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The web gets a lot of bad rap—deservedly so, in many cases—about its content. But there are thousands of fun, educational and safe sites for children—if you know where to look.
One place is the Association of Library Services to Children, a division of the American Library Association, and, conveniently enough, that list of recommendations is available from KidSpace on the Springfield-Greene County Library District’s web site, thelibrary.org.
“The sites on this list are chosen by a select team of professional librarians who judge the sites on specific criteria, such as educational value, quality content, ease-of-use and children-appealing graphics,” said Erin Gray-Schulze, a children’s librarian at the Library Center who writes the KidsBlog, located in the center of KidSpace. “The librarians also look for appropriate use of advertising on the pages, and many of the sites have received numerous awards.”
Gray-Schulze says kids like bugs and worms. So she votes for “The Adventures of Herman the Worm (http:///www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/worms/index.html), a site that introduces children to worm anatomy, behavior and even eating preferences. “Kids will be amused,” she says, “when they test their ‘worm food’ knowledge and learn that worms actually love to eat things like butter and tea bags.”
Another site she recommends is Dinosphere (http://www.childrensmuseum.org/dinosphere/index.html). “If you can’t make a trip to this museum in Indianapolis, you and the kids will not be disappointed at this virtual visit where you can see how paleontologists actually dig up dinosaurs and can participate in some interactive dino-sleuthing.”
4Kids.org (http://4kids.org) is packed with interactive educational games such as “Alien Addition” and “Word Frog”. Kids can explore technology and science in the “Cool Spots” tab use the “speak out” tab to answer the question of the day. “Any team of educators, artists and techno-phytes who seek to make new technologies accessible to children scores high in my book,” said Gray-Schulze.
Any of these sites can be accessed from your home computer or from at any of the eight Springfield-Greene County Library branches.
The Best of the Best: Web Sites for Children
Jeanne C. Duffey, community relations director for the Springfield-Greene
County Library District, can be reached at jeanned@thelibrary.org.
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