We've scoured the Web to find the most popular, fun, educational, productive and safe sites around to create our list of the Ten Best Websites for Kids.
So lo and behold, I went to the website, started poking around, clicked on “Adventure” and voila… up came a selection for “Kissing Games.” I clicked on that, and then options for “Speed Dating,” “Kissing During Work,” and the enigmatic “Oriental Kissing Game” came up. To make matters worse, a lot of the games are in Japanese, so I have no idea what they are actually saying. Needless to say, I couldn’t believe what my nine-year-old had access to.
The moral of the story being that parental vigilance is a must when children are using the Internet to entertain and educate themselves. In this article, we’ve scoured the Web to find the most popular, fun, educational, productive—and safe—sites around. While it’s ultimately up to parents to individually decide what is and isn’t appropriate for their sprouts to see, if your kids are interested in sniffing around online, as a starting point they can’t go wrong with these age-appropriate online destinations.
Yahoo! Kids (kids.yahoo.com)
Just like adults like to log onto Yahoo! every morning to get the latest news, check email, and generally warm up to daily Internet offerings, your children can also use Yahoo!’s Kids counterpart as a sort of Internet home base. It has a plethora of games of all kinds, music, movies, jokes, sports, horoscopes, e-cards, and even a StudyZone that has information on animals, reference materials (e.g. a dictionary and encyclopedia), and more.
If you want to check up on your kids’ activities, go to the Parents section, which provides movie reviews for kids from a parent’s perspective, advice on online safety, and much more. Of course, the best feature of Yahoo! Kids is its child-friendly search engine, which only pulls up appropriate links. Your kids will find so much to do and learn on Yahoo! Kids that they won’t need to go anywhere else.
National Geographic Kids (kids.nationalgeographic.com)
Funology (funology.com)
Funbrain (funbrain.com)
Webkinz (webkinz.com)
Imbee (imbee.com)
Whyville (whyville.net)
United Nations Cyberschoolbus (www.un.org/pubs/cyberschoolbus/)
Club Penguin (clubpenguin.com)
PBS Kids (pbskids.org)
What do you think of our list of the ten best websites for kids? Did we miss something? Let us know in the comments below.
Benefits of Online Games for Preschoolers
When preschool children are exposed to online games, the results are phenomenal. The vivid pictures combined with words allow children to phonics without them even realizing it. Talk about learning reading skills while having fun
Math sites are even more numerous. Cute little animal characters bee bop around the screen offering kids all kinds of incentives to play. Many math sites are aimed at children from 2 to 5 years old. While this may sound young to you, it is a perfect age. Kids have the hand eye coordination to move a mouse and click a button. The characters sing and dance away, encouraging them to count along.
Benefits of Online Games for Middle School
My middle school students have sat there and played Sudoku and that race car game for hours. (It was after a standardized test.) Granted, they did not have much else to do in class but they also did not complain either. They often ask to go to these sites and play the games.
While the math games are more popular for middle school students, some kids really like the science games. It really depends on the kid's interest. I have seen kids really get into stock market games and business games. There is one online game site that has kids building elaborate empires. It is completely free and they do everything from running factories and building web pages.
Downloads for the iPod
If you have a teen in your house, you have definitely heard about iPod apps. It may be worth considering letting your pre-teen, teen or tween download a few education games for the iPod. There are a couple of free games and a few games that you can get for a fee that are educational.
Many of the iPod games are just like the online versions except smaller. You won't get as many levels and the graphics aren't quite as good.
If you are getting it for your toddler, I would check out of the free version first. Oftentimes, you can find a "Lite" version of the games. These are super simple versions that only have a 5-minute trial or just one level.
In any case, educational games are out there and are worth checking out. Look around and you will see.
When you are with children be sure to ask them leading questions about themselves, when they are receptive to discussion. Children love talking about themselves and this is a great way to talk to your child, and help them learn about their own capabilities.
Teachers are encouraged to make their own quizzes for students and get scores by email. Teachers should bring their students by for some online learning and fun. You can even download Funbrain games to your computer so the kids can access them anytime. Teachers are catered for by support material for the objectives of the national curriculum regarding speaking and listening. There is nothing like a good competition to get children motivated, so do dream one up and get them to enter. Some businesses provide monetary support, and one example is supermarket offers of educational grants for computers in schools based upon shop loyalty points schemes. You'll also find details of the monetary awards which BT makes available to schools on their web site.
Online education that combines instruction with fun learning games for children creates interactive learning and enjoyment. Learning games can help students concentrate on language arts, math, science, and social studies skills through an entertaining online curriculum.
There are even some free online learning games which can be quite good. Search for 'Great kids online games' to find some. Free online painting games are also abundant these days, for example to play for fun at Jelideli. Install the program and/or register, and then just choose one of the pictures from the selection, pick a colour and away we go! Free online educational games are the easy way to make learning fun for your children.
The fat is that nowadays for preschool and kindergarten age children there are many free educational games that teach matching and analytical skills.
FunBrain is a site which always has new educational games to try, but their old ones are just as much fun. The free educational games are divided by grade level or by subject. FunBrain features 30 free online, educational games for kids of all ages. In Stay Afloat, kids play a game similar to Hangman by choosing between science, history, or music categories.
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/educational-games-and-resources-for-kids-698300.html