If there was ever a website I would happily send my kids to it would be this one – bright, colourful, educational, and so much content.

I started my search for websites for kids at Save the Children (2024) – they have a page here containing links to all sorts of educational websites and apps for kids, and there are some fabulous ones out there.  I’ll be recommending a few more later.

National Geographic Kids (n.d.) is a site children can safely explore without direct parent supervision when older but is just as fun for children to explore together with an adult.  Positive child-parent relationships are essential to a child’s development and learning, and viewing digital media and discussing content together, as well as playing games together can be a very positive experience (Edwards, S. et al., 2018).

Accessible from the home page are drop down menus for games, videos, animals (fact sheets), and explore more (history, science, space, weird but true!).  You can also access Brain Boosters on the home page with all sorts of craft ideas, recipes, homework help - How to be an expert fact-checker being one of my favourites!

The craft ideas pages are well laid out, e.g. Make a guitar.  There is information on the guitar around the world, a very clear materials list, and detailed instructions with photographs for each step. An explanation of what is happening when you pluck a rubber band, and a focus question round out the page.

Trash Dash (National Geographic Kids, 2018) is one of the weird but true! shorts and is a great introduction to space junk.

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS:

PBS Kids (2024) – Educational games and videos.

PBS Kids Design Squad Global (WGBH Educational Foundation, 2024) – Design engineering ideas, building ideas, city building games, fun stories.

The team at PBS Kids recognise that games on digital technology is favoured activity of kids so “make fun educational video games that help kids learn social and emotional learning, problem-solving, and computational thinking skills” (Gratton, 2023, para.2).

Bedtime Math (2024) – A website and an app. Parents read the opening to the child, then solve the math problem together.  Lots of themed topics with links (locked by a maths problem) for parents and kids to discover more interesting facts.

From personal experience working in the school system Scholastic Australia’s Literacy Pro (2019), although favoured by teachers, is not well liked by a lot of children. My children tried to test out to Year 12 level by Year 5/6, so they could read whatever they wanted.  Both Literacy Pro and ABC Reading Eggs require you to pay for a subscription.

I found this search enlightening as my main exposure to educational websites is those that are paid for by the schools.  The websites highlighted above are free, fun, full of educational content, and encourage parents and children to explore together.  Digital technology is here to stay, and it is worth searching out quality resources to encourage parents “to be thoughtful and intentional” (Gratton, 2023, para.4) when looking for websites to explore with their children.

References

ABC Reading Eggs. (2024). Learning to read can be easy and fun. Blake eLearning, 3P Learning. https://readingeggs.com.au/.

Bedtime Math. (2024). Category: Daily math. Bedtime Math Foundation. https://bedtimemath.org/category/daily-math/.

Edwards, S., Straker, L., & Oakley, H. (2018). Statement on young children and digital technologies. Early Childhood Australia. https://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/our-work/submissions-statements/eca-statement-young-children-digital-technologies/.

Gratton, S. (2023). Best benefits of playing video games together. PBS Kids for Parents. https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/benefits-of-playing-video-games-together.

National Geographic Kids. [Nat Geo Kids]. (2018, Aug 9). Trash dash: weird but true! Shorts. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjDuP9UHG5c.

National Geographic Kids. (n.d.). National Geographic Kids. National Geographic. https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/.

PBS Kids. (2024). PBS kids. https://pbskids.org/.

Save the Children. (2024). Free educational websites and apps for kids to learn at home. https://www.savethechildren.org/us/charity-stories/free-websites-and-apps-to-keep-kids-learning.

Scholastic Australia. (2019). Literacy Pro: Measure and stimulate independent reading growth. https://www.scholastic.com.au/education/education-home/literacy/literacy-pro/.

WGBH Educational Foundation. (2024). PBS design squad global. https://pbskids.org/designsquad/.