Digital nannies
Five apps for parents to keep an eye on their children
Monitoring children’s studies, making them do their homework or reminding elderly family members to take their medication—young parents have a tough time managing their families. Here are some easy-to-use apps that can help.
COZI
iPhone/iPad, Android and Windows 8.1; Free (basic) and $29.99 (around ₹ 1,900) per year (Gold); www.cozi.com
Available on phones, tablets and computers, Cozi is a calendar that can be shared within the family. You can also share and manage shopping lists and the timetable for the next family vacation; you can even share recipes. The Gold version removes all in-app advertisements and adds a birthday tracker, among other things.
LIFE360
iPhone/iPad, Android, Windows Phone; Free; www.life360.com
If you’re constantly worried about where the children or elderly members of your family are, there is an app for that. Life360 allows every member of the family to keep tabs on the whereabouts of others via a constantly updated family map. So you don’t have to bother your loved ones with constant messages. Life360 also has a built-in group chat feature and sends updates to users when a family member checks in at a destination.
HOMEROUTINES
iPhone/iPad; $4.99; www.homeroutines.com
This is an app for parents who want to involve their children in the household chores. The parent creates a list of tasks to be done, and the chores are broken down into morning and evening chores for each day of the week. The app will send the children pop-up reminders to do their chores. You can make doing chores fun by setting a speed challenge and letting your children compete.
myHOMEWORK
iPhone/iPad, Android, Windows 8, Chrome app, Web browser; Free (basic); $4.99 per year (Premium); www.myhomeworkapp.com
Students, parents and teachers can keep track of school homework, projects and assignments and get due date reminders. The tasks can be colour-coded, which makes it easier to prioritize.
WEBMD
iPhone/iPad and Android; Free; www.webmd.com
WebMD helps you learn more about ailments with its Symptom Checker feature. Once you have been prescribed medicines, you can feed the medication data into the app and it will remind you when it is time to take your medicines. It’s a good app to have on your phone if there are elders at home who take daily medication.
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