when it comes to calendars, I'm kind of a stick in the mud. I mean, even though we've reviewed…

Over the years of covering the best family music, we've gotten to know so many talented, hardworking artists like Brady Rymer, who was a huge success on his own then went on to join Laurie Berkner and her band. Now Brady is joining Miche…

Every year we get excited to see what our friends at Think Geek are cooking up for Halloween. After all, geekery and Halloween go together like...well, like two things that go together so perfectly it's ridiculous. Nintendo fans will lov…

I haven't really spent a lot of time on Scribd, the massive online digital documents library featuring all kinds of user-uploaded stuff. Mostly, it's known as a place to score free ebooks. But recently, I was looking for a set of free pr…

We love Houzz around here. We've been using it to design our living rooms, bedrooms, and dining spaces for a while now. So we're super excited that they've launched an app that's just made just for parents. The free Houzz Kids Rooms app …

There's nothing quite like the start of a new school year to make you realize how quickly these kids of ours are growing up. (Yes, I've been gasping over the Back-to-School photos all over Facebook too.) Feeling a bit nostalgic for years…

Welcome September! We sure will miss the fun of summer, but there is much to love about this first month of fall, including an awesome (and free!) collection of kindie tunes you can download immediately to get everyone dancing. Kick Out …

Years ago, I used to be able to keep my entire schedule in my head--no calendar necessary. Three kids later, a calendar is a must-have for keeping track of family activities and appointments. But what about stuff that you want to remembe…

Like so many of you, I'm committed to supporting my kids' school. Whether it's volunteering my time in the classroom, designing yearbook pages, or just sending permission slips back on time, I'm happy to do what I can. And for the next f…

When two of our favorite kindie artists come together to create new music, it's a reason to celebrate. And the first single off of Dan Zanes and Elizabeth Mitchell's August 27th release is so great, we're thrilled to be able to share it …

My first instinct (and job) as a mom is to keep my kids safe, so when I found out how many thousands of bits of information about us were being sent to online marketers every time they play or learn on my iPad, I got pretty protective. F…

While there are a ton of photo editing apps that we've recommended, there's a new one made just for families that we think you'll be particularly interested in. Not just because it was created by Soleil Moon Frye, who's reinvented hersel…

What happens when you mix the punk-rocking Boogers with the new-wave sounds of Mr. Leebot ? A song that sounds great for those hot summer days when donning floaties and doing cannonballs is all that is on the schedule. (Having a Blast) A…

I can't believe it's been five years since Apple launched their app store. (And as you know, we love Apple apps !). But hey, I'm all for a celebration, especially when it means that some of their most popular and usually quite expensive …