Want to start the school year off right? Tech expert Jennifer Jolly shares awesome new apps parents and students should download right away.
It’s back to school and back-to-the-mayhem for families everywhere — including my very own. If juggling calendars and schedules feels like a full-time job — and just trying to keep everything straight is making you a little cuckoo — here are a handful of apps to help out with just about everything.
Life’s a Picniic
Let’s start with a little sanity for the ole’ scheduling mess and a new app called Picniic(iOS). It’s a high-tech helper to make sure you know what’s happening — and when — with everyone in your family.
Download the app for free, create your family profile, and sync everyone’s existing online and offline calendars. Yes, this is a bit painful and time-consuming, especially when you’re trying to convert people like my husband and parents, who keep their calendars in an old-fashioned datebook, to turn to their smartphones first for scheduling. But the results are worth it. Picniic gives you a family dashboard all in one place with a shared calendar, to-do’s, and a grocery list anyone can add to anytime. For an upgrade to $14.99/month, Picniic packs extras such as family locators, an information locker to keep medical records and important data, and a catalog of favorite recipes.
Picniic’s similar to an app we’ve reviewed several times called Cozi. I haven’t put the two head-to-head yet, but plan to as soon as the school year settles down a bit. Stay tuned.
A seriously epic app
Kids books are usually two things: short and expensive. That means you’re probably going to go through hundreds by the time your youngster hits their 13th birthday.Epic! Is like a Netflix of kids literature. For a monthly subscription price of $4.99, you and your kids get unlimited access to over 15,000 children’s books.
The books are organized by age group, from ages 0-2, all the way up to 9-12, and the selection of titles is fantastic. Every genre is well represented, and there are some true classics on offer, like Where the Wild Things Are, Bridge to Terabithia, andThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. You can use The Epic! app for as many as four profiles at a time, to satisfy all your young readers at once, and there are no in-app purchases, upgrades, or ads to distract from the book at hand. The app also has appropriate videos and audiobooks too. It’s a fantastic service that will not only save you money in the long run, but also a bit of sanity, too. This is my favorite new app of the school year and I wish it was around when my daughter was younger!
But first … let me take a Shelfie
If your high school or college student is an avid reader, or you’d at least like them to be, you should know that ebooks are the future of literature. Shelfie helps you turn existing paperback books into ebooks, simply by taking a photo. It’s like Shazam, but for books; snap a photo of your kids’ book collection and Shelfie tells you what on your shelf is available digitally. Then, you can select the e-versions — many of which are free or heavily discounted — and load them straight onto your kids’ smartphone or tablet. Shelfie even gives access to audiobook versions of eligible titles, so kids can listen while cleaning their dorms or bedrooms (right?).
If the shoe fits
It’s not hard to find places online screaming “discount!” but the aptly-named KidsShoes really has a leg up on footwear for your back-to-school student. Using a patented system called KidSizing, KidsShoes turns your iPad into a virtual shoe store. Just boot up the app, place your child’s foot on the touchscreen, and let it detect exactly what size they’ve grown into. The app also works on iPhone thanks to a photo mode which uses a dollar bill as a standard measurement next to your child’s foot, effectively nailing the perfect size without heading to the mall. Once you have the the sizing information down, KidsShoes.com offers some pretty stellar deals on the kicks themselves, including $15 off of your first pair and free shipping and returns, which are serious plusses when it comes to back-to-school shopping.
A photo is worth a thousand 'A's'
If you have a child who’s past about 5th grade math, this one can feel like a true life-saver. Photo Math (starting at $0.99 per month) has made conquering calculus as simple as aiming your phone camera at the page. It works like magic: Download the Photo Math app, point your phone’s camera at the problem you’re working on, and the app automatically identifies the numbers and solves the problem. It might seem like cheating, but the app also walks you through the steps to solve the problem, teaching as it goes. It’s a real godsend for students of all ages (and us parents) who sometimes struggle to remember exactly how the teacher went through the operations. It’s a nice helper alongside another homework helper/life-saver Khan Academy.
Order up a tutor with a tap
Gone are the days when tutors were reserved for students who were either outpacing their peers or struggling to keep up; today, kids of all ages and all learning speeds are reaching their full potential thanks to on-demand tutoring services likeMindSpree. MindSpree connects tutors with parents and students need a little extra help outside of the classroom. And we’re not just talking about help with a tough chemistry assignment here; there are tutors available for every subject you can imagine, as well as extracurricular activities, and many are available for both online and in-person tutoring.
MindSpree’s site is extremely easy to use, and you can filter tutors by subject or skill, price, and location. And don’t worry, MindSpree makes it simple to see which tutors have had background checks and which ones haven’t, so you can get some added peace of mind and know that your money is being well spent on verified tutors.
Score some scholarships
Whether your kids are just entering first grade or are nearing the end of their junior year in high school, you’ve probably got college expenses on your mind more often than you’d like. It’s not cheap, but scholarships can help mitigate or even eliminate the financial load, you just have to know how to get them.
Scholly is like a massive database of available scholarships for all kinds of academic and non-academic criteria. You can hunt down scholarship opportunities based on just about anything, including amount, requirements, and deadline for submission. Scholly even shows you examples of fantastic winning scholarship essays that students have used in the past, and it’s all free. If you really want to take your scholarship game to the next level, a $2.99 in-app upgrade gives you access to a personalized matching system that will find the scholarships that best match your child’s strengths, and then help you apply and track your application as it is reviewed.
Another great secret weapon in the search for scholarships is a handy little site calledRaise.me. Rather than a traditional scholarship application process, Raise.me tracks micro-scholarship opportunities based on individual accomplishments throughout your child’s high school career. Get an “A” for the year on a tough class? That might be worth $1,000 or more to a variety of different colleges. The tiny scholarships add up quickly, and if your teen’s list of high school achievements is long, their bill for college could be small or even non-existent.
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