We love these noise-cancelling headphones for kids because they protect eardrums with an 85 decibel limit. They’re foldable, lightweight, and make daily noise and background sounds up to 22 decibels quieter. And that’s major. These headphones look cool, yes, which will help your kids want to wear them. Always a bonus. Their volume is limited to 85 dB to help prevent noise-induced hearing loss from repeated viewings of Toy Story and Moana....

MORE: The Best Portable Bluetooth Speakers That Bring the Party Anywhere Apparently making a speaker isn’t nearly as hard as Best Buy might have you believe. According to the instructions, an 8-year-old should have it put together in about an hour. The BOSEBuild Speaker Cube will provide the handful of provided cables, connectors, and 4.75 x 4.75-inch, high-performance plastic cube — you provide the tunes. No soldering or tools are required, which means that neither are you....

The set includes fun details at each of the four levels. At the base, you’ll assemble a grassy plane complete with a winding stream. Here the family dines using a table, chairs, and a nearby cast-iron Dutch oven simmering over a campfire. The base of the tree includes plants like mushrooms, pumpkins, and flowers. There’s also a discreet spot to hide a few translucent gems in a hole buried in the grass....

Busy explained that Birdie revealed their identity to their parents at 10-years-old, to protect their privacy and to make sure that Birdie could publicly come out in their own time and in their own terms, Busy hasn’t been using they/them pronouns for Birdie on the show until now. But now, she has Birdie’s blessing. Busy said, “For those of you who are my friends listening at home, this is the first you’re hearing that Birdie is gay and out,” adding, “Birdie told us at 10 years old and we immediately… I mean, obviously, I knew that Birdie knew,” per Parents....

So trust us when we tell you that no one — and we repeat no one — as more surprised to hear from Lana Wachowski, one-half of the brain trust (along with her sister Lilly) behind the Matrix films, about pulling on her signature sleek black bodysuit and stepping back into the world of the Redpills after a pause of nearly two decades. Did she have any qualms, after so many years, many of which she’d spent raising her three kids and tending to her chickens?...

The story isn’t unfamiliar — last summer, outbreaks happened at summer camps across the country. The camp, for kids in the 8th grade and up to high school seniors, allegedly did not check the vaccination status of staff or attendees. While all attendees were 12 and up — eligible to be vaccinated — it turns out the vast majority of people at the summer camp were not vaccinated, per Illinois public health officials....

The IRS estimates that 80 percent of last week’s tax credit payments went out via direct deposit, which means that 20 percent of them might still be making their way to parental mailboxes via the underfunded United States Postal Service. Direct deposit is clearly the faster, more convenient way to go, but parents still waiting for their first check to arrive don’t have time to wait if they want to ensure that their second payment arrives via direct deposit....

This is a problem. Some call it a national crisis of conscience, others a sign of misplaced family values, but a growing number of experts have a third complaint: The uneven spending represents a missed investment opportunity. Spending money on children pays, and it pays big if we can find the tolerance for sticking with a long-term investment in our nation’s children. A new study from Harvard University economists Nathaniel Hendren and Ben Sprung-Keyser found that social programs that are aimed at children, and particularly impoverished children, offer real returns on the money spent....

Many schools are struggling especially now and even in pre-pandemic times, teachers at under-funded schools often have to pay for supplies out-of-pocket. It’s definitely heartwarming to see that Teigen, who recently announced that she’s pregnant with her third child, is making an effort to support struggling educators.

This summer, that massive swarm of cicadas is emerging this summer for the first time since 2004. The swarm of bugs that came out of the ground this year is so massive it’s being picked up on weather radars — but the sky isn’t raining with them. Millions of them have emerged in massive swarms where they shed their exoskeletons and sprout wings. It takes approximately four to six weeks for the bugs to complete the process, and procreate before the new brood burrows themselves back into the ground for close to another two decades....

Built into a 3.14-inch cube, the Cinemood connects to the cloud via Wi-Fi and your phone via Bluetooth —the obvious upgrade over your smartphone is screen size. You can project a movie up to 100-inches on a white wall; that’s 250 times bigger than your phone, so it must be 250 times better. Cinemood also comes loaded with 50 cartoons — worthwhile stuff like Winnie-the-Pooh and Treasure Island — which is a good thing because right now it only supports a few content APIs, like YouTube Kids and Netflix....

There are tactics to help you move from seeking “victory” in the war room (or the court room) to a truce at the negotiating table and a peaceful ending of the conflict. It starts with learning about how things can go wrong, and developing new skills to avoid the escalations. The following strategies will help you avoid the explosions that can derail your divorce process, increase your costs, and damage your children....

However, were you also aware that Colson Whitehead has finally beat his kids at Mario Kart? On Monday, the author thanked everyone for saying nice things about his win, but also noted that he’s snagged some peppers to help him make jerk chicken and that he also discovered a way to get better at Mario Kart which has meant his kids are “winning…less often.” Colson Whitehead is a great writer (my personal favorite book of his is the zombie novel, Zone One) but The Nickel Boys is obviously fantastic, too....

In an attempt to provide some inspiration, we’ve put together a list of simple actions that you can take to help those around you. They say it takes a village. That means that each of the villagers has to show up. Lead by example and things will work out fine. Here’s where to start:

The internet caught wind of the epic dad win when Valerie’s 17-year-old sister Lucinda tweeted about the incident. The post, which now has more than 61,000 retweets and 251,000 likes, was met with much praise. One reply even called him “TOO PURE FOR THIS WORLD.” Indeed peeing your pants is by far Adam Sandler’s best parenting tip next to squeezing a kid’s face and yelling “Stay here as long as you can....

The Dango D01 Dapper Pen Wallet is that inspiration. This brilliantly designed notebook-cum-wallet (and the other way around) is an minimal aluminum wallet with a built-in notepad and pen that, miraculously, don’t turn this thing into a Costanza wallet. The D01 is an aerospace-grade aluminum chassis held together with steel screws and wrapped in DTEX, a water-resistant material that also forms four pockets big enough to hold four credit cards....

Online, it’s different. My Twitter feed roars with approval when he gives woke-heel interviews, talking about the greediness of baby boomers and the environmental consequences of eating meat — even when Bryan, the sneaky liberal, engages in underhanded tactics in the ring (begging a pumped-up AJ Styles to give him time to recover only to hit his opponent with a low blow when he complies), his lefty fans still shout his simple, signature cheer: “Yes!...

The Desert Racer is a dune buggy-style car with a driver and passenger seat. It features blue details–rims, steering wheel, grille–throughout and also comes with oversized rugged tires that can handle a variety of terrain. The steel frame and metal side bars are sturdy and the motor, powered by a large battery, can propel this thing forward at either 2.5 or 5 mph. It also comes with a parent-controlled high speed lock-out if you want your kid to keep it at the slower speed....

But first, some basics. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that in general, most kids are physically ready to start toilet-training at around 18 months. But that doesn’t mean they’re cognitively ready to do it. They need the motor skills to actually get to the bathroom, and the emotional desire to be independent. Once your kid is interested in using an actual toilet, then make your move. And aside from ending your reliance on diapers, which are horrendous for the environment, there are other payoffs to learning to use the toilet: Kids who go potty get a “wonderful new sense of competence and even independence....