The Famundo Blog

True Stories - Keeping our distributed family in touch

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:33:00 GMT

We are a very close family of seven adult children and our dad and are spread out all over the globe. We are using Famundo to keep our family in touch with each other and have found a lot of creative ways to use it.

Naturally we use the calendar to let everyone know if and when we are traveling. The Address Book is great for keeping the address and phone numbers of our mutual friends and family. We use the lists for projects that we are working on together and plan to use it for gift exchange help this Christmas. The photos albums are a real treat, each one of us uploads recent photos of our respective families. Thanks for making it easily for our family to stay closer!

Posted in Family 2.0, Family Life, Famundo | Tags families | no comments

True Stories - Managing our carpool

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:14:00 GMT

We have been using Famundo to manage our carpool. There are four families involved and in the past we would get daily calls with questions about who is picking up in the morning or who is picking up after school.

We solved this problem by adding a carpool calendar to our Famundo site, with View access set to Public. Since the View access on the other items on our calendars is set to Family, only the carpool schedule is viewable by the public.

Now we set the carpool schedule over the weekend and enter the events for the upcoming week. If the schedule is the same, it is very easy to use Famundo’s Copy feature to copy events from one week to another.

Everyone else in the carpool has our public URL so they can pull up the calendar anytime they wish. We even have the phone numbers available in the events so if you need to call a driver, it is right there at your fingertips.

Here is a screen shot of our carpool calendar.

Posted in Parenting, School, Family 2.0, Family Life, Famundo | Tags carpool | no comments

Upgrade to Famundo for Families Plus!

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Wed, 26 Sep 2007 20:25:00 GMT

Users of our free standard version of Famundo for Families can now upgrade to Famundo for Families Plus and enjoy no ads, more file and photo storage and much more. For a complete list of features, please visit our features page.

To upgrade, click on the Upgrade link on the Famundo banner. You have the option of paying a monthly fee of $9.95 or an annual subscription of $99. And, for a limited time, annual subscribers receive 14 months for the cost of 12!

Posted in Family 2.0, Famundo, Technology | no comments

Getting your family hooked on Famundo

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Sun, 15 Jul 2007 21:00:00 GMT

I have to admit, it even took some time for me to get my family hooked on Famundo. But now they’re hooked. In fact, we’ve even turned Famundo into a verb, “Why don’t you Famundo that” or “Would you Famundo this for me?”.

Here is how I got them hooked. We have a main computer in the family room which is always on. Everyone in the family uses it for various activities.

I made my Famundo calendar page the homepage for my browser, FireFox, and I leave the browser open all the time.

Now, everyone can easily glance at the calendar if they need and since Famundo is already open, it’s a snap to add something to the grocery list or look up someone’s phone number.

To make your Famundo calendar your browser’s homepage, you can follow the instructions below.

1. Log into Famundo. (I logged in as myself, since I don’t have anything private and this gives full access to everyone)

2. Do the following, depending on what browser you are using:

FireFox

1. Click on Tools > Options on the main menu.
2. Click on the Main icon
3. Click on Use Current Pages button
4. Click on the OK button.

Internet Exlporer

1. Click on Tools > Internet Options on the main menu.
2. Click on the General tab
3. Click on Use Current button
4. Click on the OK button.

Safari

1. Click on Edit > Preferences on the main menu.
2. Click on the General icon
3. Click on Set to Current Page button
4. Close the Preferences window. .

Posted in Family 2.0, Family Life, Famundo, Technology | no comments

Edubuntu, Linux for Kids

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Tue, 06 Mar 2007 02:30:00 GMT

I have been using Edubuntu on one of my home computers for a while now. It is an excellent solution for the family, since I can use it as my Linux box and my daughter loves the games and educational features that are included.

I’m surprised I haven’t written about Edubuntu before. At any rate, I was spurred on by this humorous article by PC Mag’s Sascha Segan My baby is turning 1. It’s time to get her a laptop.

According to Segan, “Kids should use the same tech stuff that grown-ups use, with age-appropriate restrictions.” Its a good read.

Posted in Parenting, Family 2.0, Family Life, Technology | Tags edubuntu | no comments

Family 2.0 reviews Famundo!

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Thu, 18 Jan 2007 10:23:44 GMT

A great article about Famundo on Family 2.0 today. Thank you very much!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Family 2.0, it is a very cool site and a MUST read if you want to keep on top of the latest developments in web applications that relate to parenting and family life. It is the equivalent of TechCrunch for the Family 2.0 space.

The person behind Family 2.0 is Rachel Cook who is also a co-founder, along with her husband Clay Cook, of Minti, a parent to parent advice-opedia and community website. Minti is a great place to find advice on a wide range of parenting topics.

Check them out!

Posted in Family 2.0, Web 2.0, Famundo, Technology | no comments

Allowance 2.0

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Sun, 07 Jan 2007 13:00:00 GMT

The whole paradigm of children’s allowances has changed with the advent of online purchasing and the Wall Street Journal has an excellent (FREE) article on this new model, Allowance 2.0

The article mentions several software applications and online services that help with the allowance process.

EasyChild Software which has features like an allowance calculator and “weekly behavior chart.”

PAYjr, an allowance-tracking Web site.

My Reward Board features a chore chart and a cartoon piggy bank where parents can “deposit” allowances.

The is also a podcast, where Journal reporter John Jurgensen looks at the growing popularity of the virtual allowance and how parents are using technology to track their children’s spending habits. Listen to the podcast.

Posted in Parenting, Family 2.0, Family Life, Setting Limits | no comments

We can all use some help this time of year

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Thu, 14 Dec 2006 12:13:03 GMT

This has to be one of the busiest times of the year (Of course, each season seems to bring on its own unique brand busyness). The kids will soon be out of school for a few weeks. The evenings are busy with parties and other social affairs. Time needs to be alotted for family and friends.

In the few spare moments during the last few weeks of this year, I intend to get our family organized, which, of course, means getting our family fully on board with Famundo. Several of the local groups that we belong to will also be rolling out their own Famundo sites, so we can subscribe to their calendars.

But there are many other things that we can use some extra help with. A new service has come to my attention, GetVendors.com

GetVendors.com, a web 2.0 start up has taken upon the challenge of relieving stress of household chores from busy lives of working moms (and dads, I might add).

GetVendors.com has three primary functional modules

1. Pro-match (an online service professional match making service)

2. Household Organizer (AJAX based interactive tools to manage household chores.

3. Community Groups that help users share everyday ideas with their trusted friends. is the only service that gets you proposals from professionals who best match your needs & not the only ones who pay for leads

You can create your own groups, but one that looks very useful is one for Working Moms.

So if you need to find someone trim your trees or fix your computer, GetVendors.com is a good place to start.

Posted in Family 2.0, Family Life, Famundo | Tags organized | no comments

There is still time to vote for your favorite blog!

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Thu, 14 Dec 2006 11:23:32 GMT

You have two day, until December 15, 2006, to vote for your favorite blog at the 2006 Weblog Awards.

The Weblog Awards are the world’s largest blog competition, with over 1 million votes cast in the last three years for nearly 1,000 blogs. This year’s edition is the biggest ever with 45 categories to choose from. Nominations ended November 24, and voting began December 7 and will end December 15.

Some of the categories include Best Parenting Blog and Best Educational Blog.

Although some of my favorites aren’t listed in the top 10, there is also an opportunuty to vote for hundreds of more blogs (1,000 actually) that are ranked in the TruthLaidBear Blogosphere Ecosystem.

I voted!

Posted in Family 2.0 | no comments

Maya's Mom is Live!

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:41:00 GMT

Back in April I mentioned a new collaborative parenting site that was soon coming online. Maya’s Mom has now officially launched.

Accordng to Ann, (Maya’s real mom and CEO), “We created Maya’s Mom so parents everywhere can find and share experiences and advice with each other—everything from separation anxiety to recipes, from finding the right tricycle to responding appropriately when your son grabs toys from other kids.

Its a great looking site and seems like it will be a valuable resource. Check it out!

Posted in Parenting, Family 2.0 | no comments | no trackbacks