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leslie

Youcubed.org: Family Math fun when Zoom learning leaves kids uninspired.

By Engaging Children No Comments

Youcubed.org was formed by an award-winning Stanford Math professor to give teachers, parents and students the resources they need to excite students about mathematics. They have devoted a link in their website to fun Math tasks that make at-home-school a little more engaging, if you feel like the Math by Zoom is less than inspiring for your children.

 Youcubed.org at Home – Math Tasks that Excite

 

Please come visit more Brand Central Home Base content across 5 different categories of interest. Feel free to adapt any of this for your own team members or customers.

4 ways to help anxious kids while we are impacted by Covid-19 changes.

By Engaging Children No Comments

Simple things like learning to breathe really work for almost any age kid. The professionals interviewed for this article discuss 4 ways parents can help anxious kids during Covid-19. They suggest we first acknowledge what is happening, then resolve our own anxiety, give kids mindfulness tools (age appropriate), and create a schedule with pictures. My college student still uses deep breathing exercises during stressful times that we taught him as a 5 year old. It is a remarkably simple tool for attaining a sense of calm and well-being. Works for parents too!

4 Ways to Help Your Anxious Kid(s)

 

Please visit other Brand Central Home Base content across 5 different interest categories. We’ve compiled only a few key articles in each category from expert resources, for you. Share as you wish or adapt for your own team members or customers.

3 Themes in your Communications now: Emotion, Empathy, Compassion.

By New Normals for Business, Uncategorized No Comments

 

 Emotion, Empathy, Compassion

The time for emotion and meaning is now.

 

 

 

The team at Emotive Brand in Oakland, California does some of the best writing I’ve seen about why brands need to be based on emotion and the importance of empathy and compassion, always, but especially right now. They make it simple and clear. If you need some inspiration, this quick read will give you a reset and position you for rich conversations with team members and customers throughout your day. The time for emotion and meaning is now.

 

For more content about Working From Home in the time of Covid-19, visit our Brand Central Home Base content corner and see what’s up across 5 categories of interest.

Brand Central Solutions – Here for you during Covid-19

By Uncategorized No Comments

To our Valued Client Family, our LinkedIn Network and Prospective Clients getting to know us:

We are living and working in unprecedented times. We want you to know that we are here for you, right now and always. Many of you know that Brand Central Solutions has a dedicated team of distributed professionals across the United States and Globally.  Our Sourcing Manager works remotely in the Bay Area. Our HQ is located in San Diego. Our Production Coordinator works remotely from the greater Boston Area and our Ops and Finance team is in Boston, now all working remotely in unison. We have designers in Utah and India and a wonderful partner team on the ground in China. We will continue to take steps to ensure the safety of our team members, families and communities.

Business as usual is not the priority but continuing to deliver excellent service to our clients remains a number one priority. Our organization is set up to stay connected and to finish projects we have in-house and implement projects that may be used to support your WFH teams, Onsite Teams, Brand Messaging during Covid-19 or Corporate support of vulnerable populations in your local Communities.  Our elite group of dedicated supply chain partners are set up for remote support of factory workers who at this time have adapted to distancing guidelines, along with stringent health and safety rules.

Our website homepage features a new content resource called Home Base, to be of extra support to you at this time. In it you will find useful resource content and hacks for organizing work from home office spaces, managing kids, wellness tips plus a few or our favorite work playlists and tasty recipes that help you grab a fast lunch and refuel for your afternoon Zoom conferences. We want to be relevant to you right now.

If you want to connect and talk/email about your new work situation, share a story or brainstorm a way to use your brand capital to support the communities you live/work in, we are here for you. We are all available during regular business hours and welcome your contact.

I know we will get through this time and prosper together as a community.

Warmly,

Leslie Bridges
​​​​​​Chief Experience Officer

 

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Common Sense Media Book Reviews by Age – Stories have the power to Calm.

By Engaging Children, Uncategorized No Comments

Book Reviews by Age, by Common Sense Media

Stories have the power to calm us, to entertain us and to take us on journeys for hours at a time. Reading may just be the key to getting some time to focus on your work while you are home with kids. Common Sense Media is a wealth of information about all things kids media, including age appropriate reading. This must-have resource link provides an interactive age selector and book titles with reviews for the age you have selected.

When kids are little it seems like we read the same books over and over again for hours and then magically one day that changes. I’ll never forget the day our then 5 year old walked through the kitchen nose-to-book lost in a Magic Tree House story.

Think about scheduled independent reading time daily, so you can plan important calls or a project that requires more focus during that time. Reading time together before bed or curled up under a blanket on the sofa is still blissfully happy for kids and important. The independent reading time you schedule during the day is a Work-From-Home hack that is very rewarding for kids who are reading and huge help for you.

Book Reviews by Age, by Common Sense Media

 

Visit Brand Central Home Base for more Work-From-Home resources to help you during Covid-19.

Helping Dual Career Couples Work Through COVID-19 (from Harvard Biz Review)

By New Normals for Business, Uncategorized No Comments

Full disclosure, I am in a dual career couple marriage and my business partner happens to also be my life partner and husband. We have been at this for 20+ years. We don’t typically lead with that fact because we want our clients to know our brand and culture, not our marital status. Our corporation is more than competent to bring solutions to Fortune 1000 companies who depend on us to manage their brand compliance. What does it matter that we fell into working as business partners and we happen to be married? It doesn’t.

It’s not easy. Most of my friends say they could never do it. Trust me, if you are a dual professional couple right now, managing work and family life under one roof, you can do this temporarily. The fact that you don’t own a business together, removes a ton of complexity. Reading this may even give you a sigh of relief that you do not actually have to “work with” your spouse! Harvard Business Review has published this article (FREE Content) which unpacks the current challenges and gives you some tips for taking action daily as a Dual Professional couple in the time of Covid-19. We sincerely hope this provides some relief from the normal tensions around balancing the priorities of two professions under one roof.

How Dual Career Couples Can Work Through the Corona Virus Crisis.

 

 

Visit Brand Central Home Base for other content to help you with the unique challenges of Working-From-Home during Covid-19.

 

 

 

Simple Lunch Refueling Ideas from the Tasty Social Platform

By Let's Do Lunch - Refueling, Uncategorized No Comments

I have been working remotely on and off for many years. It so happens that I am in an office currently but have been working at home again during this health crisis. I have gone back to a few bad habits which included skipping lunch. This is a surprisingly common habit among remote workers. For that reason we are sharing simple lunch ideas to refuel for that afternoon Zoom Conference meeting. Our ideas are brought to you by the largest social media food platform on the planet – Buzzfeed’s Tasty Brand.

Beloved by digital natives and Millennials, Tasty provides fast and engaging video recipes that are typically delivered in about one minute with a written recipe posted beside the video. It’s entertaining as well as a pragmatic way to ensure you are refueling for the afternoon ahead.

 

TASTY Lunch Ideas – Refueling Simplicity

This link takes you to 200+ Tasty Lunch ideas filtered by “healthy”. Enjoy!

Visit Brand Central Home Base for other content to help you with the unique challenges of Working-From-Home during Covid-19.

Music Playlists for your Work Day at Home

By Work Playlists for Focus No Comments

Music can calm us while we get through a stressful workday, focus us to help finish a project, propel us to work that extra hour or two when we are less motivated, and perhaps most important, it can filter out the “noise” of your new office where ever it may be. These are playlists along the theme of work focus and productivity from Spotify Music.

 

Visit Brand Central Home Base for other content to help you with the unique challenges of Working-From-Home during Covid-19.

What Types of Music are Productivity Boosters?

By Work Playlists for Focus No Comments

 

One way to focus and filter out household sounds while you work at home is with music. But how does music influence you. Does it distract? Does it Focus? Does it make you happy/sad? Thrive Global unlocks the science behind music and its ability to boost productivity and focus. Seems like a no-brainer for anyone new to Work-From-Home, so we are featuring it here at BP Home Base. Check out our other post in this category for actual links to premade work playlists.

 

              Music Boosts Productivity – A short Summary of the Science

 

 

Visit Brand Central Home Base for other content to help you with the unique challenges of Working-From-Home during Covid-19.

Top Five Free Meditation Apps Worthy of Your Attention

By Wellness No Comments

Top Five Free Meditation Apps Worthy of Your Attention

 

Full disclosure, my idea of a meditation is 10 minutes with the “Calm App” ($60/annual fee), in the morning before work and previously at lunch in my car (while parked). I try to be consistent. That’s about all I can do because I find it hard to sit still. However, after that 10 minutes, I feel like I’ve been on a mini-vacay. It’s miraculous. So I’m a fan of the mainstreaming of Meditation. And I love that there are so many top of the line FREE apps.  For me this small meditation works to set my intention for the day, to refocus if the 24 hour news cycle is getting to me or just to feel good, period. Apologies to the real meditating practitioners who read this. This content is for people who may be new to the benefits of a short meditation to ease their new workplace stress.

 

Visit Brand Central Home Base for other content to help you with the unique challenges of Working-From-Home during Covid-19.