Save Money on Kids Books, Use the Internet

How many books can your kid go through in five minutes?  Never wanting to spend more than a few seconds on a page our little guy can speed through his pile of books in no time flat.  So what do you do, buy more books to make a bigger stack?  No way, use the Internet!

Flickr Adventure
As I checked my email the other night my son pointed to the screen from his perch on my knee and yelled his favorite word, Car!  Sure enough, he was eagerly pointing to an ad for the new Honda Accord.  His ever first interaction with a computer gave me an idea so I opened up the popular photo sharing site Flickr.

I typed in Honda Accord and was rewarded with another enthusiastic burst of pointing and yelling from my son.  I moved on to his favorite animal, he panted frantically and pointed excitedly as a list of puppy pictures popped up.  We were on a roll! He and I spent the next 15 minutes on Flickr cruising through all his favorite images with him either saying the name of the object or making its sign. 

Save Money on Kids Books
What a cool way to expose a little person to the world and its much cheaper than buying tons of baby books.  We have a cat book that’s filled with images of about 30 cats in different poses.  Why pay money for a boring book of the same 30 images you see over and over when you can surf the web to find new and interesting pictures every day for free! 

Kids aren’t always patient so I looked for a few ways to get the pictures he liked faster. To get better results search for a specific terms instead of generic words. If you look for Honda Accord instead of car or Golden Retriever instead of dog you’re likely to get relevant images.  Once you find a picture you’re looking for you can also click on the tags next to the picture, such as accord, that will take you to a grouping of pictures all on that topic.

Welcome to the digital age junior!

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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