"Beege" and his dad, Bruce Pinchbeck, started Homework Helper when they came across a free trial version of an HTML editor while surfing the Internet together. "Dad and I thought we would give it a try," says Beege.

They decided to design a page of good educational links so that people could access homework help from one main place. They created the web site together that weekend, and have been busy ever since.

B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper has received more 100 awards to date, which are displayed in a virtual trophy room. "The award that we cherish the most," says Beege, "is our very first award that was given to us by North Valley High School. That award made us realize that we were doing the right thing by making a homework helper site."

What are the keys to successful web site design? "The first is keep it simple," says Mr. Pinchbeck, "and the second is content, content, content." They avoid fancy backgrounds, sounds and animations.

"We are mainly concerned with providing a solid site that will provide quality educational links to children and adults," says the elder Pinchbeck. We have maintained that focus from the very beginning. We will not place any link on our page that we do not consider to be excellent...and we make no exceptions."

Getting Homework Help Online
Currently, B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper contains links to more than 500 quality sites, which are mainly categorized by school subject. Under Math links, for example, there are 20+ sites ranging from basic math to algebra and geometry.

There are also links for Science , Social Studies , English , History , Music and Art , and Foreign Languages .

There is also a News and Current Events section , which contains links to various news sites and newspapers. Computers and the Internet includes lots of "How to" sites for potential web masters.

The Teacher's Corner contains 30+ lesson plans grouped by subject. The Reference Desk provides an extensive list of links to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference materials.

And when homework is done, Playtime offers fun links with an educational twist, such as Jeopardy Online and the Java Puzzle Collection.

Beege says using the Internet is "like having a VERY BIG library in your living room." It hasn't changed the way he does homework too much, though -- he still does a lot of work out of books. When he does need to search the Internet, his favorite search engine is Metacrawler.

Homework Helper contains links to Metacrawler, as well as 20+ other search engines. Search tips are also available at Beege's site, with both general advice ("the key to finding information on the Net is to make sure that your request is as specific as possible") and detailed instructions for using Metacrawler.

Homework Helper is no substitute for children actually doing their homework assignments, though. "Sometimes we get requests from kids who want us to solve a math problem or something like that," says Beege, "but I can only remember one time when someone wrote and asked us to write a paper for him." He feels that most people who use the site are there to get more information to assist with their school papers and projects.

What advice does the homework help webmaster give to kids having trouble with their assignments? "Keep trying and don't give up! Homework can be fun if you have the right attitude about it."

He says that he and his dad work on his homework together every night. "He makes it a lot of fun. Up until this year, I did not like spelling – now my dad makes me laugh when we do spelling, and I am doing very well."

A Father and Son Team
Mr. Pinchbeck says that he and his son have always been close --"working on this page was just an extension of our relationship." They team up to perform web site maintenance and answer emails. "Surfing together on the web can be a wonderful educational experience for both parent and child," says Mr. Pinchbeck.

During the first year, father and son put in as many as 15 to 20 hours per week on the site. That's dropped down to a few hours a week now that they have more expertise, a faster computer, and fans that are happy to alert them to new sites and link changes.

Mr. Pinchbeck notes hard work and commitment are another key to creating a successful web site. "You must be willing to spend a lot of time on your site, especially during the initial stages. You also must be willing to answer e-mail from your 'fans' and recognize that many of your young fans really admire you... so you don't want to let them down."

They receive anywhere from 20 to 40 emails a day from people worldwide. Father and son both agree that the best part of hosting the web site is the positive feedback they get from their users.

When Beege isn't working on his web site, he enjoys soccer and hockey. He also likes to collect Beanie Babies and play computer games. He's not sure what career path he'll follow when he's older, but he hasn't ruled out a future in computer programming or web site design work yet…