Posts Tagged ‘Websites’

Saving money on electricity – dad tips to get kids involved

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

We’ve been in France this week and I’ve been chasing my kids around in the house where we’re staying to get them to turn off the lights as they go in and out of rooms. While French kids, like kids everywhere, are lazy about recycling and other conservation moves, for some reason, everyone here treats electricity like a running faucet. They just wouldn’t leave a room without turning the light off. My kids keep all the lights on everywhere as if we were in the middle of a night game at Yankee Stadium.Recycle

No amount of haranguing to them, or my wife, seems to make any difference. They just say, “yes, Dad” and move on to the next brilliantly lit room.

Here’s an idea some PR flack sent me this morning though and it’s a good enough idea to pass on, playing as it does on dad’s desire to cut back on costs and energy waste, teach good habits, and involve the kids.

“Moolah Maker” is the name of website with a tool to help you set a family goal for energy savings. By entering your energy bills, the site sets a family goal and creates a contract between you and your kids. Apparently, the kids/parents interface is a little hokey with a lot of “hey dude” lingo, but the idea is a good one since kids always want to earn some cash and this doesn’t take a lot of energy they could be using to swing the Wii controller. This project might make getting the monthly utility bill a family bonding experience.

[From the Energy Circle Moolah Maker website:

Kids are the greatest power source on the planet.
Unleash that force, save the earth and reap some profit. It’s easier than you think, and more important than ever. Together, kids and parents across North America are making a deal to use less and save more. Go ahead, shake on it.

The site lists a bunch of tips for energy savings:

Tips for Saving (and making more $) fast:

   * Get an Electricity Monitor. There’s no better way to save than to see your usage in real time.

   * Use smart strips. Slay the entertainment center and computer vampires. Smart Strips rock.

   * Ditch your incandescent bulbs (say it isn’t so… still have some? Not good.)

   * Hang a clothesline. (big savings, and excellent fodder for neighbors). Dryers eat Benjamins.

   * Use low-flow showerheads. Hot water takes heat. Kids like long showers. Use less.

   * Fill up the dishwasher. (Hallelujah! It uses less hot water than hand-washing)

   * Chill out with fans, not the AC. A little breeze makes it feel 4-8 degrees cooler.

Tips for Going Deeper

   * Figure out your baseload—the stuff that’s on 24/7. Does it all need to be? Find out.

   * Hire a Certified Professional Energy Auditor. And take notes. Find out how to lower energy costs quickly and efficiently.

   * Get programmable thermostats and compromise a degree or two (way easy, double smart)

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Posted in Activities with kids, Green, Technology and computers, Websites | No Comments »

Webkinz and and the new Webkinz Jr.

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

Webkinz is a fun game for kids who are less than ten years old. I think Webkinz is better than Club Penguin. On Webkinz.com, you can buy more rooms, you can send packages, you can even chose your own wall paper and flooring and much more! Webkinz has more advantages then any other computer game. Webkinz, unlike Club Penguin, has another site that is good for kids who are just starting to read. Webkinz is a fun game for all children!

By Hadley (age 9), owner of Julianna, a Webkinz Golden Retriever.

Dad’s POV: Webkinz Jr. is for pre-readers so a lot of it is easier for them to do. As a parent, I’m kind of amazed that they have the motivation to play sorting games with little “wow” factor and dead-slow animation, but it’s a testament to Webkinz that kids seem to stay intrigued. The concepts are pretty easy to grasp, so a lot can be done without mom and dad’s involvement, which may or not be a good thing.

Webkinz Jr., like the regular Webkinz cost from $20- $30. They have a “cute” factor that kids love, though adults might find they are not as well made as other plush toys. The kids are more interested in the game in this case, and I haven’t seen my kids anyway, focus to much on the similarity of their real live doll to the one featured on the screen.

Like Club Penguin, there are security features so that kids can’t chat with other kids (or adults) unlimitedly. Kids are limited to a selection of simple phrases and questions, such “hello.”

A deluxe membership will soon be available that includes more activities and a section that allows parents to track their child’s involvement with different parts of the site. It would seem that at this price, this would be included.

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Posted in Toys and Games, Video games, Web, Websites | No Comments »

New Dad bloggers wanted. GreatDad expands blog to include other dad blogs.

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

GreatDad.com has always been a collection of many voices of the dad experience. Rather than one man’s opinion, we have had many writers including twelve author contributors who have domain expertise in some aspect of fatherhood, from medical to humor to psychological. Many many people have asked us to include their voices in the site but we felt we had to limit our contributors just so we could understand all of the content we were curating.

Now we feel we can expand our perspective to tell the stories of even more dads. One way to do this is to add guest blogs to GreatDad.com. Soon, you will be seeing graphic changes to the blog to represent the inclusion of many other voices. For now, you may notice new authors of posts and in the Authors section in the sidebar. I will introduce our newest author in a separate post. And, we’ll have other news soon on how we’ll be adding more new viewpoints to GreatDad.com. We may even add a mom or two.

For those of you, friends and family, who only want to follow my particular thoughts, recommendations, and observations on my kids, you can find the official GreatDad Blog at GreatDad.com/GreatDadblog.

If you’re interested in adding your blog RSS feed to the GreatDad blog, please let me know in the comments section and I’ll let get back to you quickly. While we can’t include everyone, I want to get as many different perspectives as possible while putting extra emphasis on the quality of writing including humor and insight.

Thanks to readers and writer for making GreatDad an enthusiastic source of ideas on modern parenting.

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Posted in Opinion and experience, Websites | 1 Comment »

I’m guru of the week at GetButtonedUp.com!

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Check out our friends Buttoned Up (www.getbuttonedup.com) for lifestyle and family organizing tips and tricks. I’m also their featured Guest Guru of the Week. How I got title, I’ll never know. As my wife will attest (or complain), I am not super-organized. Or, maybe I’m organized, but have way to much stuff. Having kids, though, forces you to get a few things in order.

1. Photos are top of the list because if you don’t get a system you’ll be awash in digital ink like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia. Find one computer and keep everything on it. Don’t let anyone put photos on any other machine until you make sure to have one major repository that you know is complete, and that you BACK UP. With mulitple cameras,phones, and computers, the temptation is to have multiple collections as you load and erase cards. Not a good plan if you don’t want major gaps. Start now and never look back.

2. Okay, wills and trust should have been first. Get this done before the baby arrives and update it with every new child or change in situation. Not enough can be said about the value of this, even if assets are short right now. Your biggest assets are your family and you have to plan who would take care of them in the worst of situations. In fact, that is the one thing you need in your will.

3. Start a 521B education savings plan for the kids, even if it’s just $100. Saving for college will take 18 years. Don’t put it off even for a few years.

4. Organize your medical information in a file box in the kitchen where you can get to it easily with each doctor visit. Even if you are lucky not have any major health concerns, keeping good records of doctor advice and kids’ development will come in handy when you forget what to do for some periodic malady that rears it’s head in the middle of the night. Likewise, keep all the medical research books in a handy place where you can find them.


Get Buttoned Up has lots of tools and ideas to organize yourself better. If you’re the kind of person who needs that for a kick in the pants, or needs it feel you have it all under control, that’s the place to go!

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Posted in Partners | No Comments »

GreatDad.com just listed among 100 Best Health Blogs for Soon-to-be Moms

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

GreatDad.com is one of nine daddy sites mentioned at 100 Best Health Blogs for Soon-to-be Moms.

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Posted in Internet | No Comments »

Stop Twittering and play with your kids!

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Today’s Twitters are often tomorrow’s quitters, according to data that questions the long-term success of the latest social networking sensation used by celebrities from Oprah Winfrey to Britney Spears.

Data from Nielsen Online, which measures Internet traffic, found that more than 60 percent of Twitter users stopped using the free social networking site a month after joining.

[From Many Twitters are quick quitters: study | U.S. | Reuters]

I tried it, found it interesting, but ultimately frustrating. I found lots of people doing kid stuff, writing blogs, selling gear. However, whenever I reached out to them with specific questions, I think they were overwhelmed with tallying their followers or lost in a pile of 140 letter haikus, because almost no one responded! And, these were legitimate business inquiries from people who said they wanted to hear from any time in their “thanks for following me” messages.

Has your experience been different? I’d love to know. I’ve read other articles on this now, and I’m a short-seller on Twitter, though our blog does post to it. Let me know your thoughts in comments.

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Posted in Technology and computers | No Comments »

SImple internet safety tip for dads

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Set up a Google alert for your child’s name. You can get a daily digest. You won’t see everything but might get advance warning of any problems. Adults should do this as well, by the way.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

From our friends at Grandparents.com – favorite scenes of all the best Christmas movies

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Just in time to help you maximize the few minutes left before Christmas, here are the top 16 holiday movies captured in their most famous scenes.

This is just enough of a dose of some of them to make you fondly remember your first viewing and save you from a trip to the video store. Many of them, in my opinion, are a bit too cloying for re-viewing again now. And for cynics, read today’s excellent article in the New York Times on the sad dismal life of George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life. The writer, Wendell Jamieson, opines that the world would have actually been a better more prosperous place without George, citing his felony theft, upstate New York economic trends, and the dismal conformist life that George in which George is forced to find meaning. If you’re mumbling “bah” around this time of year, this is a fun article to read.

As I mentioned in a previous post, our family enjoyed the short 22 minutes Shrek the Halls for its brevity, slapstick and adult humor, and insight on the real meaning of Christmas (as Donkey says, “It’s not Christmas until somebody cries.”).

But back to the video. You may want to send this one from Grandparents.com on to friends and family.

Merry Merry.


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Posted in Movies and DVDs, Videos for kids | No Comments »

Parenting your kids internet activities

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Here’s good food for thought on the whole dangerous playground that the internet has become. This dad just turned off his Net Nanny software, in favor of more active parenting.

Despite my wife’s initial disapproval, I have removed all forms of net nanny software from the kid’s computer. They now surf unhindered by the arbitrary limits of the ambiguous cyber-morality-police. The experience has been great for all of us because they do not need my approval to visit every new variant of Disney.com or Cartoon Network.

We started out with a few basic rules and have expanded slightly on them. First and probably most important, was the speech about “bad things” on the internet. I explained that just like on TV, there are things on the Internet that children shouldn’t be watching. If they find something they don’t understand, or think is inappropriate they should click Home and go back to Webkinz.

[From Bad Dad: No Net Nanny | Geekdad from Wired.com]

This is good advice, in the main. Nothing takes the place of more involved parents who actually are watching, talking, listening, communicating. However, you have to be free and omnipresent to make this work. And, I think there are several caveats that the author, Anton Olsen, does not mention.

First, if your kids are little, little, all this talking and communication isn’t going to help them if they see something that is really way beyond their comprehension. I don’t want my eight year old (or my four year old son for that matter) to be exposed to graphic sex just because she went searching for “doll toys” on the internet. That’s why we use a separate account for her on our home computer. She can only visit and add sites (in her Safari browser) as we see fit, and then can switch easily between Webkinz, Club Penguin or SeaPals to her hearts content.

Second, place the family computer, or the child’s computer, in a place where everyone can see and the community becomes the monitor. If your child strays, there is a good chance that nanny, brother, mom or dad might see.

That said, this is a good discussion on an approach for allowing 12+ kids to use the internet for free browsing, school research, and fun, without using software that takes the place of good old-fashioned parenting.

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Posted in Health, Safety, and Medical, Technology and computers | 1 Comment »