Inspire Kids to Get Ready for School Early with a Checklist

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Lately in my house we've been having trouble getting kids ready for school on time. As the school year months drag on, this becomes a more normal complaint for many of you parents out there. As such we've tried just about everything to get the kids to follow directions and be ready on time. As I observed my kids getting ready one week, I noticed their methods were not consistent. I wondered what would happen if we added some structure to the getting ready process. By creating a visual template, they will be able to see what they're supposed to do each and every day in order to be on time for school. I came up with a template for my kids that lets them check off for each day each step in the getting ready process (pictured above).My kids seem to love checking off items and at the end of the week, I trade a completed checklist for $2.00—so they get a bonus. So far, we haven't been late for school once and my wife and I have had much more relaxed mornings as a result. You can download this template in Microsoft Word format and edit it anyway you like to inspire your kids to get ready in the morning. Let me know your results in the comments below.

Online Coloring Book TheColor Sports Web 2.0 Features

If you have a kid on your hands who loves to color, TheColor is an online coloring book archive with some novel features.

You can browse coloring pages by categories covering everything from animals to seasons. Kids can rank images by popularity and add their votes to the mix (My First Digg, without the "fail" comments?). Each coloring page can be printed or colored with a virtual palette and saved to a personal or public gallery.

There's even an option to share pages by email if your budding designer wants to show Grandma how awesome a squirrel can look with red eyes and a purple tail. If you're looking for more personalized images to color, look back at how to turn your photographs into coloring pages and make sure to keep all your crayon nubs to make recycled crayons with cool shapes. If you have some great and free resources for entertaining kids, color or monochrome, share them in the comments below.

Kideo Player Makes YouTube Safe for the Kids

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Kideo is a simple front-end for letting your kids off the leash on YouTube, with an extensive white list of kid-friendly videos that can be refreshed via the space bar.

Kideo doesn't strive to have advanced features. Instead, it makes it really easy for kids to watch YouTube videos safe for young eyes. There's no access to any additional features in YouTube; the interface is spartan, and the videos are refreshed by pressing the space bar. If your little one doesn't smack the space bar to skip onto the next video, it runs through an approved queue. Unlike many sites that white list web pages and content for children, Kideo isn't community or committee-driven. The entire white list is maintained by a father of two who wanted his kids to be able to watch YouTube vidoes. Most of the vidoes that I saw using the service were watchable, with an emphasis on PBS and educational videos. With the dead simple, spacebar-only interface, it's also navigable for all but the smallest children.

Zoodles Corrals Kids in a Safe and Educational Browser

Zoodles Corrals Kids in a Safe and Educational Browser

Windows/Mac: If you're looking for a kid-friendly way to let a young child interact with your computer without the risk of them deleting important files or getting into content they shouldn't see, Zoodles is a kid-friendly browser.

Older children can—and should!—be taught to use a computer as it is and not in a walled garden but younger children certainly shouldn't be let loose on a computer. Zoodles is a free browser for Windows and Mac machines intended for children 2-8 years old. One of the most interesting features of Zoodles is the interface scaling. Small children can use Zoodles with a text-free and simplified interface and as they get older and acquire reading skills you can increase the complexity of the interface to include written text and more detailed GUI elements.

The basic version of Zoodles is free, upgrading to the $7.95 a month premium version adds in additional functionality like parent reports, advanced filtering, and the ability to filter out games and content beyond what the kid-friendly filtering included in the basic version provides.

For more kid-friendly browsing options check out previously reviewed KIDO'Z, KidZui, andKidRocket. Have a favorite kid-friendly tool to share? Let's hear about it in the comments.

How Can I Teach My Techno-Shy Parents to Use Their New Gadgets (and Stay Sane Doing It)?

Dear Lifehacker,
My parents have a new digital camera, and as I am from the "gadget generation", they think I automatically know how to use their new device and can teach them how to use it the moment I'm handed the camera.

How can I teach them how to use it while simultaneously keeping my sanity, especially as I already DON'T know how to use it?

Sincerely,
Frustrated with F-stops

Dear Frustrated,

Great question! And you came to the right place. I have plenty of experience in parental diplomatic relations while teaching technology, and yes—there is a wonderful solution to keep both your sanity, and them extremely happy (and able to immediately use their camera). And of course, this applies beyond parents who aren't great with tech (many are!); you can use the same approach with friends and coworkers who turn to you to do the heavy lifting when they buy a new gadget.

Make a Good Parts Version of the Instructions

When author William Goldman wrote The Princess Bride, he jokingly called it the "good parts version" of a fictional, painstakingly boring, and much longer novel by an (also fictional) writer named S. Morgenstern.

What I am suggesting to you, and I have done this on many occasion while training, is to create a "good parts version" of the user manual for your parent's camera.

Make sure you get the correct make and model number from your parents (and yes, dear Frustrated, I understand this may require a whole new "Ask Lifehacker"). From there, go to the camera's official site and download the PDF of the user manual for the camera. Yes, the entire 400-page manual containing all the warranty information, the ISO and white balance preset information. That's the one.

Now print out the following pages:

1. The cover page.
2. The page where they show the front and back of the camera with the diagram of the buttons, and the numbered text explaining what each button does.
3. The page where they explain how to playback and view photos.
4. The page where they explain how to delete photos.
5. The page where they explain how to connect the camera to the computer.
6. Any other page that contains features you’ll think they’ll be able to handle, or you already know they would like to know how to do (Remember, you can always print out another manual of more advanced features. The object here is not to overwhelm them).

After you have printed them out, put the cover page on top, and staple them together. You can sit down and go over it with your parents, explaining that you've put together the goods-part version of the manual for them.

Your parents will be ecstatic, and most importantly, they will know how to get started learning how to use their new camera. And you'll be able to print out "good-parts versions" of any technology they need to use in the future.

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

P.S. Got your own always-works method of teaching people to use their technology without the frustration? Let's hear it in the comments.

Keep Small Items Together in a Dishwasher with a Strawberry Basket

Plastic strawberry (and other berry) baskets can be reused as handy dishwasher baskets. Use them on the top shelf of the dishwasher to keep small items secure while washing.

The next time you buy a basket of berries, save the basket for use in your dishwasher. (Sure, you could buy a dedicated dishwasher basket, but why not save a couple of bucks and reuse a piece of plastic that might otherwise just be thrown out?)

It's no surprise that this tip comes from parenting hacks blog, as parents of young ones have an awful lot of small things to wash (pacifiers, sippy cup valves, and so on). But the strawberry basket can also be useful for washing small, distinctly non-baby things, like rubber wine stoppers and kitchen utensils.

Use some twine to wind a sort of net or grid over the top of the basket to keep the items secure while washing, and replace your whole DIY dishwasher basket regularly.

Encourage Children to Earn Money for Digital Items Through Entrepreneurial Actions

These days kids not only want video games and traditional toys but also online tokens, "soul gems", and other digital currency items for the games they play online. If you're a parent and allow your child to play these types of games you have to decide where they will fund the extras the game will require—do you just pay it yourself or do you make the child use their allowance?

Personal finance weblog Man Vs. Debt author Adam Baker's young daughter wanted to buy extra virtual tokens for a kiddie-MMO, Baker responded by asking what she think she could do to earn a little extra spending money. Turns out the kid loves to make paintings and her dad and her worked out a plan to sell several of her paintings to relatives at six quarters each. The girl painted five or six paintings, an activity she enjoys, and sold all of her paintings to relatives who were eager to add her work to their refrigerator.

Whether it's a lemonade stand, cookies, or even finger paintings, encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit in your children will teach them about the work that goes into earning money and they may even decide not to spend their hard-won quarters on frivolous downloads. Baker's daughter has yet to spend the quarters she earned painting.

Prepare Yourself for the Winter Cold This Weekend

Temperatures are dropping quickly, and before you know it you'll be wishing you had prepared for the winter tundra. This weekend, take some time to prepare yourself and your home so you can stay warm for the next few months.

Photo remixed from an original by Andrew Magill.

Keep Your Home Warm

As we start to inch closer to winter, it's a good idea to do a once-over on your house and make sure it's ready for the cold. Get your furnace ready, insulate those windows with some bubble wrap, and get a programmable thermostat to save on energy bills. Alternatively, if you have a small apartment or you only need to heat one room in the house, a good space heater will keep you warm while keeping those electric bills down.

When it does come time to get cozy, make sure you know how to build a killer fire. While you're at 

it, you can beef up your wood chopping skills (better to do it now than in below zero weather), or just make your own fireplace log out of newspaper. Keep those windows frost- and fog- free with a salt wash or some shaving cream, too. If your pipes freeze, you can defrost them with some salt water.

Lastly, while it isn't exactly warming up your home, make sure you've done everything you can to free your home of static electricity. It's going to be a much bigger problem once it gets dry out there.

Photo by Jon Olav Eikenes.

Keep Yourself Warm

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Not only does it cost money to heat your house, but insulating yourself is actually more efficient than insulating your home. So, check out some of these unconventional tips on heating yourself in the house, including sleeping with a hot water bottle. You can also wear that ugly Christmas sweater your grandma gave you, or turn it into a pair of mittens instead. Basically,prepare your body for winter as much as your home—you'll not only stay warm and happy, but probably save some money in the process.

Photo by Vato Bob.

Brave the Cold Outdoors

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Try as you might, you'll probably have to go outside at some point during the frozen months. In fact, you should: make sure you keep exercising in the winter. Wear appropriate clothing and prepare your bicycle if necessary, and use a plastic bag to keep your feet dry if boots aren't an option. Make sure you wear gloves, too. If you're annoyed by their lack of touch screen usability, grab a pair of touch screen-friendly gloves, or make your own for cheap (thoughthermal compound can do in a pinch as well). Lastly, drive safely, and if you get stuck in the snow, remember that your floor mats can help you get a bit more traction.

Photo by comedy_nose.

Stay Healthy and Productive

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Winter can be pretty draining, on both your physical and mental health, so keep yourself happy, healthy, and motivated in the winter.Make sure your immune system is in tip top shape, and if you do get sick, know when to stop exercising and start beating that cold into submission. Don't forget about your mental health, too—seasonal affective disorder can really bring you down in the winter, so start preparing now. And, last but not least, make sure you're prepared for power losses, internet outages, and other snowpocalypse-related emergencies. With enough foresight, this winter'll be a cakewalk.

Save Water by Converting Your Toilet to Dual Flush with This $20 Retrofit Kit

Save Water by Converting Your Toilet to Dual Flush with This $20 Retrofit Kit

Last year we covered the basics behindconverting your toilet to a dual flush but since then an easier and cheaper option has hit the market. Using the HydroRight Drop-In Dual Flush Converter ($18.80 at Amazon) you can convert just about any toilet to dual flush in about five minutes using no tools.

The video from the manufacturer above uses an eight year-old kid to emphasize how easy to install the kit. All you really need to do is turn off the water using the valve behind the tank, remove the flapper and toilet handle, replace those with the new ones from the HydroRight kit, and turn the water back on.

The manufacturer claims that most users will recoup the cost of the retrofit kit within two months of water bills and that within a year you'll save enough water to fill a swimming pool.

If you're looking to make your home more efficient the retrofit kit seems to be a safe bet; the small cost offers a nearly immediate return-of-investment.