During early childhood development, it’s important for children to explore their interests and expand their education to realms outside of the classroom. Doing so allows them to establish hobbies, develop creative problem-solving skills, and keep them entertained. While it’s important to spend quality time with your children away from screens, there are some great resources available on the Internet. There are thousands of different online learning sites that can help increase your child’s education, but not all of them are created equal. Some websites that claim to be educational are nothing more than a source of entertainment and advertisements for online purchases. To make sure that your kids are getting the most out of their screen time, here we’ll discuss some of the best websites to supplement childhood learning.
How Online Learning Sites Can Teach Your Child Something New
When you utilize the right websites and apps, you can provide your children with special academic help, the possibility to explore new and exciting educational topics, and help strengthen the understanding of basic concepts and skills. Thanks to immersive, easy to follow prompts, many online learning sites help make learning fun and interactive, which increases the likelihood that your children will actually want to participate.
The Importance of Internet Safety
Supplementing your children’s education with online tools and websites is great, but you still need to be diligent about Internet safety. Unfortunately, there are a lot of malicious people in the world, as well as explicit content and easily accessible information that could be considered questionable for youngsters. Curiosity can prompt children to open links, advertisements, and inappropriate websites, which can be detrimental to online safety and privacy. Some of the biggest risks online include inappropriate websites, malware, phishing scams, cyber attacks, and sexual predators. Therefore, when you allow your children to use online learning sites for educational purposes, it’s also important that you take the time to teach them Internet safety. Set rules, monitor your children’s activity, and download some essential parental control software to reduce risks and keep the focus on learning.
How to Differentiate Between Good and Bad Education Sites
When you’re looking for good online learning sites to allow your children to access, it’s important that you take the time to properly research a few things. You’ll want to make sure that the site is reliable, accurate, and trustworthy, with easy-to-use components that can be navigated by children. It’s important that the website offers educational materials that are either directly related to academics or expand your child’s knowledge to other topics that are still considered valuable. When the intent of a website is unclear, it’s often a sign that it could be malicious or simply not valuable to your children’s time. Always take the time to vet the websites that your children will be accessing to help improve overall Internet safety.
Top 8 Websites for Online Educational Material
There are thousands of different websites that you can use to supplement your child’s education, so to save you some time and effort, we’ve comprised a list of our top eight:
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Sesame Street
Sesame Street’s website is a great tool for young children that are just getting started on their educational journey. Similar to the TV show, Sesame Street online provides access to hundreds of archived video clips, games that help them improve recognition and recall, and interactive material that can help them learn the essentials.
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Scholastic
Scholastic has been a favorite learning resource for years and their website is no different. Similar to the Scholastic magazine, the website is filled with interactive puzzles, games, and information that’s organized by grade level.
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PBS Kids
PBS Kids is another great website that coincides with the educational shows they broadcast on TV. There are separate sections in the PBS Kids website for each show, so your child can keep learning even after the episode ends.
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National Geographic Kids
National Geographic Kids is a separate website that’s dedicated entirely to children. It delves into topics like history, science, the states of the U.S., worldly information, and more. Through the use of online games, science experiments, fill-in-the-blanks exercises, engaging videos, fun quizzes, and plenty of resources about all of the topics covered, your children will be able to learn about a variety of subjects paired with stunning photography.
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How Stuff Works
When your kids want to know more about How Stuff Works, head over to their educational website to learn. This is a great online resource for answering some of those commonly asked questions like “why is the sky blue?” Topics include science, money, technology, cars, culture, entertainment, and more.
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Highlights for Kids
Highlights for Kids is another magazine subscription available online. It gives children opportunities to play, explore, read, and experiment with new topics, engaging games, art activities, and more.
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CoolMath
CoolMath is a website that helps strengthen children’s math skills using online games and easily digestible information. There are sections on basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, money, fractions, and more. They also have a sister website to help introduce math early to younger children.
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TIME for Kids
TIME for Kids takes the trust and reliability of TIME and breaks it into easy-to-understand concepts, fascinating articles, and visually stimulating pictures and videos. Topics range from politics to health and environmental issues to sports. This is a great website to introduce your children to current events in an age-appropriate manner.
Utilizing online learning sites for educational purposes is great, but ensuring that your child is participating in a stimulating and educational setting is the best way to facilitate healthy development. Contact A Child’s Place at the Ranches today to learn more about how our environment employs directors and caregivers to encourage a collaborative experience, face-to-face interactions, and assistance with developmental needs.
