Back to school? There’s an app for that
September 2, 2010
Brandie Weikle
PARENTCENTRAL.CA EDITOR
Who’s taking Junior to get his new indoor shoes? Whose turn is it to make the daycare pick-up? When has that diorama depicting the Battle of Gettysburg got to be handed in?
As kids head back to school, busy families are turning to technology to quell the chaos that demanding school and extra-curricular schedules bring. And they’re finding plenty of tools to choose from.
There are smartphone apps that help with studying, websites that put the traditional wall calendar on steroids and much more.
Annie Urban, an Ottawa-area mom of two kids ages 3 and 6, who writes a parenting blog called PhD in Parenting, is setting up a Google calendar to share with her husband.
“This is the first year that we’ve really run into issues of having lots of different appointments, and we’re having trouble keeping track of them,” says Urban. “So rather than trying to send emails we thought, Why not create a Google calendar?”
“I’ll definitely put in any of the medical appointments for the kids and we’ll put in any appointments that either my husband or I have that are outside of regular business hours – anything that would impact our ability to drop the kids off at school, pick them up from school, or look after them on the evening or the weekend.”
Urban won’t be alone in her quest to keep a household running once school is on. We talked to tech-savvy parents for their suggestions.
Here are the top apps and other tech tools to make your modern family more functional this fall:
Cozi
No more getting dinged $10 for being 1 minute late to after-school care. An account at Cozi, dubbed the free online calendar for busy families, allows members to track the myriad extra curricular activities, doctors appointments and playdates, while also managing things like grocery and to-do lists.
iWriteWords
Waiting in line at the Gap to pay for those adjustable-waist jeans? Your preschooler can use this drag-and-draw game to learn how to write letters.
- Platform: iPhone/iPad
- 2009 Best App Ever Awards Winner in Best App for Pre-schoolers
Note Taker HD
This app combines the tactile experience of pen and paper with iPad smarts, saving notes in a form that won’t end up composting in his backpack with the peel from last week’s banana.
Skype
Not just for keeping in touch with Gran and Gramps, parents are relying on Skype to help kids with homework when they’re away for business or any other reason. And Skype’s become popular in families where separation or divorce may prevent parents from explaining long division on days their children are away from them.
Dictionary.com
How do you spell “chrysanthemum?” This android app saves you running to the yellowing dictionary from your university days. A dictionary and a thesaurus, this app gives you phonetic and audio pronunciations and the popular “Word of the Day.”
National Geographic World Atlas
Remember when you used to cut pictures out of your parents’ National Geographic magazines? Well, now the good folks at the Society have an app for that. Use it to help your kid find the most obscure places on earth and peruse the photos, no glue stick required.
The Elements
No longer an eye-glazing experience, learning the periodic table goes interactive on this app. Opening to the traditional table, your high schooler can view a moving or spinning representation of each element, which helps to commit it to memory.
iStudiez Pro
Check this out for your tween, teen, or — hovering parents — even your university-bound kid. This app helps students manage every type of school schedule, keep track of assignments, and stay on course for the next big exam. Multiple alarms will get your kid to class on time and notifications display on his iPhone no matter what application is open.
- Platform: iPhone/iPad
- 2009 Best App Ever Award Winner in Education category
Evernote
This is the android app of choice for note taking. It allows users to take notes, save web pages, create audio files, store a “recipe” for ramen noodles, and otherwise eliminate the need for clunky binders and dog-eared agendas.
- Platform: Android, Apple, BlackBerry and Palm