Activity Rocket was an official sponsor at last weekend’s Tots2Teens Expo, a collection of the best vendors for families in the greater DC area.

On Saturday, April 20, the Washington Convention Center was bustling with parents and kids alike, looking to see the best of the greater DC’s vendors for families. Naturally, Activity Rocket was in the building. Nestled between the booths of partners Bricks4Kids and Bach To Rock, the Activity Rocket booth piqued the interest of many a curious parent.

As parents discovered the features and functionality of Rocket, they were impressed.”This is a GODSEND!” one mom remarked, ecstatic that the frustration of booking her kids was soon to be ended by Rocket.

Families were greatly entertained Rocket partner booths by My Gym, Bach to Rock, and Bricks4Kids.

Another mom mentioned how she had been putting off the headache of summer activity searching until the last possible minute; now with the ease of Rocket, there’s no more need to delay!

Kids were equally excited about the new possibilities Rocket would bring. Their worlds were about to be expanded to include the diverse activities listed on Rocket’s site. Upon hearing that Activity Rocket’s site included the option to search for Archery programs, one little girl immediately begged that mom sign her up!As parents at Tots2Teens discovered, Activity Rocket is a revolutionary new service that’s taking the entire activity experience to new heights! Come experience the Rocket power first hand at Celebrate Mama! this Saturday!

Hello Activity Rocket Parents – We Need Your Help!

Activity Rocket participated in Startup MD’s Pitch Across Md contest in September. Help us WIN FAN FAVORITE out of 168 contestants. Fan Favorite is chosen by whomever GETS THE MOST VIEWS ON THEIR YOU TUBE VIDEO – if you would be so kind as to click on the photo below to watch our pitch THAT WILL EQUAL YOUR VOTE! 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO AND CAST YOUR VOTE FOR FAN FAVORITE

PLEASE PASS ON IF YOU ARE WILLING – THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Captains Ilene & Lisa

Hello Moms, Dads, Grandparents & Caregivers! We hope you have been enjoying your summer and it has been filled with tons of fun activities and camps that you quickly and easily found using The Rocket!

We would like to introduce to you a new blog series – The Activity Skinny – brought to you by US – the founders of Activity Rocket. We have had so many requests to let you know all that we have learned since launching Activity Rocket almost a year ago. When do I sign up for Fall Soccer? When do I sign up for Camp? December? Really? How am I supposed to know that?

One of our goals in launching The Rocket is to keep you IN THE KNOW – give you THE SKINNY – so that you won’t miss a beat let alone any registration deadlines. Are you jealous of that incredibly organized Mom that seems to know it all? How does she do it? Well now you can do it too! Its all part of our overall mission: making the activity finding, comparing, sharing, scheduling, and buying process as PAINLESS as possible!

So be on the lookout for The Activity Skinny by Ilene & Lisa. Tell us the things you want to know about and we will deliver! Spread the Skinny to your friends so they too are in the know!

Here are a few tidbits of information to get you started:

FALL activity registration is underway – below is a list of just some of our activity providers that have already opened Fall registration – some of these classes fill up quick so don’t delay!

Montgomery County Rec Dept

KOA Sports

Bethesda Chevy Chase Baseball

i9 Sports

Ballet Petite (Potomac, McLean)

My Gym (Potomac, Bethesda, Chantilly)

Duet Vocal Academy

The Enrichment Centers

Ms Ellie Music

The Academy of Fine Arts

JCC

Music Together with Miri

The Little Gym of Germantown

Fitness for Health

Also, FALL recreational team sports sign ups are well under way – soccer, baseball, lacrosse – if you have not already signed up your child it may be too late. And competitive travel sports team tryouts are also scheduled – for example Bethesda Lacrosse tryouts August 26/27.

So take a minute off the beach and start to plan for Fall – it is NOT too early!

And that is The Activity Skinny!

Captain Lisa

SEARCH FOR FALL ACTIVITIES NOW ON ACTIVITY ROCKET! 

#8 – SHARING FEATURE ON THE ROCKET 

Don’t your kids want to participate in sports or take that gymnastics class with their friends? Aren’t you tired of all those back and forth emails discussing what options are out there? Got a friend or group of friends or classmates your kids ALWAYS want to be together when doing their activities?  There has GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY!

Their IS with Activity Rocket! Sign Up (you can now Sign Up using Facebook too) and load your contacts in My Contacts. Tag them per each of your kids – so Tommy’s friends and Sara’s friends are all neatly in a group together. Find your search or chosen activity and click on the SHARE button – then choose whom in your Contacts – Tommy’s friends or Sara’s friends – you want to join you. A few clicks and you are DONE! Parent’s happy and kids are happy! Also, a great tool for planning carpools!

COMING SOON: 7 more fantastic reasons to sign up on Activity Rocket!

SIGN UP TO SHARE YOUR ACTIVITIES NOW!

The Rocket was designed to work best with maximum information provided by YOU – the passenger –your information is the fuel that enables The Rocket to zoom further and faster finding you the best activities at the right price, time, and location. So, SIGN UP, create a Kid Profile for each of your children, and keep all of your profiles up to date.

SIGN UP is easy – just enter your name, screen name (for ratings & reviews), username (email), password, and zip code. Next, create a Kid Profile for each child including their name, gender, age, grade, and school. Then your activity searches will be pre-populated with your children’s key information (age, zip code, special needs); saving you time and energy.

And we are privacy fanatics!  We will never share your information with anyone.

For related posts see:  Search the Universe of Enrichment Activities!     Why Activity Rocket?

image via jodifur.com

Jodi is one of the few native Washingtonians actually living in Washington. She works part time and lives with her husband, Doug, her son, Michael, as well as a dog, Foster. She started Jodifur because her husband kept telling her she reads so many blogs – she might as well write one for herself! She hasn’t stopped for five years. She also Twitters, a lot, and is on Facebook too. As a busy working mom with an active child, we wanted to find out more about how Jodi manages the activity thing. She admitted that she had not yet heard of Activity Rocket but she was very impressed with her first glimpse.

1. What activities does your child do throughout the year?

Michael does tae kwon do year round, soccer spring and fall, and swim team in the summer.

2. How do you usually choose your activity provider?

His Karate program came to his preschool and we have stuck with them even though they are a twenty minute drive. Soccer is the the same soccer program I did, (I grew up here), and swim team is with our neighborhood pool. When he was little, and was in mommy and me and other activities, I tended to pick the programs my friends were doing.

3. How do you keep track of Michael’s activities?

My iphone calendar is my best friend. If it somehow malfunctioned I would never know where I was supposed to be.

4. Which activity has given your child (or all of them) the biggest boost in confidence?

Tae kwon do. The attention and focus it teaches him is amazing. And he lives for belt tests. The breaking of the board is a metaphor for life. And all I have to say is “what would Mr. Marc say to get him to stop and think.” The karate program that Kangs black belt academy runs is very whole child centered. They care about how the child is doing at home, at school, and in the studio. In fact, they just sent him a post card to tell him how proud they are of him and how well he has been doing.

5. What do you think of Activity Rocket?

I’m excited to use Activity Rocket to try and find a day camp for Michael. It is so much easier than searching a million different places.

FIND GREAT CAMP PROGRAMS NOW ON ACTIVITY ROCKET!

Amy Mascott is a very busy mom of three young children. Amy took her educational background (she is a Literacy Consultant for area schools) and mixed it with her stay-at-home mom training to develop TeachMama (www.TeachMama.com), a blog where she explores ways to sneak in a little learning into the everyday. Later she developed We Teach group (http://www.weteachgroup.com/) as a ‘virtual lounge’ for teachers to exchange ideas. When asked what she thought of Activity Rocket, Amy said, “I think it’s an awesome site, an amazing and smart resource for parents. We just need to get the word out about how it makes choosing activities easier–and less headache–for parents.”

Here is more from our interview with Amy Mascot, TeachMama 

What activities do your kids do throughout the year?

My kids swim & dive for our neighborhood pool in the summer and take county dive lessons in the fall; one of my girls takes a Hip, Tap, Toe class and the other takes jazz and tap; all three kids play OBGC soccer in the fall/ spring, and my son plays indoor soccer in the winter. Sounds like a lot, but they really only do 2 MAX activities at a time; otherwise, I’d be more nuts than I am already!

How do you usually choose your activity provider?

Choosing an activity provider has really been word of mouth for me. I’m lucky to have friends who send out emails saying something like, ‘I’m signing my kid(s) up for [insert activity], and if you want to join us, here’s the link.’ But on the rare occasions that I’ve done the searching myself, it’s really been through Google searches. I remember looking for my daughter’s first dance class way back when she was two or three and typing in ‘kid ballet class olney, md’. Thankfully there are better ways now!

You have three kids…How do you keep track of everyone’s activities?

I am known to forget activities and birthday parties now and again, but I know I’m not alone! My husband and I use Google Calendar, so everything’s synced–both phones and computers. I print out each month’s calendar and we post it in the kitchen. And I rely heavily on the alerts from the calendar that come up on my phone. But it’s not perfect, and I do forget.

Which activity has given your child (or all of them) the biggest boost in confidence?

Our neighborhood swim team is incredible and has positively impacted all of my children. Really, truly the best thing that my kids do all year long, and this will be the first summer that all three kids can participate on the team and/or pre-team. It’s run by seriously dedicated parents who have the system down to a science, and neighborhood teens run the pre-team and swim team, along with hired coaches. It’s fabulous. It’s every single morning, and each week there are themed activities and a pep rally, and though we all get swim team overload by the end of July, it has been an amazing activity for my kids because of the support they receive from ‘the big kids’ and coaches who really love them.

What are your initial thoughts after using Activity Rocket? 

I think it’s an awesome site, an amazing and smart resource for parents. We just need to get the word out about how it makes choosing activities easier–and less headache–for parents.

[Editors Note: Thank you Amy! We love Teach Mama. Don't forget Activity Rocket has a fantastic Activity Planning Calendar Tool - color coded by your kids so you don't overbook or end up on opposite sides of the County in one afternoon - then you can download to your Google calendar too! Amazing!]

SIGN UP NOW TO USE ACTIVITY ROCKET’S AMAZING ACTIVITY PLANNING CALENDAR

It Makes Sense: New Study Shows Afterschool Helps Keep Kids Healthy

Last week at a Congressional briefing, New York Yankees’ first baseman Mark Teixeira articulated the importance of physical activity and nutrition in the afterschool space. An article released just this month provides some backing to Mr. Teixeira’s argument that more federal funding should be available for high quality afterschool programs, especially those with a focus on getting our nation’s youth active and healthy. The article’s title, “The Impact of a 3-year After-School Obesity Prevention Program in Elementary School,” sums up its purpose pretty succinctly, and its conclusion, that a Georgia afterschool program focused on physical activity reduced participants’ body fat percentage and increased their cardiorespiratory fitness, seemed fairly intuitive once I read the article’s authors’ point that children tend to be sedentary during the after school hours.

It makes sense: Take kids who are usually sitting on the couch watching television, subtract the sitting around, add a fun, engaging afterschool program that gets them moving like the Medical College of Georgia’s FitKid Program and you’ll get a group of healthier kids.

By Chris D’Agostino, Afterschool Alliance, Read More from Chris

See Related Posts by Afterschool Alliance: Afterschool Activities = Expanded Learning,  MD Gets 3 out of 5 for Afterschool Programs, Afterschool Programs Best When Complement School Day, Meet Afterschool Alliance

Stay Healthy - Find your perfect afterschool activity NOW!

Does your child have Special Needs? The Rocket knows your frustration in finding classes dedicated to kids with special needs or those activity providers that will make accommodations for special needs kids.

When you search for activities on Activity Rocket, choose Category and Activity Special Needs and quickly pull those hard to find classes.

Or browse Special Needs for an alphabetical listing of activity providers that have these programs and make accommodations for special kids with special needs.

Below are our providers who offer classes dedicated to kids with special needs:

Bounce U 

Fitness for Health

Great and Small Therapeutic Riding

Heights and Beyond

JCC of Greater Washington

KEEN

Levine School of Music

Montgomery County Recreation Department

The Miracle League of Montgomery County

TLC – The Treatment and Learning Center

Search the Universe of Kids’ Activities – Special Needs and All!