An Ignoble Experiment: [Parent Hacks] 1 new post in Parent Hacks

2011/03/12

[Parent Hacks] 1 new post in Parent Hacks

Hello, ignoble.experiment@arconati.us, and thank you for making room in your inbox for Parent Hacks.

Got a hack you'd like to share? Send it to hacks@parenthacks.com along with your name and Web address (if you'd like us to link back to you). If you've got a Twitter user name, tell us that, too, so we can say hi.

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Parent Hacks Weekend Catchup: highlights from the week of 3/7/11

This week, the action was in the comments.

Printable: cute meal planning template: This might be adorable enough to motivate you to plan out next week's dinners.

Let's Panic winners!: Let's Panic About Babies was a joy to review, your comments about helpful/harmful parenting books were fantastic (and surprising; roundup coming next week), and the winners got sweet prizes.

Transform cardboard containers into snack organizers: My snack- and pantry organization discovery. Great variations in the comments. Bonus: Lindsay's comment inspired the following post...

Amazon Subscribe & Save: What do you order? Talk amongst yourselves: Totally interesting to see how people use Amazon Subscribe & Save to save money, time, and frustration with heavy packages and/or unexpectedly running out of stuff. So far, major categories are snacks, diapers, wipes, cleaning products, paper goods, specialty grocery items, and Keurig K-cups (single serving coffee pods). Read through the comments for more good ideas and add your own. Smart suggestion: watch parenting mags for $10 Amazon coupons.

How to encourage both helpfulness and responsibility, continued: Margaret Weiss (The Child Whisperer) responded to my query with a fantastic blog post. Go read it and, if you haven't already, my original post, and let's keep talking.

Manage bulk purchases by numbering multiple packages of the same item: A forehead-slapper. As in, DUH. WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS.

Twitter and Facebook highlights:

On Twitter, @dabni asked for kid-friendly podcast suggestions (she and her 7-10 year-olds like to listen in the car.) Responses included:

Kids Corner
NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!
Storynory
Skeptoid
Radiolab
This American Life (several votes)
Crazy Dave's Kid Show.
For parents only: The Parent Experiment. One of the co-hosts is Stephanie Wilder-Taylor, author of Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay, which a couple of you listed as a favorite book in the comments of the Let's Panic giveaway

Thank you, @celticwarrior81, @NatalieMGC, @liasynthis, @WhoaMomma, and @the_pizza_girl for your replies.

On Thursday, I fired off far too many tweets about my lunch. I got Kale-Avocado Salad from the Whole Foods deli and couldn't believe how delicious it was given the simple ingredients. Reminds me of the roasted cauliflower I was going on about last week.

I've been sharing my running progress by tweeting through my Couch to 5K iPhone app whenever I finish a workout. If you're not familiar with this app, it promises to take you from zero running experience to running five kilometers in nine weeks. I've just completed my first week. Thanks for all the cheers!

My husband passed along this brilliant post by "gamer mom" Donna Dickens who's trying to find video game balance with her kids.

So excited with the livliness on the Parent Hacks Facebook page.

Kara Kahler Rue shared a foaming hand soap hack
Jahn Hageman Noonan had a suggestion for what to do with all those old cloth diapers
Cindy Nieport discovered a clever way to label her kids' drawers
Literary Mom asks: how to you organize Calico Critters or other small dollhouse toys?

Even if you're not a regular FB user, swing by the Facebook page. Great stuff going on there.

Finally, this.