The Famundo Blog

Any thoughts about the whole KinderStart bouhahah?

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Sat, 15 Jul 2006 01:20:27 GMT

Anyone have any thoughts on the legal issues between KinderStart and Google?

KinderStart, as you may know, is a search engine dedicated to children, parenting and other family issues, whi has file a complaint against Google for their low search rankings.

“The parenting site alleges that Google engaged in anticompetitive behavior in violation of antitrust laws by removing a competitor from its top search pages in order to maintain its dominance in the search market. During his questioning of the parties, the issue of antitrust appeared to resonate with the judge, who indicated he understood the point KinderStart was trying to make.”

To be honest, I really haven’t looked into this issue very much. Would love to get reader’s thoughts on this.

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iVillage hires new president

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Tue, 11 Jul 2006 00:26:00 GMT

I always thought iVillage was an interesting idea, at least conceptually, though I have to admit, I haven’t spent a lot of time looking at their site.

Anyway, they have hired a new president, Deborah Fine, who hails from Victoria’s Secret, Glamour and Bride magazine. She describes herself as a “360-degree woman”

Here is an interview with her in Advertising Age.

Posted in Family Life | no comments | no trackbacks

Some of us were once hippies

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Mon, 10 Jul 2006 01:33:00 GMT

This was a real deja vu for me. I read Victor Papanek’s 1973-4 “Nomadic Furniture” book about 20 years ago and had totally forgotten the name of the book and the author’s name. I mean it is kind of a hippie, alternative lifestyle kind of book, but it had a lot of cool ideas.

DaddyTypes has an article which talks about the book and the 14-or so page section on Children, Babies & Small Kids that includes spreads on used tire playgrounds and scary-looking swinging contraptions.

It’s a good read.

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Big Mother

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Mon, 10 Jul 2006 00:32:00 GMT

I’m not sure if this is going too far or not. Where do the boundries of trust end? Perhaps it is the society that we live in today.

Via pasta&vinegar, the SFGate.com has an article Parents turn to tech toys to track teens.

In addition to Verizon’s Chaperone service and Sprint’s Family Locator service, there are a number of companies that are offering technology to keep track of your kids.

SmartWear Technologies in San Diego plans to take GPS monitoring to another level in the fall, offering radio-frequency tags for children’s clothing

CarChip, made by Davis Instruments in Hayward, makes a device that plugs in beneath a car’s dashboard and records driving behavior. The data it collects can be downloaded to a computer, and the device can sound an alarm when the car speeds or accelerates too fast.

This is fascinating stuff. Would love to get your comments on it.

Read the article here.

Posted in Parenting, Family Life, Setting Limits, Technology | no comments | no trackbacks

A new parenting magazine

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Sun, 09 Jul 2006 02:36:00 GMT

Wondertime certainly has it’s heart in the right place. They are dedicated to “helping parents nurture their children’s love of learning. A blend of h’ow and why, Wondertime inspires moms of infants through 6-year-olds to see the world through the eyes of their children, and to celebrate the wonder of this all-too-fleeting time.”

Ain’t that the truth. It seems like ony yesterday that our son was entering pre-school and next year he’ll be a high schooler.

Wondertime is a beautifully designed web site. I haven’t had much time to peruse it yet, but it looks very promising.

Check it out.

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

Executive Parenting

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Sun, 09 Jul 2006 02:25:00 GMT

A new book, Executive Parenting : Risks & Solutions for the Working Parent claims to cover such topics as:

“Divorce, single parenting, substance abuse, careers, and the search for personal satisfaction and achievement.”

According to their description, “health expert Debi Davis and Marriage and Family Counselor Dr. Ellen Sherman have combined their knowledge and experience to deliver a comprehensive manual for child-rearing in the 21st century. Davis & Sherman take a fresh look at: Family Planning and Playtime, “Mirroring” and Building Self-esteem, School Selection and Education, Gang Participation, Overcoming the Temptation To Spoil, Attention Deficit Disorders, and more!”

Let us know if you had a chance to read this book.

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

Lot's of cool stuff out there

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Sat, 24 Jun 2006 01:40:00 GMT

We are showing off Famundo for Organizations this weekend at the National PTA Conference in Phoenix, AZ. (boy is it HOT here, 109 today!!!)

There are a lot of cool exhibitors here and I’ll report on them over the next few days.

This one really caught my eye, CommonSenseMedia.org is a site that offers reviews on all kinds of media, films, TV, games, web sites, music, books and more, by families, kids and the CommonSenseMedia editors.

It is a really good resource.

I like their mission statement, it really says it all:

“To give parents, educators, and kids a choice and a voice about the media they consume.”

They also have a blog, CommonSenseMediaBlog which has very timely articles.

Posted in Parenting, Family Life, Famundo, Setting Limits | no comments | no trackbacks

Famundo for Organizations in now available!

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Tue, 20 Jun 2006 21:46:00 GMT

We are very pleased to announce that Famundo for Organizations is now available and ready for you to signup.

Famundo for Organizations is designed to save you time and money by simplifying the scheduling and communications processes between you and your members.

Famundo is not only FREE for community organization, but also offers incredible fundraising opportunities. For each member of your organization that signs up as a Famundo for Families subscriber, we will donate a portion of their subscription fee back to your organization. Click here to learn more.

To learn more about Famundo for Organization, click here.

We have two hosted demos set up, one for schools and one for churches, so you can get a feel as to how Famundo can work for your organization. To view our demos, click here..

To sign up for Famundo for Organizations now, click here.

Famundo for Families is scheduled to be released by the end of July and we invite you to tell your members about it.

Famundo for Families is a great complement to Famundo for Organizations. Members of your organization will be able to subscribe to calendars and events on your organization’s Famundo calendar and have it automatically updated in their personal Famundo calendar.

Your members can signup for notification by clicking here.

To learn more about the benefits of Famundo for Families and how it works with your Famundo, click here

Posted in School, Family Life, Famundo, Technology | no comments | no trackbacks

ParentHacks

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Fri, 16 Jun 2006 02:38:00 GMT

ParentHacks is another parenting advice blog with an interesting twist. They will often focus on gadgets and other helpful “stuff” for parents that make life just a little bit easier, such as the Case Logic litter bag for the car or the Swissmar Borner V-Slicer Plus , for making those little julienne carrots the kid’s love to eat.

Editors Asha and Rael Dornfest both come from a tech background. Rael is CTO for O’Reilly Media and Asha has written several books about web publishing, including the Wiley publication, Microsoft FrontPage for Dummies.

This blog definitely is worth keeping your eye on.

Posted in Parenting, Family Life, Technology | 2 comments | no trackbacks

Collaborative Photo Scrapbooks

Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Fri, 16 Jun 2006 02:10:00 GMT

Our son just graduated from a school that goes from kindergarten through 8th grade. A lot of the kids in his class have been together since kindergarten. The parents decided it would be really nice to create a memory book for the graduates with photos and stories compiled over the past 9 years.

What sounded like a very nice gesture turned into a major project, with parents digging through boxes of photos and other mementos, bringing them in to get scanned, and endless meetings and design sessions. Ultimately we came up with a very nice product.

But we had only known about this web site it would have been such a painless project. SharedBook is an online collaborative website where family and friends can work together and add photos and text and create their own published book.

They have several prepared templates for books on AYSO, Little League, New Baby, with several more planned. An 8.5” x 11” book with 30 pages is only $27.

This is one of the more interesting and useful Family 2.0 sites I have found. Please check them out.

Posted in Family Life, Technology | 2 comments | no trackbacks