Interactive Sites for Parents and Kids
The following sites all allow for fun and games, exploring and learning without leaving your browser. All are great sites for families to explore together.
Whyville
At Whyville, sponsored by the Getty Foundation, visitors can search the world for art treasures, develop a cure for WhyPox, or rescue and retrieve aliens from earth. Take a look!
Exploratorium
The Exploratorium museum, one of the first to mount online exhibits, has created an area for parents and kids to learn together.
FlashMapper
Want to take a tour of the Solar System on your web browser? How about a toddler app that introduces basic concepts such as shapes, colors, animals, and letters? Or an app that lets you pose & draw dinosaurs? Check out James Miller's apps and interactive web pages.
Chateau Meddybemps
Chateau Meddybemps has collected learning activities for preschool and primary elarners in addition to guides for parents about child development. Youngsters can practice alphabet skills and print their own drawings.
It's My Life
It's My Life, a project of PBS, is a forum for teens to discuss issues relating to friends, family, school and emotions. Questions from real students are interwoven with advice from mentors and trained professionals.
Sesame Street
SesameStreet complements the educational television program with followup activities for young kids and advice on both learning and social topics for parents.
Figure This
Figure This, another NSF-sponsored site, offers challenging math puzzles for the family and illlustrations in literature in which the plot turns on a mathematical understanding. The site is also in Spanish.
Wonderville Science Alberta Foundation
Wonderville, developed by the Science Alberta Foundation, projects its own cast of cartoon characters to help with home-grown science activities.
Spanish Games
Not all parents have English as their first language.
Here's a site from PBS that kids in Spanish peaking households can enjoy with their family.
The major advantage of sites, such as these, is that families can enjoy online activities together which, as educators, we know is important for children of all ages really.
