Christina Wood

Columnist, freelance writer

Wilmington, NC

I have been covering technology since before Bill met Melinda and you met Google. I've written the Family Tech column in Family Circle magazine and the Deal Seeker column at Yahoo! Tech. I also write about education, parenting, and many other topics for many other publications. Clients include Greatschools.org, CIO, The Week, Experience Magazine, Discovery, Better Homes and Gardens, Popular Science, This Old House Magazine, USA Weekend, PC Magazine, PC World, Saks Fifth Avenue, and many others.

Christina Wood

Columnist, freelance writer

Wilmington, NC

Featured
Spanking: discipline or abuse?
It's common, it's cultural, it's legal in all states in the nation. But does spanking work? I grew up with two kinds of spanking. My mother, a gentle and affectionate Brit raising four small children without much support, rarely spanked. Well, she often smacked our butts, jokingly, affectionately, with a laugh, sometimes followed by a tickle or hug.
Greatschools.org
Featured
Kill the motor, dude. Find out what your kids can do on their own
My favorite scene in Finding Nemo is when Marlin (Nemo’s dad) encounters the wise, ancient turtles and their adorable offspring. Crush, age 150 — has lived long enough to know a few things about being a dad. When his son Squirt, playing, gets accidentally shot out of the current they’re riding, Marlin rushes to rescue him.
Greatschools
Featured
The most dangerous part of scuba diving
After a frigid morning scuba diving off the coast of Big Sur, I head back to Morro Bay on an 88-foot boat, preparing to say goodbye to the salty assortment of old-school divers I’ve shared the vessel with for four days. These are some of the best divers I’ve ever met. Several are old enough to have bought their first regulators from Jacques Cousteau in the 1950s.
Featured
What Lies Beneath
I stand on the deck of the vision, soaking in the view of the big sur coast when a man wearing dry-suit underwear and ugg boots bumps into me, tossed by a lurch of the boat. “Come here often?”. Diving off the coast of big sur is not something anyone does often. There is nowhere to put in a boat south of point lobos or north of morro bay and those dramatic cliffs make getting into the ocean from shore nearly impossible.
Carmel Magazine
Featured
How to catch a falling son
By Christina Tynan-Wood When he was young, my son Cole was an entertaining writer, voracious reader, and so curious he exhausted us with questions. In second grade, he was tested as gifted. Now, at 15, he's as likely to be the teacher in our relationship as the student.
Greatschools
Education
Featured
The wilderness transformed my son
By Christina Tynan-Wood My son, Cole, was an angry teen. I'm not sure how he got so angry or what he was angry about. But, from my point of view, he went from a sweet, intelligent boy with an unstoppable curiosity to an angry, unproductive young man overnight.
Greatschools
Resumes and Applicant Tracking Systems: 6 Steps to an ATS Resume that Beats the Bots
When you're applying for jobs online, it's easy to become discouraged. After all, every job posting receives hundreds of applicants, and only a small percentage of those applications will ever make it in front of a real person. An even smaller handful will get an interview, and only one person gets the job.
You need water. Don't you want a bottle that expresses your obsession? Here it is.
What does you water bottle say on it? The brand name of whatever company made it? You already bought the bottle they made, marketed, and shipped to you. Don’t also do their advertising! Here are water bottles that express the brands you like, you nerd you! Whether you are a Star Trek nerd or into something more obscure, carry a bottle you love.
10 traits of highly effective teams
CIO
College tours for…tweens?!
At 15 years old our son, Cole, suddenly lost interest in his future. It was the summer after his freshman year of high school, and our boy, who had been dreaming about going off to college since he was in the fifth grade, started asking if college mattered. He’s a smart kid, but he wasn’t enjoying high school.
7 Impossibly Nerdy-Awesome Halloween Costumes
Halloween is the best time of year. For one day, you can go out into the world in whatever cosplay outfit melts your butter without anyone calling you a giant dork. Wear your fuzzy! Dress like a woman! Dress like an Japanese-influenced alien! Be your gamer fantasy. Even if you are only looking for a costume because you can’t go to a Halloween party without one, you could take advantage of this moment to express your inner nerd.
Top 10 Interview Questions for New Psychology Grads (and How to Answer Them)
You graduated with a degree in psychology and are preparing to interview for your first job in the field. As a student of psychology, the job interview is a great place to apply the principles you studied. On the surface, you'll be answering interview questions about your background, why you're a fit and your desired career path.
5 Best Coding Games for Kids
Learning to code is one of the essential skills kids need to survive in the future they will inhabit. Teaching this skill to a child is no big deal if you are yourself a code nerd. But, even if you aren’t, you can instill the basic skills your tot—or the kids of your less-enlightened family and friends—by handing them a board game that teaches these skills through play.
13 Interview Questions for Business Majors (and How to Answer Them)
Interviews are stressful by nature, and your first interview can feel overwhelming. You'll likely be asked questions about the field, the company, your background and your dreams and aspirations. To say it's a lot to handle would be an understatement. When it comes time for an interview, you'll need to fully leverage the skills and experiences you gained as you completed your business degree, and know how to talk about them in an articulate manner.
6 Geeky Products on Amazon Your Dog Deserves
Some dogs are goofy, warm-hearted, and simple. They want to chase a ball. They are only happy when running at high speed. Or they sleep 24/7. Your dog, though: Anxious, overly concerned about what everyone is doing at all times, thoughtful, sneaky, clever, planning for an apocalyptic future when all dog treats are gone.
6 Long Sleeve Henleys You Need Right Now
If you’re like many men, your wardrobe is full of graphic tees, and then you have a few button-down shirts. But the shirts you can wear to brunch, on a date, or to a casual work event are few and far between. I would like to introduce you to the Henley! It’s the t-shirt’s dressier older brother.

About

Christina Wood