Surfing the Net with Kids

Amelia Earhart

Tue, 14 May 2013 07:25:00 PST

Amelia Mary Earhart, the first women to fly solo across the Atlantic, was born July 24, 1897 at her grandparents' home in Atchison, Kansas. Despite her many pioneering achievements, she is best known for her tragic disappearance over the Pacific on July 2, 1937, halfway to her goal of circling the globe. Like many today, Earhart believed that technology would open new worlds for women.

Jamestown Settlement

Tue, 7 May 2013 22:58:00 PST

In 1607, thirteen years before the Pilgrims created Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, the first permanent English colony was founded at Jamestown Settlement in Virginia. The original colonists suffered a very rocky start, however, as just three later in 1610, only 60 colonists of the original 500 survived. With additional colonists arriving from the Old World, the settlement endured, and served as the capital of Virginia Colony for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699.

Flowers

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:28:00 PST

"April showers bring May flowers." Perhaps that's why May is National Flower Month. Indulge your green thumb with this week's website picks about flowers.

Mother's Day

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:00:00 PST

Mother's Day is a time to show our gratitude for everything Moms do. And for those Moms who are lucky enough to still have their own Moms to celebrate with, it's a double holiday. Happy Mother's Day to all!

Margaret Thatcher

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:00:00 PST

Margaret Thatcher (Oct 13, 1925 - Apr 8, 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. Nicknamed "the Iron Lady" by a Soviet journalist for her tough leadership style, her conservative policies became known as "Thatcherism."

Earth Day

Tue, 9 Apr 2013 14:00:00 PST

Since its inception in 1970, Earth Day has been celebrated annually on April 22. Although ideally everyday should be Earth Day, the annual holiday presents the perfect opportunity to learn more about ecology and the environment.

Sequences and Series

Tue, 2 Apr 2013 08:16:00 PST

This week's topic is one usually studied in first year algebra: sequences and series. Let's start with some definitions. A sequence is an ordered list of numbers, and a series is the sum of the terms (the individual numbers) of a sequence. For more lessons, here are my weekly website picks.

Parts of Speech Games

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:00:00 PST

There are nine parts of speech that classify how words are used in particular sentences. They are verbs, nouns, pronouns, articles, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. In English, there are many words that can be more than one part of speech, so context is always important. For example "act", "plant", and "study" can be all be either a verb or a noun, depending on usage.

Parthenon

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:00:00 PST

Constructed entirely of white marble in less than nine years, the Parthenon is widely regarded as the epitome of ancient Greek architecture. Built on a hill in the middle of Athens, known as the Acropolis, the Parthenon was dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena. Travel there with me, on a virtual field trip.

Cake Pops

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:21:00 PST

Cake pops (frosted cake balls on a stick) seem to be cropping up everywhere. And why not? Not only are they pretty and tasty, they're also fun to make. Nom, nom, nom.

Picture Dictionaries

Tue, 5 Mar 2013 14:00:00 PST

Today's topic is picture dictionaries, where a picture is worth a thousand words. Although traditionally used for early childhood education, a few of these picks use picture-dictionary metaphor to explore more advanced topics such as astronomy, architecture and anatomy.

Diagramming Sentences

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:22:00 PST

Sentence diagramming (also known as Reed-Kellogg diagramming) was a popular classroom grammar technique for nearly a century. It lost favor about thirty years ago, but several Surfnetkids readers recently suggested sentence diagramming as a topic. I hope this means grammar is making a comeback!