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TopClicks
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Net Mom's Don't Miss Hot Lists
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For Parents & Teachers
Blue Web'n Learning Sites Library - This site collects the cream of the crop of learning-oriented Web sites. All sites are rated and categorized by area, audience, and type. Each subject category has links to related tutorials, activities, projects, lesson plans, and more. You can also use their keyword search to explore their collection. Want more? Join the free mailing list for weekly updates. We found the sites listed here to be excellent resources for eager learners as well as educators looking for teaching materials.
Family.com - Presented by Disney Online, this site offers lots of intriguing feature articles on family activities, travel, recipes, education, and more. A recent peek revealed these articles: "Out of the Woods: Camp Crafts to Make at Home," "Preparing for Kindergarten: What Your Preschooler Needs to Know," and lots more. Besides this, you can Go Local for links to parenting news in your city or state. We were able to find out about this week's family activities in our town. Coverage is currently limited to the U.S. and its territories, Canada, and Australia.
From Now On - The Educational Technology Journal - Internet use policies. Assessment. Libraries of the future. Grants. Parenting. This site tackles all those topics and more. It is a vast collection of feature articles, Web sites, and other resources for the home, classroom, and community. Learn how to cut out the "mind kandy" and the "new plagiarism" of indiscriminate cut and paste. Jamie McKenzie tells it like it is. Don't waste any more time without visiting his site.
GetNetWise - You're One Click Away - There's been a lot of talk in the news about the Internet having stuff on it that is inappropriate for kids. The overwhelming majority of information is OK, but those news stories can make you nervous. Some people are even talking about keeping kids off the Net entirely, which would be terrible! We think that access to information is a good thing. But we also recognize that parents may want to use filtering software and other tools in the digital toolbox. This page, from a coalition of Internet Service Providers, content providers, and even Net-mom, will tell you what's available. There are also safety tips written by Dr. Larry Magid and additional great content for kids.
Homeschooling Information - Visit this excellent selection of homeschooling resources for an overview of what's current and what's useful. You'll find thoughtful, briefly annotated links to homeschooling associations, magazines, newsgroups, and more. Some of the most interesting are a site started by a teenager about how to "do high school" at home and Real Audio files with interviews of interest to homeschooling families. For example, you can listen to Susannah Sheffer, author of A Sense of Self: Listening to Homeschooled Adolescent Girls. Don't miss the links to selected high-energy homeschooling families, and scroll to the bottom to find some great software to support homeschooling (and other) families.
KidsHealth - Children's Health & Parenting Information - Sections for kids and parents, with an area for health professionals as well. The kids' section has Shockwave games and animations, tips on nutrition, fun recipes, and a sensitive section on feelings, including a Kid's Guide to Divorce.
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children - Some families are looking for their missing children. Check their photos. Have you seen any of these kids? Maybe you can help! This site lets you search by state, physical description, and other characteristics. If you have a Web page of your own, check the How You Can Help area.
Parent Soup - Remember the story of Stone Soup? Some soldiers boasted that they could make a nourishing soup out of stones. Then they said, does anyone have an onion? A carrot? A potato? Some salt? And soon, everyone in the village brought something to add to the simmering pot. In the end, everyone marveled that such a good soup could be made out of simple stones! This site is sort of like that. It's made up of a community of parents just like you, each bringing some new element to the pot. The content here is based on what other users can add to the mix of real-time chat and discussion groups. Want to ask for help with your shy preschooler? Want someone to talk to while your partner watches football? Want some health, crafts, or entertainment suggestions? Try the Parent Soup community!
Screen it! Entertainment Reviews for Parents - These movie, video, and music reviews are astonishingly complete, scoring each title in a variety of sensitive areas that might be of concern to parents. How much violence? How much bad language? How many instances of disrespectful behavior or nudity? This site helps parents "know before you go" so there will be no surprises later.
ThinkQuest - Would you like to win thousands of dollars in scholarship money? Do you have a great idea for a new Web resource? You might be a fabulous C++ programmer, but you can't write interesting English prose very well. Or maybe you're terrific at graphics but can't code. Maybe you're not a computer nut at all, but you really know how to research a topic. There is a place for all of you at ThinkQuest. First, you have to create a team to work on your project. Advertise your skills and your ideas at the Team Maker part of the site. Typically, teams are formed with two or three kids from all over the world; they have usually never met, and they usually come from schools or homeschools with widely varying levels of technology. You also need a coach or three, usually teachers or parents, but it could be someone else. You decide how to tackle the project, and then spend many months building your Web resource on the server space provided by ThinkQuest. You and your team members use chat rooms to discuss the project as well as e-mail and other forms of communication. Eventually the contest deadline rolls around, and your project is frozen in time so that the judges can take a look. If your site is chosen as a finalist, you and your team (and your coaches) are flown (all expenses paid) to the site of the finals. Your site is inspected by the finals judges. You and your team are interviewed, and at long last, winners are chosen and placements are made. The winning team members each get $25,000 scholarships, and many of the finalist teams who place lower get substantial scholarships as well. ThinkQuest gives away over $1 million in scholarship money EVERY YEAR. There are several contests: one for elementary grades, called ThinkQuest Junior, and the original one for older kids. There's also a new contest for teachers. At this site you can explore past winners' sites and get information about the latest ThinkQuest competition schedule.
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