Great Websites to Click onto
CHILDREN'S
TV
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The Big Breakfast
bigbreakfast.channel4.com
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Life may start at seven, but if you are not
up that early you can always catch up on your
fill of the Big Breakfast on this site. It has
profiles of and interviews with the presenters
and of course a run-down of what is going to
be on the show this week. There are wallpapers
and sounds to download, and you can take part
by submitting your bulldog photos or your very
own vital, and totally useless, statistic. The
only thing it lacks is footage of the actual
shows.
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Blue Peter
www.bbc.co.uk/bluepeter
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There isn't a person in this land who doesn't
have memories of good old Blue Peter. But
while the show has been accused of being out
of touch, the BBC has brought into the
Internet age with its own site. Sadly, this is
a fairly bog standard site. Yes, it is
colourful, packed with information and
throwing games and competitions around like
there was no tomorrow. But then it doesn't
really get the imagination going - something a
kids programme should.
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The Simpsons
www.margsimpson.com/simpsons/simpsons.htm
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Don't you just love the Simpsons? If you
can't do without your daily dose of the show,
then you should visit this site. It opens with
a huge map of Springfield and you can then
explore the various settings, Bart and Lisa's
School, Moe's Bar, the Kwik-E Mart and of
course the Simpson household itself. In each
place you will find details of the characters
themselves, as well as taking a test in the
Simpson's to help Bart get out of Fourth
Grade.
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Teletubbies
www.bbc.co.uk/education/teletubbies
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Eh-oh! What exactly is the attraction of
these fat little characters for small
children? Perhaps with the exception of
students most adults find them truly awful,
but the fascination they exert on small
children cannot be underestimated. This BBC
Education website is built around activities
and games you can do with your child on the
PC, such a jigsaws, games of hide and seek and
adjusting the Tubby Control Panel so that it
makes animal noises. You can even print out
pictures of the teletubbies to colour
in.
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CITV
www.citv.co.uk
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All the ITV shows have their sites on this
supersite. There's not much information on
each of the shows, but there are some other
parts you'll want to have a look at. There's
jokes and online chat, competitions and games
to play on the site. One nice touch is the
Never Bored section, which tells you what
events are going on in your area. You can then
mail the site and tell them what you thought
of your day out.
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Tweenies
www.bbc.co.uk/education/tweenies
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Tweenies are the new education program for
pre-school age children and as you might
expect, it has lots of extra activities that
parents can do with their smaller children. So
there is supplementary information on the
stories and lots of songs that can be
downloaded to sing along with. There are games
to play and suggestions of things to watch on
television. For parents there is also a new
service, bringing you all the latest articles
and advice by education specialists.
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Get Live and Kicking
www.bbc.co.uk/kicking
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This site is packed full of everything that
is on the show. So you will find interviews
with celebrities, such as Joe Absolom from
EastEnders, lots of showbiz gossip, games and
competitions. There are features on the
presenters - even Mr Blobby and the
Leprechauns get their own sections. One of the
best features, however, is the huge number of
wallpapers featuring celebrities such as Five,
Scoochy and Supergirly, that you can download
from the site. It'll even tell you how to
install them.
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Newsround
www.bbc.co.uk/newsround
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If you want to keep up with the latest news
from around the world, the best place to come
is the Newsround site. The BBC news coverage
is excellent and so is this site. It has all
the stories of the day, but also fills you in
on some of the background behind the stories,
so you can find out all about the Scottish
Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, but also
about the Northern Ireland situation and why
so many people in the world are
starving.
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KID'S
INTERNET
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yahooligans
www.yahooligans.com
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There are plenty of categories covered on
the site, everything from sport to learning
maths, games and puzzles to screensavers to
the latest sites on Pokemon. Everything that
a kid could want is here.
The database is easy to search, either by
category or by the search button and sites
are often given a 'cool shades' mark to show
those sites that are definitely worth
visiting.
There are plenty of online chats on all
kinds of subjects: Cuba, NASA and martial
arts. And to make sure you do not miss a
thing there are upcoming events posted well
in advance. There are even parents' guides
and teachers' guides to show the oldies how
to get the most out of the net. Finally
there is a featured celebrity on the site -
when we looked it was Britney Spears -
together with pictures and plenty of pop
trivia.
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Compuserve Kids
www.compuserve.com/gateway/kids/default.asp
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This excellent links page concentrates on fun
stuff rather than on school studies. So there
are sections on TV, movies and videos, as well
as music and sport. There are even a list of
hot sites and kid's favourites sites covering
everything from Harry Potter to Rugrats.
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Enchanted Learning
www.enchantedlearning.com
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Enchanted Learning produce educational
websites. A whole range of subjects are
covered, everything from dinosaurs to
astronomy, as well as taking in the
traditional science, maths and
languages.
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ePlay
www.eplay.com
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ePlay links up schools and kids in an
environment where they can learn and have fun.
So there is a serious homework assignment
area, but also a fun games section, and a
message centre where kids can communicate with
other children around the world.
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Freeserve
www.freeserve.co.uk
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Although there is no actual kid's section on
Freeserve, there is plenty of information here
for them. There is homework help in education,
games, cartoons and of course Freeserve's
excellent guide to what is on locally for
kids.
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Yahooligans
www.yahooligans.com
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This portal is designed specially for kids,
and so it is crammed full of the kind of sites
kids want to see. It covers everything from
arts and entertainment to sports and
recreation and of course there is an education
section.
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Handbag.com
www.handbag.com/family
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This is more one for mums than for the kids
themselves. It has the same event selector for
finding days out in your local area as
Freeserve, but also has a good links page for
kids websites.
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AOL UK Kids Channel
www.aol.co.uk/channels/kids
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There are not a huge number of links on this
channel, just a list of top five sites and a
section on a particular subject. The sections
do change on a regular basis, however, so it's
worth keeping an eye on.
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Bonus.com
www.bonus.com
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Bonus.com calls itself the supersite for
kids. There are loads of links here on
everything from the earth to space travel,
dinosaurs to how things work. And in each case
there is a little summary of what you will
find on the site.
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The Junction
www.the-junction.net/index.htm
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The Junction is an online magazine aimed at
teenagers. It has loads of links, covering
subjects as diverse as advice, football, music
and technology. It also has a few columns,
although these just link to about.com.
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National Geographic Kids
www.nationalgeographic.com/kids
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This site is less of a portal and more of an
all-round resource and activity centre. There
is plenty to find out about, including all
about NASA's plans to send people to Mars.
There is also a great section on amazing
facts, like why clouds float.
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Surf Monkey
www.surfmonkey.com
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This site not only has games, bulleting
boards and chat rooms, but it also has an
extensive list of sites that are safe and cool
for kids, covering everything from sports and
toys to art, science and space.
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UK Plus
www.ukplus.co.uk
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UK Plus is one of the few portals to have a
dedicated kid's section. As UKPlus is still in
its infancy there is not a great deal here as
yet, but hopefully it will grow in time.
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KID'S
REFERENCE
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FunkandWagnalls.com
www.funkandwagnalls.com
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Its English counterpart, the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, outstrips it in sheer scope, but
F&W's 22,000 articles stand it in good
stead against its many rivals. From
Nietzsche to nanotechnology, the range and
depth of the entries is impressive, set in a
bright, uncluttered layout that aids speedy
research. The basic encyclopaedia function
is usefully supplemented with a dictionary -
courtesy of the folks at Random House - and
an international news service, updated
hourly. Again, while the multimedia
trappings look prosaic in comparison with
the slick service offered by Encarta, the
slideshows, photos and audio files that are
included are more than adequate. The serious
researcher will not be deterred by the lack
of showy pyrotechnics and will find more
than enough raw information in the thorough,
considered entries, which are crucially
updated each month. But the real advantage,
of course, is the generous pricing policy in
a market crammed with expensive
alternatives. If you'd shelled out for the
latest print edition of Funk and Wagnall's
New Encyclopaedia, you'd be $189 worse
off.
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3D Atlas Online
www.3datlas.com
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If you have ever got stuck on your geography
homework, or just wondered where Botswana is,
then this is the place to come. It has a fully
searchable list of countries and for each
country listed you see a few words about the
country, giving information on the geography,
population and main industries, plus a
photograph and a picture of the national flag.
There are links of other sites on the web and
a map can be downloaded. A word of warning,
though - it can take forever to download the
graphics.
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Ask Jeeves for Kids
www.ajkids.com
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Ask Jeeves is a search engine with a
difference. You ask Jeeves a question, such as
'why should I eat my vegetables' or 'why do
clouds float' and Jeeves will come back with a
list of sites where you can find the answers
to these questions. Alternatively you can take
a 'tour' around a certain subject, such as
earthquakes, pets, or the body and find plenty
of sites with answers to all the questions you
may want to ask, all presented in a neat and
tidy format, but then what else would you
expect from Jeeves?
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Lets Find Out
www.letsfindout.com
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Lets Find Out is divided into 16 sections,
taking in such things as the body, art,
aviation, dinosaurs and science. Behind each
subject is a list on entries, and each entry
has a couple of paragraphs explaining what
that thing is. There is also an alphabetical
index of entries if you are not sure where to
look things up. The site is not as
comprehensive as it could be and some of the
articles are a little too short to be a huge
amount of help, but it is a good starting
point.
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Little Explorers
www.enchantedlearning.com/Dictionary.html
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Little Explorer's is another of the Enchanted
Learning sites. The dictionary is illustrated
throughout with small sketches rather than
photographs. While it is in no way
comprehensive, for example there are only 52
entries under G, it is easy to read and
informative. In fact many of the entries have
so much information that you think it is not a
dictionary at all, but a kind of
mini-encyclopaedia. It also links well with
the other Enchanted Learning sites.
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Encarta Online
www.encarta.msn.com
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This online version of Microsoft's famous
encyclopaedia is the concise version and is
not as detailed as the deluxe online version
for which you have to subscribe, but it is
still packed with informative articles and
plenty of pictures. The information is easy to
search by category, or alternatively you can
use the search button to go straight to the
article you are looking for. However it is
always worth having a look through your
favourite categories as different articles are
spotlighted regularly so something might catch
your eye.
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Reference Centre
www.freeserve.net/reference
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The Freeserve reference centre is precisely
that. It is made up of a dictionary (the
Oxford Compact English Dictionary), an
encyclopaedia (the Cambridge Encyclopaedia
Database) and a world atlas. You can do a
power-search across any of the titles and it
will come up with any suitable articles, or
you can do a media search if you are just
looking for pictures, audio files or
animations.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica
www.britannica.com
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Encyclopaedia Britannica is without doubt the
best place to look for anything you want to
know about. It has a fantastic reputation for
being both reliable and for giving you
in-depth content that is also easily absorbed.
It is finally fully searchable on the web and
is fully hyperlinked so you can move from the
article you first looked up to others that are
related at the click of a button. It also has
a great news section, links to articles from
other publications and its own great list of
links.
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Kid's Almanac
kids.infoplease.com
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This Almanac includes all sorts of
interesting facts and figures. You can for
example find out about the largest deserts in
the world or the longest rivers. Alternatively
you can find out about dating and marriage and
the different traditions in the wedding
ceremony around the world, all in a quirky
lifestyle section. There are some fun features
as well. When we looked there was one on Harry
Potter and another one on the most popular pet
names.
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KID'S
VISITS
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The surrounding countryside in Devon, Dorset
and Somerset is full of wonderful attractions.
This Site shows them all. A must for those
school holidays
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Alton Towers
www.demon.co.uk/magpie/altontowers/altontowers.html
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If you are after thrills and spills, this is
the place to come. The park claims to have
more rides than any other in the UK including
the infamous Black Hole, Nemesis and Oblivion.
Alton Towers is also opening a new 3D
interactive world this year. This site has all
the information you need on getting to the
park, tickets, and even information on staying
there. The site does not look as good as the
rides, however, being a little bit rough
around the edges and not showing a great deal
of design flair.
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KidsNet
www.kidsnet.co.uk
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If you are short of ideas on what to do for
your day out, then take a look at this site.
It has listings for all kinds of attractions,
from museums to amusements parks, taking in
zoos, farms, parks and just about anything
else you could think of along the way. Many of
the attractions are based in the SouthEast,
however, and the site's sports section only
mentions London facilities. However if you are
planning a trip to London, it will tell you
the opening times and prices of all the
attractions.
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TimeOut
www.timeout.com
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Time Out is the London listings magazine that
tells you everything that is going on around
the capital. On their web site they cover
other cities around the world, including
Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin. The Kid's
section of each city covers such necessities
as playgrounds, swimming pools and animal
encounters, as well as letting you know about
all the events happening for kids in the city
in that week as well as covering the usual
tourist attractions.
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Eureka!
ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Eureka_Museum
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Most museums make you keep your finger off
the exhibits, but at Eureka in Halifax, you
can touch and play with whatever you want to.
You can find out how the human body works, how
TV programmes are made and even how the loo
flushes, all through interactive exhibits. On
this website there isn't much of the museum
itself on show, but there are details of
tickets, location and opening times, plus
information on special events that are
happening at the museum so you can plan when
you are going to go.
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Tower of London
www.camelot-group.com/tower
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There is much, much more to this site than
just ticket information and opening hours. You
can get a tour of the Tower itself, given by
Tom the beefeater, which tells you all about
the history of the tower, and then you can pop
off to see the crown jewels. There are also
plenty of pages on the things that everyone
wants to know about: the ghosts, the prisoners
and the executions. You an also find out all
about the beefeaters, including an interviews
with one, and about the ravens.
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Freeserve Kids Event Selector
freeserve.eventselector.co.uk/kids
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If you want to know what is going on in your
local area, this is a great place to start.
Simply type in your nearest town or city and
the event selector will come up with a huge
range of activities. We tried typing in Leeds
and the results were impressive: 26 events
came back, with everything from an RSPB
reserve to karting, taking in storytelling in
a bookshop to a theatre show in between.
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Kids Travel
www.kidstravel.co.uk
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Bored during the holidays? Got nothing to do
at the weekend? Then take a look at this site.
Divided into six regions, and then in sections
including theme parks, zoos and safari parks,
caves and caverns and attractions, this site
has loads of ideas of where to spend your days
out. Each attraction has ticket prices,
opening times and its location listed,
together with a telephone number so you can
ring ahead to double check they are going to
be open. Each one also has a description of
what you will find there, so you can decide
whether or not you like the look of it.
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KID'S
WORKS
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How Things Work
rabi.phys.virginia.edu/HTW
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This site is written by a professor of
physics at the University of Virginia and is
about the physics behind everyday life. The
articles in here are not comprehensive 'how
things work from a to z'. Instead the prof
answers people's questions. So if you click on
the balloon topic button, you will get a lot
of questions answered, such as how large a
helium balloon would have to be to lift a girl
off the ground.
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Intelligent Child
www.intelligentchild.com/index.html
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Don't let the title of this website put you
off - it is not just for brain-boxes and
swats. It is instead a good collections of how
the things you want to know about work. So
there is a section on subjects all related to
space, astronomy and general science, such as
how you drive a satellite or what is a
moonwalk. Most the articles have plenty of
information in them and some groovy pictures,
but others simply answer one question very
briefly, such as how big is Jupiter.
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Bonus.com How It Works
www.bonus.com/bonus/list/n_howitwor.html
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This excellent site has all kinds of articles
on things that you an do to find out how
things work. So you can pick up some HTML tips
to build your own website, or look at the
anatomy of a banknote, learn sign language or
learn how a toilet works. All the articles are
linked to other sites, so this overall website
is more of a collection point than one big
site. Most of the articles are easy to
understand and as you always stay on the
bonus.com website and the other sites open in
the main window, naviagation is easy.
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How Stuff Works
howstuffworks.com
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This site is packed with explanations of how
everyday objects work. So if you have ever
wanted to know how the TV works, or how a car
engine works, then this is the place to come.
The site is divided into 22 sections covering
such diverse topics as aviation, music, power
and food. All the articles are comprehensive,
going into a great deal of detail, but they
are always easy to understand.
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TOYS |
Actionman
www.actionman.com
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There is plenty of action on this site. Not
only can you find out about the figures and
the all important equipment you will need, but
you can also play secret agents yourself.
There is a game to play on the site and you
can pass secret messages to other agents out
in the field. You can even gain access to a
special agent part of the site which is
reserved for existing agents.
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Lego Mindstorms
www.legomindstorms.com
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Lego Mindstorms is Lego that you can build
into robots by first screwing the parts
together, then programming it to do something.
If this sounds fiendishly difficult, don't
worry. There is loads of information on this
site about how you can program your Lego and
plenty of technical support questions are
answered too. If you need inspiration, then
just look at some of the robots that other
people have made, including one that will play
Mary Had a Little Lamb on the piano.
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Mr Potato Head
www.mrpotatohead.com
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Learn about the life and times of Mr Potato
Head in this bright, fun site. You can look at
the Mr Potato Head scrapbook to find out about
the most important events in Mr Potato Head's
long and illustrious career, or you can click
through the timeline of pictures showing Mr
Potato Head over the years. You can then go to
the fun corner page, where there are two lots
of activities: one for little kids, including
colouring in and word jumbles, and one for big
kids, including a section where you can make
your own Mr Potato Head and a trivia
quiz.
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Barbie
www.barbie.com
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Every little girl wants a Barbie doll. On
this site you can find out what the
fascination is. There are details of all the
products, including special limited edition
dolls, such as the Millennium Princess Barbie
and the Tango Barbie. But there is much more
to this site. You can dress Barbie in an
online fashion show, print out pictures to
colour in or colour them in online and meet
her friends and family. You can even design
your own Barbie.
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Toy City
www.toycity.com
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Toy City is a massive online supplier of
toys. You can search the massive catalogue by
age, by brand, by price or by any other way
you want. And if you still can't find what you
want you can always try the tips on how to
search the database. There are special offers
on the front page and if you want to get news
of more special offers you can sign up to Toy
City's VIP service.
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Creatures
www.creatures.mindscape.com
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Creatures are those little Norns who live in
your computer and want constant attention if
they are going to learn to behave well and
grow up able to look after themselves. You can
find out about all the Norn's environments
here and about the various creatures. You can
also find out how to look after the Norns. But
there are no tips on this site as to how to
get more out of your creature or what to do
when you hit problems.
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Furby
207.226.169.244
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The Furby site pulls out all the stops in its
efforts to be entertaining. When you enter the
site you will see a map of Furbyland,
including the library where you can colour in
pictures, learn the story of Furbys or look at
an English-to-Furby dicationary. Or you could
go the post office, where you can send
animated postcards to your friends. Or you can
go to Babyland to find out about the new Furby
babies, including the story of when they were
born.
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ToysRUs
www.toysrus.co.uk
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If you want to order your toys online without
having to go to the bother of traipsing round
these huge out of town warehouses, then you
should come to the ToyRUs site. It has a full
online catalogue and you can order any of the
products online. There are pictures of all the
products, although they are very small, so
they are not as clear as they might be, but at
least the catalogue is quick to scroll
through.
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