Online Story Time

You probably know that your voice are music to your little darling's ears; (just the sound of your voice would perk them up), however it is still a good idea to expose your child to another story teller's voice. Aside from the bonding experience, and increasing his vocabulary by hearing the words in context, you are accustoming your child to different oral presentations as each story teller has his own unique style of reading or presenting the story. One way of doing it is listening to an story time read by the books' authors.Try the Online Storytime by Barnes and Nobles. The site presents a particular online story for a month.

If you are a teacher, you can probably use the Online Storytime by Barnes and Nobles during author study if you can't raise the funds to invite the author himself to your school. It is a good complimentary activity to conference call from your class to the author. Since they already hear the author read a story online it will be a cool experience for them to hear it again as they ask their questions if you manage to arrange the call of course.

Early Learning App

Are you looking for a way to entertain your kids while waiting in the pediatrician's office or the dental clinic, or while waiting in the train or in the airport? Why not get the “Smart Kids Early Learning” a fun iPad app that will help your child pass the time meaningfully? Your young reader will be introduced to the interactive Alphabets, Numbers, Colors and Shapes enhanced with classical music, images and video in anywhere through your iPad.  Learning takes place both visually and audibly as well. For example, the alphabet is taught by introducing a child to a given letter then allowing this letter to be heard with the correct audio pronunciation. Your little darling will learn numbers 1 through 10 interactively. For example, 1 apple is shown to represent 1 and is accompanied by the appropriate audio. Children will thus see and hear the information and learn in an intuitive and organic fashion. Your child will learn the 10 basic colors as he sees an example of the color in the form of an object . This will also encourage your child to focus on each new color more intensely, promoting new neural connections. Ten shapes are also introduced in this innovative iPad app. As in all the sections, audio feedback plays a key role. Each shape is accompanied with audio repetition of its appropriate name.

Bedtime Reading App

If you take your kids to different places during vacation you probably don't have much room for a few books in your already jam-packed luggage bags. However, a bedtime routine and the closeness it brings as well as sticking to a familiar scheduled activity is important. Why not try Clever Tales? As an app designed for both iPhone and iPad it has 40 charmingly illustrated tales for little ones (4+) and for older children (7+). The exclusive children friendly jazz music composed for this app can be played on its own: there is a collection of lullabies (great after a bedtime story) and several daytime musical themes. The writers of these tales, artists and app-developers come from different countries: Russia, Israel, Holland, Colombia, United States, Germany, Lithuania, Ukraine and others so you are expanding your child's perspective from a reading point.

Name That Picture

Looking for a word recognition game for your child or students? Try the Letter TV Name That Picture. The learning game features cvc words that are great for beginning readers. You can put a student or some students in your classroom computer or computers (as the case may be) while you are working with other groups. 

Helpful Calculators

Is math not your strong subject? The following calculators will check if your child’s answers to his homework are correct. Of course he still need to work hard to find the solution but knowing the right answer will help him not to submit an assignment with the wrong answer.

If he wants to determine the area of a square, triangle, rectangle, circle or sphere, he can use the Area Calculator.

If he can't remember the formulas for the other two parts of a circle (area, diameter, or circumference) when he only know one, he can use the Circle Solver. He just needs to enter the circle area, diameter, or circumference and it will solve for the other two.

The Circumference Calculator can help him figure the circumference of a circle when he enter the radius.

The LCM and GCD will help him calculate the Least Common Multiple and Greatest Common Divisor of two numbers using this short script. 

The Prime Number Calculator can instantly tell him if it is a prime number or not as soon as he enters a number.

If your child enter two dates (including the time), the Date Difference  will display the number of weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds between the two. The seconds field is optional, too. For an example, try entering your birthdate and compare it to today's date.

The Day of Week calculates what day of the week a given date was. It works for leap years and also tells you whether the date is in the past future or today. 

If your kid enter a math expression (with +, -, *, and / signs) Expression Solver will evaluate the expression for him. 

If he enter a parabolic equation, like 5x^2 + 18x + 27 the Parabola Grapher will determine all the vital information about the graph. Aside from that a rough graph of the curve is available. 

If he enter the X-Y coordinates for a function, the Graphing Function will give him the graphing formulas, including Formula, Slope, Y-intercept, Parallel and Perpendicular lines. 

Your kid can solve any of three variables in a Kinetic Energy equation using the  Kinetic Energy calculator. All he need to do is enter two of the three values and submit to find the value of the third variable.

The Money Counter will calculate the total amount of money he has when he enter the number of bills and coins he has. All blank entries are ignored. Input field validation is also included -- try entering a non-digit into a field. Also, this script is a good demonstration of a JavaScript return function in use.

The Savings Estimator will display the total savings once your child enters how much one can afford to save each month, how long he can save this amount, and the interest rate he can get on his savings.

 The Compound Interest calculator will help him to calculate compound interest.

The Percent Calculator will solve percent problems when he enters the values.

The GPA Calculator is a very useful in figuring out your kids class GPA. He just need to enter the letter grade for each class.

The Square Root Calculator will find the value of a number squared or that number's square root. 

If he wants a very organized Periodic Table, and lots of information about any periodic element he click on,  the Periodic Table is worth checking over.

One of geometry's most useful formulas, the Pythagorean Theorem, can be applied to the numbers your child enters in JavaScript! Just enter 'A' and 'B' and the Pythagorean Theorem script solves for 'C.'

If your child enter the coefficients for the quadratic 'Ax^2 + Bx + C = 0' equation and the Quadratic Equation  calculator will output the solutions (if they are not imaginary).

The Quadratic Solver solves quadratic equations for inputted coefficients. Answers can be either real or complex. 

Your child can generate normally distributed random numbers by entering a mean value and standard deviation in the Random Distribution calculator. It uses the normal law of error to determine an events given probability. 

 Round has a simple function to round a decimal number to any number of decimal places  just by passing it different values. 

The Running Calculator allows your child to calculate a runner’s time, distance covered, or pace by entering the other two values. Distance and pace can be converted between various measurements.

The Scientific Calculator does many advanced functions - cosine, sine, tangent, square root, exponents, etc. 

The Sine Calculator will solve the sine angle once opposite and hypotenuse angle values are entered.

The Cosine Calculator will solve the cosine angle for him as long as he enter the adjacent and hypotenuse angle values

The Tangent Calculator will solve the tangent angle once the opposite and adjacent angle values
are entered.

If a coordinate pair for each the starting and ending points according to the Cartesian coordinate system is entered, the Straight Distance calculator will calculate the straight line distance between the two points.

The Distance Speed Time calculates the time, distance, or speed given any two of the pieces of information. 

The Driving Distance Calculator will help your child estimate the driving distance between U.S. cities.

The Miles per Gallon calculator computes the miles per gallon of a car via the miles traveled and the number of gallons used. Also, if your child enter the cost per gallon and how many miles the driver drive a day, it will estimate the monthly and yearly gas expenses.

If he enters a vehicle's quarter mile time (assuming he knows it) and vehicle weight the Horsepower Calculator will display the car's estimated horsepower.

The Top Speed by RPM will determine the top speed without any weight on the Tires when  the diameter of the tire and the RPM value of the motor is entered. 

If you are concern about your kids weight and health you might be interested in the following:

The Body Mass Index classifies a person into one of several categories, from underweight to desirable to obese. 

When someone’s height and weight is entered, the Body Mass Index can use a formula created by the Panel on Energy, Obesity, and Body Weight Standards to figure out the Body Mass Index.

The Body Calculator analyzes a person’s information (sex, height, weight) and responds with a comment message.

The Male Body Calculator calculates a man's ideal body measurements based on his wrist circumference. 

Annotation Tool

If you want to develop a lesson around a theme like Earth Day you can use TrackStar to guide your students through selected related sites, like for example a track with links to The Lorax Part 1,  Part 2 and Discussion Questions  within one browser window. You can provide either a short description of each linked website or the task you expect them to do. You can also provide guide questions that will help your students focus on and understand what they are about to read on top of each website. You can even include an online bulletin board as one of the link. Just tell your students the ID number associated with the track you want them to visit.

Text and Website Translation Tool

If your class is collaborating on a project with another class in another country with a different language you can use Google Translate to translate not only the text of your documents or their documents but also the entire websites that are of interests to both class.

Google Translate is a free translation service that provides instant translations between 57 different languages. It can translate words, sentences and web pages between any combination of those supported languages.

Google Translate uses what is called "statistical machine translation" which is a process of seeking patterns in documents that have already been translated by human translators. Thus, not all translation will be perfect, since the translations are generated by machines.

You can also try Systran, another online translator of web pages, written texts, or Microsoft Office files.

Empty Parking Spot Locator

Ever got frustrated when your kids are screaming that they really need to go to a bathroom and you can't find a parking spot yet? Why not try the Parker app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App store? It will get you and your kids to your destination faster rather than wasting time circling blocks for curbside parking.

Parker shows you where the empty parking spot are in selected streets in Hollywood, California; DC—Fort Totten Metro station and NYC—Roosevelt Island.  You will have access to rates, hours and time limits for on-street parking. No parking available on the street just now? Parker  also shows you where convenient parking lots and garages are. Parker updates automatically as cars park/leave.

If you want closer, safer, cheaper car parking in UK, you might want to try Nosey Parker.

Virtual Classroom

Whether you are a trainer who regularly conducts professional development for teachers or an ordinary teacher who does tutoring to supplement your income,  or a talented individual who is passionate about sharing his aptitude with learners with the same interest, WiZiQ might be very useful. As a web-based platform for anyone and everyone who wants to teach and learn live, online,  WiZiQ helps teachers and students create and share online educational content and tests, and to connect with persons having similar subject interests.

WiZiQ is a free state-of-the-art virtual classroom, where you can interact online using images, PowerPoint presentations and documents, full way audio and video sharing, live chat enhances the interaction amongst the participants and control Privileges with you having full control over the class like in real-world classroom
All classes on WiZiQ are automatically recorded so that you can revisit and even search for a certain topic anytime at your convenience.

You can discover who else on WiZiQ shares similar interests with you by entering your subject interests. You can also initiate contact with members around you to exchange knowledge, content and to help each other work towards common goals such as preparing for an exam or assignment.

Sci-fi

If your kids are sci-fi super fan, why not direct them to io9, the blog that covers science, science fiction, and the future in all mediums - TV shows, movies, books and even comics.
 
If your kids are interested in the latest news about Sci Fi and Fantasy culture including books, movies, games, art tell them about Tor.com. They will be able to read short stories from top authors and join in the discussion! Tor.com, is a site for science fiction, fantasy, and all the things that interest SF and fantasy readers, presents original short fiction, new sequential art, extensive art galleries, and commentary on science fiction and related subjects by a wide range of writers from all corners of the science fiction and fantasy field; both professionals working in the genres and fans.

Free Programs to Open File Extensions

If your kid is doing a lot of research for school already, chances are he already encountered a dialog box asking him what program he wants to open the file that he downloaded. In that case, he might find OpenWith.org very useful. OpenWith.org provides detailed information about most file extension and links to free programs that can open and create each type of file. So whenever you or your kids come across an unknown file type just go to OpenWith.org.

Free TV Shows and Movies Online

If you are too busy picking up your kids from school, driving them to their after school activities, and other things you and your kids probably miss some of your favorite TV shows.  Watch your favorites anytime for free at Hulu, an online video service that offers hit TV shows including Family Guy and 30 Rock. Their extensive library also includes classic TV series and blockbuster movies. With inflation and salary freezes these days, every family is thinking of cutting off some expenses but you and your kids can still enjoy free movies online.

You can watch TV shows and movies you can't find in Hulu in  Crackle, the place to experience pure entertainment: full-length movies, TV shows, and original series from genres that embody cool -- all uncut, uncensored, and unbelievably free. Crackle is one of the fastest growing entertainment destinations today, featuring only the genres you love -- comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, horror -- anywhere you are. Crackle gives you access everywhere: on your favorite video site, your television and your mobile device.

Social Networking

As a busy Mom it is sometimes hard to keep in touch with friends with so many household chores and pressing concerns. But it is still important to have your own identity aside from being someone else wife and mother. One way of doing that is maintaining friendship. Friends enrich our lives. They help us celebrate the good times and help us through the tough times. Friends are individual with unique taste and preferences so one friend can be in facebook but another friend might just be using twitter. If you use different social networking sites to keep up with  all of them, it can be time consuming. Looking for a way to make things easier? If your online social life is getting out of hand, try sobees. As a social desktop aggregator sobees brings Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter together in one interface. You can update your status across all those sites at once and track your friends easily.

You can also try TweetDeck, your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn etc.

Online School Notes

If you are a teacher you probably can use SchoolNotes.com's free community service to post assignments, announcements, and links to important resources. You can also create notes to notify parents and students each time you update your classroom page; as well as create an online calendar of class events and activities What's more, SchoolNotes.com offers free storage so you can upload documents and add images to your page(s). You can also use the handy tools to create flashcards and other learning materials, All you need to do is register.

You can set up or modify your Notify Me list - the e-mail addresses to which the system will send notice when you click "Save and Notify" You have to click on the "Account Management" link located in the upper right margin. Enter your school's Zip Code, the User Name you've established, and your Password, and click on the "Log-in" button.Click on "Show Notify List" and create or edit the list of e-mail addresses to which you wish notifications be sent when you "Save and Notify." You can also send out a personalized message to all parents/students who are signed up to be notified by clicking on the "Notify All" link in the lower left corner of the bottom of the notify list. Once you click on this link you can type in a personalized message and send it out to your parents/students.
 

Your SchoolNotes page also comes with an online flashcard. You can create simple electronic flashcards your students can use anywhere as long as they have access to the Internet. You must first log in to your Edit Notes page Click on the "Flashcards" link located in the upper left margin. This will bring you down the page to the "Enter Flashcard Here" section. Click on the text input box with your mouse and type one flashcard per line. Each time you hit the Enter key, it will push you to the next line, which will create a new flashcard. Example: Type 5 + 7 = on one line and hit the Enter (return) key. Then type 12. The first line will be one flashcard showing the problem and the second will be the next flashcard, showing the solution. You can use these not only for math, of course, but for short-answer and other formats as well. Type "What is the capital city of New York?" (for example) then hit the Enter key and type "Albany." When you are done updating your flashcards, click on the "Back to Top/Save" link located in the left margin, enter your password, and click the "Save" button. If you create flashcards, a "Flashcards" link will automatically appear on your SchoolNotes page, in the top header section, for your students to access. They will simply click on the link and the Flashcards will be displayed in the order you've entered them.

If you are a parent SchoolNotes.com can keep you up to date with assignments and important announcements from your kids teachers by entering your school's zip code. You can also get notified when your teachers update their pages. Moreover, you can contact your teachers through their easy-to-use contact pages, save your teachers' pages into your own personal list of favorites and access practical tips and other resources from EducationWorld.com