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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/
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.
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=-
Volcanoworld
Orisinal.com. The coolest collection of flash games you will ever find. Just have mercy on his server :)
Boom Shanka
What 8-12 year old is complete without watching StrongBad's Email weekly?
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.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.
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
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.
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'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.