homeschooling tools Archives | Page 2 of 10

The best apps for parents of the year: Editors’ Best Tech of 2014

by Cool Mom Staff | Editors' Picks of the Year

Each year, we scour literally hundreds of apps, trying to find the most useful for parents like us. Whether you’re looking to manage your inbox, your social media accounts, your zillions of photographs, your calendar and beyond, here are 11 of the best apps for...

STEM education: 3 of the best online engineering resources for kids

by Julie | Websites Worth a Bookmark

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 convinced she wants to be...

MAKERS.com: Celebrating women through the ages on a site for the digital age

by Nicole Blades | Websites Worth a Bookmark

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? Well, that’s what...

New HP Instant Ink replacement service saves you up to 50% on ink. Plus the hassle of running out of ink when you need it most.

by Cool Mom Staff | Home Office

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 means lots of ink too. Which...

Best reading apps for kids: Back to school Tech Guide 2014

by Jeana | Back to School Tech

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 a big help in getting...

Back to school lunch box notes meet cool science lesson

by Liz Gumbinner | DIY

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 own girls feel the same...

The educational Osmo game: Reinventing what it means to play with an iPad.

by Julie | Games + Gaming

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 sadly no longer) and...

Khan Academy SAT prep: Absolutely free. Because every kid deserves a chance to go to college.

by Kate Etue | Websites Worth a Bookmark

It’s been 10 years since Sal Khan first started creating educational video tutorials to help his niece across the country with her math homework. We’ve been huge fans of Khan Academy since, and now we’re raising our collective fists in the air to...

The littleBits Synth Kit maker toy lets kids pump up the volume

by Christina Refford | Tech Toys and Random Fun

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 toy with so many...

Ken Burns’ new app takes his docs to digital

by Nicole Blades | Fun Apps

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 the Brooklyn Bridge and the...

NEW: The podcast that helps you be a savvier digital parent in under 15 minutes a week

Hi! We’re Kristen + Liz

Kristen Chase + Liz Gumbinner of Cool Mom Picks

We started Cool Mom Tech in 2010 to help make our increasingly digital lives easier, more organized, more meaningful, and more fun, however old your kids may be.

We love that it's grown to become the go-to source for millions of parents who want commonsense info about tech delivered with a smile.

We even have the privilege of sharing our tips + tricks with The TODAY Show, CNN, HLN, GMA, Nightline, newspapers and magazines around the country, and our favorite -- regular parents who stop us at PTA meetings and ask us how old kids need to be to get a smartphone, and whether they really need to panic about Snapchat.

(Answer: It's complicated.)

We're so glad you're here! And we hope we can help you too.