homeschooling tools Archives | Page 3 of 10

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.

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...

Learning to count (and laugh) with the Lonely Beast 123 app.

by Shari | Educational Apps For Kids

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 ABCs for alphabet learning,...

3 of our favorite Presidential apps for Presidents’ Day

by Christina Refford | Educational Apps For Kids

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 few things...

Zoobean kids’ book subscriptions go digital. Way to get more kids reading.

by Kate Etue | Educational Apps For Kids

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...

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.