Sandy-gram

[#1]

Are your kids challenged by certain subjects in school?  These cool interactive sites makes learning fun.

As school eases into its daily routine, homework is sure to follow. It’s easy to get lost in the mindset of simply “getting it done.” But learning itself should be a fun experience. When my now-college-age-daughter was young, there were very few free online educational game sites available. We actually purchased several that taught spelling, typing, math and geography, all via computer games.

Today, there are scores of great educational websites. If your son or daughter is having trouble in a particular academic area in school, hitting the books may not be the best option. They may not find the subject interesting—or easy to grasp.

Try finding a cool learning site that can teach your child through games and interactive exercises. It also helps them feel comfortable with technology (although this isn’t much of a problem for kids these days).

A word of caution, be sure to check out any site before sharing with your kids. Some are poorly designed, have limited academic value, and may be filled with reams of advertising.

Here are several sites that are recommended by various educational resources (by category):

Overall Homework Help

Discovery Education’s site is a top notch resource grades K-12 that covers various subjects including Math, Science, English, Social Studies and more. There are video's, games, puzzles, instant answers and more. Plus, there's a section for parents.

General Childhood Development 

PBS remains one of the best resources on television and online for children’s education.

Check out the great interactive content and games (using some of your favorite cartoon characters) on PBS Kids Go! (for older kids) and PBS Kids (for younger children), that teaches science, grammar, English, history and tons of other helpful subjects.

 

 Art 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art does an amazing job of offering adventures to learn the exciting world of art—from color to dance, sculpture, architecture and artisans through the years. The site itself is truly a work of art.

Science

NASA’s interactive kid section lets kids learn about space, planets, astronauts, space missions and more. Various levels let your child move forward as their skills increase.   

Nature & Animals

Who better to learn about the wonders of the world but National Geo?  Their site, National Geographic Kids provides tons of photos, interactive games and interesting information. They even have an area designed for younger children, National Geographic Little Kids.

Music 

The San Francisco Symphony developed an impressive site for kids called SFS Kids—Fun with Music. It’s one of the best online music labs where kids can learn about tempo, rhythm, pitch, orchestras, musical elements and more. It engages kids to learn an appreciation for music through learning.

Do you have a favorite kid’s learning site that you’d like to share? 

[#2]

These sites look great. Although my children are too old for these, I have many nieces and nephews who will benefit from them. Thanks so much for doing the research on this and for providing these valuable resources!

[#3]

i can't wait to look at the metropolitan museum of art site myself...where were these sites when i was a kid...i would have loved them...

[#4]

Some of these sites are so cool (like the Museum of Art and the San Fransisco Symphony), that even as an adult I had fun going through them...I actually learned a lot too! 

[#5]

Wow, these are great! I wish they'd been around when I was a kid. We had some good math/puzzle games on the computers at school (Logical Journey of the Zoombinis comes to mind) but without the internet there was nothing like this. I might have paid more attention to my homework if I'd been able to study online...

[#6]

These look like so much fun and so filled with information! I wish they'd been around when my kids were younger, but my youngest ones could still squeak in some of this stuff. We ended up having to go the book route years past but now the default with kids seems to be to go with computers. If it's not on a computer, it seems that it feels less accessible to them - as if their computers have become a vital part of them. Such a different mind culture than when I was young. Even the socializing, through social media like facebook, has taken over the long conversations via phone or hanging out for milkshakes after school. And when you call a company for technical support or to pay or bill, you get a computer. I've even had computers call me and have the nerve to say "Hold please for this important message." whereupon I felt like saying, "If it's so important, have a human being call me." lol Anyone else finding the computer takeover a little disconcerting?

[#7]

I like that the Internet has made knowledge so accessible, though of course you have to be careful and go to creditable sites.  Google and Bing have become very important tools to me for researching and learning new things, sometimes taking me on unexpected journeys to remote sites that turn out to be Gems.  Project Gutenberg, for example, where there are over thirty thousand books available for download.  It's only natural that the children growing up today are so attuned to the technology, I remember taking to the old pc's and game consoles like a duck to water.  Ah, fond memories of 8 inch floppy disks and Pitfall.....  *sigh. 

[#8]

Over recent years, my kids came up with the most obscure bits of information in the course of conversation, and it would usually turn out to be something they read on the Internet. I love the easy access to information, and some of that is easy access to news sources and world events. However, a troubling downside to that is that whoever controls the news stations controls public opinions. The increasing use of news media to push campaigns or lobby for public opinion really concerns me. What's real and what's not? And how do we tell the difference? I think one of the tasks of this generation is to develop discernment and to ensure that tehy do their research thoroughly. Otherwise, we're just parroting what we hear.

[#9]

I have heard that because of the frequency with which young folks use facebook, etc., they are losing the ability to have conversations face-to-face with people and to pick up on social cues. I haven't done any scientific studies on this, but I have noticed that quite a few people in their teens and twenties are not comfortable making phone calls to strangers. They look up info on the internet beautifully, but are ill at ease when they have to call someone cold. I realize this is a generalization; has anyone else observed this?

[#10]

I think you're right Scout! Our young people comprise a generation that is so comfortable with the cyber world that it has changed how they function in real life. So much is accessible on the Internet, why make phone calls when you don't have to? I have to admit that I have fallen into this as well. I love communicating casually with people via facebook, but I think it's because that has become a crutch for me since I hate to talk on the phone. For some people, I would imagine phone conversations and face to face interaction will always be the preference, but I just find them so much more WORK than cyber communication. lol As to reading social cues, that's a skill that would unfortunately be lost in the cyber world. It's so impossible to get the full richness of someone's dialogue with you if you can't see their facial expression or hear the tone of voice. And I know many a misunderstanding has arisen because of online communications. I think that's given a rise to the text speak like and lol, to mitigate what might otherwise sound like a harsh sentence. Do you find yourselves using that? I do!