Traveling with family is always an adventure. From nearby day trips to month long excursions, Sara Clemence offers tips and ideas for navigating travel with children.

Sara is the founder of the family travel community, The Expedition, and former travel editor at The Wall Street Journal and Travel + Leisure. She also freelances, writing mostly about travel—but really about anything that lets her indulge her curiosity about the world. You can also check out her book Away & Aware: A Field Guide to Mindful Travel.

http://instagram.com/saraclemence

https://twitter.com/SaraClemence

In this episode, we chatted with Sarah Kimmel from Family Tech. She is a Certified IT manager, family tech expert, and digital parenting coach, who spends her days helping families understand and manage the technology in their home. 

Like thousands of other families across the country, we have begun remote learning to start the 2020 school year. It's been an up and down process as we manage the technology our son is using. 

We pepper Sarah with a ton of questions ranging from:

• What computer should we use? Mac or PC? Is Google Chromebook good enough?
• What parental controls can we use on each platform? 
• Is software, hardware, or a mix of both, the best way to implement parental controls?
• How do mobile phones work into this mix?
• What remote learning resources should we check out?

Sarah and her family are avid gamers, so we get real about the safety of Roblox and why the Nintendo Switch is the best platform for kids.

We also touch on TikTok and why she loves it.

You can also listen to Sarah on her own podcast called, Family Tech Talk.

You can connect with Sarah on her website and social media below.

Family Tech Zone
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter

We're excited to announce our new video series, Today I Made, where we document the process of children making a variety of things from scrambled eggs to spray paint murals and wooden clocks.

Follow along with the step-by-step tutorials geared toward children ages 6 to 12, and hone your skills in woodworking, cooking, art, wellness while creating something you’re truly proud of.

This approachable and practical video series was born during the Covid-19 Shelter in Place orders, when Built by Kids founders, Timothy and Laura Dahl, were eager to find ways to keep their 8-year-old son busy and inspired with fun projects he could do, “all by himself”, allowing them the space to work from home uninterrupted.

Demonstrating projects that typically take two hours to complete, the videos run around 5 minutes long and are vividly edited to effortlessly guide young Makers through each step of the process while offering Pro Tips, to help them perfect specific techniques. It is recommended that you pause the video after each step and replay as needed.

Each video comes with downloadable plans or a recipe and written instructions that can be printed, and a materials list with items most homes will likely already have on hand, to make the project preparation as easy as possible for parents and care-givers. 

“It is our hope that these videos will empower kids with the confidence to take on fun and challenging projects, with minimal involvement from their parents. We want to instill enthusiasm for the process and an innovative spirit encouraging them to use their heads and their hands and make something, every day.” Laura Dahl, Founder of Built by Kids

Join the Built by Kids Club for activity ideas, DIY projects, and gear reviews.

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Welcome to the Built by Kids podcast! Today we explore the world of homeschooling from a parent’s perspective, with Amber Trueblood - parenting expert, author, and host of the Stretch Marks podcast.

As people who weren’t homeschooled ourselves but who know plenty of extraordinary kids who have been, we’ve always been curious about how this alternative approach works, how it fits into working parents’ schedules, and most importantly, the shift in mindset that’s needed to make homeschooling a viable option - 

Knowing that, against the backdrop of a worldwide pandemic, more and more families are evaluating the option, we hope our conversation sheds light on this growing movement and helps guide you to create the best path for your unique family.

You can find the show notes and links to all the resources we discuss at builtbykids.com/homeschool and stick around after our conversation with Amber as Timothy and I synthesize the discussion and evaluate if homeschool is a viable option for our family.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Amber Trueblood is an author, retreat-host, podcaster, and mother of four sons. Amber is obsessed with providing mothers simple and realistic tools to guide them toward a happier, calmer mom-life.

Her approach includes helping clients clarify their unique combination of values, lifestyle, priorities, and family dynamics reinforced with a solid commitment to self-kindness and self-honesty.

She inspires and emboldens moms to choose and implement the tools and tactics most likely to work for their individual personalities and priorities. With confidence, clarity, and a clear sense of purpose, Amber's clients and students can minimize their relationship & parenting challenges and improve their mental health & emotional sanity.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stretchmarks
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/officialambertrueblood/
Website: https://ambertrueblood.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/truebloodzone

Happy spring, and welcome to the Built by Kids podcast. Today we aim to give you the bug for birding, with ornithology enthusiast, Robert Nickel.

In this episode, he shares why birding is the perfect outdoor activity to enjoy with kids and helpful tools to make your birding experience more enjoyable.

Robert developed his passion for nature as a young person while hiking and camping with the Boy Scouts. He then went on to earn his degree in Earth Science from Stanford University.

He caught the bug for birding from his mother as a young adult and to-date, has amassed a life list of 289 species (and counting). He has taken part in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count twice, the Nation’s longest-running community science bird project, and is a respected voice in the world of birding. 

We met Robert at Stanford Sierra Camp where he regularly regales fellow campers with presentations about this semi-unusual passion and is unmatched in his ability to inspire others to pick up a pair of binoculars and start their own birding adventure.

After listening, we’re positive you’ll get the bug for birding as much as we have. 

Show Notes

Must-Have Apps: 

Merlin

eBird

Must-Have Guide Book:

Sibley's Birding Basics

A fantastic intro to the hobby. More than a field guide that goes into a huge number of different birds; This book is an approachable "welcome to the world of birding" that teaches you what to look for and how to find it. Strongly recommend for anyone who wants to take their birding to the next level:
https://www.amazon.com/Sibleys-Birding-Basics-Identify-Behaviors/dp/0375709665

Something I meant to mention but forgot - the critically acclaimed board game "Wingspan" is the first mass-market breakout success that is fun to play and includes real information about the lives of birds that carries over into the field. Fun for ages 10 and up. https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/

My favorite book for kids about birding is from National Geographic, with great photos, engaging fun-facts, and do-it-yourself activities like "How to build a bird-feeder": www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Guide-America-Second/dp/142633074X/

The movie I referenced is "The Big Year" -- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1053810/

Binoculars

Premium
Nikon Prostaff 3S 8x42

Mid-range
Celestron Outland X 8x42

Best for Children
Bespin 8x31

Portable

In this episode, Timothy and Laura Dahl give suggestions on the best way to talk to your children about the Covid-19 pandemic.

While this is a historic and unprecedented experience for those of us living today, this is not the first time a virus has taken hold of the human consciousness, and history teaches us that such challenges can in fact make us stronger, more enlightened, and more connected.

It is up to us to keep our minds and bodies healthy and in a state of symbiotic flow so that when posed with the task of fighting a foreign threat, we have the energy and fortitude to come out of it stronger than ever.

Join the Built by Kids Club for activity ideas, DIY projects, and gear reviews.

Please subscribe and share a review wherever you are listening.

In this episode, Timothy and Laura Dahl discuss their experience with ‘Baby Led Weaning’ and share the reasons they chose to begin their children’s adventure with food using this method.

They go over the benefits, the possible pitfalls and share tips on how to get started so your family will succeed.

“Allowing our children to feed themselves is ultimately about respecting them as capable humans with an innate knowledge of the nutrition their unique bodies need." - Laura Dahl

Eating isn’t something a living being needs to learn. It literally invokes their most basic survival instincts, and they want to do it without choking. As long as a baby can sit up comfortably, they’ll figure out how to get food into their own mouth, safely. They’ll eat until they’ve gotten the nutrition they need from the options presented and they’ll let you know when they are full.

Resources

Bringing up Bebe
One American mother discovers the wisdom of French parenting.

Simple and Safe Baby Led Weaning
How to Introduce Solid Foods and Help Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater

The difference between choking and gagging

The right size and shape of foods for your baby

Join the Built by Kids Club for activity ideas, DIY projects, and gear reviews.

Please subscribe and share a review wherever you are listening.

In this podcast we interview top experts, explore popular methods, and examine innovative concepts to extract unsung parenting solutions.

Raising mindful, independent, and resilient children is an ever-evolving adventure, and parents quickly realize that no one solution works for every child. 

We share life-hacking and parenting tips, wins and fumbles, resources and recommendations, in a casual, inclusive environment with the goal of inspiring and supporting our Future-Makers through the adults who signed on to raise them.

About the Hosts

Timothy and Laura Dahl are the founders of Built by Kids and the parents of two lively young boys (ages two and eight). "We consider parenting to be the most important job anyone can take on and the challenges that come with it are largely universal. We're all doing the best we can with what we know, so we aim to spread the collective learnings of experts, thinkers, and innovators to fill our boxes with the tools that will help us raise rad kids. 

We're not perfect. Our children aren't perfect. The journey isn't simple, but it is colorful and vibrant and filled with love, and best of all - we are all in it together."

In this weekly podcast, they discuss ideas and issues that all modern parents are faced with and motivate families to continue to learn, create, explore, and make-together. 

Join the Built by Kids Club for activity ideas, DIY projects, and gear reviews.

Please subscribe and share a review wherever you are listening.