It's eight P.M. and your child has just finished reading an "awesome"
book about the Ancient Egyptian mummification process. The book is
through, but she wants to know if the mummification jars had a specific
name, and how to write her name in Hieroglyphics and . . .  She is so
excited and motivated that she wants to learn more--now! In two minutes
or less you and your historian-to-be can be searching the Ancient
Egyptian highway--the Internet. In the fast moving Information Age,
children can learn about anything they are interested in at any time via
the Internet--they just need to know where to look!

Where do you search? How do you find the name of that Ancient Egyptian
mummy jar? We will explore some of the best resources for kids on the
Internet, including some online courses.  If you know where to look, the
Internet can help you build an education for your child that is
customized and individualized for their particular interests and skills.

Search Engines and "Portals" are our main entrance onto the Internet.
But you've probably noticed that Search Engines are not quite what they
used to be. Many search engines only list sites that paid to be listed.
Other engines give you so many choices, you can spend hours looking for
the information you want. Our favorite search engines are:

*   Ask Jeeves for Kids (http://www.ajkids.com)
*   Yahooligans (http://www.yahooligans.com)
*   MetaCrawler (http://www.metacrawler.com)
*     Google (http://www.google.com)

Online Tutors and Homework Helpers are a fabulous resource because they
give us complete freedom. Now we can explore our interests and learn
about anything we want, knowing that someone is available around the
clock to guide us and answer our questions. Whether we need help with a
pesky math or grammar problem, or if we want to learn how to build
rockets, we know that someone is always there to help us. That's pretty
incredible. Our favorite Tutors and Homework Helpers are:

* Tutornet.com (http://www.tutornet.com)
* Tutor.com (http://www.tutor.com)
* Kids.InfoPlease.com (http://www.kids.infoplease.com)
* ePlay.com (http://www.eplay.com)

Online classes are also becoming more popular because they allow
children to learn at their own pace. ChildU has online classes available
for grades K-8 (which are available through http://www.homeschool.com)
and Class.com (http://www.class.com) has state-of-the-art online classes
for high school students. Edventures (http://www.edventures.com/) offers
interesting engineering courses where kids use Legos as their building
materials.

Homeschool.com (http://www.homeschool.com/) has a great resource called
"Click Learning." Now, instead of spending critical time searching
through hundreds of inferior and questionable sites, you and your child
can spend time learning together by exploring the best educational sites
on the Internet! Monday is Math day, Tuesday is Science day, Wednesday
is Reading & Writing, Thursday is History, Friday is Virtual Field Trips
and Saturday is Art & Music. Six days a week, Homeschool.com features a
great site--filled with educational ideas, activities and suggestions.

Online stores can help you in creating a customized, individualized
learning experience for your child. Every educational product imaginable
is available for sale on the Internet. If your children are interested
in Ancient Egypt they can find books, tapes, kits or videos on that
subject. Likewise, they can find any number of products to help them
learn more about dinosaurs, microscopes, astronomy, or whatever their
interest is. SmarterKids.com (http://www.smarterkids.com) has a good
selection of books, software and kits. World of Science
(http://www.worldofscience.com) has one of the best selections of
home-based science materials available and they have experts who are
available to answer your kid's tough science questions. PBS
(http://shop2.pbs.org/pbsvideo/default.asp) has fabulous videos to cover
every topic.

Our sponsor, eScore (http://www.eScore.com), has a great service, where
they recommend products that strengthen any weaknesses your child might
have shown on eScore's assessment test.  Homeschool.com
(http://www.homeschool.com/resources) has a good "Resource Guide" where
you can find listings of companies that sell curriculum, math, reading,
science, history and music supplies.

The Internet is also great boon for parents who are struggling to find
information and support for their special needs child. In the past,
parents had to dig for scraps of information about their child's
condition-the latest research, names of experts and links to other
families with the same condition. Now parents, teachers and children who
share an interest in these issues can be linked together in a way that
has never happened before. Our favorite special needs and gifted sites
are:

* ERIC (http://ericec.org/)
The U.S. Education Department clearinghouse for information on gifted
children and kids with disabilities.

* LD Online (http://www.ldonline.com)
Recognized as one of the Web's best special needs sites, with over a
million page views a month.

* EScore.com (http://www.escore.com)
Offers products, support and guidance for parents of gifted kids or
children with disabilities.

* ADD.org (http://www.add.org)
For children suffering with Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Successful parents and Homeschoolers are learning that the best
education is personal, and technology is only as good as the people
using it. The best way for parents to make the most of the Internet is
to learn about it and try not to be intimidated when our children know
more about it than we do! Pretty soon, they'll be setting their own
educational goals and using the Internet to get the help and information
they need. And then the Internet will be doing just what we want it to
do--helping our children succeed.

P.S. The jars are called "Canopic" jars and we found the answer at:
http://www.askjeevesforkids.com.
 

Our Sponsor this Issue: eScore.com!

eSCORE.com has been selected as the Sponsor for this issue because they
are dedicated to helping children succeed and become lifelong learners.
eSCORE.com believes that all children are geniuses, and they have
programs to help parents bring out the best in their children. For
resources and interactive learning activities designed specifically for
your child, go to: http://www.escore.com.

Skill Snapshot Assessments
eSCORE.com offers free Skill Snapshot Assessments for children up to 8th
grade. Parents receive development and learning strategies customized to
their child's needs. They also have an extensive list of State Testing
Guidelines that identify what your child should be learning. Both the
Assessment tests and the State Guidelines are available on eSCORE!'s
Education Station at
http://www.escore.com/B_Education_Station/education_station_home.jhtml

SCORE! Prep
SCORE! Prep is an in-home tutoring service for high school and middle
school students. SCORE! Prep is the fastest growing in-home tutoring
company in the nation, specializing in test preparation for the SAT,
PSAT, ACT, SAT, SSAT, ISEE, and AP exams. They also provide tutors for
most academic subjects. Find a tutor in your area at
http://www.scoreprep.com/ or by telephoning 1-800-PREP-182.

Educational Centers
SCORE! also has brick-and-mortar Educational Centers that combine
talented, academic coaches; a dynamic, motivating environment; and an
extensive, adaptive curriculum. At SCORE!, children improve their basic
academic skills and are challenged to reach their potential. Click here
to find a SCORE! Educational Center near you, http://www.scorekids.com/
or call 1-888-3SCORE4
 

Thank you for recommending us to your friends. To subscribe to this
newsletter, for free, visit our subscribe page at
http://www.edusource.com/subscribe.