Ask Barbara

Still have gifts to buy that need to arrive by Christmas? Don’t sweat the overnight shipping hassle. Send a gift via email! Whether at the holidays (or for a birthday, graduation or anniversary), gifts that are sent via email are convenient and FAST!

Here are some of my favorite online stores that sell gifts that can be sent via email.

Netflix Gift Subscriptions: I’m a huge fan of Netflix, their Watch Instantly program, and giving the gift of movies and entertainment. You can gift anything from a single month of service up to a full year.

Audible Gift Cards, Memberships or Audiobooks: Audiobooks are another one of my favorite indulgences. I love listening to books on my iPod while I drive, walk or exercise. Unfortunately I drive more often that I walk or exercise, but that’s another story!

Amazon Gift Cards: What can I possibly say about Amazon? Is there anyone on the planet (that has Internet access) that couldn’t find themselves a great gift at Amazon? For me, I love Kindle books, kitchen gadgets, and tech, so any Amazon gift cards coming my way will probably be spent on on a book, a whisk or the latest tech thingy I’ve decided I can’t live without.

Donors Choose Gift Cards:  I first learned of Donors Choose in 2007 when Google sent me a Donors Choose gift card as a holiday present. Back in those days, Google sent cool, techie holiday gifts to their best Adsense publishers. Anyway, in 2007, after several years of widgety gifts, Google changed course a bit by giving us a gift certificate that we could spend on others. Here’s how it works. Teachers from across the country submit projects that they need funded. Then donors choose projects to fund. For any project you can give a portion of the funds requested, or you can fund the entire project. Donors (that meet certain minimum criteria) receive heart-warming letters from the students themselves, and you will walk a little lighter knowing you’ve done good!

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Viral Video Picks

by Barbara Feldman May 25, 2010

A handful of viral YouTube videos really spoke to me this week, so I’ve created a special category for them over at Surfnetkids Video for everyone to enjoy, along with short commentary by me. The category is called (guess what?) Viral Video Picks. This week’s picks include Swagger Wagon Video (calling all minivan parents), Greyson [...]

Reading on a Kindle vs. an iPod Touch

by Barbara Feldman April 16, 2010

Since getting my Kindle in August, I have become a fiction-reading machine! I am loving it. The odd part, that I didn’t really analyze, was that BEFORE the Kindle, I was reading mostly non-fiction. I never really thought about why I made the switch, but a friend of mine pointed out that he prefers fiction [...]

Christmas and Hanukkah Resources

by Barbara Feldman December 7, 2009

Hanukkah is just around the corner, and then before you know it, it will be Christmas. Christmas games are already showing up in my popular game list , so I better share these with you now before it’s too late! Christmas Resources Santa Claus Funhttp://www.santaclausfun.com Christmas Coloring Pageshttp://www.freekidscoloring.com/holiday/christmas/ Christmas Jokeshttp://www.jokesbykids.com/holiday/christmas/ Christmas Nursery Rhymeshttp://www.nurseryrhymesonline.com/christmas-nursery-rhymes.php 16 Pages [...]

Too Fat to Graduate?

by Barbara Feldman December 1, 2009

Wow! This is a tough call. I really appreciate the sentiment behind Lincoln University’s fitness requirement for undergraduates. But in today’s politically correct atmosphere, I can’t image that it will stand a chance in the court of public opinion. Here’s the story. Students at Lincoln University, PA with a body mass index of 30 or [...]

A Parent’s Report Card

by Barbara Feldman November 23, 2009

I enjoyed this week’s TIME magazine article on helicopter parents called “Can These Parents Be Saved?” by Nancy Gibbs. It looks at the over-parenting trend and an even newer trend of “rebels” that are trying to get parents to just calm down. When my kids were in elementary and middle-school, I remember those dioramas that [...]

Common Core State Standards?

by Barbara Feldman October 20, 2009

I spent some time today reading about the Common Core State Standards initiative. I’m not yet sure what I think of it. My first reaction is that these sorts of federal education standards are usually so bland that they don’t really contribute much to the actual business of education. What do you think?

Halloween Resources

by Barbara Feldman October 14, 2009

Did you know that in addition to being Halloween, October 31 is also Magic Day? That’s why I chose Magic Tricks as this week’s Surfnetkids topic. But now that the spooky day is so close, I also want to remind you of our other Halloween resources. Why are all these links in this list “exposed” [...]

My Kindle Review

by Barbara Feldman August 16, 2009

My Kindle arrived on August 4 and I love it. I have wanted one since they were announced in November, 2007. But the price seemed high for its functionality. I mean, I can already read books. What would it REALLY add to my life? But when they announced Kindle 2.0, and then dropped the price, [...]

Who is Hans Christian Oersted?

by Barbara Feldman August 14, 2009

Today’s Google doodle commemorates a Danish physicist that has not enjoyed widespread fame. Hans Christian Ørsted (aka Oersted), born Aug 14, 1777 was a contemporary and friend of Hans Christian Andersen. In very geeky circles, he is known for observing that electric currents can induce magnetic fields, an important aspect of electromagnetism. On 21 April [...]

Single Tasking

by Barbara Feldman June 22, 2009

Are cluttered to-do lists, multitasking, and unlimited browser tabs taking their toll on your productivity? Some experts are calling single tasking (focusing on one task at a time) “the new multitasking.” If you want to give it a try, NowDoThis offers a new twist on the old fashioned to-do list. Type in a list of [...]