Following my divorce in 1992, I shared custody of my son, Jimmy. The new living arrangement proved to be quite an adjustment for him. He was feeling uncertain about his new schedule and would ask things like; what day will I see my Dad, or when is soccer practice? I began canvassing stationery stores for a calendar to track his schedule for him but could not find anything. So we sat down together and started sticking post-it notes on a calendar with his schedule.
That is how I first began developing the original sticker calendar, “My Own Calendar”.
The original sticker calendar was designed specifically for children with two homes. I began selling my calendars by mail after a lot of interest was generated when former Chicago Sun-Times columnist, Jeff Zaslow, introduced my calendar in his Family Matters column after receiving a calendar I sent him. Family Law Attorneys even purchased it for their clients!
Then I met my husband in 1997 and in 1999 I re-married and was busy raising our two boys. I made a promise to myself to revise and improve the sticker calendar once our boys were on their own. My goal was to complete this calendar project and get it in the marketplace by the time I was 50 years old. I turned 50 on April 1st of this year!
In doing some market research, I determined that I was cutting off ½ the market by only focusing the calendar on children of divorced families. Now, after a few years of research, meetings, and a lot of revisions, the new KidzCalendar is in the market as of last December, 2009. And the new revised KidzCalendar has stickers for all children, including children with two homes.
August 30, 2010
Stickin’ Together…KidzCalendar is a fully customizable UNDATED 12 month calendar that you can begin using anytime of the year. This interactive calendar has 700 stickers which can be repositioned when schedules change. The KidzCalendar includes stickers for Blended Families to help kids keep track of scheduled visitation with Mom and Dad. The innovative KidzCalendar promotes structure in children's lives. Plenty of event stickers, month/date stickers, Mom stickers, Dad stickers, holiday, personal event stickers and even stickers for Grandparents are included. Children apply the appropriate sticker to the appropriate dates. It can be used independently, but at the same time promotes Parent-Child Interaction. It is fun and educational, too!
KidzCalendar is educational in many ways as it teaches basic calendar concepts. It helps parents teach children responsibility and planning. It helps children learn how to manage their own schedules, like when practice is or when homework is due, and remembering someone's birthday or anniversary! There are fun activities on each calendar page - there is a new puzzle every month and a place for a picture or a doodle!
Inventor: Catherine M. Gouwens
Born on April 1st, 1960, youngest of three girls
1984 First Married; 1992 Divorced
1999 – Re-Married (happily) for 11 years and counting; with two sons who are both 21 years old.
Worked as a legal assistant for 10 years and then for the Beanie Baby company for 10 years. I learned a lot of valuable information needed to succeed in a business. While watching and listening to the experts in their field, I took notes and now I am applying the lessons I learned to my own business.
I have a rainbow on the front cover of the calendar. It is there for a reason. Once my KidzCalendar is selling off the store shelves, I want to be able to “give back” to the Rainbows Organization. Rainbows are the largest international children’s charity dedicated solely to helping youth successfully navigate the very difficult grief process. Every day, children are touched by emotional suffering caused by a death, divorce, deployment of a family member, incarceration of a loved one, or any of a multitude of significant event traumas including natural or manmade disasters. My Son was lucky enough to be helped out by this organization when he was in grade school, as I was going through my divorce.
ALSO: KidzCalendar was just named: 2010 Product of the Year by Creative Child Magazine (in the Educational Category). I have attached the award seal as well.
Another fact: I was on our local ABC station and was interviewed by Janet Davies in March of this year. Her son uses the calendar and she loves it!
The Wristo™ is a highly ergonomic accessory that will change the way you use your SmartPhone. The patented design exploits the “Slap Bracelet” technology to provide a wrist mount for your SmartPhone that is comfortable to wear, physically stable, easy to adjust, and highly adaptable to different usage patterns. The beneficial features of the Wristo™ are numerous:
The Wristo incorporates Slap Bracelet technology plus Velcro™ clasp which enable you to quickly mount and adjust the Wristo to the perfect tension while maintaining a stable platform for the SmartPhone.
The SmartPhone attaches to the Wristo™ with Velcro™ so you can mount the phone on your wrist or quickly peel it off to talk or stash it away. The comfortable Wristo wristband can stay on your wrist, ready for the next time you need to pull the phone out and attach it.
The phone can mount on the top of the wrist or the underneath the wrist. People are often surprised at how convenient it is to have the phone mounted underneath the wrist. It is very easy to read and type text messages and email in this configuration. Worn on top of the wrist, you can see alerts while typing on a computer keyboard or holding a clipboard without having to stop and pick up your phone.
No more carrying your phone around in your hand because you have nowhere else to put it. Having a Wristo™ is like having an extra hand!
The Wristo doesn’t have to be on your wrist to be useful. Use the Wristo as a phone stand for watching videos or video conferencing. You can also use the Wristo to wrap your phone around your car visor for a hands-free speakerphone. It's alsoa great way to stow your camera, MP3 Player, GPS, or other tools.
All types of people ranging from health care workers to professional skateboarders are discovering their own ways to use the Wristo. You should try one too!
I am an engineer and entrepreneur and I have worked on various aspects of portable electronics for much of my career including product design, component design, technology development, and marketing. I have had a long relationship with technology and while I have no problem understanding technology, I am often frustrated with how difficults it is to use many technology products. Over the years I have become convinced that the wrist is a convenient place to carry information devices. This is why the wristwatch was developed many years ago to replace larger time pieces. For a number of years I pondered how to best attach a modern information device to the wrist while maintaining comfort and usability. Apple and others were very cooperative by improving the size and usability of the devices themselves. I tried wearing existing \"armband\" products on my wrist but they suffered from several serious limitations including: bulky and incomfortable to wear; time consuming to attach to phone; interefered with touch screen or control buttons; looked goofy. Then one day I built my own version out of a slap wrap coozi and velcro. The concept solved all of the problems and the Wristo was born. I met with my friend (an accomplished patent attorney in the electronics industry) and we formed Wrokit Holdings LLC to develop this product.
Inventor: Bert Haskell
Bert Haskell has over 25 years of experience working in product development, technology development, manufacturing, R&D, marketing, business development and general management. For the past three years, Bert has been the Director of Product Development for HelioVolt where he was responsible for a CIGS thin-film photovoltaic module product line. Prior to HelioVolt, Bert worked at a succession of high-tech start-up companies including StakTek, Wireless Age, Concero, and Motion Computing. At Motion he was product manager for the world’s first ultra-portable tablet PC. He spent the ‘90’s working at the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) where he was the Vice President of Consumer Electronics Research and Consulting. Bert spent the first five years of his career as a manufacturing technology engineer for Eastman Kodak. He has a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rochester, and is author of numerous publications including a McGraw-Hill textbook on Portable Electronic Product Design and Development
It''s also a Coozie!! And you can put it around a beer can with your iPhone attached and run an app called iBeer which shows an electronic image of your beer being poured out of a glass.
pedro says:
Sep 23, 2010 at 2:48 pm
This is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen.
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