Fun things for kids to do on the Net!
I love to teach the elementary kids. Here are some things I recommend to use with children:
funbrain.com -- The math facts drills using math baseball are great. All homeschoolers should use this website for fun reviews and practice. I use them to practice for first grade and up.
Yahooligans - I love their search engine. This is where I teach kids to search. The Google safe search is pretty good, but not perfect at all. Yahooligans is the best search engine for kids, in my opinion.
Barbie - My daughter loves Barbie.com. It is a good introduction to the Internet and you can get B-mail from Barbie. Supervise her as she sets herself up. Have your sound on because Barbie will talk to her!.
Educational Games by Age and Objective - If you're looking for activities to use with your child, look at their indexed list. They have screenshots and outlines of each game.
4kids.org - A Cool website with some kid quests that you can use to help kids learn how to search on the Internet. This is called information literacy. Kids need to know how to find things, if the source is credible or not, how recent the information is, etc.
Bible Kid Fun Zone - If you work with children in your church and need coloring pages - here is the perfect place to go!
edhelper - If you are a teacher or homeschool mom or dad - I love edhelper. I use this for reproducibles in my classroom. They have everything. I also use the online gradebook which is pretty good.
Oh, there are so much more, but these are just to get you started. Let us know if you have any that you like!
Tags:
parenting, fun, kid safe blog, blogging, teaching, websites, website reviews, links, entertainment, family, Computers and Internet, blog, blogs, Vicki A Davis
Why blog with your kids?
My children and I have been blogging for a couple of days. A parent asked me, why should I want to blog with my kids? Here are the reasons:
- It is their future.
Some people are being promoted at work because they are blogging and calling attention to themselves. Writing as well as blogging are important to them.
- It gives us an opportunity to discuss important things.
Internet safety, how the Internet works, privacy, how to write effectively, how to promote a website, and what do they like and dislike. I am the computer science teacher at their school and I know they will get these things in high school. However, I believe I should start now while they are in elementary school.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a house where my father introduced me to computers at a very young age. He gave me a book on BASIC at age 8 and I was writing adventure games. It has served me well ever since!
I taught them touch typing last summer. They are proficient at it. We began using the mouse when they were one!
- It is fun.
Writing is fun! It is great to discuss things we love. We laugh and talk. It gives us planned interaction times!
- I can monitor it.
Kids are going to post and collaborate. I want their first experience on the Net to be guided and seen by ME! The problem with myspace is not that kids are posting. The problem is that kids are posting UNSUPERVISED and UNMONITORED.
Parents should look up their kid's info on Myspace.com and tell their children they are reviewing it. They should have them remove information that will compromise their safety. Be involved!
Wherever kids congregate unsupervised there will be predators. We wouldn't send our kids into a tiger infested forest without us guarding them with a gun! Why would you let your child post something on the Internet without keeping a watchful eye. You are asking for problems!
Good kids aren't happy accidents. They are the result of hard work, hard praying, time, effort, love, and the
grace of God. Don't leave your kids to be raised by the Internet because you will end up with problems!
Who are the contributors to cool cat kid?
This blog is a place for the family of the
coolcatteacher to learn to blog and experiment.
We have a 11 year old boy named Big Brother, a 9 year old girl named Princess, and a 4 year old who will be blogging through his Mom -- Little Bro.
We also have
Cool Cat Teacher a/k/a Mom and the King a/k/a Dad.
We couldn't find a good blog for kids to go that would have kid friendly links and info. We need a place to trust that has good old fashioned family values but fun stuff too. So this is our family project.
Welcome to the Cool Cat Kid Blog!
