1. Parenting – School Years

This is the magazine that parents tend to forget about after they’re done with the crawling and diaper years, yet the magazine is filled with great information and advice for parenting all ages of children, not just babies and toddlers. They have special issues dedicated to parenting the school-age children.

Included in this free app are fifteen page sample “magazines” of each issue. You can either browse through the sample or buy the full magazine. What’s great about it is that we all know not every  issue of a magazine is filled with stuff that relates to us. You can browse through the sample, and if you decide you want the full issue, can download it through the app. Or, if you decide you don’t want to miss a single issue, you can subscribe to it from within the app as well.

2. School A to Z

While the Parenting magazine gets you prepared for having school-age children, it doesn’t do a whole lot to help you when your child comes home and wants to know what a cinquain is. It’s the kind of thing that made the show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” so successful. If it’s something we’re not using, we forget it ten, twenty, thirty years out of school.

That’s where this app is extremely helpful. It gives us all the answers our children come to us for. You can either let them know that you’re getting help from this app, or look it up secretly and let them think you always knew it was a type of poem with a five-line pattern. It also helps you with common math terms, as well as technology and other types of assignments.

Additionally, School A to Z includes games to help your children learn on their own. There’s Math Monkey which quizzes them on their multiplication tables, either by number or random. There is also a Spelling Bee that gives kids spelling words based on difficulty, or allows you to set up a spelling bee for them based on their spelling words for the week.

3. School & Stuff

It can get really hard to keep track of kids these days, from how they’re doing in school to what they’re doing after school. This app helps parents keep it all together. It allows you a page for each of your kids, and lets you keep tracks of their grades and GPA. Many schools now keep track of grades online, so after you check up on your kids and see how they’re doing, you can then record it in this app.

When you’re trying to figure out which child goes to which activity, this app can help with that as well. Set it up with the activities, addresses, phone numbers, etc., and plot out each child’s schedule. Additionally, with the phone numbers and other info, it helps you know who to get ahold of when there is a problem or someone is sick and not going to make it to football or ballet.

4. iStudiez

Now that all the parenting duties are taken care of, it’s time to hand it all over to the kids … within reason. This app will allow you to show them how it’s done. You can help them set up everything to be sure they stay on track in their classes and with their assignments. They can fill in each of their classes, their teachers’ names, and keep track of their schedule on the app. It syncs with the calendar app on the iPad, so it includes appointments, work, activities, etc.

This app works on both the iPad and the iPhone, so kids can sit in their class and get assignments and enter it into their phones. They can put in both what they’re doing that day in class, as well as what their homework assignments are. It’ll sync up to your iPad so that you can keep abreast of everything they need to do. When they come home that afternoon, you know exactly what homework they need to do.

Sending kids to school shouldn’t be a headache. These apps help take that headache away to keep everything organized so that you know what they need to do and how to help them. Better yet is that they’re all free. The exception is iStudiez. It has a free version, but it will only organize three classes. Download the free version, and if it works out well for those three classes, then download the paid version and keep it all organized.

What is KidZui?

KidZui is a web browser that comes loaded with kid-friendly content. As it serves a general population, KidZui is not age-specific but rather includes graphical links to a variety of games, videos, and websites for kids of all ages.

There are currently two versions of KidZui: KidZui Classic, which requires the creation of user accounts, and KidZui 2, which does not require a login and has a new interface design. In both cases, users are required to download and install the software.

The software itself is available as a stand-alone browser for Windows or Mac OS X. In addition Linux and other users may use the Firefox add-on to get the same interface. When downloading, the website attempts to auto-detect which operating system and browser you are using and then serves you the appropriate download link. I tested KidZui on my Linux desktop and on Windows running inside VirtualBox.

Interface Design

As would be expected of a browser for kids, Kidzui is very colorful and has large puffy blue buttons. Each button along the top of the screen has an icon next to its description, which may help children who cannot yet read.

On my 2.6Ghz machine, the animations and mouseover effects are snappy and responsive. On slower machines, it lags a little, but not enough to be unusable. The real lag starts when loading flash games and videos. This, of course, is not something the Kidzui makers can control, and the new 3D graphics accelerated Flash plugin may reduce some of those problems for users with supported video cards.

By design, the interface takes over the entire screen, and the only way to get out of it is to close it or “Alt+Tab” to another window. For the most part, this works well for kids, who will most likely not be multitasking until they are older. On my dual-screen setup, it actually covered my second screen with a grey window, preventing me from using it. Again, this is undoubtedly by design. If, for example, you had this interface up on a kids’ machine and did not want them in other programs, the fullscreen setup would keep their focus only on KidZui.

Usability

The ultimate way for me to put KidZui to the test was to sit my 7-year-old daughter down in front of it. She loved it from the moment she saw it and has no trouble navigating the menus or finding the content she wanted. Because KidZui depends on third-party websites for content, some sites performed better than others on her slower machine, but there were not a lot of dead links or accidentally linked inappropriate content.

Like a normal browser, KidZui includes a search box, back and forward buttons, favorites/bookmarks, and a browser history. Parents can also create logins for themselves to enable extra features such as the ability to receive weekly activity reports, set age and gender relevant content, launch KidZui on startup, and require a password in order to exit the browser.

Content

KidZui includes a great number of games, far more than I had time to play before writing this review (though I certainly was tempted to play all day). The content covers a wide variety, from sports to fashion and includes movies, music videos, television shows, and websites with multiple activities.

Without the parent login, the content is not age-specific, although there is generally nothing that would be particularly alarming to most parents of younger children. As with any website or software, however, it is ultimately up to the parent to decide what is appropriate. The music video section, for example, may include artists that some parents do not consider to be good role models. If they are concerned, they should use their own discretion to decide and make use of the parent login to control content.

KidZui does include some advertisements that are clearly marked with the word “Ad”, not that marking them would stop kids from clicking. But overall, the ads are not intrusive or annoyingly prevalent.

Kid Fun

My children enjoy KidZui and love the content it provides. They no longer have to ask every time they want to go to a site they like, because most of them are already linked within the browser. To expand their reach, the developers should port the Firefox extension to Google Chrome and possibly make apps for other devices. The only real downside is the heavy requirement of Flash player, which will not change until content providers find suitable alternatives.

KidZui is fun for all school-aged kids, and I recommend it for parents who are looking for fun and safe online experiences for their children.

For the most part, the operating systems a child uses are determined by the child’s parents and school. As the parent and Linux user yourself, you may prefer your child to use Linux at home.

One feature of Linux desktop environments like KDE and Gnome is that they are extremely customizable. You can have one panel, two panels, or no panel at all. Just as easily as icons, menus, and widgets can appear, they can also disappear.

For that reason, you may find it necessary to set parameters for your children when using Linux. Whether you need tools to lockdown the desktop or filter Internet content, there is free software out there to help you. What follows is a short guide to preparing a Linux desktop for a child, complete with game recommendations.

Desktop Restrictions

Even if your child has his own computer, he may become very frustrated when he accidentally deletes the icon he wants to use. You can prevent such accidents with desktop restrictions.

KDE has a Kiosk Admin system that is controlled in the kdeglobals configuration file. You can find the file at ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals. Kiosk settings are added using keys in the following format:

[KDE Action Restrictions][$i]
action/<key>=false

For example, if you want to disable print properties so that children can print but cannot change or add printers, you would enter:

print/properties=false

A complete list of available keys, including plasma keys is available at: KDE Techbase.

Gnome has a similar feature for desktop restrictions called “lockdown”. The keys for Gnome lockdown are found in gconf. The easiest way to edit gconf keys is with gconf-editor. If, for example, you want to lock down the panel, you would edit the following key:

apps -> panel -> global ->locked_down and set the value to “true” to enable it.

For a detailed list of lockdown functions, visit the Gnome Desktop Administrator’s Guide.

One important thing to remember is that these restrictions will primarily prevent your child from accidentally modifying the desktop settings. Children who attempt to do so intentionally will more than likely be smart enough to figure it out, and that is an issue requiring parental attention, not increased restrictions. For very young children, however, this is an excellent way to keep things in order.

Internet Restrictions

There are a couple of methods for filtering the Internet for your child. One is to essentially block all sites and only whitelist the ones you want your child to visit. Young children will probably only have a few sites they like anyway. The second method is to use a more traditional filter to block sites you deem inappropriate. Filters like these are not 100% effective, but they should prevent a lot of accidental visits to inappropriate sites.

An example of a Firefox extension that can be configured to use either method is ProCon Latte.

Like desktop restrictions, an Internet filter will not stop older children from purposely visiting sites you believe are inappropriate, but it will reduce accidental visits.

Aside from filtering content, you can also filter ads with browser extensions. This will prevent children from following ads that may lead them to sites asking for personal information. Adblock Plus is available for Firefox  and Adblock for Google Chrome

Fun Stuff

Kids ultimately will use their computers for fun and learning, so here is a brief list of games and learning activities for kids. It is not a complete list, but should give you an idea of the wide range of games and activities available for children.

Super Tux Kart (Racing)
Secret Maryo Chronicles (Super Mario clone)
GCompris (Educational game suite)
Pink Pony (Trone clone with ponies)
KTuberling (a.k.a. Potato Guy)
Bouncy the Hungry Rabbit
Fizzball (commercial game)
Acorn Drop
Jammer the Gardener
TuxPaint (art)

As you can see, with just a little work on your part, Linux can be educational, safe, and fun for your children.

The green light and loud inpatient honks came before I had the chance to even open my car window to buy the paper. So, the first thing I did after arriving back at my office was searching for that headline and found several news telling the horrid story.

The story reminds me again that we are living in the world where we should always be careful in everything that we do, even in the virtual part of the world where people don’t physically meet each other.

Parents, start controlling your kids online activities!

One thing that I understand about the net is that you can find (almost) anything as long as you know how to search for it. This “anything” includes both the good and the bad things, and it goes both way.

The best thing that you can do to prevent strangers from getting your (or your children’s) personal information is by putting as little information as you can on the virtual world.

On the other hand, parents should also make sure that their children can only access good information. If you use Mac, one of the ways to do it is to activate “Parental Contol“. Here’s how:

Open System Preferences from the Apple menu.

Then choose “Parental Control” from “System” group.

Click the lock on the bottom left of the window to allow changes.

And similar to the other items in the System Preferences, you’ll have to authenticate the changes as an admin.

My computer has only one user: me. If I want to apply the Parental Control to this account, I can. But I prefer to create a brand new user account as the parental controlled account.

To do this, click on the plus sign under the account list.

Then choose “Managed with Parental Controls” under the “New Account” field. Fill in other fields with appropriate answers then click “Create Account” button.

After that, choose whether you want to turn the “Automatic Login” on or off. If you want maximum security, keep the automatic login on. But this is also means that you would have to go through several extra steps every time you want to change user.

Under this new user account, open the “Parental Controls” once more.

Now you can see many options available for the account. In the “System” tab, you can modify Finder to look more simple to cater young and inexperienced users.

It’s also possible to allow only few selected applications to be opened by this users. To enable this feature, be sure to give checkmark to the option and choose the applications from the list below.

The next tab – “Content” – dealing with the content of the computer and the web and how to make them safer for your kids. This is the place to control how much web that you let your children consume.

“Mail & iChat” tab is a kind of white list address book with the names of “trusted” friends on the list.

Another restrictions that you can use is “Time Limits“. Define how long you let your children use the computer, both in the weekdays and weekends. You can also set the bedtime during school nights and weekend.

The last item on the Parental Control is the “Logs“. This is the place where you can access the complete reports on your children’s computing activities. The results can be filtered by the time and the types of activities.

The Best Parental Control

Let me close today’s discussion by saying that even though all of the features of Parental Control are nice and useful, nothing can be compared to parent’s presence. The best parental control that you can apply to your children’s computing life is your own guidance.

Do you use some kind of Parental Control to your children’s computer? Do you think it’s necessary? How’s your children’s computing experience with(out) it? Share your experiences, thoughts and opinions regarding the topic using the comment below.

Believe it or not, one of the Windows softwares that I missed most when I first moved to Mac, aside from Minesweeper and Freecell, is MS Paint. So, for the nostalgia sake, I compile a small list of simple drawing application for Mac.

1. Paintbrush

I think it’s best to start the list with this app because Paintbrush claimed to be “the clone” of MS Paint. This one is a very simple drawing application with minimal tools. That’s why it’s fun and perfect for quick doodling.

2. MacPaint X

MacPaint X is a basic drawing tool for Mac which is based off the original MacPaint that was created by Apple. It comes with many other small applets such as a auto saver and updater which makes it one of the good alternative drawing application for OS X. The simplicity of MacPaint X makes it fit for everybody, from children learning how to draw on their first computer to adults doing a quick sketch.

3. Tux Paint

If you are (or have) children ages 3 to 12, then you have to try this award-winning multi-platform drawing application. The app combine easy-to-use interface and fun sound effects to encourage children to draw. There’s also the cartoon mascot which will guide kids on using the program. But even if you’re not young anymore, this program could be a fun time waster. We all have the little child inside of us, don’t we?

4. Drawberry

It is a free vector drawing software application for Mac OS X. This one is an alternative to the free but bulky: The GIMP or Inkscape. With DrawBerry, you have all the possibilities the vectorial drawing offers you in a free, easy to use and powerful application. At the time of writing, the developer’s web showed near-blank page, so I get the app from one of the Mac download sites.

5. HeliosPaint

This one is a bit more advanced, but not too complex. Maybe somewhere above Paintbrush and (way) below Photoshop. It’s written in Java so it would work on every OS. But as most Java apps out there, HeliosPaint is a bit sluggish.

Of course there are other drawing apps available for Mac and there’s no way I could list them all here. Which one(s) do you use? Share your thoughts below.