Friday Fun Day AND a Lenovo 500 Bluetooth Speaker Giveaway!!

Friday Fun Day is our favorite part of the week!  Today I'm sharing a little more about this fun tradition, why we do it, and how Lenovo is making it even better!  And...make sure you read all the way to the end because Lenovo is giving away a 500 Bluetooth Speaker to one of you!!

Friday Fun Day starts out with a fun group activity in the morning.  We usually have 4-6 kids here, and they all enjoy a fun science activity, art project, or new game.

As the day ends, and our friends start to head home, we begin making pizza (or buying it, if I'm too tired!).  We're going through a phase right now where the kids love to roll out the pizza dough and design their own uniquely shaped pizzas!  As a last hurrah!, we spread a sheet out over the playroom floor, cover it with pizza, fruit, and vegetables, and set up a movie on a laptop.  Everyone loves getting to watch a movie in a place where they do not usually get to watch movies and eating pizza!

This is a super-fun tradition, but we do it for more than just the fun.  Did you know that family rituals may help promote better emotional adjustment?  You can read a bit about that here.  Another study suggests that preschoolers who sing, tell stories, and eat dinner with their families are healthier emotionally and are better adjusted socially.  Additionally, it is a chance for your children to create shared memories and experiences, which help improve family bonding.

Our kids also love to invite their neighborhood friends over to enjoy the movie with us.  This adds more fun, but it makes our biggest challenge even more of an issue:

Our biggest challenge is getting enough volume out of our laptops so that we can easily hear over the food and the kids!  Kids do not eat softly!  Even when they politely whisper, reach for more food, and stand up to get drinks, they quickly drown out the laptop speakers.

So, we were very excited at the chance to try out the Lenovo 500 Bluetooth Speaker!  Our family's Friday Fun Day Movie Night would be a challenge to any speaker, and we were thrilled when our new speaker arrived in the mail.  Not only were we curious about the volume capabilities, we were also very interested in the bluetooth function.  We have tried using larger desktop speakers (which do get loud), but have been very frustrated with transporting them from upstairs down to our playroom for our weekly event.  And there is no way I would leave a set of speakers in the playroom all week!  During the course of a week, we can easily have 20 kids, under eight years old, playing in that room...leaving a speaker in there for a week straight would be a death sentence!

Happily, the Lenovo 500 Bluetooth Speaker performed beautifully!  Not only was the set-up easy, the sound fantastic, and the volume wonderful, but it is super, super portable!!  Moving it from a safe location to the playroom for a couple hours was a breeze!  It is very compact, light-weight (it only weighs 1.6 pounds), and it came with a stylish carrying case!

It took less than ten minutes to pair with my computer.  Here's what I had to do:

1- Place the speaker close to my computer and turn it on.
2- Go to my computer's Control Panel and click on "Add a bluetooth device."  I spent most of my set-up time looking for this button!
3- The speaker beeped twice and the power button stopped flashing.  The pairing was done!
But my computer needed one more step:
4- Go to my "Devices and Printers" setting and click on "Use this device" next to the speaker's icon.  Now it played through the speaker instead of through my computer!

Did I mention...it was loud?!!  Not only was it loud, but the sound was wonderful!  It actually has the best-in-class sound quality!  It is easy to adjust the sound with the intuitive buttons on top of the speaker!

Since then, we have used it to power up preschool dance parties and set "Cleaning Time" to music.   Music is an important part of our day because it helps children learn better, relax, and maintain positive attitudes.  The speaker pairs easily with our android phones, and I can keep it safely on the counter while the sound fills two rooms!  And the rechargeable battery has up to four hours of playback time!  The volume buttons are very convenient too!

We've only had one problem with it, and it was our own fault: if you hold the power button down for 5-6 seconds, the speaker is ready to pair with a new device.  This is convenient for switching between computers and phones, but we ran into a problem when it was close enough to the computer that it tried pairing with the computer while it was already paired with the computer!  The result was a hollow, tin-y sound with an interesting echo.  The solution was simple: we went into our "devices and printers" setting and removed the device entirely.  Then we just re-paired them!  It only took a minute the second time because we knew exactly what to do!

I am absolutely thrilled about the Lenovo 500 Bluetooth Speaker and how it is quickly becoming a part of our regular daily and weekly activities!  I am happy to recommend it to anyone...it's perfect for family fun, and can easily fit the needs of adults without children too.

AND...here's the exciting part...

Lenovo is going to give one of you your own 500 Bluetooth Speaker (MSRP $79.99)!!

Simply enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter form below.  Please note that you must be 18 years old and live in the United States.  If you are the chosen winner, you must respond within 24 hours; otherwise, you forfeit the prize and another winner will be chosen.  Good luck!!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

What kind of family traditions do you have?  What is your favorite way to have fun with your family?  We'd love to know!!  Feel free to leave a comment, send an email, or stop by our PreschoolPowolPackets Facebook page and say Hi!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.



I may share at any of these parties!



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