It’s easy to get frazzled right now – parents have to deal with getting kids ready to go back to school as they pile paper, crafts supplies, pencils and other junk into a cart. On top of that, you’re buying new shoes, clothes, accessories (like a new Slap Watch to survive the new school year).
And did we mention that Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner?
Don’t throw rocks yet… Continue reading
It doesn’t surprise me anymore when I see kids and teens with smartphones and tablets. A simple flip phone with only phone and text capability doesn’t offer much function outside of being a distraction save for the emergency line to parents and loved ones.
A smartphone or tablet on the other hand offers a heck of a lot more functionality for students, so we stuck our heads together here at Slap Watch and figured out what the coolest Back-to-School apps would be for students who love to go mobile.
These are great additions to add a little fun to the humdrum of back-to-school shopping and filling your cart with backpacks, binders, pens and clothes. Your kids might not be thrilled about losing their summer days but at least you can make education a little more interactive with their smartphone.
Got a smartphone that matches the style of your Slap Watch? Grab these apps and help your kids beef up their brainpower.
Top App #1 – Facebook Messenger – All the connection of messaging friends on Facebook without the distractions of the social network. FB messenger allows your kids to talk with friends and family for free, they just need to be connected on the social network. No more paying for texts.
Top App #2 – WhatsApp Messenger – For a one-time purchase of .99 cents you can stay in touch with friends from around the world (and so can your kids) without worrying about text messaging costs. Like the Facebook Messenger app, this one allows for unlimited messages.
Top App #3 – Flashcard Touch – This awesome little app, only $4.99 for iPhones, lets your kids create flashcards on any subject. No more throwing money away on packages of index cards and having piles laying around. As long as they have their phone handy, they can study for the next big test.
Top App #4 – StudyDroid – The Flashcard Touch is only available on the iPhone, but StudyDroid (a completely free app for the Android market) allows your kids to create custom flashcards for any subject. If they’re sporting some wild styles for their Slap Watch then they’ll love that StudyDroid allows flashcards to be customized with different colors and styles. You can even link/sync the app to your PC so they can use the laptop to study up and prep for tests.
Top App #5 – Dictionary.com – How do you spell “Slapwatchapotamus”? Is there even such a thing? Dictionary.com offers a free app with trusted reference information, including over 2 million words, definitions, synonyms and antonyms. Now all of those written papers and essays can come out looking super polished.
Top App #6 – Wikipedia – Look up information on the fly with the Wikipedia network. You can get the free app downloaded to your phone and have access on the go to the same wealth of knowledge as the online database. It’s a great way for your kids to look up hard-to-find data without wasting a lot of time digging around Google.
Top App #7 – iHomework – Forgetting assignments can be a pain. Even with online centers for parents and students to monitor work there can still be missed assignments and activities. iHomework lets you and your children organize assignments, keep track of readings and record important class info. Best of all, it’s on your phone so you have the info available no matter where you are.
Top App #8 – Homework – Homework is an alternative app for Android users and is completely free to use. You can manage and sort assignments, keep track of which assignments are started and completed, and never miss an assignment deadline again.
Give these apps a try and see how they help your kids improve their performance in school. Got some other apps we should know about here at Slap Watch? Comment below and let us know!
Oh Lord it’s August already… I’m staring at the second hand scream by on my Slap Watch 
as if I’m in a warp. We’re rolling into the second half of the year and we’re screaming toward the Christmas shopping season. I know, shoot me now for even mentioning it but I can’t help it. It’s a dreaded time for me and my friends.
One of the reasons is because we all have a guy in our life that is difficult to shop for…
Let me take that back… rewind – rephrase.
Men are just difficult to shop for in general. I’m not just talking about significant others, either. Father, brother, uncle, father in-law, best friend – it’s just not that easy. There are far too many times when you just have no clue what to get for them. Continue reading
Congrats to students around the world – especially Seniors – who are now 
thrown into the world without any duties and responsibility!
At least for a little while…
For most of students in the U.S. and a handful of other countries, they’re blessed with a few short months to cut loose before trudging slowly back toward rows of lockers, spit wads, cheer squads, electives, piles of homework and the usual things that make a lot of teens go “ugh”. The truth is, somehow summer just sneaks right on by and before we know it, the kids are heading back to school and we didn’t do half the things we talked about!
Before kids are forced to face the firing line of No. 2 pencils and scantron tests once again, help them get the most out of summer with this most excellent bucket list.
1. Host a water balloon fight for family and friends – make sure you win by being the only person to sport the biggest Super Soaker you can find filled with ice water.
2. Head to the beach and build a beautiful sandcastle with your family. Try to recreate Gondor from the Lord of the Rings. Once completed, get them to a safe distance and stuff a brick of firecrackers in it. If Sauron couldn’t get the job done, you will!
3. Take a hike with your family into the woods and explore trails. Include outdoor activities you don’t normally do: get yourself a boy scout manual and see how many outdoor badges you can earn.
4. Take a trip to an amusement park you’ve never been to before and set a goal to ride every single thrill ride they have.
5. Swipe the clothes of a family member while on vacation and replace them with a funny costume.
6. Make vanilla pudding with your family, wash out a mayo jar, fill it with the pudding. Head to the mall to get your summer clothes and bikinis while sharing and sampling the pudding. Enjoy the horrified look of passers-by!
7. Pick a wild hair color and have everyone in your family use it. You’ll never have trouble finding each other in crowded vacation destinations.
8. Go for a nighttime swim at the lake with your family! If you don’t have one close then make an overnight camping trip out of it.
9. Put everyone in the car and just go. A spontaneous road trip can be an awesome way to get the family out of the house and experience something different along the way (wherever it is you’re going).
10. Head out to a restaurant with your spouse and/or children…. Start a food fight.
11. Go to a major sporting event and get featured on the Jumbotron.
12. Sit down and enjoy a family dinner with everyone at one table, with no electronic devices or smart phones in reach.
13. Make S’mores!
14. Play tag – kids will love it, you may realize it’s time to join a gym after trying to catch them (or get away).
15. Build a fort – this may be tied to the water balloon fight.
16. Play flashlight tag, “ghost in the graveyard” and other nighttime games
17. Host a neighborhood BBQ and invite everyone over – show off your Slap Watch
18. Do a scavenger hunt through your neighborhood or among local businesses
19. Learn a new hobby with your family (photography, pottery, astrology, juggling, candle making, gardening, stained glass, etc.)
20. Organize a Slap Watch flash mob with your friends and family, record it, and send it to us!
We love holidays here at Slap Watch, and Memorial Day weekend is a big one for a lot of us and our families. Not only are we able to gather in jubilation and debauchery while we celebrate the good times, but we’re able to remember those who stood and fought for our freedom. If you’re planning a getaway this weekend to celebrate your 3 day break (or 4 days if you’re lucky!) then we want to provide you with some Slap Watch travel tips to keep the holidays safe, fun and frustration free.
1. Get an Early Start! There’s nothing worse than getting caught in the thick of weekend traffic. Think people are all leaving on Friday? Think again. Only a small portion of businesses actually shut down on the Friday starting Memorial Day weekend – many are still operational. That means people are working, then packing and finalizing in the evening to get a late night run or to launch their travel on Saturday.
Think beyond the vehicle traffic and remember that airports are going to clog, ferries get long wait lines and trains get full fast. You never want to miss your travel arrangement because you woke up late, couldn’t find your socks, had to stop at the store for last minute items or realized at the airport that you left your kids at home.
On the upside if you’re early then you’ve got bonus time for something else, like a marathon of Angry Birds.
2. Make sure your travel plans are logged in your smartphone. Never underestimate the value of having your itinerary and confirmation numbers at hand with easy access. Sooner or later, something is bound to come up that would force plans to change on you. If you have all the pertinent info handy then you won’t have to start digging through carefully packed bags just to find a single paper or receipt.
3. Get great seating. Call dibs on shotgun if you’re driving. If you’re traveling by other vehicle, such as a plane, then jockey for the aisle seats when you can. Being the first one off the plane is less important than being able to easily get to the bathroom, get into your overhead bin or just stretch your legs. To make it easier, plan ahead what you think you might need easy access to so all your important items are in your overhead bin… and keep your Slap Watch on you so you can clock watch and count down to destination fun!
4. Get club memberships. If you’re traveling to a new destination with familiar hotels and shopping, be sure to bring your club membership cards to get purchase points and hotel rewards. If you’re not a member, then sign up now. This includes the airlines if you can swing it last minute. These can get you VIP access to certain areas, and with membership rewards for other businesses you can get features and discounts you wouldn’t normally get. Accrue enough points and there’s freebies for future travels.
5. Always have cash on you. You don’t need to walk around looking like Fort Knox is stuffed in your pocket, and we don’t advocate fanny packs (Slap Watch is as 90’s as we get for the most part) but you should always have a bit of pocket cash on you. Some places may not take cards at all, and some businesses may not take Visa or Mastercard, or even AMEX. Businesses never turn down cash though.
Lastly, use all the features of your smartphone to make your vacation easier, stress free and more memorable. Snap photos, take video, take notes instead of digging for pen and paper, make audio notes and recordings or notes about parking spots, snap photos of your rental car so you remember the color and model and jot down addresses for destinations to make travel easier. If you’ve got built in GPS, then that’s even better.
Make sure you plan ahead to the best of your ability, but most of all have fun this Memorial Day weekend! We’re looking forward to burgers, BBQ’s and bonfires at Slap Watch but we’re certainly looking forward to being back here with you again.
Warm weather! Sweet, blissful warm weather with the cool scent of flowers and fresh air. We’ve been cooped up by cold, storms, rain and severe weather for too long. As things begin to heat up we’re just itching to shed the clothes, switch to sundresses and bathing suits and enjoy the sun-kissing rays.
You have to be conscious about your skin when you’re lounging, and your children’s skin as well. As you’re digging through closets and boxes for that old suit and summer gear, keep these tips in mind to protect yourself from the sun: Continue reading
At Slap Watch, we have got some awesome memories from back in the day 
captured lovingly by Polaroid photos and pictures hanging out of shoe boxes under our beds. The digital age makes it so much easier to capture memories and even tweak the way our photos look.
Kind of helps you avoid some of those mug shots people managed to snap. With the right filters you can even get all hipster/pro-photo with nothing more than a simple digital camera or camera phone.
Instagram is gaining popularity for this, especially since they’ve recently opened up to Android users under the new Facebook buyouts. If people weren’t clamoring to use the app before they certainly are now.
With summer on the horizon, this is the perfect time to slap on your Slap Watch, get into your summer gear, grab your camera and start making some memories! Here are some tips on how to get great looking photos with Instagram so you’ve got awesome memories saved forever.
When you got your first Slap Watch, you couldn’t help but play with it to see how it worked. Do the same with the filters on Instagram to figure out which settings work best for different environments and aesthetics. Keep in mind that filters go in place after you snap the photo, to shoot away! Don’t worry about shadows when lining up your memory shoots.
The downside to simple apps like Instagram and typical quality camera phones and cheaper digital cameras is that photos tend to turn out kind of flat and very much two-dimensional. Anyone who has seen a professionally shot photo understands the depth I’m talking about.
Instagram does give you a “tiltshift” option though to help you add a little depth when you want some of your photos to pop.
Not unlike the fulfilling “pop” of a Slap Watch.
We’re not all professional photographers and artists, but that doesn’t mean we have to live with boring pictures when we’re making memories. Instagram can add some serious cool-factor to your pictures but the app can’t do anything about shoddy camera work. Try different angles and perspectives when you’re shooting pictures to create some really imaginative, captivating shots. You’ll look back in a few years and think “wow what a great picture!”
Although you likely won’t share it if there’s even a chance someone might think your thighs were fat.
Everyone takes pictures of the hum drum and the mundane things around them – trust us we’ve seen enough pictures of dinner plates on Facebook. People love photos that show them things they don’t normally see, or don’t normally have access to. You don’t have to be a celebrity-stalker but you can capture people, nature and objects in ways people don’t often see them.
Whatever you do when you’re snapping pics this summer, try to tell a story with your photos. Be inspired to really capture memories, not just moments. And don’t forget to get some pics with your Slap Watch. We want to see them on our Facebook wall!
The weather is finally changing and we’re heating up toward summer. With the changes in the weather comes the change in wardrobe. That means it’s high time to start thinking about what you’re going to wear outdoors when you head to the park, beach or for a social outing with friends.
At Slap Watch, we’re all about fun and staying active. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the new fashion trends for the changing season. Fashion in 2012 is going sporty!
Sporty fashion for spring and summer in 2012 is all about a few key elements Continue reading
Is it just me or did winter pretty much disappear with little more than a sputter of snow for most of us? I’m happy the warm weather is here but it almost seems like Spring Break shouldn’t be here yet. I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth though, and I’m ready for a rocking vacation. I queried some of the staff here at Slap Watch along with some of our customers to see what folks are up.
Here are some great ideas that seem to be the most popular this year Continue reading
White elephant parties are growing in popularity as a means for fun, functional gift giving. The fun comes from the fact that sometimes there are great gifts that people can use, but you can always guarantee there’s going to be some kind of crazy gag gift. These little parties are so popular in fact that they become family traditions in some circles. As the warm weather draws close for many of us, we’re often planning different types of home parties and group socials. White elephant games are great for just about any kind of party
This is a gift exchange party game where the gifts are often inexpensive, silly, humorous, or even simply functional items for around the house. The term “white elephant” refers to a gift that requires more maintenance cost, maintenance that exceeds the usefulness of the item.
The exchange is simple: Each participant supplies one wrapped gift. Participants determine in what order they will take turns choosing gifts. The first person opens a wrapped gift and the turn ends. The second person then chooses whether to open a wrapped gift or “steal” a previously opened gift. If a person has his gift stolen, he also has the option of choosing a wrapped gift or stealing an unwrapped one. When a wrapped gift is opened, the turn ends. When all gifts have been unwrapped, the game ends. Ultimately, if you’re playing you want to end up with the best gift.
So now that you’ve got the basics – here are some great gift ideas for a White Elephant party Continue reading
