A $20 Box of Awesome: La Bella Box
Our subscription box review series continues with La Bella Box, an affordable assortment of boutique items.
Continue ReadingAuthor: Melissa Wiley
A Delicious Subscription: Knoshbox
Monthly subscription boxes are a delicious trend. Here’s a look at Knoshbox, an assortment of artisan foods delivered to your door.
Continue ReadingIt’s Way Past Time to Stop Saying Things Are “Retarded”
When my son was diagnosed with mental retardation, I was struck by how strongly people reacted to those words.
Continue ReadingHave You Nominated a Book or Book App for the CYBILS? Better Hurry!
Nominate your favorite children’s and young adult books and book apps of the past year for a CYBILs Award by October 15th.
Continue ReadingGoogle Doodle Celebrates Maria Montessori
Today’s Google Doodle celebrates education pioneer Maria Montessori.
Continue ReadingAlleyoop Partners with NASA and National Geographic to Bring STEM to Your Teen’s Screen
Innovative learning website Alleyoop.com, which launched in February with math, has partnered with NASA, National Geographic, and others to create a full-spectrum science program for students ages 13-17.
Continue ReadingKhan Academy Adds Computer Science Courses
Exciting news for kids, parents, and autodidacts everywhere! Khan Academy, the innovative online platform that brings free education to the masses, has added computer science to their already stellar lineup of subjects. John Resig, Khan Academy’s Dean of Computer Science, describes the new offerings on his blog: We’re releasing a completely new platform that targets […]
Continue ReadingApp Review: All Aboard the Toca Train
Toca Boca delivers another quality kids’ app with Toca Train.
Continue ReadingFour Fun Math Apps
These games are so much fun my kids don’t even notice they’re strengthening their math skills.
Continue ReadingSDCC Firefly Panel: Prepare to Bawl
SDCC’s Firefly reunion panel brought tears to nearly every eye — including Joss Whedon’s.
Continue ReadingIsn’t Your Child More Than a Number?
Writing teachers Amy Ludwig VanDerwater and Barry Lane have teamed up to remind parents and policymakers that children are much more than a score on a standardized test.
Continue ReadingFive Ways to Get Poetry Into Your Day
National Poetry Month is almost over, but you can make poetry a part of your day year-round. Here are five simple suggestions for fitting poems into your busy schedule: 1. Visit the Writer’s Almanac. Better yet, listen. Every morning while I’m getting dressed, I play the audio version of PBS’s Writer’s Almanac. Narrated by Garrison […]
Continue ReadingBackseat A-B-See: An Alphabet Book for Kids on the Go
The alphabet in road signs: a perfect picture book for car-crazy preschoolers.
Continue ReadingHappy Birthday, Barbara McClintock
Barbara McClintock: Nobel Prize Geneticist, a biography by Edith Hope Fine, is free on Kindle June 16 and 17.
Continue ReadingIn a Digital Age, Braille Is Still Important
After fighting their school district for three years to get Braille instruction for their visually-impaired child, these New Jersey parents took the case to court. This month, they won.
Continue ReadingGerman Language Apps for Kids
Here’s what happened. I was ready to dive into German with my 11- and 13-year-old daughters, who are homeschooled — but I can’t find our Rosetta Stone CD. The first disk in the set, I mean. It’s floating around the house somewhere. The rest of the program is right there in its slipcase on the […]
Continue ReadingBio of Nobel Prize Winner Barbara McClintock Free on Kindle This Weekend
Geneticist Barbara McClintock, whose birthday we GeekMom types celebrate on June 16, won a Nobel Prize in 1983 for her discovery (decades earlier) that small pieces of DNA can move from one place to another in a genome–a phenomenon known as “jumping genes.” Her biography, Barbara McClintock: Nobel Prize Geneticist, written by children’s book author […]
Continue ReadingQ&A with PURE Author Julianna Baggott
The New York Times described Pressia, the main character of Julianna Baggott’s dystopian thriller, Pure, as “fearless, spirited, unflinching,” “a heroine for the video-game age.” Upon finishing the novel, School Library Journal reviewer Liz Burns tweeted that it was “so wonderful I feel sorry for whatever book I read next.” My sixteen-year-old daughter, who had […]
Continue ReadingWonderCon Highlights Part 2: Fun Finds
I know, I know! Time runs away with you when you park your six kids with your parents and skip town for a comics convention and then come home and there’s all kinds of laundry to do, and suddenly a week has passed since you wrote your WonderCon Highlights Part 1 post and if you […]
Continue ReadingWondercon Highlights Part 1
With San Francisco’s Moscone Center under renovation, WonderCon moved to Anaheim this year–and seemed to bring a bit of the Bay Area’s rain and chill wind along with it. We shivered our way between hotel and convention center, dodging clusters of purple-eyeshadowed cheerleaders who were competing in a tournament in the next hall over. Here […]
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