links for 2008-01-14

• Jungle Pop » Safe Carpentry with Kids
  Styrofoam packing material makes a great base for honing those carpentry skills. We do this ourselves...a fantastic parent hack. Thanks for the link, Joe!
• Cool Babies Assorted Fun Pack
  Listen to a few clips of this fun kid music that doesn't sound like kid music. Made in Toronto, Canada, just like this cool baby! (Congratulations, Catherine!)
• How to Automate Your Personal Finances ∞ Get Rich Slowly
  I've got to get on this. Great tips here.

Comments

[Patti]

On the "Automate your Finances" tip... I use a bill payment service called Paytrust. It's so great. Not only does it act like a typical bank bill payment system, but it also acts as a bill collection / organizing system too. Get a bill delivered to your house as a paper copy? Have it sent to paytrust. They'll scan the bill and store it online for you to view. Get your bill electronically? Tell paytrust the login. Paytrust will collect the ebill and again display it for you. Want to set up automatic rules to handle how much of the bill gets paid, how far before the due date, what monthly schedule to use? Done. Want to handle the bill manually? Done. Did something go wrong? I've been happy with the customer service... although I've only had something go wrong with the actual payment of a bill like, once maybe twice.

Oh, and at the end of the year you can buy a CD that has the entire year's worth of bills and payment info.

I LOVE IT. I've been using the system for about 7 years. Since I've combined Paytrust with a bank account that we maintain just to handle bill payment money, I have to spend only a minimal amount of time thinking about bill paying. In the beginning I used to check the paytrust site multiple times a week... but by now I only log in occasionally as needed. So much less stressful.

This endorsement is completely user-based. I don't work for 'em. I don't even get a referral bonus. I just like 'em.

[Richard]

We did styrofoam carpentry when my son was about 3. It was more styrofoam sawing, but it was big fun for him. He had a 3-year-old-compatible tool set with plastic saws with HUGE teeth (1/4 inch?) which worked GREAT on styrofoam. We just made sure he sawed over a large plastic bin so the "sawdust" was contained.

[Angele]

If you like the "Cool Babies Assorted Fun Pack" music I think you will enjoy Choo Choo Soul. It's kids music grown ups won't hate. :)
Disney actually bought the rights to the songs and they made a few videos that air on Disney Playhouse. The songs are available to purchase on iTunes. Give a listen.
http://www.choochoosoul.com/