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Interesting and Educational Web Pages for Children?
watashiwananashidesu asks: "I am a teenager with no siblings and a a good number of little cousins. Being something of a nerd, I'm incredibly popular with these cousins, especially the ones who are 8-11. Recently, when my first cousin (female, 8) was over, I began a collection of links that she might enjoy--sites that were appropriate and fun.
Now that the Cold/Flu season is over, I can expect more visits from my first, second, and third cousins, and I'm left with a dismally small collection of links (eight, to be specific) for them to peruse. Also, the few I have are unsatisfactory; they're mainly corporate sites like Barbie.com and Lego.com with a few non-corporate games mixed in. None of the sites have any educational value, least of all about the things that I really want to expose them to--science, math, literature, and computers. In fact, I especially need sites that will teach them about computers, so that they'll be able to better keep in touch with me, when we're all older. What are some good sites I can bookmark for my cousins that are: educational, appropriate for children aged 5-11, (mainly three boys and two girls), fun, not a security threat, non-corporate (though this last one is optional)
Also, how can I make my friends/protégé(e)s/cousins make the best of what few links I have or manage to find?"
It's slightly corporate but a great site. www.noggin.com is the site for the kids tv channel Noggin. It has some great educational games etc. My 2 year old LOVES to play 'Pigeon patterns' with Bert on in the "play with me seseme' section.
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/tes sellate/
The problem with finding educational sites is that when you look for 'Educational', it's almost always pointed at an older demographic (Older than 8-11, anyway.). I hear companies going on and on about how the internet is great for kids - but aside from Homework and FPS games, what is there?
I apologize for my rambling.
I am a filthy pirate.
http://www.educationindex.com/
It's a site of educational links, but has categories for age group and more. Unfortunately, all the kids I used to send there are young adults now and can find stuff themselves.
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
www.howstuffworks.com is pretty good, though it might be for the older of your cousins.
Bonus.com not so educational, and some ads, but lots of fun games for kids ages 8 to 80. Battlefield is an especially addictive mulitplayer cartoony tank game, lots of fun.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
What could be more educating then slashdot.org. Your cousins will learn how to spell and use appropriate grammar from CmdrTaco and other certified instructors. They will post the same story more then once to make sure you have learned everything you can from the article.
Welcome to being a teenage nerd.
Fortunatly you have started reading slashdot at a young age so you will learn all sorts of incredibly cool and geeky stuff and probably make a decent living and have cool tech toys.
Unfortunatly being popular with cousins aged 8-11 will be a theme for your entire life.
Enjoy!
-=SiGH=-
i assume you've already used the link howstuffworks? it's pretty appropriate for any age, and has a great section on computers.
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
Volcanoworld
When I was 12 I could have spent whole days recursing this site:
http://www.treasure-troves.com/
Instead I had to read real books. Drat.
-- This sentence is false.
Orisinal.com. The coolest collection of flash games you will ever find. Just have mercy on his server :)
Boom Shanka
Umm...so what, pray tell, are the rest of them?
Safeplaces.net is a beautifully done Flash animation site geared towards kids. Very good graphics and sound and lots of things to interact with on the pages. It isn't exactly educational(other than getting them comfortable with using a mouse and experimenting with an interface), but it is certainly entertaining and completely appropriate for small children.
(And now I pray they won't get /'ed for this.)
Yes, I work for them.
hang brain.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (our version of PBS) has a great kids site - lots of flash games, science pages, etc.
http://www.abc.net.au/children
Most libraries have already tackled this topic, and provide at least some annotated links, as well as suggestions for Web directories aimed at children. For a non-local example, try the Internet Public Library's offering. Your local public library probably has something similar, tailored to local interests.
BadAstronomy.com
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
Send them to the whitehouse.com (http://www.whitehouse.com/). It's an excellent site for learning more about the United States government. It's fun for kids too!
...set up your own page, and pepper it with family info (nothing too private), a few photos, basic family tree, vacation photoes, etc. Start with a few links to things like dictionaries, maps and some easy flash based games. Once they get the hang of things, you can add more links to the outside. Doing your own site first will allow you control, while showing an example of what they can expect, in terms of a 'good' site out on the net. Watch the logs for extraneous activity, and again, keep the personal info to a minimum. Predators always appreciate it when you make things easy for them.
The Exploratorium. Especially, the activities in the "Accidental Scientist" and "Try This!" sections. And if you're ever in San Francisco, you should visit it. Lots of hands on exhibits designed for kids. Can't say enough good things about it.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
http://www.sfskids.org/templates/splash.asp is the san francisco symphony orchestra's kids site. It's got a cool little flash app that runs in the browser that lets kids compose their own music with a variety of different instruments. If nothing else it'll teach them a little about music and possibly get them interested in playing an instrument.
What 8-12 year old is complete without watching StrongBad's Email weekly?
This is a virtual pet site with MANY games and other interesting things to do. It is absolutely free and the ads are small.
Nice (Flash) cartoon site. Very appropriate for kids, especially the very young, impressionable ones.
a classic
Now that the obvious joke is out of me, here are some more serious ideas....
one poster mentioend why not getting them outside and do something physical. With that in mind, you can look here at yes mag. Yes Mag is a good science and engineering magazine aimed at children around your cousins age. The website has links to articles, sites and some good from hands on science/engineering activities.
Another site I used heavily this past summer at the computer/tech camp I worked at was Space Kids
Actually looking at the national organzation, actua, that ran the camp I've worked at just now, they also have a list of project and links you can do here: Actua Projects
If you want to teach them something about programming, I've been looking around for Logo I believe this site has some good tutorial movies on how to use the program.
There also always the Bill Nye, Beakmen's of the world too which may be good starting grounds.
http://www.scitoys.com/ Lots of information on this site.
http://www.abc.net.au/rollercoaster/ - slightly older kids maybe 10+
m
http://www.abc.net.au/outthere/stuff/animal01.htm educational
from here http://www.abc.net.au/kidsabc kids
Sesame streethttp://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/
Play Schoolhttp://www.abc.net.au/children/play/home.ht
my favourite beginners site. Not specifically aimed at kids but steers well clear of nasty stuff.
Lots of computer links
http://www.blackstump.com.au/
From the black stumphttp://www.blackstump.com.au/kids.htm
at this point you are never going to run out of links, theres links of links
zoo flash extra cool with sounds http://www.oac.schools.sa.edu.au/oes/zoo/
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
www.globe.gov
A good site that kids all over the world that has kids doing real science.
Good times, good times.
"Yes, officer, I confess. Hand me a piece of paper to write off my guilt. :)"
Twenty-seven, sir, twenty-seven and I'm still playing CartoonNetwork.com games. Even during business hours - that should be definitely added to my charges.
Say what?
Oh, no sir, a please pardon me for letting you down and not getting caught playing legally allowed games like: Grand Theft Auto, Quake 3, WarCraft and other. I find them... err... unrealistic.
Serious now - for kids under 9, just like me (divided by 3), I found the games available on cartoonnetwork.com hard to resist. If you wanna get the addicted to good stuff (of course), that IS the place.
__________
Don't belong. Never join. Think for yourself. Peace!
A buddy of mine turned me on to http://www.squeakland.org. Squeak provides an object oriented environment that's drag and drop, and fun to play with. Think of it like Oracle Forms, Power Builder, or VB for kids. There are published squeak projects that are fun to play with. At the same time, kids can make their own. I'm just getting my feet wet, but I expect to get my daugher (7) using it soon. And it's supported under Linux, Unix, Mac, and other, less useful, operating systems.
Here's where I go when _I_ want to learn.
How Stuff Works - Helped with a project or two.
So You Wanna - Doesn't look like it's been updated recently, a pity too. Great step-guides to doing lots of things, from good interviews to skydiving (some vague, some specific)
Everything2 - Geeks guide to everything and anything (including the kitchen sink)
(ok that last one is getting into indoctrination but you've already done the corporate damage, why not a little humor in the process... :-)
anyway, i'm always glad to see people teaching others through their good deeds. bravo! (basically the only lesson you need to teach is that you yourself know how to enjoy learning -- that is an example that sticks -- and what better way to learn than to debug --er-- program?)
The Feed Your Brain section looked the most interesting for your proto-geeks.
Peace,
LinuxScribe
Try sodaplay, a fun applet which allows users to simulate walking creatures made from soda straws. Good for encouraging creativity and stuff.
BrainPOP It was a bit nicer when they didn't use cookies to keep you from seeing more than 3 movies a day, but very fun and educational movies about all kinds of stuff. Better than school, but what isnt?
I haven't seen this posted yet, and even as one of legal drinkin' age, I still steal an idea here and there from it: SciToys
You should find this useful:
Web Sites for Kids from the American Library Association.
Have fun.
"When I grow up, I'll be stable."
Everybody keeps posting about howstuffworks.com, but they all seem to be missing one website that has a massive wealth of information, and discusses nearly everything encompassed by the phrase "useless knowledge":
The Straight Dope
A great site that explains all sorts of stuff that is helpful to kids of all ages, and even goes into some more advanced topics.
Work sucked, until it became unemployment, when it became slightly more tolerable. -Tet
I'm disturbed by the number of people recommending flash and java games/videos. Is that really what kids are using the internet for? A high-tech television replacement?
If the kids want to do something fun, there's got to be something more exciting than browsing the internet. But if computing is a necessity, why not teach them how to make something on their own? Creating your own flash video is a thousand times more exciting than watching someone else's. Teach them how to make their own fonts or icons or webpage. Something they can impress their friends with. It's more fun, more useful, and more educational than idly watching someone else's creativity.
When I was 8 years old, I remember running home from school every day to play on the computer. I doubt a day has gone by since then that I haven't used a PC. But the things that stick out the most are my own creations. Things like drawing a picture with an ANSI graphics editor in DOS. It wasn't much (hell, it was FAR from much), but that sense of accomplishment of creating my very own digital art is unforgetable.
It doesn't take much. Let them experiment with "Swish" to make some simple flash animations. Get them started with BASIC or Logo. Do anything you can to discourage New Television Generation 2.0, now better than ever.
Scratched Emulsion
go outside and play ball. Here's a couple more. Get some crayons, markers, pencils, pens, charcoal, pastels, water color, or oil paints and draw. Get a bowl of fruit, place it on a table, put a spot light on it and try to draw it. when you're done with that, take out some pipe cleaners and try to make stick figures playing sports or doing some activity. This one isn't as much fun, but it's rewarding. Clean up your room and help your parents around the house. It's pretty rewarding when you see them smile.
It's more than just constructing walking robots... it's a laugh and a half, at how ridiculous some of these moving animations are.
But it shows the beauty of math within nature, reduced down to a handful of lines and tension points.
Check out Sodaplay
Design for Use, not Construction!
...the cbeebies site from the BBC.
It's a collection of sub sites organised around BBC children's programmes. Most of them have flash games, stories, activities for kids etc. The parent's section sets out what the site is all about from an educational persepctive, plus there's a parent's newsletter you can sign up for.
The Patent Office has a kids page. My mother is actually a Philadelphia elementary school teacher and she used it in class once. It went well
If so, all the kids I know love http://www.isketch.net/
I'd recommend some supervision since some of the "rooms" are meant for adults, but otherwise, my stepkids and their friends just love the site, and I like the idea that they're being taught that spelling matters.
--Kimota!
Who moderates the meta-moderators?
http://www.jinjapan.org/kidsweb/
I'm studying Japanese at college and I came across this at one point - it's an excellent educational site about Japan aimed towards kids - it has very basic tutorials in Japanese language and it has tons of information on Japan's culture, like an interactive shockwave thing to try ikebana (the art of flower arrangement) and kimonos. It also has information about some elementary schools in Japans and messages and drawings from the students. A really great site.
I think it's much more approporiate to suggest something that informative and *safe*, like an educational site such as Britney Spears guide to Semiconductor Physics.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
My 4 year old loves this site. She's always wanting to go to pbskids.org
'Pleasure is the Disease, Pain is the Cure' - Lilith
Nice. Can't wait to see the news editorials in 5 years:
"Kids Can't Add, 8 + 5 = D"
A new study released today shows that kids with glasses are suffering from a strange syndrome which affects the brain. The syndrome, named DDD (decimal defecit disorder), causes children to include the first 6 letters of the alphabet into mathematical answers, making the answer completely wrong. What else is disturbing is that even the answers that don't contain letters are still completely wrong. The most common answer for the problem 8 + 8 was 10. Researchers are looking into finding ways of early diagnosis and ways of treating this illness. Pharmacutical companies are already developing a new drug called 0xRitalin that will hopefully rid our youth of this terrifying handicap.
I usually find out some cool stuff too :)
A friend of mine runs prongo.com - it's pretty much a site with counting games and other sorts of "edutainment" - probably more skewed to the younger set (maybe 3-7), but worth a look.
The Librarians' Index to the Internet is the best place I know of to search for high-quality web sites.
A few moments of searching there found some likely winners:
Space Place
The Kids on the Web
Kids' Castle
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
I'll mention one of the oldest kids sites on the web: Coloring.com, a.k.a. Carlos's Coloring Book. It's exactly what it sounds like -- an online coloring book -- and it dates back to November 1994, before Shockwave and Java and all that other high-bandwidth stuff. Turn your computer into a $20 box of crayons.
http://disney.go.com/preview/toontown/special_offe r/preview/index.html
http://candystand.com/ (not much educational there)
http://pbskids.org/
http://planethotwheels.com/
The coolest link is http://www.juniornet.com/ it's a client you download and can let the kids roam freely within it.. even has a safe form of email... it's very cool.
Having worked for 2 online education companies, including the former Electric Schoolhouse (which made it to the level of congressional discussions before it went the way of many of our former employers), I can promise you that more than ample quantities of interesting and educational sites do exist for children as young as 3 and 4 years of age. If you are looking to find these sites I suggest checking out museum home pages and links. One of Electric Schoolhouse's biggest accomplishments was the creation of a rating and search system for appropriate education- and fun-oriented kids sites. As you can probably see by visiting Electric Schoolhouse though, the resource collection no longer exists. Putting together such a service turned out not to be such a profitable venture in 1998 and 1999 when it was assembled. The entrepreneur and the money were both present, but without demand and use, the service could not sustain itself. From my understanding, the failure of eschoolhouse was the definitive end of attempts to create resource sets of this type. Marvin Weinberger, the man who dreamed electric schoolhouse, has moved on to other ventures like Electric Library (which owns dictionary.com I believe?) and Innovation Factory. I wish I could tell you that this idea just came before its time, and that, if someone created eschoolhouse today, we would see a wonderful success. The world of the internet has taught me that even today there is no market for the internet service which I would claim is the most needed of any.
**When craziness is bliss, 'tis folly to be sane**
Sorry I forgot to turn on the HTML Formatting and the link didn't come out right.
Big Idea Fun
Sorry About that.
[SIG] Far better to be thought a fool then to post on
In no particular order - ymmv, but my 6-year-old favors the following:
k ids.com/ (a little commercial, but not too bad). mos.org/ (Boston's Museum of Science)
http://www.howstuffworks.com/
http://www.space
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/ (was better for the kids before January, but still lots of great archival stuff)
http://www.exploratorium.org/
http://www