Name of Site: ABC Kids
URL:
www.abc.net.au/children
Load Time: Medium
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: QuickTime, Media Player, Real Player
Review: The ABC web team have dashed into the playground armed with tubes of non-toxic acrylic paint and just gone a-squirting. The splodges of paint reveal the tip of the juvenile iceberg our favourite government sponsored media outlet is famous for. Each show has its own rich and fun-packed zone, done in the same style as the show itself, plus a huge range of interactive and informative features across the board - chat, discussion boards, live powwows with well-known guests, program guides, games and downloads. There is even a section for adults to help them get the most out of this for their little ones. An exciting and engaging place any kid could call home. - SS
Name of Site: Yahooligans!
URL:
www.yahooligans.com
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: Parents used to worry about their kids playing in the mud. Today the dirt in the garden has been replaced by the sleaze and slime of the Internet. So instead of making a homepage out of one of the traditional search engines, a good idea is to bookmark a site like Yahooligans!, a browseable, searchable directory of Internet sites for kids, carefully checked by experienced educators for their appropriateness. Billed as the "web guide for kids", Yahooligans! has polls, jokes, reviews and plenty more to keep your kids staring at the screen instead of emitting the usual high pitched noises, so carefully orchestrated to annoy the hell out of you. - SS
Name of Site: KidsGardening.com
URL:
www.kidsgardening.com
Load Time: Medium
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: It's time to unplug the X-Box and get down and dirty in the real world. Nothing beats gardening for putting you in touch with life's mysteries and bringing out the environmentalist in even the most hardened virtual reality gamer. This site hangs off and hooks in to the main adult gardening site, since of course there is not too much a kid can't know about gardening that an adult can, except maybe the germination habits of a few tropical fruit trees. Plant the seed of curiosity and nurture the notion of sustainability through this inspiring and involving site. There are featured projects, facts sheets, a shop, and the chance to dig deeper into the mounds of information on greenhouses, hydroponics and many school initiatives. Get back to your roots and grow your own brain. - SS
Name of Site: Discovery Kids - The Yuckiest Site on the Internet
URL:
yucky.kids.discovery.com
Load Time: Slow
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Flash
Review: 'Groooooss!'... It's the catchcry of kids everywhere as they carry out insect experiments, talk about the opposite sex and throw stuff at each other. With a worm as your guide and plenty of green slime splashed over the screen, the Yuckiest site on the Internet delves into mysteries like 'where boogers come from?' and 'what makes poop smell?' If this intellectual stimulation isn't what you're after, you can take a trip into Yucky Roach World. Here you can play X-Terminate, the game where you give it to those nasty critters, or feel more sympathetic and read Ralph Roach's diary...my favourite line: "2 am. I think I smell a hot babe... but it may just be the bug spray". - SS
Name of Site: Crayola
URL:
www.crayola.com
Load Time: Medium
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Flash, Shockwave
Review: From the folks who bring joy to kids, and nightmares to landlords the world over comes a pretty impressive little temple honouring the humble crayon. Parents, teachers and Kids all have their own sections, and the content is as rich as the range of colours in the Crayola collection. Without logging in you can do a lot of cool stuff - play games and learn all about colours and browse the online supermarket. Sign up and you'll get your own Crayola passport to interact, win, learn and have a whole heap of colourful fun. - SS
Name of Site: NASA Kids
URL:
www.nasakids.com
Load Time: Medium
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Flash
Review: Floating somewhere in the depths of space, with a strange mix of useful information and really bad drawings is NASA's contribution to global education. With lots of interviews, lessons and pictures to check out, there's plenty of learning to be done, and if you just want entertainment there's cartoons, models to make and pictures to draw. Compared to some of the slicker offerings for kids these days, the site looks pretty dated and very terrestrial, yet it's still useful, especially for school projects and those pesky kids who ask too many unanswerable questions. - SS
Name of Site: EPA Global Warming Kids Site
URL:
www.epa.gov/globalwarming/kids
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Flash
Review: With the world falling to pieces, faster than you can say 'climatological disaster', it's a good idea to get 'em started young on fixing the planet. This site, started by the US Environmental Protection Agency (presumably out of guilt about a certain Kyoto protocol agreement), teaches kids all about the climate, the greenhouse effect and what can be done. With a lot of useful suggestions, links, flash animations and bright colours it's a must for every environmentally conscious child. - SS
Name of Site: Funbrain
URL:
www.funbrain.com
Load Time: Slow
Ease of Navigation: Need a map
Plug Ins Required: Flash
Review: I know what you're thinking, Funbrain sounds suspiciously like an oxymoron, and to some extent it probably is (anybody for Math Baseball?), but if you can't have fun learning, then well there's a good chance you'll wind up flippin' burgers for the minimum wage, or worse still tapping out web site reviews in the wee hours of the morning for the rest of your life! So I recommend after choosing your age category (or estimating mental age in my case) you can opt to play everything from "Spell the Chemical Elements" to "Grammar Gorillas". And if that doesn't propel you to a career as Peter Costello's next gimp, then I don't know what will! - SS
NName of Site: Central Intelligence Agency Homepage for Kids
URL:
www.cia.gov/cia/ciakids
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: With the war on terror in full swing and plenty of long-running covert operations stretching human resources, recruitment age has been dropped to sub-teen levels. The CIA is now training kids, to topple governments, install puppet regimes, control lines of supply of illicit drugs, arrange arms deals, plant evidence, start wars, help corporations take over entire countries, fan the flames of social discontent and live it large on the proceeds of all of the above. Kids, get in on the fun right now! Just prove your intelligence by rearranging the CIA emblem, pledge your allegiance to the flag, and you're set on a career of chaos and mayhem across the planet - Playstation? Who needs it when you can wipe out enemies of the state for real! - SS
Name of Site: FoxKids Australia
URL:
www.foxkids.com.au
Load Time: Slow
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Flash
Review: I nearly didn't even enter this site, I was too busy getting down and funky, groovin' to the welcome screen beats. That set the mood for the coolest TV guide ever. What's on now, next and for the rest of the week on Fox's ankle-biter channel, ensures I don't miss any of my favourite shows. While I am waiting for them to unfurl as the week goes by, I can amuse myself with a few quaint and silly little games. Who needs a babysitter? If the TV guide and games get you hooked, sign up and become a die-hard Fox kid and hang out in the members' lounge. Don't spend too long there, though. Remember, the point is to watch TV, not hang out on the Internet, silly. Now where's the remote? - SS
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