Kid Friendly Websites

It was looking a lot gloomier out when I started on this post. If you’d rather head to your favorite pumpkin patch on this sunny, autumn day, I don’t blame you. Just use my Seasonal Fun page at the top!  You’ll also want to scroll down to read about apple picking in case the sun sticks around through the weekend.

If you’d just as soon cozy up to your computer for a bit, I’ve got a really great list of websites below. If your kids are old enough, you might be able to settle them on one and put away a whole load of laundry, or maybe just think a couple thoughts! Know a great one I missed? Let me know!

Younger Kids

pbskids.org  Clifford, Arthur, and all your kids’ pals with games, coloring and more.

Starfall.com  Teacher recommended site, with lots of fun activities for pre-readers and early readers.

My one complaint is that I wish it was easier for non readers to navigate.

Kaboose Games and simple crafts for seasons and holidays, plus lots of printable coloring pages

Older Kids

Magic Tree House If your kids are between 6-10 or so, they probably love the Magic Tree House books. This is a really neat site dedicated to all things Jack and Annie. My favorite feature is the downloadable passport that kids can fill out as they read more adventures.

National Geographic Kids-Amazing graphics and loads of fun things to explore. My kids get this magazine, and I have to confess, the site is more fun.

Guys Read If you have a son in elementary school, share this with his teacher. It’s dedicated to helping boys find books that will appeal to them. While educators are still debating the reasons, young boys seem to get disinterested in reading much more quickly than girls. I used to teach junior high school, and I’ve got a theory on this (‘um…girly books)!

The Smithsonian I’m such a nerd my fantasy vacation would probably be a week at the Smithsonian (well, Bermuda first, but then the Smithsonian). You could lose yourself in this website for just as long!

Don’t forget that you can use free library software right on your computer, too. Both the Pierce County Library system and the Puyallup Public Library have programs that will read your children stories and more! Pierce County’s is called Bookflix and Puyallup’s is Tumbler. To get to tumbler go to tumblebooklibrary.com. Where it says user name put in  puyalluplib and where it says password put in libra. If this doesn’t work for you, let me know. I talked to Debbie about  this morning, and she’s working on getting touch with one of the children’s librarians to find a less cumbersome way to access this resource.

For more great ideas, check out the Amazing list of quality websites put together by the folks at the American Library Association. I’m just cringing thinking of the time we’ve wasted at hotwheels.com when we could have been checking these out!

Happy Surfing!