Maven Says: Cozi is Cool

When I heard about Cozi Central my first thought was that's nice but not for me, I use Outlook. I decided to go ahead and give it a try to see what advantages it could bring to organizing our lives outside of work mode. Gman and I run our lives by the Outlook calendar, we are both hooked in at work, he has Outlook set-up at home, and I am a card carrying Crackberry addict. When I found out that Cozi had the ability to sync up with Outlook I thought all of my organizational prayers had been answered! I had dreams of everything I needed to know right there on my Blackberry at my side all the time. And serious bonus, FREE. Unfortunately despite some of its great features I didn't reach the organizational nirvana I had imagined.

The Cozi Central web site is visually appealing and easy to use. To personalize it you can add your own pictures and make picture collages. The homepage displays three days on the calendar, the current time in big readable numbers, the shopping list du jour, and any messages you receive at the bottom of the screen. A great overview of what you need, where you are spending your time and what the rest of the family wants you to know right there at your fingertips. You can assign each person in the house a color and the calendar is then color coded so at a glance you know who has to be where and when. A definite improvement over my black and white calendar that requires actual reading.

Okay, back to my Outlook/Blackberry love affair. I downloaded the Cozi toolbar for Outlook and all seemed well. The instructions were easy and the toolbar showed up as expected. Unfortunately I could never make the two sync that I could tell. I did have some appointments show up with a Cozi ID listed when I printed them out. Unfortunately every time I tried to sync Outlook hung up and I ended up having to shut everything down and re-boot my machine. Not totally unexpected for a beta version of a tool for Microsoft or for me, the Tech Support nightmare. Given the issues I've had with my Outlook account in the past and the critical nature of my work calendar being pristine I had to abandon ship on the Outlook/Cozi synchronization. Hopefully when the release is out of beta testing I can take advantage of the great features.

I do love the list feature, go in any time and type in your grocery and warehouse store lists. Then you can e-mail them, print them or access them via phone. My collection of post-it notes don't allow for accessible storage or remote retrieval!

Cozi Central is a great concept for busy households. If it weren't for my work dependence on Outlook I'd use it to run my household in a heartbeat. Given my current technological challenges there are features that I'll take advantage of the opportunity to look at the sweet faces of my kids, keep a running grocery list and retrieve it remotely. Again, its a great FREE service so go check it out and see how it can help you better manage your household activities. I'd love to hear from someone who has been successful in integrating it with and Outlook Exchange account to learn the tricks of the trade.

You can see what other bloggers had to say about Cozi Central by checking in with the Parent Blogger Network campaign.

Maven Says: Let's Get Ready for First Grade!

I’ll admit it, sometimes I struggle not to be Competimommy when it comes to school, not that I brag to others, its just that I want PDQ to do well at school and sometimes am overly focused on how well. Living in a very educationally focused area I have had moments of did I do the right thing only doing part-time preschool and should we have done more to get her ready for school? I worry at times about her being in one of the few remaining schools in the area with only half-day Kindergarten (they will all be full day next year). It is definitely a struggle around here some days to focus on the important stuff and not get caught up in the production of the perfect kid. When she told me a few weeks ago that she hates reading my heart almost stopped. I love to read, I don’t know what I’d do without books to lose myself in or find out more about whatever it is that suddenly I need to know more about. All year I’ve struggled with letting it come to her in her own time and not pushing her, trying to find fun ways to help her progress. So with that backdrop, I set out to take a look at Let's Get Ready for First Grade!

My anxiety was eased a bit when she came to me in the shower the other day wanting to know how to do a sheet in a workbook of course only I could answer it, wet and naked, because she didn’t want to bother Daddy. She has also been carrying around Let’s Get Ready for First Grade! by Linda Desimowich and Stacey Kannenberg from Cedar Valley Publishing. Along with it she’s armed with her trusty dry erase marker. The book reviews all of the concepts that are needed for first grade. As I went through the book by myself I was a little surprised with how much kids need to know for first grade but confident in knowing that when I have been in the classroom or seen papers that come home almost all of the concepts in the book have been covered. The three exceptions may be the solar system, branches of government and some of the internal organs—between Gman and I we’ve got a pretty good grip on those things.

The book has a friendly looking teacher character, Mrs. Best, who along with Yodie the coyote and six of her students guide you through the book. The reminder at the beginning of the book that each child is unique and progresses at his or her own pace was a good one for me as well. PDQ loves the write on, wipe off part of the book. She really does like to experience a book not just with reading but with writing and making it hers. Click here to take a look inside. Spending time with my daughter and the Let’s Get Ready for First Grade! book has made me calm down a bit about her readiness—obviously she soaks up a lot of information during the day and can tell me all about it, especially when presented in a fun format that doesn’t feel like “work.”

Let’s Get Ready for First Grade! won the Teacher’s Choice Award from Learning Magazine in 2007 and I have to agree that it’s a great addition to our book collection. I liked it so much I will definitely find the Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten book as my younger daughter gets ready to make that step. The material is presented in a fun way, there is interaction and it’s a good way for parents to check in with what their kids already know and where they might need some help. I can also see it being a great resource for talking your child’s teacher.

So, if you think one of the Let’s Get Ready books might be what you are looking for, head over to The Parent Bloggers Network site and leave a comment, you will be entered into a drawing to win the set of books. Best of luck to you!