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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.Not everything creative needs a prompt. The Web is increasingly flooded with AI-generated images and videos, much of it aimed at kids. Sometimes its nice to break free of that synthetic media. As a dad of 10 and 12-year-old daughters, I appreciate resources for kids and families that celebrate human imagination, curiosity, and hands-on exploration. I had a fruitful recent conversation about resources for kids with a fellow dad, Kevin Maguire, who writes the great newsletter The New Fatherhood. If youre a dad looking for great reads and a sense of community, check out Kevins newsletter. (Also read Recalculating, by Ignacio Pereyra). Kevin wrote the section below about simplifying screens and shared the tip about muted.io. The rest of the apps and resources below are ones Ive enjoyed in recent years with my wife and daughters. From coding with visual blocks to identifying plants on nature walks, these are some of our favorite tools for sparking creativity. Building brains without bots Scratch, developed at the MIT Media Lab, is a superb program for learning to code. Its fun and free for kids and adults. My daughters like assembling Scratchs visual blocks on screen to create interactive stories, games and animations. Its designed for kids 8 to 16. ScratchJr is a great alternative for kids 5 to 7. Free Dash Robot lets kids program it to move, light up, and make sounds. It teaches block coding, like Scratch, and our daughters enjoy making up their own instructions to send Dash on creative adventures. For kids 5 to 14. $180. Seek is one of our favorite family apps. Point the app at any plant, flower, animal, or bug you see on a walk to learn more about it. Its given us insight into much of the greenery (& critters) around us. iOS & Android. Free Sponsored message Guidde | Create how-to guides with AI Tired of explaining the same thing over and over again to your colleagues? Guidde is an AI-powered tool that helps you explain the most complex tasks in seconds with AI-generated documentation. Turn boring documentation into stunning visual guides Save valuable time by creating video documentation 11x faster Share or embed your guide anywhere Just click capture on the browser extension. The app automatically generates step-by-step video guides with visuals, voiceover, and a call to action. The best part? The extension is 100% free. Try it free Words that work wonders Libby lets you access thousands of free ebook or audiobooks with a free library card. It works for more than 90% of public libraries in North America, and Libby can be found in 78 countries worldwide. Free Khan Academy is the most robust online spot for helping kids with learning almost any school subject. Its completely free. No ads. Khan Academy Kids has great learning activities and games for kids 2-8. Its also free and ad-free, and its fun for both math and reading. Free Family screen time that actually works Common Sense Media | Wondering if a show, movie or video game is age appropriate? Get a quick sense of whether its a good fit for your family. Free Kanopy is a terrific free resource for educational videos, documentaries and classic films. Access it with your library card. A unique feature: watch Oscar-winning short films you wont find on other streaming platforms. Kanopy Kids is a curated collection for learning, less commercial than the kids section on Netflix. Free JustWatch | See which platform hosts a particular movie or show. Free Nex | Like a Nintendo Wii made for 2025, this video game systm gets our bodies moving with fun, non-violent, family-friendly games. It was easy to set up, pluging right into an HDMI port on our TV. Its a little bigger than a Rubiks Cube. We love playing with the Nex Playground Four of us can play together. We like the sports, dancing and trivia games. Some titles are just for little kids (e.g. Elmo, Peppa Pig), but most are engaging for older kids and adults. The device costs $249 with five included games. An $89 annual subscription gets you 40+ more games. Read my Fast Company interview [gift link] with Nexs founding CEO about how his game system has spread. Making music Chrome Music Lab Compose little tunes, even if you have no musical experience. Explore digital instruments and sound games. Save your favorite clips to share. Googles MusicFX is a fun alternative for generating music with a prompt. Free Metronaut This sheet music app lets kids play along with an accompaniment from an phone or iPad. It supports 20+ instruments ranging from strings and woodwinds to piano, guitar, and brass. $27/year on iOS. Metronaut lets you play with digital sheet music and an accompaniment Tomplay is another great sheet music app that works well on Android and iOS and includes a wider range of chamber music. I pay $82/year for it. muted.io has a vibrant collection of interactive tools and visual references to help kids or their parents absorb music theory. Free [by Kevin Maguire] Art adventures & creative experiments Tate Kids An Arty Playground. Play art games, watch cute videos, try out little projects, and stretch your artistic mind with this well-designed resource from one of the UKs great art museums. Free Make an animated drawing. Turn a sketch into a playful moving image. This service from Meta lets you turn coloring into animation. Free Draw A Fish. This simple, low-fidelity game lets you draw a little fish with your computer mouse, then see it swim on screen. Free Googles Arts & Culture Experiments include dozens of playful free apps for learning about the worlds of painting, sculpture, music, and more. Free Spark curiosity How to Raise a Reader by Pamela Paul and Maria Russo is a wonderful guide to fabulous books for kids. It grew out of this free NYTimes guide (gift link). As of this writing, its $9.51 on Amazon. The Week Junior is a terrific print magazine. Its aimed at kids 8 to 14, but my wife and I also enjoy reading it. The 32 colorful pages feature short curated stories about the news of the week. It also includes puzzles, a weekly debate, and photography pages. Cost: 25 issues/year for $49, or $59 for print + digital access. (See the magazine layout design) Simplifying screens, from Kevin Maguire Consider a Light Phone. Experiment with freeing yourself (and your kids) from smartphone addiction with a full-on dumbphone. Reviews for the 3rd edition have been glowing Wired gave it 8/10. $699 for version 3 or $299 for version 2. Try the Dumb Phone app. Simulate a simple device with an app that strips away everything but simple links to the core phone functions: camera, maps, calendar, and photos. Imitate a simple device without dropping $500 on the love child of a Nokia and a Kindle. Free or $10/annual; $30/lifetime. The Dumbest Phone Is Parenting Genius. A landline for kids? If its not too late, consider a tactic from Rheana Murrays Atlantic article: install a landline. Buy that hamburger phone you always dreamed of as a kid; go with a landline as a service company like Tin Can and their gorgeous house phones; or if youre more technically inclined roll your own VoIP line for a fraction of the cost. The bottom line: delay the start of smartphone life.
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Three different Coca-Cola sodas are being recalled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a result of the “potential presence of foreign material (metal) in the product.” Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages LLC ordered the voluntary recall for cans of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Coca-Cola, and Sprite on October 3which the FDA subsequently announced earlier this week on October 20. “We can confirm all recalled product has been removed from the market,” a Coca-Cola Company spokesperson told Fast Company in an emailed statement. “[We] voluntarily recalled a very limited quantity of [the] 12oz cans (12-, 24-, and 35-packs) in the state of Texas. This action was taken out of an abundance of caution due to the potential presence of foreign material. The recall was limited to McAllen/Rio Grande Valley market. It was confined to Texas.” This Class II FDA recall comes with a warning that the products “may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences,” and “the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.” What are the details for the recalled Coca-Cola products? Here are the specific items being recalled, along with their identifying information: Coca-Cola Zero Sugar 12oz. can 12-pack 49000042559 / FEB0226MAA Coca-Cola Zero Sugar 12oz. can 35-pack 49000058499 / FEB0226MAA Coca-Cola 12oz. can 24-pack 49000012781 / JUN2926MAA Coca-Cola 12oz. can 35-pack 49000058468 / JUN2926MAA Sprite 12oz. can 35-pack 49000058482 / JUN2926MAA Sprite 12oz. can-12 pack 49000028928 / JUN2926MAA Sprite 12oz. can-12 pack 49000028928 / JUN3026MAB What if I have these Coke products in my kitchen? “Any consumer who purchased the identified product below may return it to the place of purchase for an exchange or refund, or contact Coca-Cola’s Consumer Interaction Center at (800) 438-2653,” Coca-Cola told Fast Company.
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Its time to crown the champion of Americas pastimeeven if a Canadian team earned its way into the battle. The first pitch of the 2025 World Series will be thrown out tonight: Friday, October 24. The Toronto Blue Jays will try to stop the Los Angeles Dodgers from becoming the first team since the 2000 Yankees to win consecutive championships. The Blue Jays will also try to prevent Shohei Ohtani from making any baseball history. Both feats are a tall order. Before we get into how to watch the World Series, lets take a look back at how the two teams got here and speculate on Ohtanis potential firsts. The road to the World Series Ironically, the Blue Jays represent the American League in the Series, having earned 94 wins and 68 losses this season. They faced off against the Seattle Mariners to get here. George Springers game-winning home run in the final playoff matchup cemented their spot, as CNN reported. Toronto has not competed in a World Series game since 1993, which was the year the organization won its second consecutive championship. On the other side of the coin, the National Leagues Dodgers have a regular-season record of 93-69, just one win less than the Blue Jays. The boys in blue swept the Milwaukee Brewers, who had the best regular-season record, in the playoffs. This is the franchises fifth appearance in the World Series in the last nine years. Ohtani already made history in Game 4 against the Brewers with what some are calling the greatest playoff performance in Major League Baseball history. He hit three home runs and pitched six scoreless innings, only allowing two hits. He struck out 10 batters. With this kind of momentum, it’s easy to get excited about the possibilities for the World Series. What historic feats could Ohtani accomplish? Ohtani has many opportunities to make history in the Series, as reported by MLB.com. The easiest way to do so would be by breaking any number of offensive performance records, such as most hits or home runs by a pitcher. The record for most hits by a pitcher in a postseason game is three, and the one for most home runs is one. And the record for most RBIs by a pitcher is four, and the one for total bases is seven. These all seem easily attainable for the talented player. Insteador additionallyOhtani could make hitting history. He has more competition here, though, as all players can accomplish this, no matter their position. No one has ever hit four home runs in a postseason game. In this years regular season, this happened three times, which was a firstso the stage is set. Batters just have to do it during the World Series. No pressure. The least likely outcome could happen from the mound. Ohtani has the chance to become the first pitcher to throw a World Series no-hitter or perfect game since Don Larsen in Game 5 of the 1956 championship. At that point, anything at the plate would just be gravy. This accomplishment would take some cooperation from the coaching staff, as Ohtani has only pitched one full game in his career. (It is important to note this one-hit shutout against the Detroit Tigers occurred when Ohtani was still playing for the L.A. Angels in 2023.) Since recovering from Tommy John surgery on his elbow, he tends to pitch an average of six innings. How can I watch or stream the 2025 World Series? Only time will tell what Ohtani accomplishes. The best-of-seven fall classic begins on Friday, October 24, at 8 p.m. ET. The entire series will be broadcast on Fox, which means traditional cable subscribers and those with an over-the-air antenna and reception are all set. Additionally, if you have a pay-TV provider, you can stream it on FoxSports.com, the Fox Sports app, and Fox One. For those who cut the cord, try a live-TV streaming service, such as Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, or Fubo. Just be sure to check regional differences before committing to a new monthly charge. Heres the full World Series Schedule. Game 1: Friday, October 24, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox) Game 2: Saturday, October 25, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox) Game 3: Monday, October 27, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox) Game 4: Tuesday, October 28, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox) Game 5: Wednesday, October 29, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox), if needed Game 6: Friday, October 31, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox), if needed Game 7: Saturday, November 1, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox), if needed
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