Sorry kids, now you don’t have any excuses for missing school assignments. The host of this site is a 13 year old who, with his dad’s help, started his own website. I couldn’t possibly tell you everything available there, but here is a “drop in the bucket” sample.
Go to the Foreign Language icon and the list of related sites includes Spanish lessons for beginners and learning Arabic. The Social Studies icon takes you to information on: the States of the Union, a geography world link and flags of the worlds. There is a weekly word list that includes Spanish, SAT terms, a weekly spelling list for older and younger kids and a Spanish vocabulary word list. WOW!
If you go to the Music icon, a large list of related links will be displayed including a K-12 Resource for Music Educators, Lyrics World and The Greatest Films movie link. In Health and Physical Education you can find the calorie count of your favorite fast food burger (or not… ignorance is bliss, right?)
Going on to Playtime, there is a large selection of fun things to do such as: Kinder Art for young children, How Stuff Works, and the Internet Public Library Story hour. This site is great and worth book marking. (Hey guys, turn off the PlayStation. It’s homework time…) Until next time.
Summer is past and the holidays will be here before you know it. Frankly, there are some holidays that pique my curiosity. This is a great site to get information about those unfamiliar holidays. For example, High Holy Days observed in the Jewish religion. I know very little about why they are celebrated, but holidays.net offers a simple description of the holiday as well as recipes and games related to the day.
You may also email friends and family with a holiday greeting. Visit the Jewish Holidays Message Board and reminisce about past holidays. You can also post a request or maybe help out another reader. Order books and supplies online too. This is just one example of the holidays featured.
The recipes are plentiful and the site is very “link friendly” supplying information about similar sites. A link to an online reminder service will send you email reminders for upcoming events. You need never forget Aunt Ethel’s birthday again! Until next time
http://www.holidays.net/
My reason for reviewing websites is to save us time while online.
Smartsource.com is an excellent example of how quickly you can access a site, get what you need and leave. Get Coupons offers registered visitors manufacturers coupons through the mail. It only took a few minutes to answer some basic required questions but I admit to being disappointed with the selection of coupons available. (There Is good news.)
One great feature of this site were the loads of recipes offered. From beverages to desserts, you are sure to find something that appeals to you. The Creamy Latte drink sounded delicious as did the Easy Chicken Divan. Recipes are supplied by both companies and readers. What really appealed to me was that this was “real food” and nothing appeared to need a sprig of parsley on the plate.
The Wellness page had many articles on Diet & Exercise, Health& Beauty, First Aid Remedies and more. The articles were short and to the point yet helpful.
Smart Tips offered just what it says, tips. From brightening white clothes and planning for the Holidays to removing paint scratches from your car. (Thanks kids, now I know you need new rubber grips on your bike handlebars… and I know how to get out the scratches before Dad sees them.)
There were so many articles but the great part was that they were brief. This site offers great information for the average person. Until next time.
Ladies, you need to check out this great site! This is one of just a few heavily advertised sites that I have bookmarked as a favorite place to visit. It offers free email, Joke of the Day, News & Stocks, and even Recipe of the Day. You can save those favorite recipes in an online recipe box by the way… There are several dozen different weekly newsletters including one of my favorites, Digital Digest. They are very concise and you just delete them after you have gotten the information needed.
You can visit the chat rooms too. These are great because they are categorized so if you want to talk about your child’s diaper rash, chances are another mom will too! Schedules of the upcoming chats are posted so you can plan your day around a subject that is of interest to you. I could not possibly profile every page found here but here is a rather large sampling: Allhealth, Beauty, Click!Computing, Diet & Fitness, Election 2000, Food, Garden, Moneylife, ParentSoup, Pets, Readers &Writers, Travel and Work from Home. Whew! This only covers links, not the articles, tools, games and mega other topics you will find here.
Allow yourself a lot of time when surfing here because not only does Ivillage offer current information, many topics are archived. It is a monster of a site-bookmark it. Until next time.
Childfun.com is not just fun for children. Adults will really appreciate the information provided there. Independence Day is coming up and that means parties. To make planning easy go to the Summer Crafts and Activities page. You can choose Holidays in the side tool bar for even more ideas. There are songs, stories and craft ideas with instructions provided. Select Off Site Links to find Kids Domain Salute to Veterans. Here you will find dozens of links related to past wars including websites for various memorials. What an excellent way to teach children that our freedom came at a high price.
ChildFun has links for Freebies, Father’s Day, Family Life Cartoons and more. You can even send Virtual Flowers to that special someone. Personally, I prefer the real thing but something is better than nothing…
The Community page offers newsletters and discussion lists. Support for moms, childcare providers and homeschoolers, as well as others, are provided here. As They Grow is a nice way to get advice pertinent to your stage of parenthood, from pregnancy to babies to grade-schoolers. Related Links caters to Fatherhood, Special Needs, Single Parents and others.
This is a great site. Definitely worth a bookmark. Until next time.
If working for yourself is your goal, don’t let anyone or anything stand in your way.” This is great advice given by Liz Folger, of BizyMoms.com. For those moms (and dads) who are looking to make a career change, they will find lots of support at Bizymoms.com. The site was created to assist others in taking the leap from working outside the home to working from home. Liz realizes that many people need assistance when their friends and family just don’t understand their desire to be a home worker.( “What do you mean, you don’t want to work 80 hours a week just to make your bills?” )A little extreme, but for those of you who have already switched careers, you know some naysayers…
The BizyMoms News offers chatrooms and message boards to discuss such topics as How to Start and Operate a Small Office Support Business, Running Your Business On a ShoeString Budget, and How to Balance Your Time Wisely. Even if the scheduled chat has passed, you can still log on and chat with other businesswomen. Again, support in your choice to be at home.
In the Make Money From Home section, you will find Business Ideas from A-Z. These are real stories from real people and are loaded with great ideas. You might find a home business idea with your name on it! FAQs are answered by Liz. An example being, “Okay. I have a great idea for a business, but I just don’t know where to start.” Sound familiar? The best part is that the answer really gets you thinking about how best to accomplish your goal.
Let’s not forget the scam business opportunities. There is even a page devoted to avoiding them. How to spot them and what to do if you get duped. You will find much more here too. This site is really great for the person ready to strike out on their own. If you are considering a move, bookmark this site. Until next time.
MainstreetMom.com is for modern mothers with traditional values. It has many features to interest just about any mom. From Spiritual Growth to Work at Home to Pregnancy, and much, much more. The easy to use Site Directory helped me decide where to start looking. Being a methodical person, I started with the Family Budget and found tons of information for reducing debts, saving on monthly expenses and frugal ideas. (If you go to the Miserly Moms section at the bottom, you will find homemade recipes for Easy Bake Ovens. That alone makes the site worth visiting. Have you ever priced those mixes?)
Summer is coming which means vacations for many of us. The Travel & Leisure page has articles that may help reduce the stress of traveling with little ones. Or adults for that matter…
The Humor page has lots of cute stories along with a “You know you’re drinking too much coffee when…” article. My favorite answer to the too much coffee question was “…when someone says ‘How are you?’ and you say,’ Good to the last drop’.”
The Fun and Games page is very appealing to moms of small kids. Lots of fun stuff to do with your children and some are even educational.
Looking for answers to your work at home questions? Check the message boards. You may even have some great advice for another parent with a similar problem.
I can’t end this column without mentioning the Marriage page. Many different topics here for couples including In-Laws & Out-Laws, Building a Life Long Love Affair, Problem Solving for Couples and When Parents Disagree. Most of us can use help with at least one of these areas. Be sure to visit and bookmark this great site. Until next time.
A great site for both parents and kids is familyeducation.com. The purpose of this site is to help parents assist in their children’s learning success. There are over 23 free newsletters for parents and educators. I receive those appropriate to my children’s ages and enjoy reading them.
You can ask the resident Family Therapist questions and post to the Parents Ideas message boards. Coping with bullies was one of the message board topics and the advice ranged from walking away to fighting them. Use the advice that works best for your own family. You can even look at how others rate toys and games, even PokeMon. Oh joy.
There are links to many different sites for kids and adults and Funbrain is a really cool one. Great for teachers too.
I liked the Tool Box options. You can print out your own field trip permission slip. (If you can’t find the slip, chances are you can’t find time to print out another one either!) Another Tool Box feature was preparing a vacation package for your child according to his age. It will keep them in the learning mode while away from school. You can search by age, special needs, and activities and even find software downloads. This is a keeper so be sure to take a look. Until next time.
“Where do you work?” There are many different ways to respond to that question. I guess a better question to ask is, “Do you like where you work?” I am amazed at the number of people that I meet that do not like where they work because they want to work from home. A nice website to check out to see if this may be something you might like to do is, http://www.wahm.com/ Work at Home Moms is an easy to navigate website that offers a lot of information for mothers that are working at home.
There are many different articles to read, business opportunities (mostly sales), a bookstore that sells videos and books on how to get a home based business going, and links to other related websites. There is also a telecommuting job link that posts what appear to be legitimate jobs. My favorite FAQ (frequently asked question) was “Do envelope stuffing businesses really pay?” As I thought… NOT! (Reputable employers don’t make you pay to work for them.)
My personal favorite discovery was the link to The Mommies. (Remember that show?) If working at home is appealing to you -check out this site. The good news is that you don’t have to sell beauty products anymore to stay home with your children. Until next time.
Remember the scene in the movie “Baby Boom” when Diane Keaton’s character takes a call from the nanny during a big meeting? She ends up singing to her baby and thus seals her fate as “soft.” If she was a real person, I’d tell her about this website.
Executive women are the focus here bringing to mind well umm, women in blue suits. Any woman who is walking the tightrope of work and home will appreciate the great insights here. Where else can you unburden yourself about the traveling you must do for your job? Most of us wouldn’t understand the problem. A free day, away from the stress of home AND room service? No problem as far as I can see. Of course, I don’t have to travel for work so I don’t have an accurate picture of what really is involved do I? Picture the workingwoman who has to miss special events (or maybe just her special family) because of work obligations. Others who can relate to you read messages posted here. Maybe even offering some helpful suggestions.
There is such a wide variety of information here that women at home can also benefit. Many articles featured are applicable to those moms who aren’t receiving a paycheck for that 24-hour shift they work day in and day out. They need to know about recalls, recipes and organizing their homes as well.
Of course this site hosts many other topics suitable ( I can’t believe I’m leaving that word in) for working moms. News, Career, Health and Money, are just a few of the sections that will be of interest to women. You may also wish to sign up for their well-rounded newsletter. As workingwomen, they know what other women want AND they deliver. Until next time.
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