AgeNet
AgeNet is an information and referral network designed to bridge the gap between aging parents and adult children by providing health, legal, financial, insurance, housing, and caregiver information. Find current news articles here, including medical breakthroughs. There are geriatric drug reviews, an Ask a Phamacist column, and an occupational therapist's column with insights on how to keep a home safe and secure for aging adults. An online Geriatric Medication Assessment form gives patients a chance to consult an expert with specific experience in geriatric pharmacy. Search here for lawyers, physicians, and housing specifically serving older adults. Find out about retirement communities, assisted living, and other housing alternatives; home health agencies and care management; and hospice and bereavement services. There is also a shopping area with products that promote independence, assist older adults with daily activities, and enhance the quality of life for older adults and their families.
http://www.agenet.com

Childfun Early Childhood Education Center
This online community has a wealth of information for parents, child care providers, early childhood educators, and anyone who works with children. The hundreds of pages of arts and crafts ideas, curriculum plans, and other activities will entertain and educate kids. In addition there are weekly columns, a newsletter, contests, safety checklists, and menu ideas. Helpful articles on parenting cover such subjects as how to help your child become a better reader and games older children can play with younger siblings. Through mailing lists, a message board, and live chats, members can share insights and lend support to one another. There are special resources for working moms, and shopping links to find books, toys, software, and other items for kids.
http://www.childfun.com/

Teen Help - Lizweb
This web page was started by a teen who wants to help others. There are connections here for teens with serious problems. Teens who are pregnant, have run away, are addicted to drugs and alcohol, are depressed or thinking about suicide, have been abused, have an eating disorder, or have serious illnesses or disabilities can find help here. Here teens also have a place to share their opinions and their personal stories.
http://www.mindspring.com/~ashe/

PlanetPals
Here's an entertaining site for kids where they can learn about our universe. Here kids can join a club and meet friends via message boards, find pen pans, and send electronic greeting cards and stickers. The Planet Pals are colorful characters with names like Earthman, Sunny Ray, Starbright, H20, Fluffy (a cloud), and Planet-Terri. They recite rhymes and help kids learn - and they will respond to email. Young kids will have lots of fun here with the crafts projects, card tricks, games, and contests. They can learn about ecology, weather, exotic animals, and the food chain by means of a weather quiz, Earth fast facts, a recycling kit, recycling crafts, an eco-dictionary, and a book list. There are also Internet safety rules for kids, and a dictionary of Internet slang and smileys. Parents and teachers are welcomed too, and may enjoy reading about the projects being done in various schools.
http://www.planetpals.com

New Choices Online - News and Features for People Over 50
New Choices Online is an online community for Internet-savvy mature adults. The site offers news features relevant to those over 50, such as travel, health and fitness, and personal finance, plus advice for those seeking a second career. There are also interactive features like chat rooms and member forums.


The Labor of Love
The Labor of Love is a pregnancy and parenting community where parents and parents-to-be can access Internet parenting resources and meet each other to share ideas and advice. Features include a pregnancy and parenting search engine with over 1600 links to useful information; a searchable pen pal database with over 500 listings; and a searchable collection of over 160 birth stories from women around the world. Parents can publish their writings in an online prose and poetry forum, post to over 50 message boards, or show off their children in the monthly photo contest. Family Room Online Magazine is written by parent writers, and has tips and hints for parents; there is also a section with week-by-week pregnancy journals, and a bookstore.
http://www.thelaboroflove.com

Happy Dots!
Remember those kids' pictures where you connect the dots? For greeting cards, party invitations and favors, and more - these dots are really happy! Larry Parr started this business from an idea he had when he was only eight years old.
http://www.happydots.com

Whootie Owl's Stories to Grow By
This fairytale site features a collection of folk and fairytales, all kid-tested and kid-approved, that emphasize themes of positive human behavior (courage, kindness, friendship, etc.). The stories are sorted by type (adventure, animal tales, riddles, etc.), the qualities they emphasize (cooperation, creative thinking, honesty, respect for nature, etc.), and the country or people that originated them. At the end of each story are questions; kids can send in their own thoughts and see what other kids had to say. Whootie's Playhouse has games with fairytale themes. Some of Whootie Owl's stories are available on audiocassette.
http://www.storiestogrowby.com

Santa's Secret Village at the North Pole
In Santa's Secret Village, children of all ages can send email to Santa and receive a reply, visit Santa's Workshop to see the elves making toys, print out story pages to color, visit Santa's reindeer, and try out recipes from Mrs. Claus' Kitchen. This wonderful family site will involve children in the excitement of Christmas. http://www.northpole.com

Bright Futures
Bright Futures is a total wellness guide for parents, physicians, and other child health professionals. The idea behind this program is for physicians and parents to work together for a child's overall well-being, including physical and mental health, cognitive development, and social relationships. This attractively-designed website offers health tips and a look at the appropriate levels of social and academic skills for children from birth to age 21. There are guidelines on children's health and development in four sections: infancy (0-12 months), early childhood (1-5 years), middle childhood (5-11 years) and adolescence (11-21 years). In each section there is information about injury and illness prevention, nutrition, mental health, oral health, promotion of social competence and school achievement, family relationships, sexuality education, preventing substance abuse, community interaction, and cultural and economic forces that affect the child and family. The goal of Bright Futures is to foster cooperation among health professionals and the child, family, and community.
http://www.brightfutures.org

Watch Me!
If you have kids in daycare, do you ever worry about them? Do you wish you could peek in on them during the day? Watch Me! allows parents to use the Internet to share in their children's day. Cameras located within a participating child care center send snapshots to a security-controlled web page. Parents, from home, work, or on the road, can access the page at any time using password codes and a standard web browser. Because Watch Me! is based on the Internet, parents need no special software, and the service can be provided at a reasonable cost. The technology can broaden the partnership between childcare centers and parents. In addition to viewing their children, parents can see a schedule for the day, read announcements, check an events calendar, and take part in live chats. Visit this web page to see a sample of how the program works.
http://www.watch-me.com

Disney.com
This is Disney's website for family fun. Here you can download and enjoy audio clips of classic soundtracks from Walt Disney Records, or visit the Story Time section where kids can read Mother Goose and other timeless tales. You can plan family adventure vacations with the Disney Vacation Club, taking a virtual tour at the web page and then making reservations online. In the Rocketman section, you can view actual pictures of the Red Planet, play intergalactic games, and test your knowledge about Mars. The online store has Disney-themed toys and other gifts. Kids can sign up for a free 30-day subscription to Disney¬s Daily Blast, an online service especially for them, and enjoy more than 100 activities each day, including educational games, comics, interactive stories, and more. At this website you can also keep up-to-date on video releases of Disney films, and get TV schedules for the Disney Channel.
http://www.disney.com/index.html

The Difference
The purpose of this website is to help adoptees and their birth families reunite. Through this site, people looking for each other can find out how to use the Internet to help their search. There are links to free reunion registries and bulletin boards, adoption support groups, adoption newsgroups, and general people finder directories. Stories of searchers, poetry, and tales of happy reunions are here, along with a chat room and message board where people can share their experiences. News articles report the status of current adoption laws, policies on disclosure of information, and reform initiatives.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/6743/

The Natural Child Project
The Natural Child Project has articles and advice on "parenting and education that respects children." The authors' vision is "a world in which all children are treated with dignity, respect, understanding, and compassion." Some helpful features of the site are a Parenting Advice Column where readers can send in questions, a list of World Wide Web resources for families, articles on homeschooling, a list of recommended books, and a classified ads section. The Global Children's Art Gallery, designed and maintained for the site by a teenager, exhibits pictures from children age 1 to 12 from around the world. There are some interesting quotes on the subject of children by famous people such as Princess Diana ("The biggest disease this world suffers from is people feeling unloved") and Oscar Wilde ("The best way to make children good is to make them happy").
http://www.naturalchild.com/

Take Your Children on the Internet Week
Take Your Children on the Internet (TYCOTI) Week is dedicated to getting children of all ages online. Activities include Build Your Own Home Page, an interactive story, World Wide Web Scavenger Hunts and Write Your Own Scary Story.
http://www.witi.org/TYCOTI/

The Kid's Channel
This Java-enabled children's page has some special effects for Halloween. Halloween animated .gifs, a sound of howling wind, and a scarey story help bring in the holiday. Kids will also find year-'round fun here, with games, online coloring, a Java joke banner, and arts and crafts projects. Young visitors are especially encouraged to send in original stories and artwork, which are published on the site and entered in the monthly art contest. Kids can learn here how to help their local ecology by creating a backyard habitat and registering it with the National Wildlife Federation. They can also send customized digital postcards to friends in 13 languages. The Kid's Channel was created by a family of six as a safe place for kids to enjoy the Internet.
http://members.tripod.com/~kid_channel/index.htm

The WholeFamily Center
This interactive site, geared to "everyone in every family," tackles sensitive issues such as infertility, anorexia, divorce, and teen suicide with honesty and common sense. Its marriage, parenting, and kid/teen centers use family drama (in RealAudio or text with photos) to portray common family problems. Users are invited to contribute opinions; each drama concludes with commentary from a psychologist. An online magazine, The Fishbowl, has stories, poems and articles written by parents, kids and professionals. An advice column, "Liz Tells All", gives straightforward feedback, emphasizing traditional values. Users can contribute to an ongoing soap opera about a "blended" family. The website also refers families to professional services such as counseling and parenting classes.
http://www.wholefamily.com

Convomania
Convomania is a place for seriously ill and disabled children on the Internet, a hangout for kids who may be socially isolated because of illness or disability. Here the kids can make friends with kids in similar life situations. "Convomaniacs" are seeking straight talk about tough issues, and not necessarily from doctors or parents. Here kids can get advice and encouragement from each other. The chat room has monitored chats scheduled throughout the day. Kids can also sign up for Maniax, an email discussion group. A yearbook displays pictures and bios of the most active participants, so everyone can get to know each other. There's a message board with some interesting discussions. A virtual exhibit hall displays thematic drawings by kids. There are other areas, too, with more fun and surprises.


Another Empty Bottle
Current studies show that about 1 in 10 people in the United States suffers from a drinking problem. That means that most of us know an alcoholic. It could be a family member, a friend, or co-worker. The "Empty Bottle" symbolizes how emptiness and hopelessness can enter someone's life when a loved one suffers from alcoholism. Another Empty Bottle is a site for the friends and families of alcoholics to share their common experiences. It includes links, information, help groups, hotlines and stories related to alcoholism. All correspondence is confidential.
http://members.aol.com/emptybttle

National Geographic for Kids
This National Geographic website for kids includes National Geographic's WORLD magazine and many other pages to explore. Here children can explore the interactive Fantastic Forest, learn about the endangered Siberian tiger, look into the geysers of Yellowstone National Park, find ghosts in a 14th Century British castle, or learn the science behind lightning. The kids can also become Junior Members of the National Geographic Society, join the GeoMail Pen Pal Network, and take the GeoBee Quiz to test their geography knowledge. Look here too for upcoming episodes of National Geographic's "Really Wild Animals" TV show. A section called Hot Spots for Kids recommends appropriate links for further exploration.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/

Kid'n Around
Kid'n Around is an e-zine for kids with stories, sports articles, science projects, craft ideas, games, and more. Each issue takes a theme and explores it from many different angles. For example, in the issue that has songs as a common thread, the Science section has experiments in the properties of sound; Made by Kids shows ways to create homemade musical instruments; the Sports section presents "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"; Book Worm introduces kids to a songbook and a biography of composer Scott Joplin; and kids learn about the songs of the humpback whale and other animals in Chew on This. Young readers can have fun in many ways while incidentally learning about a subject in depth. The ezine also has an advice column, a place for kids to Speak Out, and a section for grownups.
http://www.kidnaround.com/

Ancestry HomeTown
If you're interested in your family tree, Ancestry Home Town is a great place to visit for genealogy courses, news, FAQs, and software. From this website you can search free genealogical, historical, and biographical databases, or subscribe to research library services. Informative columns explain how to research your own family history; or if you prefer to hire a professional, you can find one here. You can also shop for books and other geneaology-related products, place classified ads, and find links to other genealogy sites. Freebies here include a genealogy CD-ROM, software, and magazines.
http://www.ancestry.com

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