Minnow’s Five Things

Here’s what caught my attention this week while I was busy focusing on the fact that it’s STILL summer. Fit kids, tools for parents to help kids manage cell phone protocol, ugly fruit and Hanx (not Spanx) all made my list.
For those of you in back to school mode, keep these stats in mind when you’re setting rules around screen time and signing the kids up for activities (or not): only 5% of kids in Canada get the 60 minutes of physical activity they require every day, while research shows that a more active child will actually do better socially and academically. Our friends at ParticipACTION created this handy infographic for moms to consider now that it’s backpack season again. I like the tip about not packing over 15% of a child’s total body weight.

If you’re looking for some help tearing them away from screens (like their phone), consider an app called Moment, designed to keep you off your phone. I know, a phone app designed to keep you away from it? It tracks how much time you spend on your phone and on certain tasks, then you tell it how much time you want to spend (moms, this is where you can set boundaries). It will ping with a warning when your time is almost up and eventually shut off if you have exceeded your limit. Hello, Moment, we are in you.

While we’re on the subject of apps, imagine one that turns your child’s phone off if they don’t respond to your texts or phone calls. It’s called the Ignore No More app and it’s the brainchild of a Texan mom who was tired of her children ignoring her. So now if her kids don’t respond to texts or phone calls, the phone shuts down. No more games, no more snapchat, no more Instagram until you talk to your mother! That’s what I call good parenting.

Another interesting App I learned about this week is called The Hanx Writer, launched by Tom Hanks of all people. It’s not about movies or entertainment, it’s about typing, old school, but on an ipad. The app mimics the experience of typing on a typewriter with all the sounds and bells and return swooshes that a typewriter makes. According to Techcrunch, it’s already ranking number one in both the productivity section of iTunes as well as overall.

In completely unrelated news, I learned of an ugly fruit and vegetable revolution happening globally that French grocery chain Intermarche is spearheading. This video, named appropriately as Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables explains everything. It’s really scary and horrifying to learn about how much waste we produce. Hopefully this video will make enough of an impact to inspire some change from other grocers.

Have a good week and eat your fruits and veggies!