We got our first family computer on Tuesday, and my boys are pretty excited. I’ve got a couple laptops, but they’re for work and I don’t let the kids use them. Now, though, we’re ready to roll. I’ve downloaded Scratch, Google Earth, and Sketchup, and I’m looking forward to working on them with my oldest who’s eight.
We’ll be using Safari for the boys with its parental controls that allow us to restrict their web surfing to certain pre-approved sites. What I don’t have is a good list of kid-friendly sites. I plan to check out Club Penguin, but I’d love to get some other suggestions.
Saw your tweet.
I like to share Orisinal. It is a game web site but it just has a nicer look and feel than any other game site that I have seen. http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/
Here is a link to one of my wikis where I list interesting sites that I share with the teachers in my district; of course, I have my own 5 children test them to make sure they are awesome!
http://hokanson.wikispaces.com/Early Childhood
Oop’s, my apologies for the poor link! Here it is again as a text link:
Early Childhood Resources K-6
I would also recommend using Open DNS (http://www.opendns.com/) on your kids computer. You can set up an account and select to block porn and other inappropriate material. It would be just another layer of protection beyond the web browser.
Ed, I’m using the Astaro Security Gateway software on my home network, so that would be my first choice if I want to employ some additional content filtering. It’s quite amazing actually, even if it’s a bit too complicated for most non-geeks. I’ll check out your OpenDNS suggestion too. That sounds like a good option for many.
Hi Tim,
Go to http://www.isd77.org. Under Schools go to Roosevelt. Click on the link for media center. Paul, our excellent media specialist there, has selected good sites for kids at each grade level.
I struggle with the same question in regard to my grandsons! (They love Dave Pilkey’s site. http://www.pilkey.com/ Be prepared for elementary bathroom humor, however!
Doug
Here’s a link to the “Learning Links” that I use with the elementary students at our school. There are lots of interactive activities in math, reading, science, and social studies, as well as a selection of “Games for Fun.”
http://www.southfieldchristian.org/elem/learninglinks/html/linkscontents.html
My name link will take you to my 7 year old son’s blog, where we continue to add his favorite links in the blogroll. He was having fun blogging, then school, soccer, and fishing sidelined the writing:)
Hi Tim,
Don’t know if you’re still looking for kid-friendly websites, but I have a nice collection of critical thinking games on our school’s website.
http://www.rdale.k12.mn.us/mle/studentwork/sem.htm
Jean