Working out takes a village, you need a cheer squad. Before
there was social media, you had to call your friends and cheer them on or all
work out together. Some people are new to their area and they don’t have work
out buddies. They can feel pretty isolated when it comes to working out. When
you feel isolated you can give up pretty easily. Thankfully, we can virtually
work out with our friends and family all over the world through social media
and apps. There is a brand new fitness/lifestyle app for iPhone and Android
called YourGymGF, which is ultimately a social network for women that are
looking for new ideas on diets, workout plans and ultimately lifestyle changes,
as well as motivation/support. The app allows users to stay involved with other
users within the community. It sounds amazing especially if you share healthy
recipes with your friends. The app is totally free. It is like your very own
support system and brainstorming app for all things fitness and being
healthy.It’s also a great Kickstarter campaign
you can consider donating to. Every little bit helps. They are trying to add a
really cool feature and they need a little help reaching their goal. The new
feature would help you by notifying you of new things and lets you notify
others of things you want to share with them.
We all are pretty busy, so we don’t
always check in on our apps as much as we would like. Some of us juggle work
and parenthood and everything in between.
Even when you live in a place like I
do you still get bored every once in a while. You can only go to the same
places so many times. As much as I love the beach, it can get boring.
There are sometimes I don't even want to go to the beach. I am just not in the
mood. I guess I am spoiled when I get to go to the beach any time I want. I am
always looking for fun things to do in my area. I learned about a new app
called Kamino. It is a really neat travel app that creates what they call
hikes. A hike is just different things to do in your city or the city you are
visiting. I want to explore hidden gems.
The unique thing about Kamino is you
can create your own hike and share it with others. If I were to create a hike
for my town I would make it my favorite things hike. I would start off at Johns
Pass for shopping and lunch at Hooters. Johns Pass is a neat little fishing
village. You can also go on boat rides, go fishing or even parasail. I would
then go to Fort Desoto for some time at a gorgeous beach. It is the most
beautiful place in Florida. It is a must see. They even have a dog beach. The
picture in my header is Fort Desoto. After the beach, I would send you to The
Florida Winery for free wine tastings and a tour. The Florida Winery makes
their wines on site and they are citrus based so they are delicious. You will
probably be hungry again so off to my favorite restaurant Leverocks for dinner.
Everything on the menu is delicious. They have an amazing lobster bisque. The
Gulf Coast Lobster Tails are always amazing. Save some room for dessert for
some Peanut Butter Pie. I think that would be an amazing Fourth of July weekend
hike.
There is also a Fourth of July hike
that another member created. It is a food and drinking hike. I am not a big
drinker but I really love to eat. It would be fun to see what other
people come up with. I love to travel. We recently went to Orlando and
sometimes going to theme parks are annoying. I want to explore hidden gems.
It would also be fun to plan out a trip for a friend or have them
experience your same trip. Who needs travel agents anymore? With Kamino, you
can find interesting things to do. It's like you have the local’s opinion of
the best things to do without knowing one.
Here is more information from the
developer:
Features of Kamino:
- Hikes on the fly: Find awesome new
spots wherever you are.
- Expert recommendations: Get
insights from travel experts and local gurus on the best hikes in town.
- Local treasures and hidden gems:
Discover what you may have missed in your own backyard.
- GPS-guided hikes: Never get lost!
Our built-in GPS system will always get you to your destination.
- Hikes tailored to your interests:
Find out if a hike is dog-friendly, good for kids, or great for a night out
with friends.
- Recommendations: Add your own as
you go or when you get to your final destination.
- Create your own hikes: Share your
favorite places with friends, family, and your community!
The best part of this app is it's
free! I love Kamino and I look forward to planning new hikes based on other's
recommendations and building hikes locally and on vacation.
I love taking pictures of Noah all the time. I usually use my phone
because it's always with me. I take a lot of them at Noah's request. He
will make something cool and say take a picture and post it. I also have
a habit of taking multiple photos of the same thing. I have met the
unfortunate fate of the dreaded memory is full warning a few times on my
phone. So I would have two choices because it never happens when I have
my computer. I could either upload a bunch of photos to Facebook even
though I don't want to share all the photos I have taken or I can delete
them. Both are time consuming and annoying. By the time I am done doing
it, the moment has passed, the dolphins have swam away, the parade is
gone and it's too late. Also it's annoying to stop what you are doing
to fix this problem. Thankfully I learned about an app called Everalbum with this app you no longer have to worry about running out
of memory on your phone again. I love to take video of Noah's
performances and awards ceremonies too. They eat up a lot of memory, add
a bunch of apps and forget about it. Key Value: -
Never worry about running out of space on your phone EVER again. Once
your photos from your phone are backed up, you can delete your camera
roll and any future photo you take will automatically be added and
backed up to your Everalbum. -
Never worry about losing family photos again. No matter if your
computer breaks, or you lose your phone, once in Everalbum they are
backed up and safe forever. -
Never worry about privacy or having your photos public. Privacy is very
important to us and we’ve done everything possible to guarantee all of
your photos are private to you and only you by default, except when you
want to share your photos privately with family and friends. Pricing: - Very affordable pricing for families- $7.99/month or save 20% by buying yearly at $79/year and have up to 50,000 photos backed up in full resolution- Never worry about GBs, or MBs storage, we don’t care about that.
We all get sick sometimes. I don’t
always know if it is serious enough to go to the doctor or not. Sometimes you
just don’t feel good. As a mom, it is
hard to know if your child has just a virus or if it’s an infection. It seems
to usually happen at night or during holidays, when no one is open. Of course if it were serious, I would go to
the emergency room, but most cases it’s a tummy ache or a sore throat or
something that doesn’t need a hospital. I would also feel guilty about going
and taking up their precious time when it wasn’t serious. I learned about an
app called GreatCall Urgent Care. It will put you in touch with a nurse for
advice. It reminds me of that Ask a Nurse service they had in the 90’s. They
used to play the commercials for it all the time. I remember watching the ads at my Grandma
Rose’s house with my cousin Dan.
GreatCall Urgent Care is really easy
to use. I haven’t had to use the phone service yet and hopefully never will. It
is great to have just in case. How many times have you gone back and forth on whether
or not you need to go to the doctor? I have done it before, mostly for
myself. One of them being when I fell
down the stairs and bruised my tailbone really badly. I love that it also has a
medical dictionary, Google is great but can be unreliable. I also like the symptom checker because I can
see what possible health problem I have.
Noah is interested in learning about other countries and
cultures. I try and expose him to learning about them at a young age.He must have received that from me
genetically.I loved when we would learn
about other countries in school. I even did folk dancing where we did dances
from many different countries. It is so interesting to learn about places and
see how they are similar and different. I can sometimes find it challenging to
teach Noah about different countries and cultures.It needs to be age appropriate so he can
understand. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to take him to each country and show
him first hand. There are also places that have really interesting cultures
that may not be the safest places to visit.So, I have to rely on apps, stories and activities. I want to start
making crafts and food from different places.I want to make sure he understands just because they are different than
us, they are just like him. I really embrace and teach him the fact that it is
awesome to be different.
One country we both find interesting is
India.There isn’t a ton of stuff out there about
India so, when we found an app called Alife, Haathi and the Magic Bioscope.
This app is an interactive story book.He loves to read so, when it is educational and not about Lego Star Wars
it is a good thing. Noah loves to go on
adventures when he reads. He likes to learn about animals too. Noah really enjoys Alfie and Haathi and the
Magic Bioscope. His favorite character is Haathi. He thinks it’s cool that
Alfie is friends with a baby elephant. I love that they include a great moral about
friendship.I think that is an important
thing because it really reminds kids of the importance of being a friend. It helps the child relate to the story.
Here is some information from the developer:
“Haathi and Alfie were the best of friends…”
Take your children on a journey of discovery with Alfie, a curious little boy
from India, and his best friend, the baby elephant Haathi. Watch as your kids
engage with the interactive storybook app, bringing animals, objects and Alfie
to life in each scene.
As Alfie and Haathi discover the animal kingdom, your child will build their
reading skills, comprehension skills and motor skills. With the rich background
music and illustrations, your child will also get a glimpse into Indian
culture.
When Alfie and Haathi discover a dusty old box, they can’t begin to imagine the
adventures it’ll take them on! Alfie loses Haathi as they set off on their
first adventure. Join Alfie in his search for Haathi, and along the way learn
all about bioscopes, making new friends, and discover the meaning of true
friendship!
Recommended ages: 2 to 6
Features:
- An interactive storytelling experience.
- “Read to me” option allows parents to turn off the voice-over and read the
storybook to their children themselves.
- Page selector allows for easy navigation to a non-consecutive page.
- Professional audio narration.
- Custom background audio for each scene created by acclaimed Bollywood music
producer Ram Sampath.
- Hints to guide parents and kids by highlighting all interactions in each
scene.
- Objects, words and characters come to life with animations and/or interesting
and educational factoids.
- This app is universal and has been optimised for Retina displays and the
iPad.
Alfie, Haathi & the Magic
Bioscope is available for free on iTunes.
Noah has always been interested in learning different
languages. Even when he was three and four years old, he wanted to learn them.
He is really interested in other countries and cultures. I think that is a
great thing. When I was growing up, I learned basic Spanish, from afterschool
classes in elementary school. It wasn’t the same when I was younger, of course
people spoke different languages but it was more something you did when you
were in high school.I don’t really
remember much of the Spanish I learned in elementary school, besides what my Spanish
speaking cousins taught me. They lived in Texas so I didn’t really see them
very often, until they moved to Indiana when I was older.When I was in high school I took two years of
French. We really didn’t learn much the first year because my French teacher
was out a lot, and when she was there we watched Beauty and the Beast and The
Hunchback of Notre Dame. I think it is
important that kids learn different languages at a young age, because it
enriches their lives. It also helps them communicate with other people who may
not speak English.Noah has wanted to
learn everything from Spanish to Japanese. One of his Kindergarten teachers is
from Japan, which was just pure luck. He already wanted to learn before he met
her.One of my best friends, that I have
been friends with since daycare, took Japanese in high school.
I think that since there are so many different shows where
they speak different languages now, it has sparked a revolution. When I was
little, all there was Muzzy and that was always insanely expensive.Since Noah is an appoholic, I was so excited
to learn about Gus on the Go.It’s a foreign
language learning app for kids. I know when I was a kid, listening to cassette tapes
of someone speaking where you are supposed to say and repeat, wasn’t really
fun. I am so glad that Gus on the Go was
developed by two loving parents from toojuice, LLC, Yono and
Alice have dedicated themselves to helping children embrace their native
language and other languages through fun and educational apps. There are 14
different languages including Spanish, French and Hebrew.
More information
from the developer:
Little ones can take off on a language learning adventure, discovering
new words through engaging vocabulary lessons and reviews, with Gus on the
Go on Android. Featuring adorable animations and fun exercises, Gus on
the Go teaches children the basic concepts of 14 languages with exciting
visual and auditory lesson on numbers, colors, shapes and more. Any child
can now master a second language through a fun, multi-sensory journey on any
tablet or smartphone.
Gus on the Go onAndroid is the latest edition of toojuice,
LLC.’s popular Gus on the Go series of second language learning apps.
Gus, an animated traveling owl, guides children on an interactive series of 10
vocabulary activities. After completing each lesson, Gus playfully encourages
them to unlock the next adventure by reviewing what they have learned.
Delightful animal noises, transportation sounds and vibrant animations motivate
children to see, hear and touch objects in a simply creative way. Most
importantly, Gus on the Go helps children improve their hand-eye
coordination, fine motor skills and basic vocabulary proficiency.
Gus on the Go features
- New games, unlocked by completing lesson reviews
- Fun interactive animations and sounds
- Access to country and city maps
- Trophy room to track achievements
- Native language audio speaker
We had the opportunity to try out the Spanish app out. It is really
cute. Noah finds it very entertaining and I think that is great for him. I can
tell he is really learning from Gus on the Go. He has started to grow out of
Dora and Diego, where he was learning some Spanish so I am so glad to have Gus
on the Go. Noah really likes that he isn’t
just repeating what someone is saying, but he is learning Spanish through games
and rewards. I love that there is a
native speaker, because it helps with exact pronunciation. I think it’s
important to know exactly how you are to say it, because a change in a syllable
can change the whole meaning of what you are saying.I also think it could be considered
disrespectful depending on whom you are speaking to. Noah and I use this app
together as a family. I would love to learn more Spanish. I will also use the app by myself, if I need
extra practice. We will probably also try out the French app and some of the
other ones. I hope they create a Japanese app soon that would really put a
smile on Noah’s face.
Be sure to check out Gus on the Go Spanish and the 13 other languages too!
Gus on the Go on Android is available for $2.99 on the Google
Play Store HERE
