Tuesday November 10, 2009
Sesame Street is all grown up now. At 40, the show has been through a variety of facelifts, while still holding true to the original intent of creating quality and educational TV programming for kids. In order to maintain their reputation as a groundbreaking show and to keep up with their tech-savvy fans, Sesame Street undertook a $14 million site redesign last year. My first experience with the website was less than stellar, but I'm happy to say that they've worked out a lot of the kinks and garnered a thumbs up. Today you can enjoy clips from Sesame Street shows, as well as games, parent resources and behind-the scene blogs.
If you're feeling nostalgic, you can visit Sesame Street online and find clips dating back to the very first season, including the pinball game counting song, "Rubber Ducky," and Kermit singing, "Bein' Green." And just for grownups, you can add the Sesame Street Feel-O-Matic to your Facebook page and express your feelings through the personality of the Muppets.
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Tuesday November 3, 2009
When it came time to start applying for colleges, I didn't have the most scientific approach. Mainly I focused on schools that had reached out to me based on my PSAT scores. I didn't have the wealth of information available today on the Internet to help me out. If you (or your kids) are starting to look for schools and are feeling overwhelmed by all of the choices available, you may want to check out InsideCollege.com, a website designed to help you find just the right college for your major, your interests and your personality.
Perhaps you're looking for a school with a great women's water polo team. Or one that has an unusual team mascot. Maybe you're shy and would like to find a college for students who have a harder time making connections. You can find lists of colleges that meet these criterion, plus hundreds of other lists, including the basics on admittance, majors and extracurricular activities. And just so you know, if all three of these descriptions apply to you, you'll want to check out Whittier College in Whittier, CA.
InsideCollege.com doesn't actually provide a whole lot of information about each school - you can visit the school website for that - but it does give you links to scholarships that match each school to help you get a head-start on financial aid. InsideCollege.com also offers its own $2000 scholarship for users of the site.
I had fun looking up one of my previous schools... not surprisingly, it's on the list of "Colleges Where Geek is Chic." Go figure.
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Visit InsideCollege.com
Monday November 2, 2009
Did you know that the Yahoo! Kids website has jokes? You can search on keywords and learn kid-friendly jokes on just one topic. As Thanksgiving approaches, I thought it would be fun to check out jokes about turkeys. Do you have any kid-friendly turkey jokes to share?
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Practice your turkey jokes
Sunday November 1, 2009
Switch Zoo is a clever little site that lets you combine body parts from different animals to create your own unique breed. Choose from 142 animals and then change the head, body and/or tail. How about a zebra with the head of a chimpanzee and the tail of a red squirrel? After reading facts about each of the animals you choose, the site allows you to write a story about your new animal and print it out. Switch Zoo also has games and other activities.
Parents should note that Switch Zoo displays Google ads prominently on the site, which means you're never quite sure what ads you'll see while visiting.
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Visit Switch Zoo
