educational tools – user's Blog!

December 14, 2016

Empowering Gifts for Girls of All Ages and Interests

You can never start too early with nurturing confidence in little girls and encouraging them to be unstoppable. By engaging them in math and science and helping them embrace their creative sides, these gift ideas for girls of all ages nourish both body and brain. Shop these educational, inspirational gifts for both teens and preschoolers, all while stacking up Cash Back at Ebates and saving big with promo codes.

Education Community Minifigures Lego Set

Representation is key. Show your toddler that women can do anything, with this LEGO set that includes female characters in a number of community roles.

Codenames Board Game

If you’re shopping gifts for girls, consider a critical thinking game that will entertain while challenging the intellect. Codenames is a social word game where two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents — but only by their codenames. Teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first.

Spooner Board Freestyle

This is one of our favorite sporty-girl gifts, since it helps her learn how to skateboard, snowboard or surf anywhere. The Spooner board improves core strength and gross motor skills as well.

Pretend & Play Camp Set

Help them embrace their love of the outdoors and camping, even in the off-season, with this all-inclusive play set.

Make Your Own Comic Book Kit

Budding artists will love this kit, which guides them through producing a comic and includes all materials. When it’s done, mail it in, and she’ll receive a professionally published version with her name right on the cover. How cool is that?

Disney Princess Moana of Oceania Adventure Doll

What’s more empowering than a female character who saves her entire island?

Makey Makey – an Invention Kit for Everyone

Makey Makey is a simple circuit board that lets you reprogram the world by connecting everyday objects to a computer. Rewire the world! Warning: Extended use may result in creative confidence.

My First Microscope

See the beauty of small things by looking a little closer. My First Microscope is specially designed for little hands and is sturdy enough to survive all your toddler has to throw at it.

Lil’ Banshee Jr. Compound Archery Set

Got a “Hunger Games” fan on your list? Show her you don’t have to have a name like Katniss to master archery.

Funko Ghostbusters Ecto-1 With Holtzman

Girls can do anything, even bust ghosts! This super cute Funko set is a find for all ages.

Monster Sewing Workshop Sewing Starter Kit

We particularly love this gift because it can empower anyone (girls and boys alike) who loves cuddly monsters. Sewing is a useful skill most of us lack, so why not start them off early?

August 17, 2016

10 Best Learning Apps for Kids

Everyone’s eyes are glued to a phone or a tablet these days – and for your kid, this can actually be a good thing. By downloading one or all of these top ten educational apps for children, you can make sure your kid is doing more than having fun on their device – they could be learning and advancing their knowledge.

1. Angry Birds

Angry Birds has a reputation for giving adults a distraction from work, but in all actuality, it has something to offer kids of all ages. Whether you have a five-year-old or a teen, getting them to launch these colorful little birds at pigs teaches about physics so effectively it’s hard to believe it’s fun.

2. Elmo Loves 123s

For the little ones, there’s no one better to teach them the essentials than Elmo. This friendly app gives your child all the fun of Sesame Street videos and takes it to a more interactive level with coloring and puzzles. With bright colors teaching your child to recognize and name numbers 1 through 20, it upgrades according to their level to teach them addition and subtraction, rewarding them with prizes.

3. Pixie

Sometimes book reports just aren’t fun. For younger children who find it more difficult to get engaged – or who simply aren’t strong writers – Pixie makes it possible for kids to embrace all of their creativity and strengths. This app (available in the App Store with coupons from Ebates) allows kids to record their voice, add text, and include paintings in their book report, as well as other projects. So if your child is more skilled in colors than they are in words, they can still add their own unique and fun touch to their work.

4. School Zone Time, Money & Fractions On-Track

A next step up on the learning ladder, School Zone Time, Money & Fractions On-Track (available on iTunes with coupons from Ebates) gives your older children more age-appropriate information without skimping on color, activity, sound, or fun. With unique and friendly characters teaching about different coins, math, and how to read a clock, the more your child plays this game, the faster they’ll be able to recount these facts, with upgradable levels to keep them moving forward.

5. Cookie Monster’s Challenge

Every kid needs to know the Cookie Monster, and with this app, he’s here to teach the opposite of what he’s good at – how to stay focused, how to manage your impulses, and how to follow outside instructions. With the ultimate reward of a cookie machine, your child will be encouraged to progress through all the mini games and continue learning.

6. Minecraft for iPhone

While adult YouTube stars made it particularly famous, Minecraft (available on iTunes with coupons from Ebates) teaches children of all ages about architecture, proportions, problem solving, and, at the very core, encourages creativity. Your child will learn creative solutions for the surprises the game throws at them, and will be encouraged to broaden their imagination to make their creations look more interesting and accurate to real life.

7. Habitat the Game

Teaching about animals and the environment, this app allows your child to adopt a friendly polar bear. With fun sounds and bright colors, they’ll learn about responsibility as they care for the creature, as well as about energy and water conservation.

8. Fish School HD

The modern and more educational version of Red Fish, Blue fish, this app helps your child to learn their number and letters, identify and arrange shapes, and sort and remember colors, all while interacting with a cast of bright and friendly underwater creatures.

9. Dexteria Dots 2

Hand-eye coordination and more advanced math is important, and Dexteria Dots 2 serves as the perfect introduction, with vibrant colors and engaging activity on the screen to keep children captivated as they learn. It’s played as your child evaluates the numbers on the screen – represented by the dots – and then adjusts and divides them to solve a problem.

10. Stack the States

Combining the fun of puzzles with an educational map of the United States, your child will learn more about the shape of the country, the capitals, and the location of each state with this colorful app. With each state characterized by a quirky personality, the more accurate matches your child makes as they piece together the map, the faster they’ll progress to newer, more exciting levels with special bonus rounds.

July 27, 2016

15 Free College Apps to Make You a Star Student This Fall

Whether you’re coming face to face with your first semester of college or you are a veteran academic, chances are you could use a little help getting in gear for all the long nights of cramming ahead of you. Not to mention, getting organized is a crucial element to surviving higher education. Check out this list of 15 completely free apps for school success including study apps and tools to manage the loads of information you will be taking in this fall. If you’re browsing through The App Store and find a paid version you can’t refuse, remember you can get it with Cash Back at Ebates!

1. Studious – Never use a planner book again. Studious has your class schedule, assignment due dates, notes, campus map and more all in one place. It even silences your phone automatically when you are in your scheduled classes. No more embarrassing rings!

2. myHomework Student Planner – Another one of our favorite organizational school apps for students is the myHomework Student Planner, which is similar to Studious and lets you sync across multiple devices and your desktop.

3. Voice Recorder – Recording a lecture in class to be sure you don’t miss a beat is what makes Voice Recorders one of the best apps for college courses. Don’t splurge on a fancy digital recorder and use your phone, then easily download to your PC or store recordings on your cloud accounts for easy access.

4. Assignment Planner – Similar to project management software, Assignment Planner lets you prioritize assignments and school projects by due date so you can manage your time effectively. You can also keep track of your grades so you always have a handle on your GPA, no surprises come report card day.

5. Pocket – Get a head start on researching for that next term paper and store all of your online sources with Pocket. Videos, articles and more are kept all in one place for you to pore over later.

6. Sparknotes – Sparknotes have long been a trusted resource of study guides for English students. Now there is finally an app where you can access helpful study guides on literature, poetry, drama, philosophy and the ever mind-scrambling works of Shakespeare.

7. My Class Schedule – Stay on top of your class schedule with a color-coated calendar, due date alerts and widgets to keep you informed with the slightest of glances to your phone.

8. Evernote – Those pesky team projects can be super hard to organize. Take the hassle out of keeping communication lines clear with the Evernote project management app. Create to-do lists, instant message with you team, sync to any device and clip images and text from anywhere on the Web.

9. Khan Academy – The Khan Academy app is, indeed, the ultimate study buddy. Math students can enjoy instant feedback and step-by-step instruction while tackling serious equations. Khan Academy also gives you access to videos and content on other fields of study including sciences and the humanities.

10. EasyBib – Everyone knows that one of the hardest and most tedious yet probably the harshest graded part of any term paper is the bibliography. Now you can easily generate citations in multiple formats including MLA, APA, Chicago and more. You can even scan a book’s barcode with your phone for all the information you need and send them directly to your email.

11. Fast Scanner – Sharing class and lecture notes is now easier than ever. Simply use your phone’s camera to scan notes and convert into a PDF for easy sharing. Image editing tools can help you make documents easy to read so nothing will get lost in translation.

12. Scholarships.com – Finding college scholarships can be tough since the information on them is so widespread and hard to filter by your needs and qualifications. This app makes things a little easier with a sophisticated search function and a database containing more than 2.6 million scholarships and grants.

13. PhotoMath – Another great resource for math students, PhotoMath lets you scan and instantly calculate complicated math problems using your phone’s camera. This is not just a cheat sheet, however. The app gives you step-by-step instruction on how to solve the problem in real time like a normal human being.

14. Gojimo – Test prep can be stressful. Study up for a variety of entrance exams, SATs and more with Gojimo. Take practice tests and see where you need to brush up on your studies before the big day.

15. Dropbox – Dropbox is file sharing made simple. Share anything on your phone or mobile device easily with other user classmates or teachers or simply store it for easy syncing to your desktop.