Hamstrung by history? Stymied by science? Lost in a calculus quandary? Here are some homework Web sites recommended by teachers and librarians:

Best All-Around Web site

www.kcls.org/hh/homework.cfm: King County Library System's one-stop shopping Web site for links to everything from the Vincent van Gogh Gallery to Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (including info on avoiding plagiarism).

Best of all is the Dr. Math site, where kids and parents can take their trig and algebra questions. Here, there's even a service that lets you submit queries to math students and professors all across the country. The site's great for those who, say, want to brush up on how to prove Bretschneider's Theorem for finding the area of a quadrilateral. Or just multiply fractions.

More favorites:

http://www.nea.org/parents/homework.html: Leave it to the teachers to provide great homework help. The National Education Association answers parent's questions not always found on other sites, such as "What do I do if my child seems bored by the homework?" and "Can my children do homework while listening to music or watching television?"

http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/homework/part7.html: On the U.S. Department of Education site, the plum-and-brown graphics may be a turnoff, but the homework advice scores. Among its tips: When children haven't done their best work, point it out — but be constructive. "Instead of telling a sixth-grader, 'You aren't going to hand in that mess, are you?' say, 'The teacher will understand your ideas better if you use your best handwriting.' "

Grades K-12

www.kidocracy.com: An extravaganza of links to kid-favorites, including homework sites. Math ranges from addition to trigonometry and calculus. Its links to activities and hobbies — fashion, pets and more — can be distracting. Special links for teachers and parents. Dubbing itself a "spam-free zone," this site gets strong ratings from NetNanny and other Internet filters.

www.HomeworkSpot.com: Broken down by grade level; links to sites that support many schools' curricula and provides a powerful reference center with free access to many of the world's best libraries, museums and current-events sources.

http://kidsclick.org/: Thorough homework-help search engine developed and maintained by librarians; allows advanced searches by reading level. No Internet filter, so users must be careful.

Grades K-8

www.kidinfo.com/SchoolSubjects.html: Links to varied topics, including science, foreign languages and music links. Graphics are a bit juvenile for older kids.

Grades 3-6

www.FactMonster.com: Sponsored by Information Please Almanac. Strong reference desk with atlas, almanac, dictionary and encyclopedia links. Also features world news, quizzes, games and homework help.

www.ajkids.com: Kid-friendly version of ask.com, this is askjeeves.com with 10 homework-subject links, including a handy clip-art connection. Sometimes getting results involves sorting out junk and sales stuff from the facts. Best for competent readers and spellers.

Grades 3-12

www.Answers.com: Formerly a subscription service, this answer-based search engine is now free. Gives info and answers, not just links, to terms and topics — which not only saves time but lessens the risk of linking to inappropriate Web sites. With a citation tool at the bottom of each page, it's easy to create bibliography citations of online sources.

www.multcolib.org/homework: Oregon's Multnomah County Library puts kids a click away from more than 40 topics — from costumes/clothing to mythology. These topics spin off into dozens of their own related links. Look for special resource guides about Lewis & Clark and civil rights.

www.refdesk.com/homework.html: More than a dozen homework-help links, two dozen research tools and 115 links to general reference sites — most for students older than 12; some are fee-based. Takes some scrolling, but when you find the right link, it's jackpot.

Two teachers' picks:

www.enchantedlearning.com: Colorful favorite with dozens of you-print-out pages. "We use it for our animal-report research and reports on inventors/inventions for my fourth-graders."

Julie Moe, Brookside Elementary, Shoreline District

www.englishplus.com/grammar: Dubbed the "grammar slammer" by secondary-school teachers, this site "provides answers to some of the most common questions or errors. I'm trying to get older students to use this as a style/usage handbook ... to help them edit their writing rather than relying on the teacher to make corrections on a rough draft."

Jennifer Etter, Shorecrest High

All sites were reviewed by Barbara Carmody, Education and Teen Services coordinator for King County Library.

— Suzanne Monson