Sunday, December 27, 2009

# best 09 "Best web tool"

I've had it for a while, but, until several variables meshed, I never realized what an amazing tool it was.

It's my trusty little Google toolbar. With my go-anywhere, wireless equipped laptop, and two unschooled children with many, many questions (some I know the answers to, but quite often I don't), and unschooling friends with passions that fascinate me have conspired to make that little search box incredibly useful in our day-to-day lives.

"Mom, what's the biggest planet in the solar system?" call the kids, together, from the next room. I might guess - Jim and I both think Saturn, but we don't want to give them false information. I could tell them to look in any of several books on the space and the solar system on the shelf only feet from them.

Instead I typed in "largest planet solar system". Yup. Saturn.

We want to take the kids on a surprise trip this winter. we know the place we want to go, but neither of us remembered the name. So I put in the type of business and the location, and up it came, as if by magic. It took a matter of minutes to be sure it's within our budget.

I don't use it every day, but I use it often enough that I would feel clumsier without it.

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