Kid-Friendly Websites

I posted this a long, long time ago but I figured it might be good to re-post since school is just around the corner. Many of these will be educational "refreshers" for your children, which will be handy for reminding them what they learned last year. :)

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Nothing replaces (or is more beneficial) than hands-on, active time with your children. But for those quiet times, or those few minutes needed to unwind, most kids enjoy being given the privilege of "working" at the computer.

There are loads of websites out there... here are just a few of the kid/mom-approved:

• Starfall - One of our favorites. Teaches reading skills
• Alphabet Animals - teach your child the ABC's, preschoolers will love this colorful animal picture ABC lesson.
• Count Us In - games designed to help children understand basic number concepts.
• Giraffian Alphabet - click on a letter at the top of the page and see it in capital and lower case. , includes pictures to help your child associate the letter with the word.
• FisherPrice - designed for infants, toddlers, or preschoolers activities to help them learn letters, numbers, colors and shapes - includes color pictures online and play a variety of fun games.
• Letter TV - click on a letter to hear the sound and see pictures. Upper and lower case letters. Coloring pages and songs.
• Jazzles - alphabet sing along songs for fun and learning.
• Children Storybooks Online - is a wonderful place for young children to read or be read to. All books include colorful illustrations that are sure to keep your child interest.
• Story Place - a digital library where children can listen to interactive children stories, play on-line activities, print out take-home activities, reading list and more.
• Coloring 4 Kids - provides interactive coloring books that children can easily color by clicking on areas of the pictures.
• Printable Alphabet Coloring Pages - print picture to color offline.
• Ivy Coloring Page Search Engine - specialty search engine that searches the web only for printable and online coloring pages.
• Doodle - pick a color and draw a picture. Lets you post it online for others to see.
• Rebus Rhymes - preschoolers and kindergartners can enjoy reading along by recognizing the key words that are illustrated by pictures. Fantastic site for parents that are teaching their child to read.
• Zelo Nursery Rhymes - find the lyrics to tons of childrens nursery rhymes.
• Kratts Creatures - an educational site intended to make learning about animals a fun experience. KidsGoWild.com - is a wonderful site to teach your child all about animals, everything from survival habits to the weird and wacky ways of your favorite animals. Play games, get fun animal facts and learn how you can help to protect our endangered species.
• Makestuff.com - offers easy projects and fun activities for kids of all ages. Also has a section for holiday crafts and cooking for kids. Requires a $1.00 per month membership.
• Kids Domain - Crafts - an index of craft projects submitted by parents, teachers, and kids.
• Crayola Creativity Central - lots of easy, kid-friendly crafts. Requires a free membership to access craft ideas.
• Kids Kreate - step-by-step projects for kids of all ages.
• Enchanted learning - Printables and craft ideas
• Little Explorer - Finding the meaning to words have never been so much fun. Little explorer is an illustrated online dictionary intended for young children. Each word is illustrated and used in a meaningful example sentence.
• Learning Planet - Fun, interactive activities to help children learn math, languages, problem solving and grammar. Learning activities for Preschoolers to grade 6.
• Sci4Kids - a fun place for your child to learn science - includes information, fun projects and games.
• Time Machine - great learning site for kids that have an interest in coins, the Mint, and U.S. history.
• AAAMath - illustrate and provide interactive arithmetic exercises and problems for children in Kindergarten to grade eight.
• A Walk in the Woods - take a walk in the woods - see nature and find out about the different types of trees and plants that live in them.
• Geography World - award winning educational and entertaining website covering many aspects of geography. 9 years and above.
• ABC Teach - Printable ResourcesPBS Kids - Selection of fun games for young children - include learning the alphabets, numbers, adventures games and puzzles.
• UpToTen - Over 500 games and activities in a safe and fun learning environment plus links to other sites for kids.
• Kaboose Kids Domain - All kinds of online games for kids.. Some work with any browser, some use Java, Shockwave, Cocoa or Roadster. Everything from arcade games and puzzlers to multiplayer games. Child Safe Site.

Have a site to add? Leave it in the comments, please.