homeschooling

I was once a struggling engineering student, so I have a special appreciation for the courage and creativity of kids who really want to know how stuff works and aren't afraid to jump in and figure it out. Now that one of my own kids is c…

Have you ever been going somewhere specific, but you take an early turn and end up somewhere completely unknown and completely fantastic? You feel like you've discovered something private and special. How did I not know about this place?…

This is a sponsored message from HP Even though so many of us try to go paperless when we can these days, with online party invitations, printables, mobile boarding passes, and homework, we still requires paper. Lots of paper. And that m…

Whether your kids are figuring out how to sound out words for the first time, or you have older grade-schoolers who just might choose an educational app over a game from time to time if it's fun enough, educational apps can certainly be …

While looking around for cool printable lunch box notes for our back to school guide, I stumbled across these wildly awesome optical illusion flash cards at Mr. Printables. As a kid, I couldn't get enough of optical illusions and now my …

Sure, our kids love to play with iPads like uh, all kids these days, but no matter how educational an app may be , it's usually a solitary activity. We've loved collaborative games made for iPad like Duo Plink (though the company is sadl…

We've been fans of littleBits , the creative, magnetic, electronic maker toy, for quite a while. Though now that it's turning our kids into rock stars with their littleBits Synth Kit , we're total groupies. This is one very satisfying to…

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 …

Lucky kids. In the olden days, we learned numbers from boring flashcards, but our fortunate progeny have a sweet monster floating in a bathtub wearing a shower cap as their instructor right from an iPad. Just as we loved The Lonely Beast…

If you haven't tried Zoobean yet, you're missing out. It's a great resource for personalized kids' book recommendations and now we're excited to announce that they've just launched a digital membership option, making it that much easier …

We're huge fans of the Endless Alphabet app around here. I mean, it was created by the same team of people who made Sesame Street's The Monster at the End of this Book , one of my childhood favorites. So I'm excited they've launched the …

Shakespeare's plays are some of the most difficult pieces of literature your kids will study in school. English has changed significantly over the last 400 years, so try being 10 and having to know what the Bard meant by phrases like "Fi…

We see a lot of apps for kids here at Cool Mom Tech. A lot. Which means when we feature an app on our site, we really love it. Great for you, but tough when we're trying to narrow down our favorite kids' apps for 2013. Here, the cream of…

The Geography Drive USA app is one of our favorite fun ways for kids to learn about geography, and so we were excited to see the release of their newest educational kids' app— Geography Drive Arcade . This is a mini-arcade version of the…

Tablets are at the top of so many kids' wish lists this Christmas, even for the littlest ones in our homes. For the preschool set who is just starting to learn about technology, the intuitive design of touch-directed devices are amazing.…

My kids don't know much about marine life. I'm not sure why this is—maybe because we're landlocked and don't have regular exposure to the ocean. Or maybe because children's book illustrators tend to favor more cuddly, furry creatures for…

They say variety is the spice of life, and I've definitely found that to be true where it comes to educational kids' apps. The more awesome kids' apps I load on the iPad, the more likely it is my own kids will keep exploring and learning…

This mom is a writer, so obviously it makes my heart soar when I see my children reading a good, old-fashioned book (you know, one with pages) or writing their own. But since we live in a time when there are more often tablets in their h…

My second grader is crazy into made up games he creates and customizes himself. Everything from blueprints for Star Warsian buildings to trains crafted from Toca Builders blocks are on his roster of perpetual projects, and creating his o…

My daughter is quite the artist, and her attention to detail is impressive. I only wish she'd apply the same care when writing her letters and numbers. So I was curious to check out a handwriting app that might help her clean up her act.…

Rules are all well and good, but sometimes it's fun to break them. This outstanding storytelling app agrees, but shhh...don't tell the kids. InfiniScroll , an open-ended storytelling tool turned app for iOS, is all about breaking the rul…

During a recent discussion with a group of young kids about what they wanted to be when they grow up, I was surprised when one little boy piped up and said, 'I want to make the next Angry Birds!" Luckily, little tech-minds like him might…

While science may conjure up memories of chem labs and memorizing Newton's Laws, we think kids are ready to explore science as soon as they start asking why the sky is blue. Science has the answer to that perennial kid question, and many…