Kid site offers learning, fun and interaction

Site-seeing with Jan Perry

With school starting again, it's time to offer a couple more educational sites that get the point across by making learning fun.

It's aces in my book

http://www.acekids.com

This site features kid stuff, parent stuff and teacher stuff - all of which is well thought out and nicely presented. But since today's column is dedicated to students and their studies, I'm only covering what you'll find in the kid's collection.

You can't go to this site without being greeted by a bouncing bagel. So maybe a good place to start your child's learning experience is by helping him/her create an animated bagel beauty for your Web page. Meet Leo, Eddie and the gang and create your own character with ''The Incredible Bagel Maker.''

There are stories by and for kids. If you know a budding Neil Simon, Tom Clancy, Agatha Christie or Robert Frost, this might be where you first see them in print.

You'll want to visit the ''Kid's on the Web'' section if you have a site of your own. You can list it here. If you want a site but need inspiration, check these out. Especially sweet is one by 6-year-old Kenjamo (Kenny) who hopes you like reading his site better than he liked writing it.

How's that for online honesty?

The contest to win a Pentium Computer is over for this year; it was won by an 8-year-old. But a new contest has begun. Another computer will be awarded early next year.

Aside from the super-computer contest, you can still enter a dozen others from folks like Sue Bee Honey and Disney.

There is a games section with one page of on-site fun and a ton of games connected through links - from backgammon to Mr. Potato Head.

My favorite is called Hunt the Wumpus. It's on the ''acekids'' game page and teaches children logic and number relationships.

You can send free cards over the Web with Marlo Marmalade and JJ Jamm, check out the funny mad scientist stuff or read books online - with everything from the ''Legend of Sleepy Hollow'' to ''Paradise Lost'' and ''Peter Pan'' available at the click of a mouse.

Cool Kid's Sites is now three pages long, offering hundreds of links to kid sites all over the Web.

You may hit a few broken links, but there are way too many good ones to be too fussy about ones that are outdated.

There's a ''Sports Stuff'' section with all the main sports and many others, such as chess, Ping Pong and Frisbee. Nothing for tennis though; maybe if enough people write, they'll add one.

Now, if it sounds like this site just has too much fun and not enough actual educational material, check out the ''Research Resources'' section for links to dozens of general and topic-specific educational sites.

Education Information features all sorts of information and links to sites that educate or reward educators.

My choice, the ''Giraffe Project'' where the stories of everyday heroes are told.

Their motto explains the name of their site: It's up to us (so stick your neck out.)

And if your student gets good grades, he or she might be selected to be an ACE Homework Helper. That gives kids a chance to help others in the site's homework chat room.

At this site, you'll find hundreds of springboards for active minds.

Jan Perry is a Kentucky-based writer. Feel free to write to her at SiteSeer2k@aol.com.