My guys are into numbers lately. My eldest, especially, is big into number crunching and playing with the calculator. He spends a lot of time on, well, time.

Just last week I had a funny “aha” moment when his brother asked to play Star Wars Legos with him first thing in the morning. He said, “Well actually I need fifteen minutes to eat my cereal and stuff.”

His brother, not quite four, innocently inquired, “Well how long is that?”

Little Math man responded by saying, “Well, it is 15 times 60. You know, 900 seconds.”

I was dumbfounded, then I ran to check to see if he was right. I knew that my brother-in-law had given him a calculator to play with over the summer, but I had no idea that he was sooo into math. When I asked him about it he told me, flat out, that he wanted to go to a school that taught only math and soccer. So, I decided to check out some good websites for budding mathematicians, stuff that he would really get into and seem like a lot of fun and a small bit technical too, to challenge him a small bit. (more…)

My Library DV is a broadband service that local libraries can subscribe to for their patrons. All you need to get free movies is a library account in good standing and high speed internet access. This is a great service for getting movies in a hurry and without having to get in the car and go to the library. If you are in need of immediate access to a video, you do not need to wait for another patron to return it or for your library to acquire it on inter library loan as is often the case with popular titles. (more…)

Fall is around the corner, and if you are like me, you are scurrying around trying at the last minute to get supplies, clothes, registration, books, and shoes for your kids. The last thing on most parents’ minds is the lunch box. That is, of course, unless their child has Celiac, or dangerous food allergies. In such cases we parents have a whole set of additional concerns that go above and beyond whether or not our child finishes the sandwich we packed. Here are a few cute ideas I’ve recently run across for brown bagging it in the cafeteria at school: (more…)

Christopher Dawson, a teacher and IT administrator for Athol, MA High School and regular contributor of ZDNet, has an interesting take on a story about a small group of homeschoolers selling freshly-roasted coffee to learn about business development, marketing, and accounting.

Dawson tells his readers: “Homeschooling isn’t for everyone, but their original motivation of providing hands-on, practical, experience-based lessons to kids really should be.”

Read more at Homeschooling + marketing = great coffee?

Got a corn-allergic kid? How about educating him or her with an online game show?

The University of Illinois Extension has a game called the “Great Corn Adventure“ hosted by Zea Mays. It is part of a collection of educational games for kids.

Lovely Ms. Mays takes the viewer on a tour of the corn world, starting with the Native Americans in the valley of Tehuacan in Pueblo Mexico in 5000 b.c. (more…)

Write, Mama, Write has a great little post up about making nature prints with the kids and the pictures will make you want to try them. If you haven’t used polymer clay (such as Sculpey) and would prefer to work with something that you don’t have bake, an alternative material to try is Makins Clay. They have an air dry polymer clay, it’s easy to find at your local craft store. Look for the bright green wrapper. (more…)

Crayons aren’t so easy to carry around, right? They break easily, can spill out of a bag and mark up your things, and worst of all, they have a tendency to melt all over your purse if you leave them closed up in car during the hot summer months. A thin tin box with a handy snap tight closure is the perfect container for carrying crayons for those ‘whenever’ times in life.

This simple solution makes it easy to have some crayons in your diaper bag or purse, ready at a moment’s notice for use in waiting rooms, or wherever you find yourself stuck with a hard to entertain toddler, all while preventing breakage or ruining your purse. (more…)

I often joke that a year ago we could have been considered the “Mc Talty” family for all the times we would frequent McDonald’s. My then two year old was so familiar with the place that he felt compelled to point it out whenever we passed one in our travels. We’ve made a complete turn around since then, thanks in large part to our oldest son’s diagnosis of a chronic tic disorder and our subsequent discovery that he is allergic to wheat and corn and highly sensitive to gluten– three foods we since eliminated and made all the difference for him in his recovery.

This recipe is unique. What makes it special? It is not so much about the ingredients as it is about the preparation. You see, this Little Chef Salad is literally a salad made by my little chef, age 3, a former chicken nugget man turned foodie, a fella not diagnosed, but gluten free through association, and loving it. (more…)

Our boys received a wonderful gift this year for the holidays- a beautiful hardcover copy of Zoolidays, Written by Bruce Glassman and illustrated by up and coming artist Rolandas Kiaulevicius, and if that wasn’t enough they also got tickets to a wonderful show about that book and more called GIRO.

This book is a wonderful read, and the show is a fabulous must see for any emergent reader and budding artist. My boys absolutely loved the book from cover to cover, and the show really delighted their imaginations in a way that the book alone couldn’t do. (more…)

A Message from the editor:

This section will be our new home for all links to kid-related stuff. Our focus is on family-friendly content that is both fun and educational for children 0-7 years of age. Our top picks will be featured, reviewed, and organized so that your computer savvy kids will be able to bookmark and navigate this page themselves or with your supervision. We will feature kid-friendly websites, product reviews, games, activities, crafts, and projects. I will organize the listing by topic and update it periodically. Check back from time to time to view the updates and watch this section grow!

FUN AND EDUCATIONAL WEBSITES

This is a favorite website for early education. Viewers can access for free or subscribe for additional benefits. Up To Ten uses a special icon system to organize their games and activities: Green icons indicate motor skill development; Blue icons indicate intellectual agility development; Orange icons indicate computer literacy development; and Red icons indicate that an adult presence is necessary.

POISSON ROUGE is a pictorial website for toddlers and preschoolers. It is purposefully designed without any written directions. Kids can peruse the site’s over 200 games, activities, and animations to learn French, English, and Spanish, as well as play a board game, experience optical illusions, paint, work with numbers, play piano, and visit an art gallery, to name a few.

SID THE SCIENCE KID is a new Jim Henson Company PBS program debuting this month. This educational animated television series uses comedy to get kids exploring, discoving and exposes preschoolers to science. Sid’s website has three discovery zones: the Super Fab Lab at Sid’s school, the playground, and Sid’s family kitchen. Each zone offers science games complement the show’s curricular themes. The site has a child-friendly video player that lets kids view show exerpts, including songs and real-world investigations. They have printable coloring pages and other offline activities for parents to utilize. Parents and other caregivers can print out lab investigations from the website and experiment at home after the show has ended. PBS has 40 half-hour episodes of the show slotted. Check to see if the show is available on your local PBS channel!

PBS KIDS SUPER WHY! This website is based on a new TV series created and produced by Out of the Blue Enterprises and Angela C. Santomero, one of the original co-creators of “Blues Clues”. SUPER WHY! is an interactive reading adventure that begins in Storybook Village and features favorite fairytale characters solving problems. Young viewers (ages 3-6) will enjoy getting involved in each episode and learning valuable reading skills.
GET YOUR COLORING PAGES HERE: SUPER WHY, PRINCESS PRESTO, WONDER RED, ALPHA PIG, GROUP & SUPERYOU.

Debuting in early September of this year, WORD WORLD is a WTTW Channel 11 original. To date already over 97% of 348 PBS stations in the U.S. have picked up this show and run it daily. In each episode, 3-5 year old children will join the cast of WordFriends™ - Bear, Dog, Sheep, Frog, Duck, and Pig - as they explore the world of words humorously taking shape around them. The website gives sneak peeks into shows, has GAMES, & gives a nice intro. Look for Word World on your local PBS kids channel.
GET YOUR COLORING PAGES HERE: DUCK, BEAR, SHEEP, PIG, FROG, DOG

I KNOW THAT is a great one-stop resource for all school subjects from preschool to 6th grade. Games are designed to meet children at their level and encourage critical thinking and self discovery. The website offers free games. More privileges are available for a fee, as are progress reports, the message center, and a homework help resource. Our all time favorite activity is PAINT WORLDWIDE.

LIL’ FINGERS is a great site for toddlers. Developed in 1998, this is an absolutely free website. Not contaminated with unwanted ads and offering simple games that can be run on older computers, this is the perfect starting place for playing computer games with your littlest child. You’ll find SHORT STORYBOOKS with audio, COLORING PAGES, and several simple games for teaching the alphabet, shapes, TELLING TIME, and matching. There is also a simple paint game and a very cute virtual FUNNY FACES game much like Mr. Potato Head.

Can’t get to the library? Visit the INTERNET PUBLIC LIBRARY’S KIDSPACE, a public service organization and learning/teaching environment brought to you by the University of Michigan and hosted by Drexel University’s College of Information Science and Technology. This is a vast database of info on all subjects for all ages, so be sure to visit this one with your kids as you venture through all the wonderful resources on: health and nutrition, art and music, sports and recreation, history, religion, reading, math and science, computers, and just plain fun stuff. This site is vast and the possibilities are endless. It is a real treasure trove of information at your fingertips.

EDHEADS is a fantastic website for the budding scientist or future doctor. Your child can perform virtual surgeries such as a HIP REPLACEMENT or KNEE SURGERY, view real live photos of surgeries, or study COMPOUND MACHINES and SIMPLE MACHINES, or learn how to predict the WEATHER. Players must be able to read to play the games, or should at least have a parent present while performing the many mini-quizzes. There is an audio component and an option to turn on captions. You will not be disappointed with this site!

COUNT ON is a great math website for intermediate level kids. There are many games that teach skills like: geometry, fractions, patterns, code breaking, and even how to make an oragami. The site also includes tons of external links for parents and teachers, as well as news and other math related info. For a complete look at what’s available from their website, view their index at: http://www.counton.org/sitemap/

CLUB TUKI provides a child-friendly browser, offers educational games, and awards redeemable tuki bucks to registered users. Games are free to all. Full membership costs under $50 a year per family. Club Tuki’s main focus is internet safety. Their games and website features are geared toward keeping kids safe from online predators. If you join, please tell them TheTaltyClan sent you when you register!

DANCE MAT TYPING is an introduction to touch typing for kids ages 7-11. If you have an early reader this is a great place to start some early typing skills because it is loads of fun and free! There are four levels, each with three stages, and children progress at their own individual pace. Sponsored by the BBC, this site also offers worksheets for off-line reinforcement of skills and has a scoreboard for kids who like to be competitive. Calla Marie, Dainty the Hippo, and several other animal characters take turns teaching your child how to type efficiently.

PBS Kids “DON’T BUY IT” is a media savvy site that educates kids on advertising literacy. Activities encourage kids to analyze, interpret and evaluate media tactics to get consumers to purchase products.

ONLINE GAMES

Play National Geographic’s NANO SURGEON, a game where the player becomes a world-renowned doctor and must battle human viruses at a microscopic level to heal his/her patient’s body and win. Kids left-click on their mouse to fire same colored antibodies against viruses floating around their body. When three or more virus cells of the same color are touching when the antibody strikes they will die. Don’t let the viral infection spin out of control! You must kill all the viruses and advance to the next level and wait for the next attack!

Play the CLASSIC SIM CITY LIVE game that your parents did many years ago. This is a free online version (but it is only accessible through an IE browser on a PC, so if you are using Netscape of Firefox it won’t load the game). I am not sure about Mac browser access. Sim City is an imaginary city that your child must develop with a $20,000 budget. Your child builds roads, assigns zones, establishes police and fire stations, builds rails, and watches as people move in and out of town over the years. My son absolutely loves this one and has been begging me to add it to the Kids’ Central list. So here it is!

Play National Geographic’s SPACE JANITOR, a game where you fight orbiting debris to save the international space station. Players must use their mouse to move the astronaut. To fire the cosmic cleaner players must left-click on the mouse. Aim for space garbage the same color as the cosmic cleaner, and when you have three balls in a row of the same color the debris will be destroyed. Watch out, if you are not careful the debris can accumulate and reach the space station, destroying it.

These games are for ages 2-5. Your children will solve simple 12 piece puzzles online with PUZZLE PIECES, Drag and drop letters from a given word to spell your own new words with MAKE-a-WORD, or beat the computer at TIC-TAC-TOE when you visit INKLESSTALES.COM. Inkless Tales has many other available games including a drawing game, a shapes game, a numbers game, and concentration. The website is home to stories that utilize high frequency “Dolch” words, animated and audio poems, finger puppet crafts, connect the dots pages, and fun at-home activity or craft projects like making catcher’s mitts out of milk jugs and quilling.

ONLINE STORY BOOKS

TUMBLEBOOK LIBRARY is an excellent resource for amusing and entertaining animated audio books (that highlight text as it is read to the child aloud by an animated narrator), puzzles, games, and language learning activities. Your kids will love this place, and so will you. If you have trouble viewing the books from the above links, just click on THIS LINK and choose “click here for TumbleBooks” to view the sample books!

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, a free online story book by the British Council with an online audio reader and animated picture pages is one of several stories offered by the British Council for viewers to choose from. This series is truly interactive. Readers watch and listen as each page of the story is told. Readers may also independently read the static text at the bottom of each page without audio interference. Viewers must turn pages by clicking the mouse on the ‘next’ button to complete the story. Free fully colored character finger puppets are available as PDF downloads.

Let your child “bee” the author of his or her own story at THE BOOK HIVE. Kids are welcome to write a 6 page story about Zinger the Bee to view online. They simply pick six pictures then write their own captions. When finished they can print to create their own storybook or email the book to someone special. The Book Hive also features ZINGER TALES, RealPlayer videos of professional storytellers telling children’s tales.

STARFALL offers six 10 page CHINESE FABLES. They are written at the 2nd-grade level and have audio capabilities. The child can either read alone or simply click on a word to hear it pronounced correctly. Starfall also offers THREE LITTLE PLAYS, nine FICTION AND NONFICTION selections, six famous FOLKTALES like Chicken Little, GREEK MYTHS, and finally COMICS for more emergent readers.

FREE PRINTABLE BOOKS

ENCHANTED LEARNING has nearly 100 books to choose from on all sorts of topics include: Holidays, ,Sciences, Geography, Foreign languages, Seasons, etc…. Readers can view some pages for free but if you’d like unlimited access to their books they ask for a $20 donation. It is well worth the investment.

Scrapbook legend and Laguna Beach resident Sandi Genovese offers a free 12 PAGE MINI BRAG BOOK that only requires one sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper, a piece of card st0ck for the cover, ribbon, and optional embellishments that you and your kids would like to use for decoration and have on hand. I think the real fun is in the learning process of such a book with your kids, but I recommend you do try your hand at it before attempting to sit down with them and wing it. It is extremely helpful to have a paper cutter on hand for this one, but not necessary if you have a utility knife and a ruler. The directions are straight forward, and although it was originally intended to house photos from a particular event you could use it for any number of things: your child’s favorite collection of stickers, counting from 1-10, writing new words, making comic books, the options are endless.

CRAFTS

FAMILY FUN has 70 different paper crafts to choose from (the paper log cabin craft is pictured on left). They are easy, inexpensive crafts to do in a pinch when the kids are getting restless in the house. No need for a storage cabinet of materials or a trip to the store, most of these projects involve only a pencil, scissors, glue, and various kinds of paper that you probably already have laying around the house. Quick projects for little kids include: The Name Frame, The Paper Star, The Photo House Card, and Paper Dolls. The site also offers directions for a 3D Cardboard Barn that can be built in an afternoon with help from mom and dad.

KINGPOD is offering a free holiday garland PDF download. All you need is scissors, some white card stock, a hole puncher and some nice holiday ribbon. This craft can also double as a holiday greeting card. Just print out the pieces in reduced size, cut them out and glue them onto your folded cardstock paper. The Gingerbread Man could also double as a puppet when you glue a Popsicle stick on the back.

Moms might find the artist’s craft blog for adults interesting too.

This website has a nice recipe section for glitter glue, edible (gluten-free) peanut butter clay dough, silly putty, puffy paint, soap crayons, and more. A to Z also offers free e-cards that visitors can design with their own pictures.

HOLIDAY FUN STUFF

Choose your favorites from WWW.THEKIDZPAGE.COM, a free website for kids, parents, and teachers. Get materials for Winter, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Easter. View their online and printed activities (word searches, jigsaw puzzles, and coloring pages.) Visit the entire website for additional games and activities. Visit their virtual ’stay in the lines’ online coloring pages.

PROJECTS

If you’d like to build our own exclusive BARRY B. BENSON BENDABLE ACTION FIGURE, then check out our instruction page. All you need is 4 small (1 1/2 inch) styro-foam balls, an old toddler sock, yellow fabric paint, one twist tie, sculpty modeling clay, 10 black pipe cleaners, two wiggly eyes, two small white pom poms, a black marker, and either paper or netting, and glue. If you liked this project, then VISIT 10 BEE MOVIE CRAFTS AND ACTIVITIES FOR YOUR KIDS for 9 additional activities that you and your kids can do together to stretch that cinema dollar. We have linked to a host of other sites that offer online puzzles, games, a coloring page, an edible clay dough project and more.

Turn your household “trash” into treasures your children will love when you and your kids complete these project ideas at DANIELLE’S PLACE. You can make a pair of binoculars, a milk-jug mask, or a cardboard house, among other projects. Danielle’s place also includes a huge CRAFTS SECTION with many Christian themes and offers activity ideas for VBS programs.

BOARD GAMES

Get out your pennies and nickels and stock up on some apples and peaches, it’s time to play Farmer’s Market with your kids. THIS IS A FREE PRINTABLE BOARD GAME COMPLIMENTS OF HEALTHY-FAMILY.ORG. Just simply click on the link to print this PDF file and start playing! This game is great for teaching beginners the value of pennies and nickels and how to count by ones and fives. Good for 1-4 players.

The GINGERBREAD BABY BOARD GAME is a free game from renowned artist and author Jan Brett. It is free to download and print (half of which is shown here). Jan Brett’s website is a fantastic collection of supplemental activities that complement her books. You will find all kinds of online games that feature Hedgie, as well as coloring pages, printable activities and a greeting card design center. A special bonus is an AUDIO ONLINE BOOK entitled: Hedgie Loves to Read. There are quite a few new sections including a mural making project complete with printable templates, and a make your own section that offers several creative project ideas for you to do at home. Check out this site it is packed with many wonderful activities and ideas.

ONLINE COLORING PAGES

COLORING.WS is a real gem. The site is managed by a family of crafters and it has coloring pages that you won’t find anywhere else: cartoon characters like SPIDERMAN, the TRANSFORMERS, and SUPERMAN. They also have a host of other famous characters like BARBIE, BLUES CLUES, and SCOOBY DOO. But the fun doesn’t stop there. This is the place to go for typical pages for THE HOLIDAYS, the ALPHABET, BIRTHDAY themes, DOT TO DOT, and COLOR BY NUMBERS. This should also be your first stop when trying to find less common themes like: visiting the DOCTOR or DENTIST, CONSTRUCTION WORKERS and MACHINES/TOOLS, SIMPLE MAPS of different countries all over the world. You will find pictures for various COMMUNITY WORKERS, KINGS AND QUEENS, and FIREFIGHTERS etc…. The list is long and thorough. If you are looking for something in particular, chances are COLORING.WS has it.

A variety of holiday, animal, birthday, sports, and special interest pictures such as cowboys and trucks are available to choose from. All pages are colored online. Visitors register to save and email pictures to others.

BEE MOVIE Coloring Pages: BARRY