So I don't know about you, but I get weekly, if not daily drawings from my kids' daycare. I'm thrilled every time I get something because I know they're working on drawing, coloring, learning numbers, printing their letters, cutting, gluing, and painting. Very important development skills for sure! The thing is I'm overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I get, because let's face it, most of it is... let me just call it like it is... it's crap.
Now don't get me wrong it's crap that I adore that they made, but if I kept every single thing that my kids' drew or colored it could be my new wallpaper and possibly vinyl outside the house. Needless to say, it's a lot of crap... er... stuff.
Luckily, a few months back I got an invitation to try out a new app. It's called Merit. Merit can capture moments (similar to social media, but closed and way safer), artwork (hallelujah for not feeling guilty about saving every drawing they ever made), education (where they went, who their teacher was and more), and achievements (yay for graduation and awards!). Let me dive a little further.
The App
Moments
With Merit you can add multiple children, which is great! (I have 3 to keep up with). You can add photos to the app and be able to share it with people in your circles. For those that are a little concerned about putting your kid out there on social media, Merit is the solution you've been looking for! You can invite only those people that want to be in your circle to view the things you add to the app. Each child has their own profile and you can scroll similar to your social media feed. I love seeing the moments I've put in there and I can't wait to share it with the grandparents that live far away. Heck, aunts and uncles and cousins too!
Artwork
As I mentioned I get lots of stuff sent home and I just don't know what to do with it all. I try to keep the "special stuff" that's outside of the ordinary coloring page, but this is my new go-to. Now I can take a photo of the artwork and save it forever! Yay for a de-cluttered house! Can I get an amen?
Education
For each year that your child goes to school you can add the name of the school, teacher's name, grade level, and when they started and ended. You can also enter a highlight for the year. What a great way to capture the details of their year and who their teacher was, they will have many I'm sure.
Achievements
So far I've used the achievement section to put in a set list from a concert where Gardner performed. Of course, as my kids get older this section will be much more robust with other achievements they may receive both from their education and extra-curricular activities.
What I Like
Privacy
As I mentioned, this app is private only to those you invite to your circles. As for me, my kids all have their own hashtags and are plastered all over Facebook and Instagram. Still, I'm cautious about what I put online especially given that the hashtags are searchable. To hear my personal opinion on the topic you can check out Episode 1 of Raising the Rivenbarks (formerly Have Kids They Said). I don't put photos of the kids in the bath or other "embarrassing" photos, but that will be up to them to determine. But I would like to share them with close family. I like that we can have a way to share these photos privately with our friends and family.
Organization
This app doesn't try to do too much. There are 4 easy to use categories and you can add as much as you want for each child. You can also scroll back and see what you've posted and it functions similar to your social media feed. It's sleek and easy to use. I especially like that it's not trying to complicate my life further.
What I'm Hoping For... aka Just a few tweaks
Connection to Social Media
I'd like the option of being able to post in Merit and automatically push it to Facebook or Instagram for those photos that I deem acceptable to be out in public. I like a good one-stop shop for photos.
Tagging for Each Child
Right now to add a photo of my 3 kids together requires 3 separate posts to their profiles. Chances of getting the 3 kids to sit together for a photo is nearly impossible, so I don't desperately need this feature, but it would be nice. After all, I can barely manage my own social media accounts. Adding 3 children's accounts to my load is cumbersome. I'm hoping in future updates this will be easier.
Push Notifications
Because this is a new app I would like push notifications to remind me to post moments, artwork, achievements, and education. Sometimes I forget it's there. However, I do see a notification option in my settings and I'm thinking this is going to go live soon!
In conclusion
I love this concept and this app. I can't say enough good things about it. It helps to keep our kids safe, share photos with relatives near and far, and de-clutter my house of the mountains of artwork. For that I say, "Thank you Merit app!" Give it a try and tell me what you think!
Visit their website: https://meritapp.co/ to learn more about it and download it in the App Store. It's available on the iPhone and GooglePlay.