What are some apps for the iPhone/iTouch that you wish you had to help you in homeschooling/household management?
Polly
iPhone/iTouch apps for homeschooling
(16 posts) (7 voices)-
pollysoup
MemberPosted 1 year ago # Report Post -
Probably the two that I use most often for household management are Trip Cubby and Shopper.
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
Great post! I had never even thought of asking that question, Polly. Thanks! And I'm going to check out those two apps right now, Sonya!
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
pollysoup
MemberI didn't make my question clear. Sorry! What I was wondering is if there is an app. you wish for that isn't out there. My dh is wanting to develop some apps for homeschoolers. I'm not a technical person so I don't have a clue as to what people would use. Thanks Sonya for those 2 great app suggestions.
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
Oh! Sorry, I didn't read the question correctly. (Gotta practice my habit of attention more!)
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
Just thought of one: The ideal app for nature study would take a picture of the plant or animal you found and identify it for you with its pertinent information. I know there are lots of field guide apps available, but you always have to do the research and take your best guess and look for something close. If he could come up with an app that would do the searching and filtering automatically, even if it just narrowed things down to a couple of possibilities, I think there would be a great market for it.
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
That's a good idea, Sonya. I started working on an idea for a tree key for the iPhone like you find in books to help you identify trees. I hit a brick wall with being able to license images affordably to cover all the trees.
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
pollysoup
MemberSonya, that would be great! It sounds hard to do but I'll pass the suggestion along. I would use that a lot!
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
Doug I noticed today while looking at an American history app that it links to wikipedia (I think) for images/info on a lot of topics. I wonder if that would be a solution for the image licencing problem you mentioned. The info loads from within the app, so I guess if I was out of wifi range it wouldn't work? I will have to test it later. I would love a keying app for trees, wildflowers and insects. This app would be useful to me (maybe others would not feel the same, however) even if I had to go find a final image on my own, especially if there were illustrations to help with the keying, like showing what the terms mean. I have found in books with this feature it is usually line drawings.
In the "botany in a day" book (which would make a great app, btw) he uses a lot of public domain illustrations (b&w line drawings) that must come from old books. I know people like color photos, but drawings are actually usually better for plant i.d.
So many possibilities with new media!
Hey I am so glad that I can get on the organizer with my browser on the Itouch - really helpful. An organizer app?:) say yes!
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
Polly - I would like to see an easy to use book log/readers journal. I'd love to see features like supporting several readers (mom plus various kids), entering ISBN to auto retrieve book info and cover art, personal rating system, maybe some fun kid-centered categories to fill in like fave character, setting, great lines from the book, to help kids get started and give guidance on keeping a book journal.
How about a section for kids to write a review and submit to Amazon? How about each part of the journal have a link to an in-app bit of teaching/advice about how to proceed? For high schoolers, how about a drop down menu showing the proper forms for citing books in several common formats - MLA etc. How about supporting entries about mag articles, essays, and web sites we read and want to take note of? I can see this as a useful tool for organizing research, hobbies, as well as general reading. Give us a robust search feature with tags. ok I see that I am asking for too much to be "easy to use" LOL Just brainstorming!
I love shelfari and would use it a lot more if it had an app. Why don't they? What are they waiting for? But I am thinking here of something more toward journaling and with the cataloging as a secondary use.
What do you think? Maybe this app already exists, but I haven't found it. The search function in iTunes is so poor (in my opinion) that I haven't been able to come up with anything in this area.
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
Polly - scrolling timeline app, please, that we can turn on and off prerecorded entries as well as add our own entries. Thanks!
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
pollysoup
MemberWow! You all are full of ideas! Great ideas!
Thanks,
Polly
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
MamaLinda
MemberBoy...this question timely. My husband has long wished for a scheduling program/app that would accomodate a very large family (we now have 10 kids) and temporary changes. Such as, the person in charge of lunch is out of the house today, or is sick. Not only do I need to reassign lunch duty, I need to reassign that person's duties...you get the idea of the domino effect. My husband is a techie, but not a programmer. He has some more specific ideas if you'd like me to PM you...
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
Doug,
I was wondering: have you ever built an iPhone app before? My husband enjoys doing that, and I know he'd love to be part of an app that would be convenient for us as home educators. Just curious.
Thanks,
Lindsey
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
A quick, easy to use way to catalog my books (or sync well with the ones on my Mac).
Like Sonya, a good bug/plant/tree identification app.
A star viewing app that you can enter your location (by zip code?) and it shows you where planets and stars should be. I know the iPhone can use the GPS feature which does this, but some of us only have Touchs and they aren't connected to the internet all the time.
An elementary anatomy app - fun for kids, not gross, showing circulatory systems, muscles, bones, etc. Maybe quizzes or games to help learn.
Something like the file card home organization system. You might have daily cards that read, "Do one load of laundry", "Wipe off kitchen counters", "Sweep floor", etc. I know you can schedule those in, but I don't like to be tied down to a TIME. I just want to know what I need to do that day, or that Wednesday, or that month. And it would be fun if they actually looked like notecards or post-it type notes. (Similar to the Side-Tracked Home Executives or House of Order system).
Hmmm, maybe I should learn to make apps. I have way, way, way too many of them.....and want more!!!!!
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