Below are some web sites recommend by the Center for Effective Learning to help your child when questions arise with homework. There are also some drill and practice sites that would be great to access.

PRE-TEENS (AGES 9-11)

RESEARCH:

IPL2 for Kids: tp://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace

IPL2 for Kids is a section of the huge Internet Public Library experimental resource, which is created and maintained by professors and students at library and information science programs. The site is organized by subject and does link to other sites. It may be a bit too cluttered for younger students to find what they're looking for on their own, but for older students, parents, and teachers, it's a well-stocked resource. Kids can submit a question (barring medical, legal, tax, and personal opinion) to a volunteer librarian and receive a well-researched answer back within about a week.

Fact Monster: http://www.factmonster.com

This well-organized, kid-friendly mega resource is the place to go for fun facts and homework help. It's brought to you by educational professionals, so no need to worry about the content. The multiple ads per page are the only annoying thing to be found.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Scholastic Kids Press Corp: http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/press_corps/index.asp

Scholastic Kids Press Corps is a news-filled website featuring stories created by a team of kid reporters from all over the country. Kids ages 9 to 14 are encouraged to apply each year to become part of the 50-person press corps and are selected based on their reporting and writing skills. The site is the culmination of the cub reporters’ hard work and efforts. It features articles, video news reports, and blogs on a variety of topical subjects. Kids will find current news, book and movie reviews, as well as recommendations, entertainment coverage, and blogs. Special reports provide written and broadcast news pieces that are based on central themes such as Olympic coverage or Women’s History Month.

KIDIPEDE: History for Kids http://www.historyforkids.org

The Kidipede history site is a well-organized -- albeit a bit dry -- homework and report helper for middle schoolers. Unfortunately, at least one page that promises to get students "more help" with a topic is actually a broken link. The many flashing ads for things like phone service and credit cards are distracting. One very helpful page is a "How to Cite this Site" page, which kids definitely need as teachers and schools demand better citations of online resources to fight plagiarism.

SCIENCE & MATH

Exploratorium http://www.exploratorium.edu/

The Exploratorium website is a science website from the San Francisco museum of the same name. Kids don't need to register to use the site; the videos, interactive exercises and other features are free. Users are encouraged to follow the museum on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites to post comments and interact with other fans -- but can't comment on each and every section of the site. Many of the videos, for example, on the site don't include comment functionality.

TEENS (12-14 years of age)

RESEARCH:

How Stuff Works: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/website-reviews/howstuffworks

B.J.’s Pinchback Homework Helper: http://www.bjpinchbeck.com/)

BJ Pinchbeck's Homework Helper is an educational site and academic oasis. A library of educational links provides users with information covering almost every topic that comes to mind. The site is constructed so that each category is broken into subcategories. For example, the "English" section offers links on grammar, mythology, poetry, literature; and authors; "Computer Science" offers links on programming, networks, and web design; and the "Science" section offers information about anatomy, botany, biology, physics, and much more. This homework hub is a wonderful aid to students across the board, but users should be cautious about straying to links with mature or inappropriate content. As a bonus, BJ Pinchbeck provides a "College Companion," an entire site dedicated to preparing for college prep and being successful while in college.

GOOGLESCHOLAR

http://scholar.google.com

This Web search engine from Google is limited to scholarly works and contains no ads. There's no inappropriate content, but the material indexed is too challenging for younger users.