Interactive Learning websites for kids can be fun and educational. Educational websites for kids aren’t always about reading, writing, math, and science. There are some fun educational websites for kids that offer interactive games, videos, and more to help encourage learning. Kids learn better when they have a chance to discover things.
There are dozens of websites for kids and adults that offer kids educational tools and games. These interactive websites improve the learning process by providing fun using online tools. The following list presents a variety of interactive websites that can help your child’s learning experience.
Sesame Street
Younger children will love everything about Sesame Street’s online home. They can watch hundreds of the show’s video clips and play games that help them learn letters, animal sounds, rhymes, colors, and more.2
Scholastic
Scholastic is one of the more unique educational websites for kids. This site, from the publishers of the educational magazines you find in schools, contains activities organized by grade level. Kids from pre-K all the way up to high school can find learning activities geared toward them.
CoolMath
CoolMath.com calls itself “an amusement park of math and more.” Children can play online math games that help them with addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, money, and more. CoolMath is geared toward ages 13 and up, but sister site CoolMath4Kids.com is appropriate for ages 3 through 12. CoolMath Games offers “brain training” games for all ages.5
TIME for Kids
From the publishers of TIME magazine, TIMEforKids.com is loaded with fascinating articles, photos, and videos, covering politics, the environment, entertainment, sports, health, and more. TIME for Kids isn’t as interactive as most of the other sites on this list, but it tackles subjects that are in the news in a kid-friendly way.
ABCmouse.com
ABCmouse.com calls itself the most comprehensive learning site on Earth for kids ages 2 to 7. Your kiddos can read or listen to books and music, play games, and color as they accelerate through customizable learning levels designed by teachers and experts. The educational website even tracks each child’s progress as he or she learns. You can try out the site for free for a month; after that, the monthly subscription fee is $9.95.
Adventure Academy
Owned by Age of Learning, the same company that created ABCmouse, this app immerses kids in a virtual academy where they can learn, discover and play. It’s geared toward kids ages 8-13, and they can learn subjects like social studies, language arts, math, and science. Just like ABCmouse, kids earn coins to shop for incentives and have the ability to play with friends or make new ones. Kids can also fully personalize their avatars and “homes.” You can also try out Adventure Academy for free for 30 days, and after that, it’s $9.99 each month.
ReadingIQ
This app is like having your very own library right at your fingertips. Kids ages 2-12 have access to over 7,000 books, including titles by Disney, National Geographic Kids, Highlights, Boxcar Children, and more. Kids can choose from picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, in addition to funny jokes and songbooks. All the books are available on computers, tablets, and phones. Parents can track their child’s progress, and early readers are able to get guided reading help for their stories. You can try the service for free for 30 days, then pay $7.99 a month after that.
Highlights
Highlights is so much more than a magazine for kids (although we have loved that magazine for years). It’s also a place to get tons of educational resources, including activity and learning workbooks, arts and crafts supplies, science kits, and more. It even offers subscriptions for kids called Clubs, and every few weeks kids will receive a new kit from that collection. Clubs include Mathmania, Top Secret Adventures, and various puzzle clubs. There’s one for babies and toddlers, too, called Let’s Grow! Many of the products and subscriptions are heavily discounted at the moment, so be sure to check them out.
Wonderopolis
A word of caution: this website is addictive no matter what age you are. Learning is basically pointless when you don’t care about the material being fed to you, especially if you’re not being graded. Wonderopolis makes you forget learning was ever an ordeal by providing daily “wonders” through videos and easy-to-read stories. These wonders are real questions asked by real kids around the world, and they include interesting thoughts such as, “What Brings a Tear to Your Eye?” and, “How Do Mirrors Work?”
Miss Spell’s Class
In some ways, learning how to spell better doesn’t make sense. You’re really just learning how to remember the correct spelling, and it’s more about memorization and luck than acquiring a tangible skill. That’s why most websites that are geared toward spelling fall short. The kids aren’t really learning anything—they’re just memorizing. That’s why people love Miss Spell’s class, a facet of Dictionary.com. It’s a simple spelling test, but it doesn’t require you to actually spell anything. You go down a list of words and determine when something is spelled incorrectly. This allows children to learn better reading comprehension skills on top of basic spelling. There’s even an iPhone app you can download.
Starfall
Since 2002, Starfall has been helping kids learn how to read and become better readers through fun and interactive exercises. You can choose which level of reading you’re at (basic alphabet, starting to read, having fun with reading, etc.) and even pick categories that match your interest. Like magic? You can select the magician category and play exercises that help you learn words and pronunciations that revolve around a magic show. It’s simple, targeted, and effective at helping kids cultivate reading skills.
National Geographic Kids
One of my fondest school memories is when we would watch National Geographic videos for what felt like hours. Even though I now realize that my teachers did this in order to take a break from dealing with insane children, I can’t help but hold National Geographic in high regard for providing relevant and inspirational information via a kid-friendly format, and their website does this in spades. Nat Geo Kids uses tons of fun games, interesting videos, puzzles, and cool photos to make the world feel like a smaller, exciting place.
Funbrain
If you’re just looking for a large collection and variety of fun games, then introduce your kids to Funbrain. This website is packed with games, comics, reading tools, and more that are all geared toward being just as entertaining as they are useful for learning.
Conclusion
There are a number of educational websites out there designed for kids and aimed at helping them learn more about the world around them. Some of these kids learning websites and interactive websites for kids even have games that can help with basic skills like addition, spelling, reading, writing, and more. These kids learning websites are also great tools to help kids get ready for the next level when they are eventually heading off to school.