Go to the Net-Mom site Jean Armour Polly is the author of Net-mom's Internet Kids and Family Yellow Pages,  2002/SIXTH Edition. Osborne McGraw-Hill  ISBN:  007219247X 578 pages, $24.99 but $17.50 at Amazon. You can purchase the book via this link.

Net-mom's Nice Sites Awards 2001

Best New Sport

Geocaching - The Official GPS Stash Hunt Site
http://www.geocaching.com/
Is there any treasure near your house? Worldwide, geocache game players have hidden small waterproof boxes filled with inexpensive gadgets and goodies. On this page, they give sketchy directions and GPS (Global Positioning System) readings to assist would-be treasure hunters. Be sure to bring an adult along to help, as well as a trinket of your own to trade.

Best Online Games

Nature Puzzles and Fun
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/fun.html
Don't miss this terrific collection of interactive animal games. Test your knowledge of Mongolian horses and culture as you race across the steppe, learn sign language with Koko the gorilla, try dogsledding 101, and check out the life-forms in the virtual tide pool. If that's not enough of a challenge, try the three-sided jigsaw puzzle.

Golden Books Fun Factory!
http://www.goldenbooks.com/fun/
If you do only one thing on this site, go to the Road to Reading Ramblin' Road trip. Make sure you take Amusement Avenue and stop at Super Sleuth. Here you'll be able to play Kid Detective. It's a detective story you make up by filling in the blanks. First, write your name on the door. Next, write in the name of four tools for your detective case. As you move through the story, there are more blanks to fill in. If you're clever enough, you'll be able to solve the mystery of the missing pooch. But don't stop there. There's so much 
to do at this site you may be here all day!

Make-A-Hero
http://www.lucaslearning.com/myth/flash/myth.html
Just choose the gender of your hero, select a skin color, and background picture. Then start clicking on the picture you just made. You'll find you can change headgear as well as upper and lower articles of clothing. Each time you change something, you'll get a little information about that item's legendary background. All done? Print your hero or heroine, then try some of the suggested activities. It's mix and match heroes, and it's fun!

Best History Sites

The Double J Files
http://www.tvokids.com/play/framesets/doublej.html
Try this fun detective game to learn about some of the inventions of the First Nations in North America. Who invented sunglasses? Who dreamed up lacrosse? Click on the right clues, and you'll discover the answers.

Medieval Women - An Interactive Exploration
http://mw.mcmaster.ca/intro.html
For a woman, life in the Middle Ages was anything but the usual image of a damsel in distress being rescued by a knight in shining armor. A woman during these times was more likely to be a nun, or someone who 
cared for the sick and poor, or a mom, raising a family. At this site, you can explore the life and times of a young woman during the fifteenth century. The journey she will take you on is filled with colorful graphics, music, and video. There is a lot to explore. If you get lost, the Timeline section will set you straight.

Best Science Sites

Science Playwiths
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/scifun/
Get your hands dirty, have fun, and learn something about science. That's what this site wants you to do. It's got intriguing sections on bubbles, kitchen chemistry, zoology, surface tension, living things, physics, magnetism, building cool stuff, and more. You'll also find almost 2,000 ideas for science fair projects. This guy is the Harry Potter of science.

Who Wants to Win $1,000,000? - The Science Game
http://education.jlab.org/million/
The questions and answers are real, but the money is not. In this version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, you answer questions to test your knowledge of science and math. As you work your way to the 
million-dollar level, you can answer the question or get some help, just like on the real television show. The questions are different each time you play.

Sky View Café
http://www.skyviewcafe.com/
Was the moon full when you were born? What constellations and planets will be visible over your house tonight? How different are the stars in another part of the world, or in another part of time? This site allows you to plug in time, location, and other selections to "see" what's up, even during the daylight hours. Check the Sample Views area to get the idea.

Best Reference/Homework Sites

Word Central
http://www.wordcentral.com/
Don't miss the winner of the year 2000 Webby Award for the best educational Web site for kids. It's a dictionary, but it's so much more than that. Just enter the hallway and look around. Straight ahead, stop in at the Daily Buzzword. Expand your vocabulary (listen to how the word is pronounced), then move to the second floor and try experimenting with words in the Science room. Turn a word into Morse code, or send it through the vowel monster to see what happens.

BBC Education - Words and Pictures
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/wordsandpictures/
Throw some sounds together in the virtual blender, mix them all up, and what does it make? If you've chosen the right sounds, it spells a word. That's how the Wordblender works. This fun-packed site also 
offers reading and writing activities you can print. If you want to practice writing letters, the magic pencil will show you how to shape them.

NoodleBib - The MLA Bibliography Composer
http://www.noodletools.com/noodlebib/index.php
Creating a bibliography for your school paper is a breeze with this free bibliography generator. A handy pull-down menu lets you select the type of reference you need to cite (book, magazine, Web page, 
etc.). A template prompts you to fill in the blanks. Once you press submit, presto-your bibliography citation is created online and in the proper format. It couldn't be easier.

Academy of American Poets
http://www.poets.org/
If the words don't sound right when you read a poem out loud, the Listening Booth will set you straight. It's an audio archive of poems, many read by their authors. But your poetry lesson doesn't need to stop there. Test your reading skills by clicking through the verses of more than 1,000 poems. There are also biographies and photos of more than 200 poets.

Best Sites for Preschoolers
Paw Island
http://www.pawisland.com/
It's shaped like a paw print, it's inhabited by dogs and cats, and it's called-can you guess?-Paw Island! We landed at Howlin' Hills, but your arrival may be at a different spot, just click on the map to explore. Wherever you go, be sure to look for (and click on) hidden smiley faces in each picture. There are online games, coloring pages, activities and lots more fun on this tropical isle.

Little Animals Activity Centre
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/laac/
Follow Foxy Dancer onto the dance floor and see if you can imitate his musical steps, then play a rhyming word game with Digby Mole (hope you like to eat worms). Mike Maker offers craft and activity suggestions, while other Little Animals hop up and down and try to get you to play with them too!

Julia's Rainbow Corner
http://www.juliasrainbowcorner.com/
We were charmed by this site, designed for pre-readers. Help Julia the octopus find her crown. Then "decorate" the day, or try the night-how many stars can you put in the sky? There is so much to do 
here, you'll want to return to this rainbow often.

Fun With Spot
http://www.funwithspot.com/
Everyone likes to play with Spot, the friendly puppy from the Eric Hill books. Be on the lookout to "spot" matching animals on the farm and count starfish and crabs on the sandy beach. At the party, there 
are so many presents! Can you find a pattern of three matching objects?

Bob the Builder
http://www.bobthebuilder.org/
Explore Bob the Builder's town and see what needs to be fixed. Maybe it's a broken vase, or radiator pipes that need to be put back together. When you're through, Bob's got other things for you to do. He might want you to help him clean up his tool shed, or help Mr. Dixon pick up packages. As long as you've got Flash, you've got the right tool to help Bob and learn something about the construction business.

I Hope this Succeeds Awards

Volunteer Match
http://www.volunteermatch.org/
Parental advisory: please preview this site, many organizations are involved. What's different about this award-winning resource? It matches volunteers with opportunities that can be temporary or ongoing. You can even become a virtual volunteer and participate without ever leaving your computer keyboard. Visit the site and you'll be hooked. We found out our local science museum wanted volunteers to help build a new door, catalog a small library, and run the planetarium show. Volunteer Match is so easy to use, and fun, too.

Petfinder
http://web2.petfinder.org/
This amazing site coordinates the availability of pets for adoption at U.S. animal shelters or rescue organizations. You can search for information about pets in your home town or across the country. Narrow your search by type of animal (dog, cat, bird, pig, horse, and more), breed, age, gender, or size. There are also terrific discussion forums for everything from emergency rescue needs to lost and found pets. (Doesn't work with Mac IE5)

Best Music and Art Sites

Continental Harmony
http://www.pbs.org/harmony/soundlounge/
The Sound Lounge will blow you away. Explore how we create and manipulate music "and how it manipulates us." In six interactive activities, you can experiment with melody, rhythm, instruments and harmony, and play the role of composer.

Lizzy Visits the Sculpture Garden
http://www.nga.gov/kids/lizzy/lizzy.html
Lizzy is dragged to the National Gallery of Art because her pesky brother Gordon has to do a school assignment. "Stretch your mind," says mom. Gordon is more interested in lunch than artistic expression. Lizzie's bored until she discovers a sculpture can speak to her. In fact, this Web site speaks to you as you read the story, exploring the sculpture garden right along with the children.

Becky's Campfire Songbook
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Glade/8851/
Every silly song you ever learned at camp is in this collection, plus a few yells, clapping games, and skits. This is a must before you go on a long road trip with your parents. They will love hearing these songs over, and over, and over, and....

Best Math Sites

Coolmath4Kids
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Glade/8851/
If you think math is the most boring thing you've ever done, you haven't seen Coolmath4Kids, the "amusement park of math and more." Try the quick and friendly fraction lessons, then stare the Number 
Monster right in the face and show him you can do it! Don't miss the tessellations, fractals, and our very favorite: the genius test! Sample question: "Some months have 31 days; how many have 28?" It's a trick question: the answer is that all of them do! That's not all-be sure to discover Spike's Game Zone with its more than 35 thinking games, plus jigsaw puzzles and counting coloring books for younger kids.

Maths File - BBC Education
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/
This math game show game is hosted by "your ancient mathematical hosts, Hypatia and Pythagorus." You can play at various levels but you need to know a little (or a LOT) about arithmetic, prime numbers, fractions, and multiples. Look for some help in Key Ideas or Tips. The Builder Bob game cracked us up. We even won a virtual Pythagorus doll in Late Delivery (about a postman in a rather odd town where all the house addresses are in algebraic terms). There are also games you can print. (Hint: Look in the Teacher's section for the answers.)

Math Cats
http://www.mathcats.com/
Practice with pattern building in "Tessellation Town," build a collection of paper polyhedrals, and try more math games as curious kittens follow you around the site. If you use the Microworlds plug-in, there are quite a few applications for you to enjoy, such as counting money, arranging polygons, and manipulating multipliers.

Best Internet and Net Safety Sites

NetSmartz Workshop
http://www.netsmartz.org/
For some online safety games that take a fresh approach, click over this site. You'll meet Nettie, who will help you improve your safe-surfing habits. Nettie knows how to avoid "WizzyWigs" like "Follow-Me Fiona," a  scary cyberstalker and sexual predator. She'll also introduce you to "Spamozoid," who sends e-mail to people she doesn't know, and "Oogle," who spies on what you do on the Internet. If you come across "Clicky," he's a good guy, so listen to what he says.

Beginner's Guides to the Net

CNET Help.com Internet
http://www.help.com/cat/3/
Browsers, chat, AOL, cable modems, e-mail, downloading-would you like to know more than you do now about these and other topics? CNET offers a terrific guide to all of them. There's a very complete tutorial on how to use Internet Explorer (there's one on Netscape, too!) plus links to free or fee lessons on everything from ICQ to (yikes) Unix Sendmail.
 

Most Likely to be banned from class

Turntables
http://www.turntables.de/start.htm
Think you'd make a phat DJ? Here's your chance to find out! Select a beat, choose a scratch, and rock on. Click to activate the lights and be sure to tell the "shouting man" what lyrics to yell. Hint: touch his sneakers to make him go backstage.

Please forward to one other friend who might enjoy Net-Mom News.But for now---- Attention everyone, the Internet is closing! Please  go play outside!

Subscribe to Net-Mom News here http://www.netmom.com/news/newsrequest.htm
Web site: http://www.netmom.com/

Getting your site 
on URLwire:
If you think your site has the right stuff, request URLwire service details and fees via Email.

Who Uses URLwire?
Editors and site reviewers looking for great sites to write about and link to. The below and hundreds of other online pubs are subscribers of URLwire. Sites announced via URLwire are featured regularly at these and other online news and reviews outlets:

Yahoo Picks of the Week!

---

About.com

---

MSNBC

---

Internet.com
Internet News Radio

---

ZDNet

---

Newslinx

---

The Kleinman REPORT

---

Dave Radin's

Chris Pirillo's 
LockerGnome

---

Yahoo! Internet Life Magazine

---

Arizona Reporter

---

Linky & Dinky/ WebBits

---

`
Cool Site of the Day

---

NewsIndex

---

j.ello report

---

WIRED

---

Internet Tourbus

---

Reuters

---

CNet

---

CBS MarketWatch

---

Traffick: The Guide
To Portals

ADVERTISEMENTS From Karen Ellis DOMINO Traditional Children's Songs, Proverbs, and Culture From the American Virgin Islands  ------------------------- From Marjan Glavac  Revised and updated  2ND Edition of  "The Busy Educator's Guide To The  World Wide Web"