Get Kids Reading With Tiggly Words

I feel like it's hard to just let kids be kids nowadays. School is more rigorous than ever, with art, music and recess getting clipped back at every chance.  And there is the after school chaos of lessons, practice, tutoring and somehow fitting in all the assigned homework. By the time they get off the bus and home from various activities, there's barely anytime to eat dinner, let alone play.

And kids?

They need to play.

Yet, we also live in a very technologically driven world. When kids finish their homework, they immediately take to a screen. I don't love this trend, so we do our best to direct the girls to using their imagination to play with toys or expending energy playing outside.

So when they do use a screen, we try to make it count. We aim to make screen time fun and educational. We have a few apps and websites we like, but by far one of our favorites is Tiggly!

Tiggly makes learning fun and interactive by developing learning systems and combining toys with specially developed apps which interact with the toys. Each program comes with a collection of shapes, grids or letters. These Tiggly Toys have silicone touch points so your tablet reacts to them just like your fingertips. Tap and the screen reacts.

When the girls were younger, we enjoyed their Tiggly Shapes, which comes with 4 shapes (triangle, square, circle and star) to use with a variety of apps that taught everything from animals to spanish. The programs encouraged storytelling and creativity while helping them grasp the concept of shapes all around them, which the girls thought was so fun!
Now that the girls are older, we've upgraded to Tiggly Words , the company’s first learning system for early literacy. Tiggly Words is a set of five vowel toys (a, e, i, o, u) designed by educators to interact with Tiggly's three new iPad apps: Tiggly Submarine, Tiggly Tales and Tiggly Doctor. Learning language skills is an exciting milestone for every child, and Tiggly Words focuses on helping preschoolers recognize phonemes, construct sounds and learn words.

Bug is almost 5 and yearns to read like her 7 year old sister, Chica. Using the letter shapes with the Tiggly apps on the iPad, Bug has made great strides and feels like she is catching up to her big sis! She beams with pride as she sounds out the words. The games are fun but challenge each of the girls on their level. There's nothing better than coming in the room and finding both girls huddled together, giggling over the game.

To learn more about Tiggly, visit them on the web, Facebook and Twitter.

eBay Mobile Apps

Everyone is trying to save money nowadays. From clipping coupons to using online auction sites, frugality is the name of the game! eBay continues to be a great way to make money if you are selling or saving money if you are buying. 

To make your life even more simple, they have some awesome mobile apps so that saving money is just a few swipes of the smartphone. Especially with the holidays approaching, these apps will be your lifesaving devices to keep you afloat during holiday shopping!  Here are 3 eBay mobile apps that caught my eye and I can't wait to start using:

eBay app

Until the mobile apps became available, people were glued to their computers if they were bidding on or selling items on eBay.  If the bidding gets heated on a must-have item, one lost minute could be the difference between winning or losing an item!

The eBay mobile app means you can be anywhere and check in on your items. You can also list items from this app as well!

StubHub app

Being from Philadelphia, sports and concerts are a huge part of our culture. Sometimes, suddenly finding yourself free last minute means frantically trying to get tickets to the playoff game later that night, or finding some way to get into that concert you'd been excited to see. 

The StubHub apps gives the you ability to get tickets on a moments notice, fan-to-fan. I think this is also great if you are trying to get tickets for a loved one who may live with you. I can't tell you the countless presents that have been spoiled because one of us have forgotten to erase the browser history on our laptop! Now, you can make secret ticket gift purchases from your phone, and the recipient will be none-the-wiser! Score!

Red Laser app

Now this app really blew my mind, and I foresee this one being really helpful as I'm shopping. Part of shopping is comparing prices. I've been that mom in a store, price comparing items (and trying to look up the same items on other store's websites to see if another company is selling said items cheaper), all the while screaming children are hanging off my body. 

The Red Laser app is a fantastic barcode app. Here's what you can do with it: Find an item you want, scan it, and the app instantly price compares for you!  If you are grocery shopping, scan the product you are short on from home and it is added to your grocery list. Can you tell I'm totally swooning??

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How excited are you to GO SHOPPING?  Head over to the eBay mobile site and get to downloading those helpful apps (there are even more on the site).

Also? There is a super fun Twitter Party and Giveaway coming up. Here are the deets:

Twitter Party & Giveaway

Join Splash Creative Media and eBay on Tuesday, October 2nd, 3-5pm ET (12-2pm PT) for an #eBayMobile Twitter party!

Hosts: @CentsibleLife, @KikaRose, @GraceDuffy, and @JulieMPron

They'll be giving away $25 eBay gift card prizes very 15 minutes! A fun way to spend your afternoon and possibly win some prizes.  Make sure to try out eBay’s mobile apps before the excitement begins

Make sure you must RSVP here and participate in the party using #eBayMobile hashtag while tweeting from the www.ebay.com/mobileshopping page. (Note, if you tweet from another platform you will not be eligible to win). Anyone who RSVP's will be entered to win a $100 eBay gift card!

This campaign has been brought to you by Splash Creative Media on behalf of eBay Mobile. I was compensated for my post, but my words and opinions remain my own