When you're away from the kids on a business trip (or even a pleasure trip #morepowertoyou), FaceTiming or Skype-ing is a no-brainer. Same goes for staying in touch with grandparents or other relatives and friends who live far away.
These video calls let us see our little ones and our loved ones in real time, even while we're eating, cleaning, applying make-up, changing diapers, mediating fights over an Elsa doll, etc.
But if you like to do video calls at bedtime to read the kids their favorite story, it gets a little tricky. For starters, you have to make sure you packed a book with you. Even then, showing your children the book and reading it to them can get difficult while propping up a phone or iPad. Lastly, you better pray for a crystal clear connection. Otherwise, the kids will lose interest fast.
Enter Story Bug.
This iTunes app allows parents and children to read a digital book together with everyone looking at the same page, even though you might be in your hotel and the kids might be in their bedroom.
Here's how it works:
- Download the app to your iPhone or iPad. It's free.
- Send an invite to a family member or friend. They too, must have an iPhone or iPad.
- Take a picture of yourself over and over again until you look exactly perfect in your profile pic. (Tell your family member or friend to do the same.)
- Call up your contact (an internet connection is required) and begin reading together.
You can see each other just like you do on a video call, only your faces are relegated to the corner while the books take center stage. The books even have a digital hand to show where your or your child might be pointing on the page.
The app comes with two free books but you can buy more in-app or sign-up for a subscription (at ($4.99/mo, $14.99/6-mos, $24.99/yr.) All books come from Cricket Media, a children's publishing house who also created the Story Bug app. This means there are no Disney Princess books nor Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle stories nor Dr. Seuss nor the favorites from your own childhood.
But Cricket does have award-winning and educational books for ages 0-6 that focus on early development concepts and topics like counting, rhyming, colors, and animals. Also, there's a pug with his tongue hanging out.
Residence Inn by Marriott, already one of our favorite family-friendly hotel brands, has partnered up with Story Bug to offer their guests a free one-month subscription to the app through March 20. (Residence Inn also created a cute book for the app.)
But you can also get a longer, still-free subscription with Trips + Giggles!
Comment below to receive a 3-month subscription to the Story Bug app! (Only 10 winners allowed.) You can comment with anything you like–let's keep it clean, folks–but if you haven't yet created an account, sign up here to comment. If you're one of the first 10, we'll send you an email with the details on how to get your subscription.
Disclosure: We received a trial subscription from Story Bug but we promise we'd never endorse anything we didn't actually love ourselves.
