Photo: iStockphoto
1. A Mighty Girl Your go-to site to find empowering and inspirational books, toys and movies for girls of all ages. Founded by two American women who were tired of searching for the right gifts for their nieces, A Mighty Girl puts all their girl-powered picks in one place.
2. Art Games This delightfully interactive and fun website is hosted by Buffalo, New York’s Albright Knox Art Gallery. Kids from 4 to 12 will have a blast creating their own masterpieces and playing art-spirational games.
3. BBC Kids Your mini anglophile will be all over the Canadian online home to the BBC Kids TV channel. The website offers ups listings, a selection of tv shows and games from across the pond.
4. Brain Pop This American site offers fun and educational animated videos and games to help reinforce the school curriculum from kindergarten through grade 12. (Check out Brain Pop Jr. for grades K to 3.) A subscription is required to access the entire site but there is still plenty of content available for free.
Read more: Are you a digitally savvy parent?>
5. Build It’s a virtual Lego set for the little Lego lover in your life. Lego and Google Chrome teamed up to create a site for master builders of all ages to build their own creations. And no clean up required!
6. Canadian Geographic Kids This is a great resource for fun and learning about all things Canada. It’s the online home for kids of the popular Canadian Geographic magazine and offers games, videos, animal facts, kid-friendly articles, avirtual atlas and more.
7. CBC Kids There’s games and videos galore starring your kidlet’s favourite CBC Kids characters. Enjoy peace of mind knowing the CBC offers quality programming for young and old alike.
8. DOGOnews Kids can catch up on current events with news stories written just for children. Started by a San Francisco mom, DOGOnews is a great resource for homework, projects and curious minds.
9. Doodle.ly This is essentially and ultra-simple virtual sketchpad that any creative kid would love. You can choose to publish the drawings on the site or older kids can share them to Facebook or Twitter. It’s also an iPhone and iPad app!
Read more: How safe are apps?>
10. EcoKids Harness your kids eco-enthusiasm with green-themed games and articles. This Canadian website is the perfect compliment to the elementary school curriculum and the Take Action section will help your kids make a real impact on the environment.
11. Funbrain Kids won’t even realize they’re practicing math and reading skills while playing these games. Funbrain offers great games, books and comics for grade school aged kids and guilt-free distraction for their parents.
12. Funology This is a great site to visit with your kids for fun and creative activities to do together. Older kids will also have fun browsing the great selection of crafts, recipes, science experiments, magic tricks, games, jokes and trivia. Save it for a rainy day.
13. How Stuff Works This no-frills site is jam-packed with information to feed your knowledge-hungry kids. How Stuff Works is not geared specifically for kids but it’s hard to imagine a 12-year-old boy who wouldn’t love it.
Read more: Be kind: Raising kids in an online world>
14. KidsReads This is the perfect place for your book worm-in-training to nerd out. It’s chalk full of kids books reviews, articles, contests and author spotlights. It’s never to soon to become a discerning reader, after all.
Read more: Top 100 children’s books>
15. Knowledge Kids This simple and fun website is run by the Knowledge Network, British Columbia’s public broadcaster. There’s a good selection of wholesome videos, games and activities perfect for preschool and kindergarten-aged kids.
16. NASA Kids’ Club Junior astronauts will have a blast exploring this fun and exciting website. There’s information and games geared to a variety of ages and skill levels to help feed their love of space.
17. National Geographic Kids Stunning photography, games, articles and videos will keep your kids happily engaged on this magazine’s website. There’s also a special Little Kids page that makes learning fun for kids 3 – 8. It’s the next-best thing to taking your own trip around the world.
18. NFB Kids’ Movies The National Film Board of Canada is a treasure it’s easy to over look. Keep their kids’ channel bookmarked for easy access to quality films. Warning: you’ll probably want to watch them too.
19. Disney Junior Fans of the Disney staples like Sofia the First, Doc Mcstuffins, and Jake and the Never Land Pirates will swoon for the interactive games and videos on the colourful site.
20. Owl Kids Have any Chirp, Chickadee or Owl fans in you house? Each great Canadian kids’ magazine has it’s own blog on the Owl Kids site. Kids can check back regularly for the latest review, craft, recipe, joke and so much more.
21. PBS Kids There are lots of fun and educational games and activities for kids on the PBS website. The American public broadcaster is known for quality content and delivers on it’s kids’ programming too. Sadly, though, their videos aren’t available from Canada.
22. Pottermore Three words, parents: Harry Potter website. There is so much information to dig through on this site, you could easily organize the basement while your Hogwarts wannabe takes it all in.
23. Science Bob Your go-to site for all things science and science fair. There’s so much great information on Science Bob on science experiments and research methods that you almost won’t need to help at all. Almost.
24.Sesame Street When it comes to programming we trust for our young children, what parent doesn’t love Sesame Street? This website is especially good for keeping preschool and kindergarten kids entertained. In fact, they’ll probably learn something too.
25. Sports Illustrated Kids Sports fans will love this up-to-the-minute online cousin to the SI Kids magazine. It has a huge selection of great news stories, games and interactive features geared directly at kids.
26. Starfall This is the site for early readers still trying to get a grasp on phonics. It offers a complete program of reading games and tools to compliment the school curriculum. Who knew you’d want your kid to play more computer games?
27. Time for Kids Current events and news stories written just for kids will keep your own mini journalists well-informed while flexing those important reading muscles. It will probably make for more interesting dinner conversation too!
28. Treehouse Give your kids their Max and Ruby fix on the fun and friendly digital companion to every preschooler’s favourite cable channel. There’s enough games and videos to keep them entertained while you make dinner and printables to bring with you if you go out.
29. TVO Kids The content on TV Ontario’s kids’ website truly is top notch. In addition to the standard fare of games, video and contests, they have developed their very own educational games and apps that will challenge your kids in new ways. Choose from content designed for 2 – 5 year olds or content for anyone 11 or under.
30. Virtual Museum Here’s a little something for those tweens and teens who are beyond kiddie games and dumbed-down content. It’s an interactive, multimedia collection of displays and stories from museums across Canada. The Virtual Museum is the ideal resource for getting extra depth on a research paper or any topic of interest.
0 comments:
Post a Comment