Kid's Resources

Guidance for Grown-Ups. Menstuff® has gathered the following resources and web sites for kids. See also Teens, Parents, Families, Father's/Men's Rights and Seniors.

Alcohol Prevention Web Site for Middle Schoolers
Movie Ratings for Kids
Links to Kid's Web Sites

Alcohol Prevention Web Site for Middle Schoolers

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has released a new version of "The Cool Spot," the institute's web site for middle school (11- to 13-year-old) children. The website can be accessed at: www.thecoolspot.gov. “The Cool Spot” uses engaging games and graphics to deliver important messages about the risks of underage drinking and ways to resist peer pressure. Research shows that more than 4 in 10 people who start drinking before age 15 eventually become alcohol dependent. To appeal to the target audience, the web site's design incorporates animated characters based on a popular Japanese comic book style called "anime." In pre-tests of the new site, youth said they liked its appearance, found it easy to use and wanted to visit the site again to learn more.

Movie Ratings for Kids

www.kids-in-mind.com is a movie rating site: they evaluate on a scale of 1 to 10 for sex, violence and profanity. It's easy to look up the movies and scan the ratings for something in your comfort range for the kids. They say that "this is an incredible site that provides parents and other concerned adults with objective and complete information about a film's content so that they can decide, based on their own value system, whether they should watch a movie with their kids."

Links to Kid's Web Sites

Planned Parenthood's website, www.teenwire.com, is billed as a safe place in cyberspace about sexual health and relationships. www.kff.org is a Kaiser's Family Foundation site which includes good information on STDs.
The following links access family organizations and web sites:

Age Specific websites: We suggest starting with the Excite brouser, which is especially men and family friendly. Others like Netscape's Netcenter and Disney's Infoseek are catching up. These are the final destination, only the first stop. www.excite.com and especially www.excite.com/communities, gives you a private online club with shared group calendars, contact lists, a discussion area for posting and responding to messages, a photo area, and a live chat room. www.ctw.org creators of Sesame Street, (Children's Television Workshop) is an edutainment site and allows visitors to tickle Elmo on screen, send e-mail to Big Bird, go high teach or low tech. The Parents' toolbox has a host of resources on education, health, parenting, travel and many other topics including kid safe sites. www.headbone.com has plenty of kid appeal and parents should also be happy since their e-mail system lets you approve the list of e-mail addresses from which your child can receive messages. E-mail not on the approved list gets sent to your e-mail addrses so you can intercept inappropriate messages. Its chat rooms are monitored and use so-called swear filters to keep the chatter clean. www.familyeducation.com began life publishing a family-involvement newsletter which shows on its site which boasts a no-nonsense combination of news, activities and information that helps parents of children between preschool to high school and beyond. The ability to get age-appropriate information about children and their educational needs make this site a must-stop for many parents. www.talkcity.com strives to offer cilivized discourse on the Internet. You need to down-load software to chat at this site, but we found it simple and easy to do. They says their children's chat areas are monitored. That's good for kids who like to chat and goof for parents who are uncomfortable with the freewheeling discussions that predominate in chat areas sponsored by hubs like Yahoo. Talk City is a safe place for families to find support among peers or to discuss topics of interest. Others include:

Zero-To-Three, provides parents with helpful information on understanding developental assessment during what many experts believe is a crucial stage of growth. Find tips on choosing quality child care, get the latest data on early child development and check out the resource list for futher information. www.mayohealth.org
: Familyplay: 2-11 - features learning-based activities, bedtime stories, birthday ideas, and much more. The site's seachable database allows users to get help finding activities suitable for their children. Familyplay's recommendations include a companion list of materials and even some useful illustrations, as well as a short description of the educational value of the proposed activity. Share parenting tips, ask experts your toughest questions and learn how to turn ordinary family events into creative play experiences. www.familyplay.com

Preschool to first grade, educational games, www.funschool.com
Blackdog for Kids - BlackDog is a place for children to learn about the internet in a safe, concerned environment. We make every effort to ensure everything your child sees and does on BlackDog is child-safe, fun and interesting. We are planning several new features on BlackDog, including a resource area for teachers. We have begun to implement this on a small scale with a few of the games on Billy Beaver's Game Show, such as the Math Quiz. Children enjoy the various coloring books, jigsaw puzzles and the animal sounds, among others. blackdog4kids.com/ (6/00)

Children Now is a nonpartisan, independent voice for children, working to translate the nation's commitment to children and families into action. Recognized nationally for its policy expertise and up-to-date information on the status of children, Children Now uses communications strategies to reach parents, lawmakers, citizens, business, media and community leaders, creating attention and generating positive change on behalf of children. Founded in 1988, Children Now is a national organization with special depth in California. www.childrennow.org/links/links-general.html (2/01)
Fun-Attic, Inc., Your Family Fun Place - A mother lode of unique outdoor games, toys for active play and innovative sporting goods. If you need a creative gift for someone who loves action, then Fun-Attic is the spot for Sports and Toys. Do you want to introduce a child to sports in a fun non-threatening way? That’s our specialty. Numerous outdoor recreation games can be played in the school yard, back yard or almost anywhere. Young children will develop important skills such as timing and hand-eye coordination while advanced players will enjoy more challenging games. Fun-Attic, Inc.,12622 Kindy Drive, Gowen, MI 49326, or 616.559.3642 or www.funattic.com (12/14)
PBS - It’s My Life! A website for kids ages 9 to 12, is a safe and secure internet environment where kids can share stories, get advice from peers and adult experts, and generally discuss their lives. pbskids.org/itsmylife/

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Flowers and pricker bushes grow out of the same dirt. Really Important Stuff My Kids Have Taught Me

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