If you know a tech-savvy mom, you may want to consider giving her a tablet PC for her next birthday. With a tablet, mom will have high-tech power at her finger tips to get things done. She may be a superwoman, but sometimes even she needs a little help. A tablet pc is just the gadget to help her get organized and master her daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. I’ve thought of five ways a tablet PC can make her life easier, more efficient, and more fun. Plus a story about how a friend of mine got his little girl reading before her 3 year birthday.
Keeping in Touch
Mom wants to stay in touch with friends and family. She will be able to instantly post updates and pictures, share life events, and visit her favorite blogs.
A couple social apps that can be useful include:
• Pinterest
• Skype
• Facebook
• Twitter
Of course, it’s not all about talking and sharing pictures. There are great games out there that mom can play with her kids, whether they’re in the same home or across the country, and apps like Endomondo, which lets you track each other’s progress as you get healthy. And makes slugging down those green veggie smoothies a little more tolerable.
Meal Planning
Preparing meals takes time. Searching for recipes the whole gang will enjoy is the hard part. Using a QR code app mom can scan products in stores and save them for later reference. Taking pictures of meals and ingredients will speed things up in the kitchen as well. A tablet can rest on an easel in the kitchen and make it easy to see the recipe as she works. Mom can even watch video tutorials or cooking shows too. Online coupon databases are popular and many stores let you use electronic coupons now. If you want to have a quick way to plan your meals, try this site out.
(Photo courtesy of: Wired.com)
Learning time is any time. If the kids have homework questions, mom can have all the answers with a fast internet connection on a tablet. She can search online quickly for educational materials, or even take classes or lessons herself. There are hundreds of learning apps for kids and moms. As an eReader it lets her carry hundreds or even thousands of books that can be accessed anytime. The cool, lightweight portability and touch screen makes a tablet the best option if reading is mom’s favorite down-time choice, if there ever is such a thing for moms?
I’d like to share a great experience that an acquaintance of mine shared with me. He has a daughter that turns 3 tomorrow (May 17) and he is a great dad and his wife is equally as awesome. How do I know this? Well I’ve seen how his little girl adores them and vise versa; but second and just as important, he and his wife spend quality time with her teaching her and the proof is in the pooding.
His little girl who is just turning 3 can read children’s books, count to 20 forwards and backwards (English and Spanish), do simple addition, and I hear she’s a very talented little dancer as well, she even thinks she can fly and I have heard her shout “Super Ellie to the rescue!” as she soared off of anything she could climb on. So I asked him to share his secret with me and below I’ve added a little story from his experience.
“Computers, laptops, and tablets are incredible teaching tools for our children. Just to give an example of what I did with my little girl this last Saturday while we sat on the couch (TV off of course). She has a laptop that I was going to throw in the trash because it’s really old and I had to get a new one for work. She loves playing on it and just pressing random buttons in a blank Word doc and that’s when I got an idea for a fun activity we could do.
I started by spelling simple words in really big font in a particular color she chose. First I would type the word, ‘DAY’ for example, then I would go down a line and ask her to type what I did.
Just to illustrate:
• Me: DAY
• Her: DAY
Pretty simple right? She LOVED this and we did it for about 25 minutes and started using words like ‘water’, ‘today’, etc. Then I went back to the top and quizzed her on the words in random order and she read them all back to me. She has an absolute blast and I’ll admit I did too. Her hands are too small to really hold a pencil correctly but she can press a button on a keyboard just fine. It’s amazing how technology can help us teach our children and how fast they learn.”
Photo Sharing
A good tablet will have a high-quality camera installed. Mom loves to take pictures and a tablet will help when a photo opportunity arises. Organize and store photos or crop and send them to an online photo album, Shutterfly being one of the more popular websites these days. There are great digital scrapbooking apps that can improve or transform pictures into beautiful art. If there is a wireless connection to a printer, mom can instantly print out images or get pictures developed at the store using the SD card or do it all online like I do with Costco.
Important Dates