School Smarts: Hot homework sites

Kids looking for help with their homework are now just a click away.

"I think not using these sites is turning a blind eye to an incredible resource that's out there. Students should be using the internet," said professional tutor Jay Bacrania.

Bacrania says these kinds of websites are great if they are used the right way.

Math is always at the top of the list when it comes to subjects students need help with.

Jay says, sites like, Brighstorm.com, Khanacademy.org and Virtualnerd.com are perfect to help with those tricky math problems.

"A student can learn a concept on this site. If a student doesn't understand some part of that they can stop it there and click on it and get another tutorial about that concept," Bacrania said.

If students want to build up their vocabulary, Jay says check out Freerice.com and Vocabsushi.com

"It looks for words students should know that are used in the news, in current events, on websites all over the internet and gives it to you in context," Jay said.

To sharpen those writing skills Jay recommends, Loosestitch.com and Purdue Online Writing Lab, as two great resources.

"It has grammar, it has exercises for writing and it also has help with structuring writing papers," Jay said.

But, experts warn, not all of the sites are credible and parents and students have to be careful where they turn for their online help.

"Look at the motives for the sites. What you want to check is, who made the site, is it coming out of a university, is it coming out of a school? If there is no name, no attribution then it's usually a warning sign," said Bacrania.

Jay says while homework sites can be very beneficial, they are just one of many tools to help your child develop and learn.

As for Wikipedia, Jay tells us it has a ton of information, not always reliable, but a good place to browse, but should not be used as the main source of information.

Chat live with the founder of Veritas Tutors  Andrew Magliozzi Friday at 5:30 p.m. on WHDH.com

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