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Links to Family Resources
Here's a list of links for online families. Many of these sites have been mentioned in the Net Family Newsletter.
Help for Homework
- LibrarySpot just pulls it all together - it's just a giant, instant-access reference library all in one spot, just as it says.
- There's nothing quite like a reference page put together by librarians themselves, so check out Multnomah County Library's Homework Center (Portland, Ore., area).
- Information Please - Online almanacs, dictionary, encyclopedia, news, weather, and more, this subsidiary of the Family Education Network is a comprehensive resource. In the Homework Center, students can search all the site's reference material with "just one click."
- For statistics, readers of the Wall Street Journa recommendThe US Census's Web site.
- For social studies reports and research, there's nothing quite as complete as the CIA's World Factbook - economics, maps and flags, government structure, populations, geography, transportation, defense, and more for every country in the world! And the Factbook includes appendices with information about international organizations, including the UN, international environmental agreements, and other useful information. If you looked, you'd find the World Factbook in book form - worn and dog-eared from heavy use - at any newspaper editor's or magazine factchecker's fingertips.
- From Yahoo! Kids, the Study Zone.
- Kids-Safe Search Engines/Directories:
- Ask Kids
- Awesome Library
- Dib Dab Doo and Dilly Too - a child-safe directory out of the UK that has links and topics for Web researchers of all ages
- KidsClick! - both search and directory of sites hand-picked for kids by librarians.
- Google.com - Before your child uses it, for this search engine, click on "Language, Display and Filtering Options," then enable SafeSearch Filtering at the bottom of the page. Most "grownup" search engines have filtering like this, which stays on (even if you disconnect or turn off your computer) unless/until the filtering is turned off. (The rule at our house is that only filtered search is used and no one is allowed to change the settings. So far so good.)
- KIDS.net.au - an Australia-based search engine and directory for kids
- MSN Search, Amazon's A9, Yahoo, and Ask - Again, for these other great search engines, be sure to click on your preferred level of filtering before your kids use them (at MSN and Jeeves, it's on the "Settings" page; at A9 and Yahoo, "Preferences").
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- The American School Directory (ASD) claims to include "105,000 Web sites" and to be "the Internet home" to all K-12 schools (in the United States). This Internet project is sponsored by Computers For Education, Inc., in collaboration with Vanderbilt University, IBM, and Apple Computer, Inc.
- Camp directories: Allen's Guide to Summer Camps for kids and teenagers (summer travel programs as well) and MySummerCamps.com - a comprehensive international directory of summer camps for kids and teens, as well as summer-camp jobs (and camps for sale)
- CampusTours.com - For those who want to see what the schools they're considering look like, CampusTours says it offers "over 1 million [virtual] tours," plus interactive maps, and links to colleges and universities. In their FAQ, they describe a "tour" this way: It "usually consists of a series of still images of the campus with a text narrative."
- Childnet International - The site of a UK-based nonprofit organization that celebrates kids' constructive use of the Internet worldwide. The annual Childnet awards honor children (and their helpers) who are doing outstanding Net-based projects that help other children.
- Chatdanger.com - Another project of Childnet International, Chatdanger.com educates parents and children about how to stay safe in online chat rooms - an excellent resource we wish all families knew about.
- Connect With Kids - founded in 1998, CWK Network produces the Emmy award-winning TV programming on child development and well-being that airs on TV and is viewed in schools and homes nationwide. It's also a Web site that recently added an interactive parenting community.
- CyberTipline - Also available (with equally fast action) at 800.843.5678, this is a service of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The Tipline takes immediate action with calls or Web contacts involving kids in emergency situations or at immediate risk; it also provides information to parents and other caregivers who have questions about child-exploitation risks. There is no other, more effective service like it in the world.
- DiaryofaMother.com - Web site of Christine Hohlbaum, mom, expat living in Germany, and author of Diary of a Mother (described as Erma Bombeck meets the 21st century"). You can subscribe to her free weekly newsletter, "Powerful Families, Powerful Lives," on her home page.
- DirectTextBook.com - online comparison-shopping for new and used college/university textbooks
- The Discovery Channel - a useful site that does a lot more than advertise the channel or repurpose TV programming. The site provides good educational family "surfing" and a resource page for educators (including parents and homeschoolers, of course).
- Disney's FamilyFun.com - games, recipes, arts 'n' crafts, party ideas, parenting support, and travel tips
- The Eating Disorder Referral and Information Center - An important Net-based family resource, the Center is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of eating disorders and the "promotion of social attitudes that enhance a healthy body image and self-esteem." The site includes information on all forms of eating disorders and a Referral Center that helps individuals find treatment and support in their own locales.
- FamilyFunAbilities.com - links and resources to enhance the quality of life for families with disabilities. The site covers a huge range of interests, from fun and entertainment to health and spirituality to community support.
- Family Affairs - provides low-cost, court-approved, online-parenting classes for separating, divorcing, and remarrying families in transition. "Our courses have been adapted for online presentation from the Parents Forever? program, a research-based program designed and tested by educators at the University of Minnesota," according to the site.
- FamilyTravel.com - founded and run by parents, this site and newsletter has a fund of information, from cool pools to family ski trips to ranch vacations. You'll find a "hot deals" section, travel information/destinations by region, "travel tools" (info on immunizations, currency, etc.), and a free email newsletter.
- Games4Girls.com - a most unusual service to parents: an "e-zine" that reviews games and software strictly with girls in mind. More than 80 game reviews are archived in the site, and there are links to Web sites for girls that Games4Girls endorses. The editor, Genevieve Katz, is a game designer herself.
- Girl Tech - a company founded in 1995 "to encourage girls in technology use by creating products and services just for them." The site includes a chat area for girls, a "Girl Powered Search Engine" for searching the 'Net "without the danger of being exposed to inappropriate content," and "Tech Trips" that take members on "voyages" of recommended sites around the Internet.
- Great Au Pair Nanny Agency - GreatAuPair.com serves families in more than 140 countries and represents more that 19,000 active au pairs and nannies, the site says, with 6,900+ jobs available worldwide. The service also offers "a wealth of information on how to hire an au pair or nanny." [GreatAuPair.com is an underwriter of NetFamilyNews.org.]
- GreatSchools.net - the site of a nonprofit organization that says it provides profiles of all elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the US, "as well as resources to help parents support their children and improve their schools."
- Hey Terra! - Annie Fox, AKA Hey Terra - author of Can You Relate?: Real-World Advice for Teens on Guys, Girls, Growing Up, and Getting Along - helps teens create healthier relationships with everyone in their lives - including themselves. The site includes a sampler of Annie's answers to teens so they check out her advice. Hey Terra! is also part of The InSite, a larger Web space designed to empower teenagers and help them sort through issues important to them - relationships, body, the environment, spirituality, and justice and human rights - to "help [them] unleash the infinite power for positive change within us all."
- The Jason Project site offers the full scoop on the project founded in 1989 by oceanographer Dr. Robert D. Ballard as an educational tool. Since then the JASON Foundation for Education was created to administer the project and sponsor an annual scientific expedition, the focus of which is an original curriculum developed for grades 4 through 8. Many schools and cultural institutions in the US and overseas are involved.
- KeepSchoolsSafe.org has comprehensive information on the subject, with sections for students, parents, and schools. The site includes a School Safety & Security Directory of links to 400+ resources on the Web; it includes a Buyer's Guide to retailers selling relevant products.
- KidsCom aims to be a "safe place for kids [aged 4 to 15] to hang out online."
- MaMaMedia - This site, for 5-10-year-olds, is just plain fun to mess around in. It places more emphasis on playing (or learning through play) and creating than on real-time communicating (kids can send e-mail to Jessie, Devin, and other members of the "M Gang"). Other activities include creating pages (and viewing other kids' creations), customizing the way the site looks to the user, surfing through the Sandwich Shop (MaMa's database of 2,000+ screened and reviewed Web sites), pick and contribute your own favorite Web sites, and a heck of a lot more. For information on safety, vision, the MaMaMedia "family," etc., click on "MaMaMedia's Safeguards for Kids" or the "Grownups" button right on the home page.
- Canada's Media Awareness Network - a rich resource for parents and educators who follow digital media developments and want to help kids have constructive experiences with new media.
- Netmom.com - Great sites for kids and families hand-selected by Net-mom Jean Armour Polly, mother, librarian, and author of The Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages.
- Newton's Castle - a Web site about and "stimulating journey into the revelations of Sir Isaac Newton" created by teacher Steve Feld and his students at John F. Kennedy High School, Bronx, New York. The site say, "learn about [Newton's] discovery of Gravity and Optical Theories. Learn why cars roll uphill, why dogs chase cars and Newton's secret library." Steve has recommendations on how to use the site in grades 2-12 here.
- Nick.com - Nickelodeon's site for kids (slow to download with a 28.8 modem)
- PBS Online has something for almost everyone, including: PBS Kids and PBS KIDS GO! for bigger kids. There's also PBS Parents!
- ScholarshipHelp.org - This site explains "how college funding works, the types of scholarships available, how to find them and how to apply for them," but it does something most other such resources don't do, its publishers say: helps scholarship applicants work through the three aspects of successful applying (they're described right on the home page).
- Sesame Workshop - Once known as the Children's Television Workshop, the Workshop changed its name in 2000 to reflect how truly multimedia it has become. All our favorite Sesame Street characters are here, more interactive than ever possible on TV, plus lots of activities for children and parents to do together! That's the Workshop's online mantra: "interactive" means moms 'n' dads interacting with kids while kids are online. The site relaunched with many new features in November 2000.
- Student.com - a site for college/university students by students - founded in 1995 by Ivy League ones, apparently ("Except for Adam, who's a senior at Columbia, everyone goes to Yale," they tell us). Also according to them, 98% of the 8.8 million US university students reportedly have Internet access (we have seen conflicting reports, which did surprise us).
- Time4Learning - An online learning system for pre-K through 8th graders tied to state requirements throughout the US. Includes multimedia lessons, follow up exercises, printable worksheets, assessments, and reports - the kind of material schools pay thousands for but costs families $19.95/month. Founder John Edelson told me, "We differ from most of the free sites or learning games or other offerings in that we take the children through an entire curriculum."
- Website Creation for Children - in a directory of schools for all kinds of design training - interior, graphic, industrial, etc - some starter tips for developing sites with kids and links to various kinds of services for creating one's Web site.
- Hardly anyone's left out at WholeFamily.com, home page to an entire suite of self-help sites. The focus is on improving and supporting relationships with information, hotlines, advice columns, chat, "radio," "crisis centers," and other resources for various interest communities: parents, couples, teens, and seniors. Founder and CEO, Dr. Michael Tobin, sees this award-winning Web service as "a vehicle for family conflict resolution."
- Yahoo! Kids - Yahoo!'s "searchable, browsable portal for Web surfers ages 7 to 12
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- Consortium for School Networking - a national nonprofit organization, Washington-based CoSN's mission is to "promote the use of information technologies and the Internet in K-12 education to improve learning." Members represent school districts, state and local education agencies, nonprofits, companies and individuals.
- eSchool News - "Where K20 Education and Technology Meet," the tagline goes. a great ed-tech news site. Besides the news, the site has an Educator's Resource Center, aschool tech buyer's guide, a funding center, forums and much more.
- Edhelper.com is a straightforward, bare-bones Web-based teacher's aide, with ed news headlines, teacher-picked links, lesson plans (more than 6,000 right now - for math, science, reading, writing, social studies, and technology), WebQuests (more than 1,000), and other resources.
- The International Society for Technology in Education - ISTE is a nonprofit professional organization with offices in Washington, D.C., and Eugene, Ore. Its mission is to "provide leadership and service to improve teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in K-12 education and teacher education." ISTE also runs the huge National Educational Computing Conference, among other things, and include a publishing arm.
- QR Codes in the Classroom has all the info you need for creating those little codes for students' (or anyone's) quick access to further info on your subject.
- TeAch-Nology.com - The K-12 ed-tech portal's tagline is "the art and science of teaching with technology." The site includes tutorials; educational lectures, workshops, seminars, demos for pre-service and/or in-service teacher education programs; and professional development consultations for planning programs about using technology in teaching.
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- A to Z Home's Cool Homeschooling - a very comprehensive homeschooling portal and community site with links to articles and books, updates on laws and legal issues for homeschoolers, kids' sites, how-to materials, and support groups. There is also a section for kids with links to multimedia sites and projects they can do offline at home. Site publisher and homeschooler Ann Zeise tells us "A to Z" has received 1.5 million visitors in the past two years.
- Home Education Magazine's Web site
- HomeEducator.com
- John Holt (1923-85) / Growing Without Schooling - information about the man known to many as "the father of the modern homeschooling movement" and his book. The magazine Holt founded in 1977, Growing Without Schooling, ceased publication in 2001.
- The Home School Legal Defense Association
- Learn in Freedom!'s homeschooling "hotlist" of more than 100 sites about education reform in the US and other countries, homeschooling resources on the Web, and other relevant subjects.
- The National Home Education Network - the home page of a national nonprofit organization which includes information and resources for homeschooling families, including a special section for new homeschoolers. NHEN provides legal and legislative information as well.
- Newton's Castle - a Web site about and "stimulating journey into the revelations of Sir Isaac Newton" created by teacher Steve Feld and his students at John F. Kennedy High School, Bronx, New York. The site say, "learn about [Newton's] discovery of Gravity and Optical Theories. Learn why cars roll uphill, why dogs chase cars and Newton's secret library." Steve has recommendations on how to use the site in grades 2-12 here.
- Time4Learning - An online learning system for pre-K through 8th graders tied to state requirements throughout the US. Includes multimedia lessons, follow up exercises, printable worksheets, assessments, and reports - the kind of material schools pay thousands for but costs families $19.95/month. Founder John Edelson told me, "We differ from most of the free sites or learning games or other offerings in that we take the children through an entire curriculum."
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Information on online-safety software and services...
- Childnet International - a London-based nonprofit organization that focuses on online safety as well as the Internet's strengths where children are concerned
- ChatDanger.com - an appealing, youth-friendly site by Childnet that helps young people stay safe in online chat and all the other communications technologies kids use
- ConnectSafely.org - another project of this nonprofit, Net Family News, Inc., ConnectSafely is a site for safety on the fixed and mobile social Web, with tips, advice, commentary and youth-tech news - plus a forum where everybody can talk about it all.
- GetNetWise.org - a Net safety resources for parents, and the only one that has a searchable database of filtering, monitoring, computer time-out, and other tools and services for families. GetNetWise also has straightforward little instructional videos for parents on, for example, privacy controls in social-network sites. The Washington-based site is sponsored by an Internet industry coalition and advised by a number of nonprofit children's advocacy organizations, including Net Family News.
- EU Kids Online - a UK-based site that aggregates "European research on cultural, contextual and risk issues in children's safe use of the Internet and new media."
- Family Online Safety Institute - site of a Washington- and London-based nonprofit organization that "works to make the online world safer for kids and their families by identifying and promoting best practice, tools and methods in the field of online safety, that also respect free expression."
- The Internet Keep Safe Coalition - a US nonprofit organization and "broad partnership of governors and/or first spouses, attorneys general, public health and educational professionals, law enforcement, and industry leaders working together for the health and safety of youth online."
- The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline - immediate help concerning online kids at risk - and NetSmartz.org (online-safety ed for kids).
- Netsafe - New Zealand's comprehensive online-safety education program and hotline
- The Parents' Guide to the Information Superhighway in Spanish and English, by The Children's Partnership, a nonpartisan advocacy group that publishes information about "the needs of America's 70 million children."
- SafeKids.com and SafeTeens.com - Resource sites created for online families by ConnectSafely co-director Larry Magid, who is a CBS/CNET technology analyst. The most enduring site of its kind on the Web, SafeKids includes numerous resources such as the original kids' and parents' contracts for safe Net use.
- SaferInternet.org - a European Commission project with FAQs on everything from blogging to phishing to cyberbullying to social networking; links to online-safety resources based all over Europe; and information on the annual global Safer Internet Day
- Hundreds of software programs are listed and searchable at GetNetWise.org site (see the "Tools" page to search), which includes information on techparenting and PC security as well.
- Software4Parents.com - the top picks in filtering and monitoring software products of a programmer (someone who creates products like these). Software engineer Joshua Finer tested the products and sells the software right in his site (we suggest, though, that parents monitor with care and talk with their kids about the possibility up front, because - if they find something untoward - they'll need to talk with their kids anyway, and it's much harder after the fact).
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- The BBC's Tech coverage, for a welcome outside-North-America perspective
- News.com - CNET's very popular tech news site
- The New York Times's technololgy news section
- The Washington Post's TechNews.com
- Wired News - a much-used daily source for us. They do a great job.
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