At any cocktail party full of parents, conversation topics will vary based on the ages of their kids. For the infant set, it’s all about sleeping through the night; for toddlers, toilet training; for kindergartners, sharing. With middle school comes sullenness and skincare, until finally, with high school, arrives the dreaded, tension-laced topic of SAT prep.

“What program are you using?” “What was your daughter’s score?” “What colleges can she get in with that?”

As a dad, it can be hard to balance the various impulses surrounding the issue of SAT prep. You want to give your child the skills they need to get into the best college possible, but you don’t want to push him too hard. You want him to take initiative on his own—but you also want to keep tabs on his progress. And while you know that SAT prep is an important investment, let’s be honest: You’d rather take a well-earned vacation with your kid than drop $1200 to have him slouching in a stuffy strip-mall classroom every Saturday from now til eternity.

That’s why we’re so psyched to come across Knewton’s new SAT course. Knewton’s innovative, game-changing online course costs only… Read More

The problem with a lot of play venues for kids is that they feel dirty. There isn’t enough hand sanitizer and wipes in the world for some of the Chuck E Cheese’s that we’ve been to over the years. We’re immediately skeptical about these types of places. Our goal this year was to have a fun yet easy birthday party for our 4 year old daughter: pay someone to take care of everything. Have them throw a great party; no clean up; happy kids, happy parents. We heard good things about a place called Bounce U. so we decided to do our due diligence to see if they could help us meet our goals.

Right off the bat the folks at Bounce U in San Carlos, CA walked us through a lot of options. For $300 we could have a party for 20 kids and their parents, all in. All we would have to do it show up. We decided to try it. The appeal of not having to clean up after 20 kids was enough to outweigh the scars of the filthy Chuck ‘E Cheeses that had plagued us for so many years. The second… Read More