Our pick of the 10 best educational websites for children that aim to make learning fun and interactive.
Check out these 10 favorites to aid in the development of the young curious mini-minds in your family.
1) Curious World
Curious World is owned by Houghton, Mifflin and Harcourt, who offer a 7 day free trial period allowing you to assess its suitability to your circumstances.
It is available on iPad, iPhone for operating systems iOS8 and beyond, and from the Google Play Store for Android tablets and smartphones.
Important early learning initiatives
Curious World is designed to prepare young children for kindergarten and pre-school activities and learning. Youngsters learn simple arithmetic calculations and reading development skills, as well as important social skills. An advanced feature, unique to Curious World, is the flashcards that are customizable to your child’s age and the subject area you want them to learn. There is a list of activity options from a pull down menu offering activities that can be done anywhere, any time.
They offer a world of educational videos, games, and books tied to early learning curriculum, expertly selected to engage young minds. Create a profile for your child and the Curious World app will deliver recommended content for reading, playing, and watching. Their library is always growing, dding new experiences suited for your child every week.
Track their progress
You can track progress from literacy and creative expression to science and math. Curious World offers games, books, and videos that encourage early learning. Each game, book, and video is associated with 8 key learning areas so you can be sure your child is enjoying a balanced diet of educational experiences, as you track their favorites. You can login to your Dashboard to see how many books, games, and videos each child has played. The Dashboard displays your child’s Most Played titles so you can see what they enjoy!
2) HowStuffWorks.com
An amazing and engaging encyclopedia of the world, new and old, for the slightly older children in your family, with good illustrations and clear text. Parental guidance is recommended if children under 10 years old peruse the various ‘STUFF’ sites!
HowStuffWorks is an Aladdin’s cave for the curious and keen to learn youngster, with the on-site ability to search for subjects of interest.
Learning Apps
Apps exist for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Their learning apps have been downloaded millions of times by fans throughout the world.
For more details of how to access data for the devices below, via iTunes and Play Store go to:
How Stuff Works – Video Learning Links
Videos and popular YouTube channels reveal everything from why girls supposedly like horses to why we get brain freeze (courtesy of BrainStuff).
We give below their YouTube channels:
Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know
Audio Podcasts
Audio podcasts on iTunes total nearly 10 million downloads a month, including some of the most popular titles, such as Stuff You Should Know and Stuff You Missed in History Class.
You can also find their shows on iHeartRadio and through the iHeartRadio apps.
The Stuff Family of Sites:
The ‘Stuff’ websites and social platforms give you a deeper insight from favorite show hosts, with new websites and social connections:
HowStuffWorks: Facebook, Twitter, Google+ , Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram
Stuff You Should Know: Facebook, Twitter, , Pinterest, instagram
Stuff You Missed in History Class: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest
Stuff to Blow Your Mind: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr
BrainStuff: Facebook, Twitter, Google+
Car Stuff: Facebook, Twitter, Google+
FuturisticThinking : Facebook, Twitter, Google+
Stuff of Genius: Facebook, Twitter, Google+
3) National Graphic Kids
If your child has ever asked you a question you could not answer, like for example, “What is baby hippo called?”, you probably, like me, felt a little disconcerted. Luckily, ‘National Geographic Kids’ has the answer! Children can watch videos, play games, and best of all, learn about animals, nature, about the presenters of nature programs and the world around them.
Your kids can also learn about science, history, places, games and entertainment. There is even a Kids Club they can subscribe to.
They can discover unique facts about their bodies, developing countries, animals and hundreds of other fascinating facts.
OTHER AREAS OF INTEREST INCLUDE:
- About kings and queens of Europe
- Space travel
- Ancient Greek myths
- Collecting Wild Life stickers
4) ABC Mouse – Early Learning Academy for children aged 2 – 7
They claim to be the most comprehensive learning site on Earth for kids ages 2 to 7. Your children can read books and listen to music, play games and color as they work through customizable learning levels designed by teachers and experts. The site even tracks your child’s progress as they learn. You can try out the site for free for a month. If you wish to subscribe and join the monthly subscription fee ( at the time of editing this post) is under $10 monthly. However ABC Mouse is free for teachers.
8 Academic learning Levels
The eight-level-learning-path presents the full ABCmouse curriculum in a carefully designed program of more than 650 lessons on eight levels. As students complete each lesson, they are guided to the next one and are motivated to continue learning by the ABCmouse Tickets and Rewards System.
More than 650 lessons – many different ways to learn
The lessons of the Step-by-Step Learning Path consist of books, puzzles, games, songs, art activities, instructional videos and printables that relate to specific topics. The thousands of educational activities on ABCmouse make learning fun and exciting for students, teachers, and parents.
ABC Mouse supports the Common Core Standards of learning
There are more than 7,000 learning activities
Full on-line curriculum for desktops and mobile devices
Their services are used in over 65,000 classrooms
Some of the learning topics covered feature
- Reading and Writing
- Mathematics
- Science and Health
- Social Studies
- Art and Music
- Library
- Videos
- Games and Puzzles
READING
ABCmouse’s reading curriculum helps children to quickly learn the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, as well as learn to instantly recognize the sight words that are most important for beginning readers. Your students will learn to love to read with our hundreds of fables, fairy tales, nonfiction books, and more.
The Reading Curriculum Includes:
- Concepts of Print
- Phonemic Awareness
- Oral Language
- Phonics
- Word Families
- Sight Words
- And more
Learning through Art
With many different types of art activities—including coloring pages, dot-to-dots, paint-by-numbers, traceables, and printables—ABCmouse helps children learn reading, mathematics, and other subjects while they are expressing themselves artistically.
Learning through Songs
ABCmouse’s music collection features original songs about every letter of the alphabet as well as newly produced and recorded children’s classics. The variety of music on the site not only serves to reinforce the other curriculum subjects but also to introduce children to a range of musical styles and themes. Your students will love to sing along!
Learning through Games
ABCmouse includes hundreds of games and interactive learning activities, each designed to be fun and educational at the same time. Your students can play games to learn the alphabet, to learn new words, to learn about numbers and shapes, and even to learn about the planets! Since all ABCmouse games include voiced instructions, they are easy for young children to learn and play.
The World Around Us
The World Around Us curriculum on ABCmouse helps children understand the things they see and experience every day, covering social studies, science, and health.
The World Around Us Curriculum Includes:
- The body and health
- Occupations
- Plants and Animals
- Weather and Seasons
- Geography
- Earth and the Solar System
- And much more !
5) Jump Start For Kids – learning portal for babies and children 3 to 9 years old.
Presented by Jumpstart Games Inc, it offers a multitude of fun learning activities for all ages, via a low cost monthly subscription service.
From parenting tips and ideas to free printable worksheets and fun activities, such as pre- school, kindergarten, first to fifth grade activities for kids, JumpStart has it all!
Their reservoir of kid-friendly resources is the perfect blend of fun and learning. They do their best to put together information that you will find useful – whether it’s listing winter indoor activities for your kids, decorating for the holiday season, or even picking the right gifts for Christmas.
Activities covering subjects such as science, art, craft, arithmetic, English and reading cater for:
- Babies
- Toddlers
- Kids
- 3 Year olds
- 4 Year olds
- 5 Year olds
- 6 Year olds
- 7 Year olds
- 8 Year olds
- 9 Year olds
So brace yourselves for an exciting journey into learning and games. Visit their site and browse through their collections. We’re sure you’ll find something of great interest and benefit!
6) The KIDZ Page
Established in 1998 and its resources are FREE at the time of writing this blog. It has more than 5,000 pages of learning games and related activities. Online coloring pages, jigsaw puzzles and word games are just a few sections of this massive site. Each holiday also has its own section of activities and games to enjoy with your children. Search for :
- 5000 pages of Fun
- 1500 Jigsaw Puzzles
- 900 Colouring Pages
- 2000 pieces of Kids Clip Art
- 1 to 2 new games added daily
- 100s of Learning Games
- Numerous Kids Online Toys
- Movies and stories galore
- 100s of Online printable worksheets and learning games
7) KIDS KNOW IT – The totally FREE kids learning network!
The KidsKnowIt Network was born in the Summer of 1998, when a children’s educator began a classroom project for his students. Frustrated with the lack of quality educational websites at the dawn of the Internet, this teacher set out to build his own.
Today, 18 years later, the KidsKnowIt Network provides free access to our educational tools to tens of million of visitors every single month. From around the globe these children come because they yearn to learn.
The KidsKnowIt Network is your (or your student’s) FREE portal into the many exciting facets that make up our World and the Universe. From the human heart, to the moons of Jupiter you will find it all on the KidsKnowIt Network. Many Free Educational Websites.
Their fun and educational games, activities, worksheets, free online classes, and much much more, make learning fun. The KidsKnowIt Network provide accurate, updated (volunteers from a number of universities, and also from NASA, graciously give of their time to help insure that the information in their websites is accurate.) and fun information for you, the teacher, and your student, or for mom and dad and their children.
Their mission is to provide children around the world with an absolutely free educational resource. A way to learn, while also having fun. We believe that the best resources should not be reserved for those who can afford them, but should be made available to everyone, everywhere, without cost. Using the power of the Internet, this goal is possible.
They aim to create fun and interactive learning modules that can be utilized by teachers, parents, and home tutors to enhance their learning environments, and increase the interest and attentiveness of their learners.
Best of all,YOU NEVER PAY FOR ANYTHING!!
This is one of the Internets most popular learning websites since 1998.
They strive to provide and distribute completely FREE of charge the highest quality education activities, products and movies, music, kids games, articles, text books, learning programs, lesson plans and worksheets.
Some of the featured learning centers:
- Dinosaur database
- Biology word search
- Spelling Games
- Animal database
- FREE educational movies
- Discovering the Human Body
- Geology
- Mathematics
- Music
- Art
- Explore the solar system – FREE night sky map
- Chemistry for the young
- Learn History – Prehistoric to Modern time
- Video Tutorial of how to make your own dinosaur (you can choose your favorite dinosaur type)
- Lots of FREE educational movies
- Spelling Tutorials
- FREE posters
- Educational songs
- FREE homework help
8) FUNBRAIN
Since the late 90s, kids, teachers, librarians, and parents have enthusiastically turned to Funbrain for its FREE educational games, online books, and comics. Funbrain, created for kids ages preschool through grade 8, offers more than 100 fun, interactive games that develop skills in math, reading, and literacy. Plus, kids can read a variety of popular books and comics on the site, including Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Amelia Writes Again, and Brewster Rocket. Teachers and librarians can confidently encourage students to use Funbrain during their free time in class, assured that kids will enjoy an educational, safe online learning experience. Funbrain’s games help students build on what they have learned in class and acquire new skills in reading, math, and problem solving.
Parents can trust Funbrain to deliver a fun and safe experience for even the youngest children.
The PLAYGROUND (a separate site for pre-school children, run by FunBrain) helps parents introduce their toddlers to the Internet and teaches them how to manipulate the mouse and keyboard.
Selected by FamilyFun magazine as one of the top ten websites for kids, Funbrain is committed to providing a safe gaming environment that bridges learning and entertainment.(Funbrain asserts that they never collects personally identifiable information from kids.)
9) Sesame Street
123 Sesame Street is a non profit organization whose mission is to help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder!
Their recipe for success is combining a curriculum that addresses children’s essential developmental needs with the sophisticated use of media and a large dose of fun!
Younger children will love everything about Sesame Street’s online home. They can choose from hundreds of the show’s video clips and play games that help them learn letters, animal sounds, rhymes and colors.
Typical areas of interest and entertainment include…
- Elmo and the Beanstalk and Words are everywhere, Snuffy’s Magic Garden, Magic Numbers . Muppet presentations such as Play Date With Abby.
- Artmaker fun tutorials with numerous free coloring pages and worksheets.
- Loads of fun Muppets videos
- Playlists consist of videos such as Nature Studies, celebrating the seasons with your child, exploring the great outdoors, teach your child to care for a plant in a pot, video fun tips by one of the Muppet characters on building healthy oral hygiene for your child. Buzz Aldrin talks about his experience in space.
10) Discovery Kids
Everybody has at some time watched awe inspiring programs on the DISCOVERY CHANNEL. Well, now there is a spin-off created exclusively for children. Has your child ever asked any of the following questions?
What would happen if there were no trees?
When and why did dinosaurs become extinct?
What alien plants have been discovered by Nasa’s space missions?
Now, you can quickly get the answers to these questions and many more facts your kids can learn on the Discovery Channel’s site for children. Games, puzzles, activities and quizzes get kids involved in learning something new without it feeling like work.
Your kids can explore for FREE (at the time of writing this blog) the following:
-
Science issues
- Dinosaurs
- Animals
- Sharks
- Space
- Time
- Pets
- Sports
- Holidays
- Food
- Health
- History
We hope you enjoyed reading about our recommended 10 Fun ways to help fill your child’s day and improve their understanding of the world and develop great skills for the years ahead. We are confident you and your child will interact to great advantage on many of these great educational sites.
For a deeper, more personal, interaction with your child why not see what your child’s beautiful, FULLY personalized, story book would look like. Preview your child’s book online HERE and then enter their first name, road name, house number and even a personal message and see their face light up with delight when they open the package!
Recent Comments