history

Black History Month lasts through the end of February, but you'll need to act by Friday if you want to grab free downloads of three important audio books by Black authors. Offered as a gift from Cool Mom Tech-recommended audiobook compan…

Documentaries are hot right now. Whether you're watching President Obama narrate Our Great National Parks with your kids, baking in the schadenfreude of Bad Vegan , or learning about culture and history through movies like What Happened …

I originally stumbled on this incredible Native Land Map when it was shared in honor of Indigenous People's Day and -- wow. What a worthwhile educational site to explore today, especially if you sit down and do it with your kids. Particu…

It took me longer than most people to get into audiobooks . Even while friends raved about flying through so many books on their commutes or while sitting in carpool lines, I had tried a few novels on Audible -- good ones! -- and just co…

I've been a huge Rebel Girls fan since their very first book came out, so naturally I'm so excited to hear about their brand new Rebel Girls app . The app features the stories of some of our favorite women -- Malala , Lady Gaga, Maya Ang…

On Indigenous People's Day , a lot of kids may be asking us to explain what Indigenous means. It's not the kind of word that's in a lot of kids' day-to-day vocabularies -- or at least not yet. And parents may have trouble explaining what…

Just yesterday, Google launched their 2020 Election Google Trends page, which allows you to see exactly what the rest of the country is searching for these days. And as a parent, I bet civically-minded kids would love to learn more about…

As a homeschool mom, there's something I've realized about myself over the past couple years: I'm not great at everything. There are some subjects I definitely teach better than others (hello, writing!), and some that I have no business …

We recently asked the members of our Out Tech Your Kids Facebook Group to share their choices for best podcasts for parents -- that don't have to be about parenting at all -- and wow, we scored big. And well, so did you. If you're lookin…

My timeline started blowing up with bizarre side-by-side photos of selfies and museum portraits. I tracked it down as a feature of the new Google Arts & Culture app (iOS and Android ) which is free, fun, and possibly has some educational…

There are so many cool educational channels on YouTube for tweens and teens, but I don't think that a lot of parents think to open our YouTube app when we look for educational resources for our kids. But we should. Let's put it this way:…

I was so thrilled to discover this resource guide from the Library of Congress that's full of a variety of primary source materials that document the U.S. Presidential Inaugurations through our country's history. It's such a fantastic we…

I am fortunate that my grandmother was a writer, so she took it upon herself to write all her amazing life story down for us before she passed away. Even so, I would have loved to have had StoryWorth , a service that helps you capture yo…

My kids get really excited about President's Day because it means a day off from school. But I'd like to make sure that they spend a little bit of time reflecting on our former presidents too, so I love an app that helps with just that. …

One thing that's become abundantly clear to me after a year of following Black Lives Matter tweets and listening more closely to what people of color have to say about their own heroes and history without media spin, is that a lot of us …

Recently, we were thrilled to find Take Back Halloween , an amazing site for women (and girls) hoping for a few more Halloween costume options besides "sexy nurse." Or sexy anything, really. I loved seeing this Ada Lovelace costume which…

When it comes to teaching my kids history, I'll use anything I can get my hands on, from Crash Course and Brain Pop videos , to cool apps like History Here that help us learn the history of places we visit. And now I've found a lighthear…

My grandmother once stowed away in the back seat of her father's Model-T while her sister went on a date. Then they crashed the car, into a pig. Now that she's gone, I really wish I'd had her record stories like that one so that my kids,…

As much as I'd love to take a trip to Europe with my kids and let them ride bikes through Holland to see the windmills and tulips, it's just not in the budget this year. But I can still let them learn about Dutch culture through the beau…

We've used the cool virtual map Google Earth to get a bird's eye view of our house, Disney World, and my mother's tiny hometown in Europe. And now there is a really neat history book for kids, History of the World with Google Earth , tha…

Full disclosure before talking about the new Ken Burns app: I’m a big Ken Burns fan. For nearly 40 years, the award-winning historical documentarian has been telling beautiful, expansive, influential stories on film about everything from…

Along with enjoying a nice day off from school, I want my kids to spend at least some time on Presidents' Day learning about our Commanders-in-Chief of yore. So I've rounded up three great apps for Presidents' Day that will teach them a …

As I woke up New Year's day and made pancakes to the sweet sounds of NPR, I realized how much I really like radio. But with radio dying, I've started making my way over to podcasts which let you filter exactly what you want, when you wan…

Over on our sister site, Cool Mom Picks , we've shared our favorite picks for Black History Month which include important figures in the civil rights movement, in the arts, and in politics. But there are many other African American heroe…