spotlight

Influencer Spotlight: Jessica McFadden, A Parent in America

September 15, 2016 by The Motherhood

What has made click-throughs on one social media channel nearly obsolete?

What will steal the scene in lieu of toys this holiday season?

Where is engagement happening in 2016?

Jessica McFadden of A Parent in America and A Parent in Silver Spring has the answers, and we’re sharing them (and more!) with you in this month’s blogger spotlight.

Read on to learn more about why her blog is not her personal journal and what always results in a win when it comes to brands, bloggers and their readers. Give Jessica a shout-out at @JessicaMcFadd!

Want to see more? Check out our Influencer Spotlights here!

How does the Blogger Spotlight Series work? Each month, our internal team convenes and discusses our latest programs, stellar partnerships and top-performing influencers. It’s not about numbers, but rather, the quality, authentic content they’re delivering consistently. It’s about reliability, professionalism and partnership. We discuss our nominations for the month and ultimately decide on just one blogger to invite as our featured blogger. Stop back October 1 for the next blogger spotlight!

10 Unexpected Ways to Use the VTech Digital Audio Monitor

August 29, 2016 by The Motherhood

For new moms, there is no shortage of places to turn for advice on must-have baby gear. Recommendations on the best-of-the-best products for eating, sleeping and diaper changes are plentiful!

However, there is one product traditionally thought of as a baby must-have we’re deeming essential for parents of toddlers through pre-teens (and pet parents as well): the VTech Digital Audio Monitor. We armed a group of social media moms with this awesome new product and told them to put it to use in their homes. The results? Some very unexpected, very helpful ways to use the VTech Digital Audio Monitor!

VTech Digital Audio Monitor: What is it?

The VTech Safe&Sound® DM271-110 DECT 6.0 Digital Audio Baby Monitor with Open/Closed & Motion Sensors, the latest addition to VTech’s award-winning baby monitor line, has brought families of brand-new way to stay connected. The VTech Digital Audio Monitor comes equipped with some very cool features (hello, smart home sensors!) that give parents the peace of mind they deserve anytime, anywhere. Both the open/closed sensors and motion sensors offer parents added safety and security through all phases of childhood.

VTech Digital Audio Monitor: A Must-Have for Toddler Parents — Image courtesy of Stephanie, Olive and Tate

Don’t take our word for it! Read on for some of our favorite ways to put the VTech Digital Audio Monitor to use.

Mom-Sourced Tips to Use the VTech Digital Audio Monitor Beyond Babies

1. Toddler-proof a vacation rental:

“First things first we busted out the VTech Digital Monitor and set about toddler proofing that exterior door. What makes the VTech Digital Monitor my travel go to are two things: one is the ultra low energy Open/Closed Door Sensor and the other is the Smart Home Motion Sensor. We set the Open/Closed smart sensor up on the exterior door (using the mounting tape provided so we didn’t damage the rental house) and programed the hand held parent unit to alert us if the baby somehow managed the get the door open and make a break for it.”

Stephanie, Olive and Tate

2. Feel secure with a sleepwalker:

“I don’t think I’ve ever talked about my 13 year old’s sleepwalking adventures. I never thought about it being an issue while traveling, but it has come up a few times, so I have some steps that I take to feel that he’s safer and so that I get better sleep when we’re away. I bring removable mounting tape for the sensors (or find a spot it can go if I don’t want it on the wall) and turn it on at night. I put the “baby” unit on a console or table near the sensor so that if he does make the sensor go off I can just talk to him from the parent unit and tell him to go back to bed! I can’t tell you how much this helps me to know that he’s safe and get a good night’s sleep while we’re away.”

Allison, All for the Boys

3. Help kids learn to sleep in their own room…:

“Be prepared for multiple interruptions during the night. Your kiddo is going to want to use the bathroom, get a drink of water, check their closet for monsters, and call out for you until the neighbors can hear. Before you dart out of the room with one eye open, answer every whim from a distance. You don’t even have to leave the comfort of your bed. The VTech Safe&Sound DM271-110 Digital Audio Baby Monitor with Open/Closed & Motion Sensors features a two-way talk back intercom that allows you to communicate with your child from up to 1,000 feet in range.”

Jessica, Young at Heart Mommy

4. ….and make sure they stay in bed until morning:

“We have a summer rule that no one is allowed up before 7 a.m. Otherwise he’d be awake playing video games at the crack of dawn. I honestly have no way to know when he’s getting up. Now I do! If he sets off the motion sensor in the living room before 7 a.m., I can head down and send him back to his bed.”

Camille, Growing Up Gabel

5. Host safe, secure playdates:

“I don’t like to hover over my kids – I like to give them a sense of independence. But I also like to know what is going on, especially when friends are over, and I like to do that as unobtrusively as possible to ensure they have fun and safe play dates. A cool feature of the VTech Digital Audio Monitor is its two ULE (Ultra Low Energy) smart home sensors. You can use them to put open/closed and motion sensor alerts on doors, cabinets and open spaces. So you’ll know if your child is getting into something they shouldn’t be. It’s a great way to enforce off-limit zones for play dates.”

Chrystal, Happy Mothering

6. Instill independence in babysitters-in-training:

“I set everything up in my daughter’s room or, as she calls it when she is working, ‘Babysitting Headquarters.’ I was able to show my daughter how everything works and also how I will be just a monitor away to keep an eye on things and also help her if ever needed. We can talk to one another through the monitor, adjust the volume when we put it to the sleep mode to help get little ones to sleep, and when needed, my daughter can page me to get my attention if she needs me.”

Katie, Mommy Katie

7. Care for an ill parent:

“My mom’s health has been on the decline over the last six months. It’s not news to any of you that I am her caretaker and as such, I need to be ‘there’ for her as much as possible. Without physically sleeping in her room, it was hard to get to her in time. Acquiring the VTech Safe&Sound® DM271-110 DECT 6.0 Digital Audio Baby Monitor with Open/Closed & Motion Sensors came at the best timing ever. The VTech Digital Audio Monitor has been a literal lifesaver for the past three weeks.”

Maria, Adventures of the Mommy Homemaker

8. Manage dogs’ outdoor time:

“I’ve been using the motion sensor that comes with the VTech Digital Audio Monitor to keep track of where my dogs are in the house. Specifically when they walk to the front door so I know when they need to go outside. This helps me to prevent nasty accidents in our home and also keeps me aware of where my dogs are. I mounted the motion sensor on the side of the wall near the bottom of our front door and it has been working perfectly to alert me when the dogs need to go outside.”

Andrea, Honestly Andrea

9. Keep cat away from off-limits spots:

“Cats are pretty famous for hanging out on routers. I think there’s probably a whole site dedicated to pictures of cats on routers out there somewhere! Obviously, putting a baby monitor back there isn’t the best idea. The fewer things that interfere with my already not-so-stellar internet connection, the better. Here’s where the VTech Digital Audio Monitor gets really cool. It comes with two ULE (Ultra Low Energy) smart home sensors. One is an open/closed sensor and one is a motion sensor. All I have to do is put the motion sensor in areas that are off limits to Fuzz. Then, when he tries to hunker down in one of those spots, I’ll know.”

Nicole, Pretty Opinionated

10. Enforce rules from a distance:

“Cooper is always trying to steal the cat food. No matter how many times we tell him ‘no’ he still does it. If he hears our voice, though, he stops in his tracks! So here’s what I do: I put the baby unit part of my VTech Digital Audio Monitor in the places that I want to keep Cooper away from. When I hear him digging around in the cat food boxes, I use the two-way intercom feature and firmly say ‘Coop, get away from that cat food!’ Cooper hears my voice and thinks I’m watching him, and he quickly backs away!”

Bonus tip from Nicole!

This post is created in proud partnership with VTech. All opinions are our own.

Featured image at the top of this post courtesy of Stephanie, Olive and Tate.

Summer DIY Never Looked So Good with Olympic Paints and Stains

July 14, 2016 by The Motherhood

For many of us, we kick off the summer with a list of projects we want to finish before the fall. By July, we may have lost our motivation to make it through the whole list. Most often, these projects include things we’ve been thinking about since spring, if not longer, so what we really need is a little inspiration just to get us started!

Earlier this year, we partnered with some incredibly creative, DIY-inspiring bloggers on behalf of Olympic Paints and Stains and challenged them to put their project ideas into action through beautiful, thoughtful mood boards that reflected projects they hoped to complete. We then armed them with their favorite Olympic Paints and asked them to document the process.

The results are AMAZING.

OFFICE, LAUNDRY ROOM AND BATHROOM MAKEOVERS

Kenda of Remaking June blew us away with her office makeover, taking a standard-looking home office and turning it into a dreamy, chic, streamlined space that we all want to work in!

Katie of Mom’s Favorites also revamped her office space with a modern accent wall that’s so beautiful it could double as art.

Christy of Thrifty and Thriving transformed her laundry room into a space where we want to hang out (and maybe even do some laundry)!

Vanessa of See Vanessa Craft lived up to her crafty name and reputation with a striking before-and-after.

DIY Furniture

Jenn of Jenn’s Blah Blah Blog turned four simple wood crates into a rustic yet polished-looking coffee table that would easily be a focal point of any room.

Sia of Thrifty Northwest Mom delivered this hugely impressive transformation of a simple bookshelf when she incorporated candelabras from her wedding and brought the whole thing together with a fresh coat of paint. We’re in love!

Olympic Paint understands the thought process and the preparation that goes into home projects, and it’s with this in mind that they designed and launched the new Olympic Paints and Stains Color Center at Lowe’s, which each of our bloggers visited and utilized as they planned out their projects.

The Center allows people to browse paints and stains in one place, where colors are organized to make finding and comparing shades easier than ever. You can shop in three different ways, depending on what works for your creative style, whether it’s by color (through the chips), lifestyle (through the lifestyle brochures) or project (using room and project brochures). If you want to see how a paint color will look before you head to Lowe’s, you can upload a photo of your room to the Olympic Paint Visualizer Tool.

The Motherhood worked with these bloggers as part of a sponsored campaign on behalf of Olympic Paints and Stains.

Influencer Spotlight: Kristy, Mommy Hates Cooking

June 1, 2016 by The Motherhood

Video, value and vintage inspiration – Kristy of Mommy Hates Cooking tells all in this month’s blogger spotlight!

As our featured June blogger, Kristy dishes on what’s in and what’s out, along with why 2016 is the year for truly “living” and how she plans to implement that philosophy with her own family.

Dig in below to read more, and give Kristy a shout out at @MomHatesCooking.

Love what you see?

Check out our Influencer Spotlights here!

How does the Blogger Spotlight Series work?

Each month, our internal team convenes and discusses our latest programs, stellar partnerships and top-performing influencers. It’s not about numbers, but rather, the quality, authentic content they’re delivering consistently. It’s about reliability, professionalism and partnership. We discuss our nominations for the month and ultimately decide on just one blogger to invite as our featured blogger. Stop back July 1 for the next blogger spotlight!

STEM Activities for Kids: Five Ways to Get Them Excited this Summer

April 21, 2016 by The Motherhood

“One of the things that I really strongly believe in is that we need to have more girls interested in math, science and engineering. We’ve got half the population that is way underrepresented in those fields and that means that we’ve got a whole bunch of talent…not being encouraged the way they need to.”
— President Barack Obama, February 2013

Today, in an age in which nearly half of all primary breadwinners are women, and women’s labor has expanded the economy by $2 trillion dollars, the fact is that females are still underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) field.

As Reshma Saujani – an education activist who has the goal of getting one million women in computer science by 2020 – stated in her Ted talk, we must encourage a culture in which girls learn bravery and find a sense of comfort in imperfection. Part of nurturing a girl who can innovate and change the world with her talents is helping her develop the confidence in her skills to show what she can do, without fear of failure.

With summer break approaching, these next few months are a prime time to nurture a sense of creativity, innovation, problem-solving and invention in both girls and boys.

STEM Activities for Kids: Five Ideas for a Summer of Exploration

1. Create a question jar

The first week of summer break, sit down with your child and brainstorm all of the questions that are on their mind.

Why is the sky blue?
Why do lightning bugs glow?
How does an airplane fly?
How many iPhones do you have to stack end-to-end to reach the moon?

Write each question down on a note card or piece of paper, fold them up and put them in a jar. Each day or week of vacation, have your child draw a question and brainstorm ways to find the answer. Field trips, research, a library visit or science experiments are all great ways to encourage curiosity and discovery.

2. Get growing

Help your child plan and plant a backyard garden. They can research the kinds of seeds that are likely to thrive in your climate, the optimal levels of sun, shade and water necessary to grow, the impact of insects and other animals.

Encourage trial and error! They don’t need to have the greenest thumb on the block the first time around. Have your child keep a journal with notes on the growth and harvest schedule, and at the end of the summer, have them develop a plan for the next season, using the key learnings from their first garden.

3. Host an at-home science fair

Whether you tackle the classic egg drop challenge, build a toothpick bridge or research a different problem to solve, work with your child to tackle a feat of engineering. Have your child gather some friends and neighbors to display their creations, explain their thought process and test them out to prove or disprove their theories.

To drive home the importance of trial and error and the iterative process, make the focus of each child’s presentation to share their best “lessons learned,” recognizing that there is a lot to be learned by examining unsuccessful attempts at creating a solution.

4. Crack the code

One of the amazing benefits of the proliferation of smartphones and tablets is the ability to learn the back-end functions of computing with the touch of the screen. While parents want kids to put down their electronic devices and spend the summer outside, a possible exception to this rule could be for coding apps.

We like this list of eight of the best apps that help kids learn to code, but be sure to research your choices thoroughly to ensure they’re safe, reliable, educational and fun!

5. Sign up for an “epic” summer camp experience

For students entering grades one through six, sign them up for Camp Invention, a weeklong adventure that will turn the summer from ordinary to extraordinary through hands-on problem solving. Camp Invention is the only nationally recognized summer program focused on creativity, innovation, real-world problem solving and the spirit of invention.

Camp Invention provides an opportunity for inventive young minds to exercise their creativity and use their imagination in ways they don’t normally get to in the classroom. Campers have so much fun they barely realize they are learning and developing new skills as they build prototypes, take things apart, explore different types of technology and so much more.

This year’s Camp Invention curriculum is called Epic™, inspired by some of our nation’s most brilliant minds, including experienced educators, Inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame and members of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Campers will construct a DIY solar-powered cricket, design an eco-adventure park, brainstorm product ideas and build original prototypes using real tools and components found in everyday devices, and much more! Learn more about this year’s curriculum by clicking the link.

Camp Invention serves more than 94,000 students every year through nearly 1,400 camps across the nation. For additional information or to find the nearest location for registration, visit www.campinvention.org.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwaaxwG8SvM

This post about STEM activities for kids is brought to you in partnership with Camp Invention. All opinions are our own.

Images courtesy of Camp Invention.