Thanks to all of these fabulous bloggers for sharing their best back to school tips for this month's All About Parenting Blog Carnival.

Back to School Shopping

Back to school shopping seems to be one of the rites of passage that is stressful for kids and parents. These bloggers have some great tips on taking the angst out of clothes and back to school shopping

Terry Candee of Bonding Moms & Daughters To Navigate Our Crazy World ..........Oh Yeah AND Crafts!!! teaches us "How to help tweens dress trendy and NOT trashy"

Terri Mauro, the About.com Guide to Parenting Special Needs explains how to Approach Back to School Shopping Without Fear.

Judy Hedding, the About.com Guide to Phoenix, AZ, has links to some wonderful back-to-school offers.

Amy Hobbs Harris at My Daily Dollars loves back to school shopping. So, she might be onto something with her post, "Stress-Free Back-to-School Shopping, teenage angst included."

Lunchboxes, Brown Bags and Back Packs... Oh, My!

It seems that there is still some status involved over whether you buy or brown-bag your lunch. One more thing to worry about!

Katherine Lewis, About.com Guide to Working Moms has a suggestion for a swanky lunch box that appeals to kids and moms who are concerned about plastics.

Ah, the great school lunch debate: Does your teen pack or buy? Denise Witmer, About.com Guide to Parenting Teens,wants to know what happens in your family.

Amanda Rock, About.com Guide to Parenting Preschoolers, says, To Lunchbox or Not to Lunchbox; To Backpack is Human?

Tips for Staying Organized

Juggling teen after-school activities, sports and various other commitments can be a headache. But, if you're well-organized, you can relax and actually enjoy all of the action.

Denise Witmer, About.com Guide to Parenting Adolescents, counsels, Get in the Habit of Checking Planners Together.

Jennifer Wolf, About.com Guide to Single Parents, shares her Back-to-School Readiness Checklist.

Special Considerations

Going back to school can be stressful even under the best of situations. Unfortunately, many of us have extra stressors to deal with at this time of year. Learning disabilities, food allergies, even the politics of parenting multiples require that some parents do some additional planning and preparation.

Pamela Fierro, Guide to Twins and Multiples, shares her upcoming school-year challenge in Going Their Separate Ways; Back to School with Twins.

For kids with food allergies, the school building can be downright dangerous. Shannon Bullard from Zeer Blog has information about peanut-free schools and classrooms for families with and without food allergies.

Ann Logsdon, the About.com Guide to Learning Disabilities, knows that kids with learning disabilities have their own anxiety about heading back to school. She's got tips for making the transition go as smooth as possible.

Just for Fun

Back to school time doesn't need to be all stress and worry. These bloggers remind us how to have fun!

Alvaro Fernandez presents Brain Teasers: Spot the Difference posted at SharpBrains, saying, "Want some brain exercise for kids and adults alike?"

Joanne presents Make A Back To School Gift Basket posted at Homemade Gift Baskets, saying, "Just a cute way of giving your kids school supplies. I did it with mine, and their homeschooled. They loved it. :-)"

Liberty Mutual wants to know, so they launched The Responsibility Project, a website that pushes us to consider what it means to be responsible parents, managers, teachers, politicians and more.

The Responsibility Project website includes short films, a blog, a resource are and a section where you can make a statement about what you believe. Challenge your ideas on what makes a good neighbor, how much freedom to give your kids, and how brain enhancing drugs impact the equality in a classroom.

The site raises a number of interesting questions for parents, but is also a way to start conversations with your kids about their own level of responsibility.

If you've been online for awhile now, you'll remember when ASCII art was prominent. There were no flashy smiley faces, roses and other emoticons to be had. We had to make due with standard letters, numbers and punctuation, like this for a rose: @--'---. It was sort of like the charm the Star Wars series held before they added so much CGI that it became slick and glossy and... well... not quite the same.

Ok, so I'm a bit old-school, but there's no harm in looking back at and reminiscing! Here are some examples of text-based word art and how we've progressed over time. If nothing else, it's a fun way to kill time. Please preview these sites before browsing with kids!

Start with Joan Stark's ASCII Art Gallery (this link is to the Cartoon Characters section). This is a great example of pure ASCII art. In case you don't appreciate how challenging this is, these are created by typing out the characters, line-by-line in a basic text editor. Think it sounds easy? Open up Notepad or another plain text editor and try it out for yourself. In fact, I'd love to see your (family friendly) ASCII art!

Move on to the Text ASCII Art Generator. This site takes any text you enter and converts it into ASCII art. That's cool in itself, but what makes it extra fun is that you can decide what font you'd like to use. So, for example, you can see your name spelled out ASCII-style with dots and dashes and such, but you can decide if you'd like your name in "Big Money" (one of my favorites) or "Script" (for the fancier folks). Once you're done, you can cut and paste the result into your sig file, website or anywhere else you need to get your text message out.

End your tour with the very funky "Make ASCII" site. Ok, so this isn't true ASCII art. It takes a photo and renders it using strings of text. You can even specify custom text to use. But it's fun to see your face spelled out in your choice of text.

If you're super-proud of your ASCII creation, head on over to the forum and share with the rest of us.

Virtual Worlds Management has recently released an updated list of virtual worlds for kids. According to their research that are more than 150 virtual worlds geared towards kids 18 and under in operation or under development. The list isn't comprehensive, as there are several sites flying under the radar and most likely some sites under development that have not yet been announced. Even so, the numbers are a bit shocking, especially when you consider that it's up from just over 100 last April.

It seems that everyone wants to capitalize on the popularity of sites such as Webkinz and Club Penguin. The good news for us as parents, is that we have a plenty of choices and competition for our kids' time. Hopefully, that will result in advertising-free, high-quality spots for our kids with great parental controls.

Don't be afraid to shop around for the best websites for your kids. It will be worth it in the end. You can also use my lists of Virtual Worlds for Young Kids, Virtual Worlds for Tweens and Virtual Worlds for Teens as a starting point. I register with each site and try it out before adding it to my list, so I can help give you an idea of what you'll find.