Must Have Back-To-School Apps

I don't know how all the other parents out there feel, but school hasn't even started yet and I'm already overwhelmed with keeping track of sports schedules, lists and other events. As I've previously confessed, I'm nuts about my , and I'm proud to report the love affair hasn't diminished. I'm leaning on him even more to help with keeping order to our lives.

I did a little research to see how well my iPod could help me navigate the upcoming year. This is what I found:

• iHomework (IHW): With iHomework, you and your child can keep up-to-date with school work, grades, to-do's, teacher's information and almost everything else you need during the school year. Record class times, keep reading logs and even track grades. Available for iPhone/iPod touch, iPad, or Mac. $1.99
• CollegeSave: It's never too early to start saving for college, and while this app will provide you with an initial yikes, punch-in-the-stomach dose of reality, it will help you focus on the college big picture. CollegeSave visually displays the projected cost of college, the future value of savings using both the current lump sum and monthly savings plan and alerts you to potential shortfall amount needed to cover the total cost of college. Available for iPhone/iPod touch, iPad, or Mac. $0.99 
• Penultimate: You will love it because you can take notes on the go and keep track of ideas that pop into your head throughout the day. Your kids will love it for the same reasons, plus they will be amazed by the choices of papers and pens and how cool their drawings look on screen. Thoughts can be stored in separate, named notebooks for each topic, project, or category. $1.99
• Bento: If something needs to be organized, chances are Bento can do it for you. Organize contacts, track projects, plan events and manage everything under your roof. Built-in templates include Classes, Contacts, Donations, Events, Event Planning, Exercise Log, Expenses, Home, Recipes, Student List, To-Do Items, Vehicle Maintenance and more. $4.99
• Cozi: As long as your kids can access the Internet - from their computer, laptop, iTouch or phone - they can access Cozi, a free, online organizer and mobile app that helps you manage the family schedule, organize and much more, all in one place. Designed for families on the go, a color-coded family calendar lets everyone see where they are supposed to be. You can set appointment reminders or send the weekly agenda direct to a family member's inbox. And that's just the calendar portion of the app. Free
• Mathboard: Way more fun than a box of flash cards, MathBoard is appropriate for all ages from kindergarten to elementary school where learning multiplication and division becomes challenging. You can control the range of numbers you want to work with, the amount of questions you want to answer and create a quiz. $4.99
• SpellBoard: Studying for spelling has never been more fun, or cool! With SpellBoard, all you need to do is enter the word (correctly spelled), the grade level (1-12) and the spoken word. The app's study mode will walk them through a quiz seeing and hearing the word and phrase, and they can practice writing the word on the virtual white board. And best of all, parents can track the performance of a student across any number of quizzes. $4.99
• iCooking Slow Cooker: If finding the time to make dinner that doesn't come through a drive-through is a near Herculean task, try out this app. This app features easy-to-prepare dinners you can fix after you finally walk in the house after a day of running from here to there and back here again. $0.99
• Angry Birds: Come on. This totally should be on the list. With being so organized and together thanks to the above apps, what else are you going to do to pass the time waiting in the car pool line????  What better way to vent out these pent up frustrations than by flinging irate birds at plump, smug pigs? Price varies.