No summer vacation for iPad generation

How do you keep your kids from losing everything they've learned during the school year while they're on summer vacation? Look no further than your smartphone or tablet for some tools that can keep young brains fresh over the long break:

1. KHANAPP:
Students watch about 150,000 videos everyday via the Khan App to help them with a variety of subjects that go far beyond simple reading, writing and 'rithmatic. KHANAPP covers K through 12 math; science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics; and even reaches into the humanities with playlists on finance and history. Every single problem can be broken down, step-by-step, with one click. If you need more help, you can always watch a related video. Users get badges as rewards, which some students spend hour after hour watching physics videos to earn.

2. Brainpop:
This one creates animated, curriculum-based content. The app include movies, quizzes, experiments, timelines, and activity pages for hundreds of topics. All the content is aligned to academic standards.

3. PBS's Word World:
This is an awesome word game for young kids. Word World is based on the PBS show of the same name and it's designed for 3- to 7-year-olds. It helps build vocabulary, teaches spelling and even offers a little manual dexterity training as well. Kids have to drag letters around to spell words and then once they have it right they can "pinch" the word on the screen to get another surprise!

Finally, a really nice site to help you find more apps and other education resources is: eduTeacher.net.