Hey Kids!
Check out these cool websites for games, activities and ideas!

You'll find all your favorite public television characters at this site. pbskids.org. Choose from games, stories, music or coloring to start having fun with Caillou, the Berenstain Bears, Barney and Clifford the big red dog. This is a good site for younger kids.

Visit www.kidsites.com if you want to find fun stuff to do.  The site is divided into educational, fun and grown up sections.  In the educational section there are topics like dinosaurs with coloring sheets, games and activities.  You can also find pages on math, art and many more topics.  The fun section has a button for coloring pages where you can make your own alphabet book or color the Berenstain Bears.  The grown up section has pages for parents and teachers and includes worksheets for students, parenting tips and pediatric health information.

Are you a puzzle nut?  Then you’ll love www.jigzone.com.  This site has puzzles for all ages and all interests from six pieces to 247 pieces and you solve them right on your computer screen.  There’s a new puzzle each day plus a library of hundreds more.  Themes are varied—fish, horses, flowers, scenery.  You can upload your own puzzles and share them with friends.  You can track your solve time too.

If you are eight years old or older, you will enjoy visiting www.bam.gov/index.html.  This site sponsored by the U.S. Center for Disease Control is a fun way to learn about health.  It offers sections on diseases, physical activity, nutrition and more.  Each section features a cartoon kid “xpert” who answers questions from a kid perspective.  There are recipes, interactive games and inspiring advice for kids who want to live healthy lives.

"Up in the Air” is the theme for the 2009 Celebrating Youth!, Wisconsin Youth Company’s annual event to showcase the achievements of young people.  Celebrating Youth! will be at the Monona Terrace, January 18, 2009.  The following websites will help you learn about all aspects of being “up in the air” from kites to rockets.

An introductory site for kite flying is http://www.gombergkites.com/howgen.html.  This site has easy to follow instructions on how to fly standard kites and stunt kites and safety rules for flying your kite.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a website for kids that is chock full of interactive games and loads of information about space and space travel.  You can visit with “Toy Story” star Buzz Lightyear and play a math game where you help him load the space shuttle.  You can learn about the space station and explore space with cartoon robot Wall-E.  Go to http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov.

Another fun site is www.theweatherchannelkids.com.  What does weather have to do with being “up in the air?”  How about wind?  Or flying through the air on a snowboard?  This site has lots of information about weather including a glossary and encyclopedia in the weather ed section.  It has lots of games, puzzles and mazes all related to weather.  It has a severe weather challenge where you are in charge of a severe weather center and must help people prepare for the coming storm.  You can watch athletes “catch air” as they ski, sail, surf, snowboard and mountain bike at the “Cool Clips” section.