tech balance

Episode 255: Learning with our Kids through Digital Play with OK Play App co-founders Chris Ovitz and Dr. Colleen Russo Johnson

Can screen time for kids be a positive experience? 📲 When you give parents activities to learn alongside their kids, it can be! This week we interview Chris Ovitz and Dr. Colleen Russo Johnson, two of the co-founders of the new OK Play App. The startup team created the app to connect children and families through play, and it has produced a learning experience for parents to help kids learn social & emotional skills and more.

Bricia and Paulina are personally big fans of the app. As parents with kids stuck at home all day in this quarantine, we’re always looking for new games, shows, and activities to keep our kids entertained and occupied. The best thing about the OK Play app is that it encourages parents to engage in play and learning with our kids. Together we are doing fun activities, like building a golf course like Bricia and Eddie made in the video below, but we’re also learning, communicating, and bonding through fun . Who knew play would be such serious work?

Super Mamas listeners can get a 90 day free trial of the app by visiting okplay.app/supermamas. Happy playing!

More about Co-founder and Chief Scientist, Dr. Colleen Russo Johnson: Dr. Colleen Russo Johnson is a developmental psychologist with an expertise in children's media and technology who serves as an adjunct professor at Ryerson University and Co-Director of the Ryerson Children’s Media Lab. She is a senior scholar for UCLA’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers and co-author of bestselling children's book, Dino Dana: Dino Field Guide. Colleen previously served as director of research at Sinking Ship Entertainment. Colleen is passionate about disseminating relevant research to parents, teachers, and the children's tech & media industry. She holds a PhD from Vanderbilt University as a National Science Foundation graduate student fellow and now lives in Toronto. She is the proud mom of two dogs and two toddlers, Ripley and Rex.

More about Co-founder and President, Chris Ovitz: Chris Ovitz is a serial tech entrepreneur who has built and advised companies that are inspired by his childhood love of gaming and that expand the possibilities of mobile. Prior to OK, Chris co-founded Workpop (acquired by Cornerstone OnDemand ), which reimagined the job seeking experience for essential workers. In 2011, he co-founded Viddy, a pioneering social mobile video platform that grew to over 70 million users and was acquired by Fullscreen . He led business development and strategy for Scopely and Adly and has served as an advisor to Code.org and Box . Chris is also an active angel investor in companies like Beyond Meat (Nasdaq: BYND), Block Renovation, Songza (acquired by Google), and Seismic Games (acquired by Niantic). Chris is a member of Vanity Fair’s “Next Establishment List” and graduated from UCLA with a BA in History. Chris' single greatest achievement is becoming a dad to his son, Pax.

About OK Play: OK Play is a first-of-its-kind app that sparks creation, conversation, and connection between parents and their children. Through fun activities that are interactive and encourage social and emotional growth, OK Play helps families establish a daily practice of bonding and sharing together. The app was made by parents and entrepreneurs at The OK Company, an LA-based media and technology startup whose mission is to help families be OK with exactly where they are right now. Join OK Play for free at www.okplay.co

Parenting Gems 💎 from this Week’s episode

The academic stuff is important but it’s a balance. Play is serious work. - Chris Ovitz

There is no perfect parent, and anyone who is trying to pretend to be perfect in their parenting is doing a disservice to their child. - Dr. Colleen Russo Johnson

Links

Follow @OKPlay on Instagram and Twitter.

Download the app in the App Store or get it on Google Play.

Super Mamas listeners can get a 90 day free trial of the app by visiting okplay.app/supermamas.

Watch Dino Dana and Annedroids on Amazon Prime, Odd Squad on PBS, and Endlings on Hulu.




Episode 238: Teaching Our Kids About Progress, Not Perfection with author Candice Lapin

What does it mean to be a parent during these crazy times? This week we have a pre-rona interview with author Candice Lapin. We discuss her new book, “Parenting in the Age of Perfection”, why you should teach your kids that learning new things takes time, not to be guided by comparison and she reminds us that finding our own learning rhythm as kids will turn into successful habits as adults. This episode is such a good reminder that even if you fail, you just get up, dust off and try again! Tune in and take notes!

Before the episode, we’re talking about how long it’s been since we’ve been indoors and how we need to start thinking of summer activities for the kids to do indoors. But let’s be honest, we know that Netflix and Disney + will be our babysitters these next few months and we are okay with that. 🤣 Even though things are opening up in California/LA County, we don’t feel we will venture out too much until our kids go back to school.

More about Candice Lapin: Candice is the author of Parenting in the Age of Perfection: A Modern Guide to Nurturing a Success Mindset and is the founder of The Ladder Method, a meta-learning and academic coaching company based in Los Angeles. Her goal is to give parents ammunition as they make decisions that align with the best interests for their children. She takes those troublesome behaviors that frustrate parents and breaks down how to change each one. By making micro-shifts in your child’s environment, behaviors and mindsets, parents can lead their tween/teens to success!

Pick or Tip of the Week

Paulina’s pick is for mosquito season and it’s the Sana Salve Balm by Happy Organics Co. We featured them in our swag bags during the posada last year and they were a part of our recent Zocial Online Marketplace. Paulina and her girls apply the salve to their bites and the itching is gone overnight! It’s great for scrapes and burns and it’s all natural.

Bricia’s picks this week are a few of her favorite pantry staples. She’s been eating so many roasted or pan fried veggies while she’s been at home, and this is what she uses:

Her typical breakfast is hard boiled eggs and broccoli with olive oil, balsamic, salt & pepper and aleppo pepper, and it’s really good.

LINKS

Parenting in the Age of Perfection: A Modern Guide to Nurturing a Success Mindset by Candice Lapin. Now available for purchase on theladdermethod.com, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about The Ladder Method learning techniques.

The Daily Podcast by the New York Times

Episode 236: Balancing Our Technology Intake During Our Time at Home with Rocio Lopez of Common Sense Latino

After a quick break from our Super Mamas ZOCIAL, we’re here with a new episode! We’re still under the safer at home order, and we’ve been spending so much time watching tv and online, even after homework and work is done. It got us thinking about one of the last guests we interviewed before the lockdown happened - Rocio Lopez from Common Sense Latino. We decided to rerecord her interview for a better update on how we can have a healthy balance of technology during this newfound time at home.

We talk about setting up screen time schedule and tech free zones, child safety while online, and easy tech tips everyone can use while social distancing. She even shared her top technology tips and some free resources below! Every family and situations is different, so there’s no need to feel shame for extending tech time; luckily Rocio and Common Sense Latino will help us learn how to balance it all!

More about Rocio Lopez: Rocío López is the Community Partnerships Manager for Common Sense Latino and facilitates parent workshops and coaching on healthy media habits and wellbeing in the digital age. She is passionate about working in the community and providing free resources for Latinx families to thrive in this world of media and tech. Rocío regularly does segments on Univision LA about technology and parenting. A theatre teaching artist by trade, she has 15 years of professional experience coordinating youth and family programs in California and New York, as well as developing arts programs for children and foster youth. 

Rocio’s Top Tech Tips

1. Set up a screen time schedule for your household. Every child is different, but accommodate their schedule with your work schedule so they coincide.

2. Build in tech free zones and tech free times into your schedule. For example - not technology during meals, in the bed, during exercise, one hour before bedtime etc.

3. Have your kids use their technology in close proximity to you so you can listen and overhear what they’re doing & saying.

4. Be aware of your children’s behavior changes. Are they acting out because of the time they’re spending online (or not spending online)?

LINKS

Learn more about Common Sense Media and the free resources, like technology ratings & reviews for apps, books, games, movies, website and more, and everything else they offer on commonsensemedia.org.

Check out wideopenschool.org, a free resource site for educators and families with kids from kindergarten through 12th grade, for more activities and learning opportunities.

Follow Rocio’s adventures on Instagram or Twitter @itsRocioLopez 

Get FREE weekly bite-sized advice and tips right to your text messages, in English or Spanish!! Just text the word KIDS or FAMILIA to 21555