{photo by Saulo Mohana}
Before we jump into today’s blog post, we want to highlight a special cultural opportunity in our community: La Boheme is coming to SLO! La Boheme is one of the most popular and known operas ever written. Composed by Puccini, the opera debuted in Italy in 1896, and has only increased in popularity over time. Set in 1840s Paris in the Latin Quarter, La Boheme is a celebration of the romantic, artistic, and intellectual life in France and a meditation on the 19th Century romantic ideal. It ties into our history in this period (19th Century France!). Despite the decline of the opera as a major from of entertainment, La Boheme, for many reasons, remains popular even with modern audiences, making it the perfect entree into opera for new or young fans!
There are two performances at the Cal Poly PAC this weekend – Saturday, October 15th at 7:00 pm, and Sunday, October 16th at 2:00 pm. Click here for tickets. Use coupon code: SLOCA to receive a discount on adult tickets, and student tickets are 1/2 off!
Greetings! Remember back when we asked you to submit your favorite apps that help you stay organized and productive as a busy parent? Today we have your responses to share. But first, since we’re all dying to know, let’s congratulate the winner of our drawing for a kombucha card from the school store: Geri Smith! Look for your prize in your family file this week and enjoy!
And now on to the list. Here are several apps recommended by SLOCA parents, along with any comments they included, roughly grouped by category:
Let's mention SLOCA’s app, of course! Have you tried it yet? Find school info, keep up with the school calendar, check game times, log volunteer hours, see what the volunteer needs are, read past weekly updates, listen to the SLOCA song (great to do on the way to and from games!), link to our Facebook page, link to Amazon, and even read the blog…
But other than that, maybe you’ll like these:
Organization:
- Apple Calendar app – which is a love/hate relationship because without it I am useless. I used to love my planners and could actually remember events myself prior to using this app. But it's less labor intensive and everything is in one place and synch-able with family.
- GoodBudget – a budgeting app I try to faithfully use to keep track of spending
- Todoist – BEST task manager EVER
Health/Food:
- Runtastic Pro – keeps track of exercise sessions and syncs with my (optional) Runtastic heart rate monitor to track effort and patterns during workouts. I can set challenges to up my fitness level and it even maps my routes. I also use it at the gym on the elliptical or treadmill. I love that it organizes all the data by month, so l can quickly look back and see how many workouts, times, etc. l have completed over the month.
- Strava – for my morning walks
- Mindbody – lets me schedule fitness classes
- Clue – app that makes it easy to track my monthly cycle
- Dirty Dozen by EWG – to make sure I buy produce etc. that is cleared safe through their rigorous screening
- Forks over Knives – for quick vegan meal ideas; just add cheese or dairy if vegetarian or even meat if you want a healthy recipe
- MyNet Diary – calorie counter app
- Paprika – recipe organizing and meal planning tool that I love!
- Our Groceries – one of my family's favorite apps. It has been life changing. We can share our grocery list and it pushes to the other person's phone. So no matter who is going to the grocery store/Costco/Target they know what to get.
Books/Music:
- Audible – for family audio books and books I want to read as a parent
- Goodreads
- Pandora
- SLO Library’s Blackgold – for free audiobook downloads
Education/News/Entertainment:
- Podcast
- NPR One
- BBC News – for quick current world news
- TED – for fun TED talks while I do dishes, get ready for the day, etc.
Other:
- Wunderground – for accurate weather info
- Clock app – for setting timers for the kids
- Roku remote app – so I don't have to search around for the misplaced little one
- TurboScan – I don't have a copier, so this allows me to make copies and print from my phone.
- Find my Friends – to see if my husband is on his way home so I don't have to bug him to see when he'll be home for dinner
- Google Maps – couldn’t live without it
- Amazon – actually, if you use the “Shop Amazon” button in our SLOCA app, a percentage goes back to our school, so it’s an even better way to shop Amazon from your device.
Thank you to everyone who participated!
We hope you will find this list useful, get some ideas, and maybe try a new app or two. If you do, leave a comment and let us know what you think! If you have any more to add to this list, feel free to leave that in a comment below too.
