Kids National Geographic is likely to instill such a feeling for kids today. It offers a wide variety of activities that will not only excite young minds, but also having them leave the site a little smarter than when they got there.

When first arriving you’ll find a very cool portal with which you can slide around in to “explore” topics to delve into. When you click one you’ll be taken to more facts and activities about it. For example, did you know that the clown fish lives among the tentacles of an anemone? Even though these tentacles sting, they don’t bother the fish.

In addition to finding out more facts about this particular fish, you can click on other choices for it allowing you to see a map of where the fish resides, send an e-card that includes a photo, and even view video clips of them. Oh, and there’s also a card meant to be printed off and cut out to be included in a collection. Kids love collecting things, so why not something that educates them?

And what kind of a kid site would this be without games? Again, many choices abound: Space Janitor, Zipper’s Treetop Trouble, and Iggy Arbuckle: Race Off and lots more!

Kids National Geographic is definitely worth bookmarking and frequent visits!

[tags]national geographic,kids,games,fun,education[/tags]

Videos are broken down into six categories as of this writing: physics, chemistry, biology, space, green energy, and mathematics (<– where was that one when I was in school )

The latest videos are show on the home page for easy access, but the search will obviously yield more results. Each video you click on provides you with a clip on the left and a brief description on the right.

This site can certainly come in handy for kids when study time rolls around, so you might want to bookmark this one.

[tags]science,search engines, homework,studying[/tags]

One thing that I find most useful is the itinerary / map / diary section. Each entry provides you with a place to add notes and dates. View an online map of the area you have listed in your itinerary, and record your activities, likes or dislikes.

If you’re in an exploring mood, you can have your choice of interesting finds to be overlayed on a map powered by Google: golf courses, gyms, restaurants, etc. And being that the site is designed “by travelers, for travelers”, you find out things from their perspective by reading their reviews.

I find the site to be well-layed out and thought out, giving you more focus on what you came there to do: find a place to visit and have fun while you’re there.

[tags]trip,productivity,family,vacation,planning[/tags]

Spreeder can help you.

This is a simple interface where you can paste text into a small window. Click the VCR-like play button and it will show you the text you entered one word at a time at a rate you specify.

Why one word at a time? Well, when we read, sometimes we subvocalize the words in our heads — we hear ourselves “speak” the words we read. This can slow our reading down. So the key is to recognize the words we read without having to say them in our head. Showing the words one at a time at a faster rate can help us do that.

When reading a book, try using your finger or the eraser-end of a pencil to follow along the words. Make it go slightly faster than you normally read so you can make your eyes catch up a little.

If you’re reading online, however, try this bookmarklet. If you’ve browsed to a page that has a significant amount of text, why not practice your speed reading? Just select the text (no need to copy it) and click the bookmarklet that’s saved in your toolbar. A new window will pop up with the text you selected and you can start reading one word at a time.

Inspired by zenhabits.

[tags]reading,speed-reading,life tips,advice[/tags]

The site is setup to enable you to select from a list of major cities — 80 of them, in fact. Clicking on one of them will take you to that city’s portal for DayCareCrossing. Every city’s portal starts with a fork in the road: parents can take the path allowing them to start their search; providers, on the other hand, can add their business to DayCareCrossing’s listing. The layout could make better use of the space, but at least the page loads fast.

I chose the path for the parent, which is comprised of four steps. I first had to enter my name, address, phone number, and email. I found this slightly irritating because it meant that I’m opening myself up to being contacted by someone. The site tells me before I even get to this point that my information will be sent only to those providers that match my search criteria. At least this is made known up front, but if I really want to find find daycare providers, I’m going to have to bite the bullet.

While at this point I quickly noticed that there’s no quick way to return to the main home page where I could select another city if I wanted to. It’s pretty standard to have “home” or the logo take the visitor back to the main page, but in their case the logo has no link and the “home” only takes you back to the main page of the city portal. Not a huge flaw and something that’s easily fixed.

The next three steps asked for things like how many children I’m looking to have childcare provided for, their age, date of birth, etc. Some of this information was not required, which made me feel a bit more comfortable.

After I completed my profile and entered my search criteria, I was given a message telling me that I should be expecting an email very shortly. Indeed, I got it rather quickly. The message was to contain the providers that matched my criteria, if any providers existed.

My search for the Denver area returned no results. To their credit, they did tell me that it’s possible this might happen and that they’re working to get other providers in that area. The email told me this:

• Because our service is relatively new, there may not be enrolled providers within 5 miles of your search address
• Your search address may be invalid
• Your search address may be outside of the market you searched in

A feature I’d like to see would be to enable users to enter a radius from the address being searched. Five miles doesn’t seem to be sufficient. Or better yet, just allow me to enter a zip code and have the service search on that, then let me narrow it down by entering an radius or address.

Other hoped-for features would be to simply post the results on the web site instead of emailing them, and not sending my information to providers. I don’t see the point in this latter one, really. This is a big benefit to the providers, of course, but in this day and age I would rather see the power to decide to contact the other party to be put in the hands of the parent doing the searching.

[tags]daycare,provider,child,children,kids[/tags]

This has been a sponsored review.

Before PPP Direct, bloggers had to seek the opportunities made on the PPP web site. Now, the actual advertiser can make a request to a blogger on their own blog.

What’s more, you can set the amount you want to get paid for a review. Naturally, you want to be fair about it, so if you want offers from advertisers, the fact that they’ve come knocking on your front door doesn’t change the fact that there are tons of other blogs out there that will do things cheaper. So keep writing quality content and do it frequently to justify your price.

While comparing PPP Direct to other like services, the thing that sets them apart is the fee structure they have in place. Some places like ReviewMe (which I still have not found a worthwhile opportunity to take) charge a hefty markup, sometimes even 100%. I’m all for making a buck, but let’s be fair, shall we?

PayPerPost Direct does seem to be fair. By cutting out the middleman, they only charge a 10% fee for your transaction, but only half that goes to credit card transaction fees. So with this service, you get to keep more of what you earn.

Why not just post your email on your blog for people to contact you for a review? Glad you asked. You don’t have to worry about getting spammed because as you’ve possibly read here before, posting your email anywhere online makes it susceptible to email harvesters leaving you exposed to spam. Additionally, the advertiser and you both know PayPerPost is a trusted service. And to uphold that reputation they assure that both you and the advertiser are happy when money changes hands.

[tags]review,payperpost,blogging,money[/tags]

Notely is a collection of online tools that allows for easy storage of courses, tasks, to-do lists (not sure why that’s different than tasks), calendar, contact information and more. It even has a place to upload documents.

You can easily integrate the content you save in your account with RSS feed readers and even synchronize with iCal (a popular calendar application made by Apple, Inc.). And backing up is painless. Just click the backup link and you’ll quickly download the content to a CSV formatted file.

So picture, if you will, your student (high school to college) with their wireless laptop at school. During class they could be taking notes with Notely. Storing their class information online is an attractive alternative in case they need to access something while at the library or their computer breaks down, or, if your college student is visiting home, then they’re not in a bind if they left their computer back at their dorm.

Even though the school is year over for some students, it’s not a bad idea to get them organized for non-school activities over the summer. Giving your teen the tools to help them do that will help them later in life.

[tags]notely,web2.0,online services,organization,school[/tags]

It sounds easy, and indeed it is, but there is some strategy to it. Plus, you’re sure to enjoy the background music. It’s actually quite calming.

When I found this game posted on my friend’s blog, Brown Thoughts, I just had to include it on mine because it’s such a perfect fit for my audience. We joked about how this game is so fun that you could really lose track of time, so much so that it seemed to actually teleport you into the future.

This game is sure to please the child in all of us.

[tags]boomshine,game,online games[/tags]

This social community advertises itself as a safe haven for girls looking to interact with others their own age, and to see the world “through the eyes of other girls”. And from what I’ve seen so far, they live up to that promise.

College students are hired to monitor every bit of information that is being transmitted on its site. So you won’t find any photos with provocative poses or trash talk. Finally, a site that gets it!

When you first land on the site, the first thing you’re going to notice is that there’s no shortage of eye-candy. Every page has something to catch your attention or provide you with something to do. Quite fitting for the tweens of today.

Denise’s 13-year-old daughter, Ally, is the host and spokesperson. Kudos to her for putting her time and effort into something that benefits other girls her age and for providing an alternative to the likes of MySpace or Facebook. (No offense to those sites, but I’ve posted before the kinds of trouble you can run into on those places.) Besides: who’s better qualified to run a site for teenagers than a teenager?

Parents will be pleased with the rules they’ve posted to instruct girls on the do’s and don’t's. They even address parents directly describing what a girl can get out of becoming a member. Here’s an excerpt:

All Girls, except mean girls are welcome on AllyKatzz. It’s where girls go to:

• Tackle real issues and find new ways to solve problems
• Express and share their opinions, ideas, concerns, hopes and dreams
• Connect – Find Their Voices and Each Other
• Discover their strengths
• Be Creative and ignite ideas!

A section of the site offers a place to share advice on some pretty deep issues: boy trouble, eating disorders, parent disputes, etc. It’s no substitute for professional help (nor does it pretend to be), but there is some comfort a girl can find knowing that others are experiencing the same things she is.

Worth noting: Ally’s page has a question that remains open for girls to enter comments that answers the question, “What do you want to do in your life?” I kid you not: as of March 1 of this year, there have been 526 replies posted. You think they’re seeing a little activity over at AllyKatzz?

I think this site is worth a visit from you and your daughter.

I’m interested in hearing any of your experiences with AllyKatzz, so please leave a comment and share.

[tags]blogging,network,social community,networking,blog,website,teens,tweens[/tags]

It’s free and you can even start using it without creating an account. You can print your work, and even export it as an image, HTML, or XML.

A great alternative if you don’t own Microsoft Visio.

[tags]flow chart,flowchart,web 2.0,brainstorming,brainstorm[/tags]