9 Popular & Fun Educational Websites For Kids

Whilst most parents around the country sighed in relief that schools reopened, many have chosen to keep their children at home and homeschool a while longer. Under South Africa’s schooling regulations, the parents that have chosen to continue teaching their children at home a little longer must remember to apply to the head of their provincial education department to register their child for home schooling.

To make things a little more structured for parents, many chose to sign up with an accredited home education institution which supplies the curriculum and learning materials. Luckily, we have many local homeschooling options to choose from.

Outside of homeschooling, parents also needed to provide additional stimulation to help burn off that excess energy, both mentally as well as physically. Physical energy at school is usually burnt off during PhysEd classes or extra-curricular sports, whereas mental stimulation typically happens while interacting with peers.

Level two of the South African lockdown luckily also signified a relaxation in friends and family visits, so at least kids can visit each other and play a lot of that energy out, but what to do for further mental stimulation that does not involve video games or TV?

One of the big struggles for parents during lockdown was to find good educational content to keep kids stimulated beyond school homework. This also turned out to be one of the most valuable exercises for parents, as many of them have continued using those resources beyond kids going back to school.

These Are Some Of The More Popular & Fun Educational Websites For Kids

Gone are the days of boring old educational content. Learning these days is fun!

Kids are immersed in content through sing-alongs, games, stories, printables, crafts and even outdoor experiences in a ‘learn-then-do’ environment.

1. PBS Kids - A firm favourite for the younger kids. Definitely a website for kids: full of colour and sounds. Kids can even choose difficulty levels of games. Huge variety including sing-along songs, sorting and counting games, videos, and more. Although the video content is sadly geoblocked for United States territories (see our VPN article here), the games are accessible from anywhere.

   
   

2. CoolMath - Want your kid to be the next Elon Musk? Or even just enjoy math a little bit more, this site has been described as an “amusement park of math”. 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.

   
   

3. National Geographic Kids - I’ve yet to hear of a kid that doesn't love learning about animals or the environment. Watch animal web cams, learn interesting animal facts, see and share photos of nature, learn about different countries, try science experiments, and much more.

   
   

4. TIME for Kids - Time for kids is TIME magazine targeted at kids. Definitely aimed at the more inquisitive kids, and caters for kids up to grade 6. Find fascinating articles, photos, and videos, covering politics, the environment, entertainment, sports, health, and more.

   
   

5. How Stuff Works - Aimed at the pre-teen and possibly early teen. A great site with

   articles that answer questions about cars, culture, entertainment, science, money, technology, and more. Games, quizzes, and videos round out the learning experience.

   
   

6. Fun Brain - We like the variety on this site: math, reading, online books, and learning games are just some of the site's many treats. Fun Brain caters to preschoolers through 8th graders, and you can even view content by selecting the specific grade. It’s a good looking site, but we suggest that you help your younger kids the first time. There are a few ads that may be easy to click on.

   
   

7. Disney Jr. - Another firm favourite. Fans of Mickey and friends will love visiting Disney Jr. Games: coloring pages, and videos are a few of the highlights. The games focus on memory, hand-eye coordination, color matching, and other important skills for developing minds.

   
   

8. FarFaria - Do your kids love to listen to stories? FarFaria is basically audio books aimed at kids. It is a subscription service though, but you can buy a monthly or yearly subscription to the site. There is also a free trial for Apple and Android devices.

   
   

9. Kids Gardening - During lockdown so many people turned to gardening as a way to spend their time. Whether landscaping, weeding or even learning about and planting vegetables, gardening is a great tool for your kids to learn and to teach your kids patience. This site offers online lessons, activities and articles to your heart's content.

   
   

Your kids will love these educational websites, and will have so much fun doing it, they won’t even realise that they’re learning in the process!

If you’re still doing a lot of remote video conferencing with other homeschool groups, remember to apply our tips for using online video conferencing tools to keep your data and your loved ones safer online.