I also attended the Mommy Tech Summit while at CES, where panelists from companies like Leapfrog, PBS and Disney spoke about everything from the best new apps (check out the award winning Three Little Pigs and Cinderella by Nosy Crow), “gamefying” everything, and how we can be more tech literate parents.

So without further ado, here is the smart, the super cool and the silly of CES 2012.

The Smart

The fridge that shops for you

Take a Jetsons trip into the future with this Fridge (video). Just scan your shopping list with your smart phone and let the fridge tell you when you next run out of hamburgers or Gogurts.

The alarm clock that wakes you up with TV from around the world

A great way to keep up with your foreign language skills at home or on the road. Show your kids French, Italian or Chinese TV on a portable alarm clock! Fully wifi.

The snap-on display that turns your computer into a touch screen

Your kids touch screen happy? Mine are. This is a screen made for schools – so that kids can get up to the screen and touch, drag and tap their way to learning.

The Super Cool

Last year 3D everything was the hot new thing, and this year continues that trend, but with prices dropping there’s a little more stuff we might actually be able to buy!

Kids asking for more 3D? Here is a handy snap-on screen…

This cool accessory slides on to your iPhone screen, and turns your screen 3D without the need for glasses!

Your baby will be even cuter showing off her moves in 3D

3D home video is here, and is getting more and more affordable (you can get a 3D camera for under $500 now!).

The world’s thinnest OLED Smart TV

This 55″ TV is only 4mm thick, and weighs under 17 lbs! It looked awesome, people were just standing around gawkin at it like it was Angelina Jolie.

The Silly

Grill burgers while you answer email

This handy device turns your iPhone into a BBQ sous-chef. The wires plug into the food so that your iPhone will tell you how hot your grill is, and when your food is ready! All while you are answering your email upstairs…

Take your iPhone for a stroll

The iPhone rider

I’m still not entirely sure why this exists, but if you ever wanted to turn your iPhone into a Roomba that doesn’t vacuum, this is for you!

Original tech uses.. the computer dress

This is a dress with it’s own computer display in the fabric. Never again will you have to worry about your iPad clashing with your dress at a formal occasion.

Which one of these do you think is the smartest? The silliest? Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts!

This was part of Emmett’s French homework, which we do together every Sunday night before he has French class after school on Mondays.

If you have followed my blog, you know that it hasn’t always been easy to keep Emmett’s interest in French. I created Little Pim for him when he was a baby and we had a few good years of learning the words in the DVDs, naming animals and numbers, referring to apples as “les pommes” and singing French songs. Then around age four, Emmett, like so many kids of parents who speak a second language to them, started seriously objecting when I spoke French (as in, “don’t speak French!! “ and covering his ears) and it’s been pretty much an uphill battle ever since (he’s now six). So that I could let Emmett continue what struck me as an otherwise healthy separation/differentiation from his mom (rejecting what he saw as “my language”) but not letting his French slide, I brought in a wonderful kids’ French tutor (he loves her! saved!) and the French continued, despite occasional assertions that he’d rather play more soccer, see his friends or do just about anything else (I was unphased…Tiger Mom, move over).

In case you have a child who is not always 100% grateful for the foreign language gift you are giving them, you may share my moment of relief when I heard “l’âne a diné.” It was like suddenly years of reading him French books, playing French DVDs and insisting he continue French, just paid off. He can read in French! He has a good accent! He was actually pretty pleased with himself. This sentence means Emmett is just small steps away from accessing the French language, culture, films, music and so many other delights I wanted him to be able to experience as a dual speaker. So if your children are in one of the phases of “I don’t want to learn French/Spanish/Chinese/German…”, don’t give up! Your donkey will come.

This summer we are going to France as a family. I can’t wait to hear Emmett read the signs at the airport. Then, on to Proust.

The fact that Emmett goes to school with kids from Korea, India, Australia and China is one of the things I love about his school. Even though Emmett is in one of his “picky eater’ phases (OK it’s more than a phase) where anything that isn’t fish sticks, white meat chicken, pasta, yellow pepper or pizza meets with a resounding “no thank you!” I was happy we could share this international experience. His little brother Adrian was slightly more experimental, taking a crack at some chick peas with yellow rice.

The kids, who helped organize the evening, (along with a parent volunteer committee) drew colorful maps of each continent which hung on the walls, and the food was grouped by region. That way, as you went down the buffet line you could sample empanadas from Spain, fried ravioli from Italy and then move on to Samosas from India and sushi from Japan. Each dish was numbered so we could vote for our favorite one at the end.

We had a great time and it was a fun way to bring some of these countries my kids have not had much experience with to life through the foods they eat (we’ve been doing a lot of spinning our globe lately and learning about where it lands). There were also signs up all over teaching kids how to say “hello” in a variety of languages! Of course I loved that! All that was missing was Little Pim himself.

Does your child’s school or daycare have an “international night” or activity? if it did, would you attend?

The article prompted an “East vs. West” battle in the blogosphere. Author Homa Sabet Tavangar of “Growing up Global: Raising Children to Be at Home in the World” points out that we’re suddenly being presented with two polar opposite views. On one side we have mothers like Amy Chua, arguing the possible benefits of being more of a “Tiger Mom” and on the other, the new documentary “Race to Nowhere” that questions America’s culture of achievement and the negative effects it may have on our kids.

So which is it? Should we be more strict and achievement-oriented, or will our children pay too high a price on a social and emotional level?

As parents, we all struggle with finding a balance between arming our children with tools for future success, and pushing them to the point where they never experience the “child” part of their childhood. Whenever possible, learning for children – especially young children – should happen in a context of fun and discovery, not “shoulds” and drudgery. In the case of foreign language learning, dry teaching and endless memorization is why most Americans did NOT learn a second language in school, and bailed on that requirement as soon as they could! Here at Little Pim we are trying to make that tired learning model a thing of the past, so kids equate a second language with pandas, kids just like them, and fun games and activities that entertain them and give them the opportunity to show off those new words.

At the end of the day, every parent has to choose a style of education and child rearing that works best for his or her family. These decisions are undoubtedly culturally influenced, but whatever we choose, the only certainty is that when our kids get older, they’ll turn around and tell us we should have done it differently!

This is a topic that resonates with most parents raising their children to speak a second or third language, often doing so for some combination of cultural heritage and desire for their children to have that extra advantage in the future.

All three CEOs said our educational system is not doing enough to prepare our children for the global marketplace. Their companies need people who are able to work across borders, engage in cross-cultural teamwork and communicate with people of other cultures. Ursula Burns also noted that we are closing down our borders in the U.S. (accepting fewer immigrants and asking international students to leave) right at the time we need more international brainpower to drive innovation and execute on the entrepreneurial abundance here in the U.S. “The future of big tech is going to be compromised if we keep pushing out international talent.”

The fact that fewer students from abroad can get educated here will also mean fewer bridges between our country and others. Two CEOs pointed out that they do business with people running major companies in other countries who were educated in the U.S. and therefore understand the American way of working. Personal relationships are key, and many are formed in undergrad, grad and business schools, when international students study abroad. Fewer international students today may mean fewer American CEOs at international tables in the future.

CEOs love facts and numbers and these CEOs were no different. They reminded us that there are 6 billion people in the world, only 300 million of whom are in the U.S.

• All successful big businesses are selling to and working with the international marketplace.

• Over 50% of the revenues collected by their three mega corporations (total of over $80 billion) came from OUTSIDE the U.S.

• International sales are currently the biggest growth area for most U.S. Fortune 500 corporations.

Our K-12 schools are not doing enough to prepare our kids in math, reading, science and language, so what can we do to prepare for this shift?

• Globalization is here to stay (Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, notes he revived the entire company by going global), so as leaders we need to have a “healthy paranoia” about getting left behind in the global economy. We need to pay better attention to what is happening in other countries and make sure we remain competitive.

• Companies in the U.S. need to step up and partner with the government to improve schools and provide more educational opportunities (one such example is the “Change the Equation Foundation” that helps kids improve in science and is funded by the private and public sectors)

• We need to rethink how we teach kids using new technology at our disposal (John Chambers of Cicsco mentioned his two year old granddaughter’s seamless use of the iPad and questions how tablets, e-readers, and other new such devices are going to be integrated into the classroom)

Ursula Burns ended the keynote panel by saying she felt the most important question we need to be asking as a nation is “what are we going to do prepare our children to participate in the global economy?” She feels this means more science and math, and more exposure to the tools that will help our kids become global citizens.

We know that speaking a foreign language will give our kids at least one of the tools they will need… Do you agree with their take on where things are going? You can post your comments to our Facebook or Twitter page.

** Mommy Tech Summit http://www.mommytechsummit.com/

Digital moms’ influence as the “chief decision maker” for their families, extended families and friends continues to grow. In turn, the Mommy Tech market has grown into a $90 billion dollar marketplace driven by tech-savvy women who are recognized as both powerful consumers and advocates for new technology.

I’ve spent most of my time in the “Mommy Tech” section checking out stuff that might help us keep our lives running more smoothly and wanted to share five of the interesting products I’ve seen… from the useful to the whimsical to the laughable.

Now you can recharge in style with the HyperJuice portable batteries, that allow you to recharge your Mac devices on the go and come in great bright colors! The smallest one is about the size of a Tic Tac case but will allow you to power an iPhone or iTouch eight times! These are great for when your toddler’s iTouch runs out of juice in the back seat or on a long trip. Now they can watch Little Pim until they learn all the words, not until your phone dies!

Being a mom of two boys, it was mandatory that I stopped by the Hot Wheels booth to see how they’re changing the future of toy car racing. Hot Wheels has given us a sneak preview of a race car that is also a video camera! Your child or even toddler just switches on the button and this little racer takes moving video while zipping across the floor! You can then upload it to your computer where your five-year old can turn it into a little movie. Welcome to the cars of the future!

Who doesn't love Hot Wheels?

Dry-all – First Aid for Wet Electronics

For phones that have gotten wet (let’s face it, our phones are living in a high risk environment around cups of orange juice, baby spit and bath time!), this genius idea zaps moisture using high tech absorbent pellets. Leave your phone in this box for a few minutes and presto, it’s good as new!

I also liked that the demo video at the booth features the president of sales’ 20 month old putting her phone in the toilet. Has that ever happened to you?

TV Hat – your personal theater

I had to model this one too… if you see someone on the beach wearing this hat you’ll know they are actually catching up on Desperate Housewives re-runs!

He notes that by 2050 our nation is on track to be 29% Spanish speaking and we are increasingly doing business with Latin American countries. He also makes the sobering case that more of us will be retiring to Latin America, where the living is cheaper. He says Chinese is more of a “specialty” language that will only help our kids if they become proficient and choose to work with China. which should remain in the foreseeable future one of the world’s economic super powers.

Here at Little Pim we have also seen the rising popularity in Chinese (it is our second best-selling language, neck in neck with French, after Spanish) and have noticed another trend – that more and more parents are choosing to introduce their children to TWO languages in addition to English. Thousands of parents in the United States are getting their babies and toddlers going on some combination of Chinese and Spanish or Chinese and French.

We field many calls and emails about this each week. Often parents explain that the Chinese is to give their kids what they think will be a competitive advantage in tomorrow’s economy, and the romance language is to honor a family heritage, or because one of the parents speaks that language and can help with it at home.

The benefits to kids of learning more than one language during early childhood are widely documented (it improves memory, advances verbal and math skills and analytic thinking). What about the benefits of two? Research shows that a child can learn up to three languages without any confusion. The learning results are even better if one of the languages is spoken at home, and if the languages have a different base, such as Chinese, which is tonal, and French, which is a romance language. A child will never confuse “sourire” with xiao’ or ‘笑’. But they might confuse “sonreía” (Spanish) and “sourire” (French).

Ultimately choosing a language, or languages, for your child is a very personal choice that takes into account your hopes for your child’s future (will she be part of a multi-national company someday? Will he be able to travel, work and live abroad? Can she communicate with family members who don’t speak English?). But whatever language parents choose, their children will be getting a huge advantage over their monolingual peers. Spanish is by far still the leading language being studied in the U.S., with 88% of all foreign language classes in schools in Spanish (per the Today Show – link to the home page video here?).

Picking up a THIRD language is much easier once a child has learned a second one, so rather than dwell on “Which Language is Best,” debate, parents should just dive in and know their children may make their own choice later about what language they want to learn, and it will be fairly easy for them to make that change if they have a solid base in any language.

My own sons, Emmett and Adrian, have been learning French since they were babies, because of my family connection to France (I know Spanish or Chinese might be more “useful” in their careers) but if they get to high school and decide they want to learn Chinese or Spanish I will happily let them change, and know they will have a much easier time understanding the grammar rules and acquiring new vocabulary thanks to their years of French.

What do you think? Are you considering introducing your child to two languages? Do you know people whose kids are studying Chinese and a romance language? We’d love to hear from you. Take our new QUIZ on our homepage about which language/s your child should learn, if you haven’t chosen yet.

Nicolas Kristof

*Kristof is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist, who writes powerfully about pressing international women’s issues, such as inadequate maternal health care and the shameful ongoing slavery of young girls, notably in his book Half the Sky, written with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn. Kristof resides outside New York City with his wife and their three children: Gregory, Geoffrey and Caroline.

Then it’s school vacation! What to do? When you have run out of the art projects, cooking projects and sorting through old toys to make room for new ones, you might be tempted to resort to TV, the computer or handing over your iPhone/iPad. Or maybe you just want to sleep in, and the TV makes a pretty good babysitter between 6 and 7 am.

This can bring up feelings of guilt and questions about how much is too much “screen time”. I recommend a great book on the subject called “Into the Mind of Babes” which helps you sort through some of the best information – and misinformation – out there about the effects of TV on your little ones’ minds. In the meanwhile, here are some of my tips for keeping screen time in check and using media as a positive force in your kids lives.

5 tips for managing screen time during the holidays:

1. Decide in advance with your partner how much “screen” time is OK to have each day. Tell the kids what that is, and everyone needs to stick to it. If the kids ask to watch their second show you can say “we all agreed to one hour a day and you’ve already used that up, sorry!”

Make sure they know that screen time includes TV, computer and digital media players (iTouch, iPad, etc). That can seem obvious to us, but not always to them.

2. Teach your kids the expression “mush brain” from watching too much TV. This will help them realize there is a such a thing as TV overload (my kids have used the expression on their own since I taught it to them!)

3. Don’t only use TV as a babysitter. Make sure to watch special made for kids movies with them during the holidays (we recently watched “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” as a family and had a great time).

Make sure to talk about the movie with them after viewing. Movies can be great springboards for conversations about emotions and things kids think about. (How did Charlie Brown feel when they made fun of him? How would you feel if you had spell a hard word in a spelling bee?)

4. Use TV time for “soft teaching” – let them watch TV, but try to mix up the “eye candy” entertainment with videos about science, nature, language learning or music. Many parents feel good about Little Pim because their kids are having fun “watching TV” but parents know they are learning a new language.

5. Use TV time as a special reward (“after we read these 4 books… “ or “after we clean up your room”).

Happy Holidays!

When they suggested that SpanglishBaby and Little Pim partner up to help Roxana teach her 4-year-old her third language, French, how could we say no?

From Roxana via SpanglishBaby.com:

“In an effort to make this venture into a third language more of a reality, we’ve partnered with the fabulous Little Pim and will be using their entertaining and educational products and materials for our trilingual adventures.

The plan is for me to document Vanessa’s progress through regular posts and to also bring you expert advice in the form of vlogs of the consultations we’ll have with Julia Pimsleur Levine — Little Pim’s founder — to help us along our journey!”

Whether you’re using Little Pim to help your child learn English, start on a second language or a fifth, you’ll want to follow this journey and glean some tips along the way.

Watch the first vlog below. Happy language learning!

Contest: In the comments below, share one way you can help or are helping your child pick up words from a second language. One person who comments will win either Spanish Bop or French Bop!

Click “Share on Facebook” and receive a bonus entry by leaving an “I shared!” comment below!

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If the winning person is also a subscriber of the Little Pim newsletter when they are picked, they’ll also receive a Little Pim Plush Panda! Subscribe here: http://www.LittlePim.com/

My older son Emmett (6) must have read those books because he is in a full on frontal defense mode, practically arm wrestling me with his eyes when I try to speak French with him. He says “don’t speak French!” and sometimes covers his ears in case I don’t get it. Happily, he has been hearing French since he was a baby, so even though he’s far from fluent, he’s pretty comfortable and I know that this is just a phase. I can also always speak French to his 2 1/2 year old little brother in ear shot!

Even so, I must admit that it has not been fun. For awhile I stopped speaking French to him, it just didn’t seem worth the battle. This was until last week when I was interviewed by Roxana of SpanglishBaby about helping her get her daughter started on her third language (French). We commiserated about kids occasional resistance to our language (she taught her daughter Spanish), and her persistence inspired me to re-commit to teaching Emmett.

I made a promise to Roxana and to myself that I would speak French at breakfast to my boys every day for two weeks. To make it fun for Emmett I told him that at the end of the two weeks I’d take him out for a special French breakfast ( he loves croissants and chocolat chaud!). That did the trick. Now we are back on track, drinking our ‘jus d’orange‘ in the morning and having ‘du lait s’I'll vous plait‘ in our cereal!

Thanks Roxana!

Too all the moms and dads getting through “No” right now, hang in there and remember to keep it fun! Make up a new game or offer a special treat but don’t give up. They will thank you later if you keep it up.

Watch my video blog with Roxana below.