Published in Internet Newsroom's June 1997 Issue.

Summer is here, with its glorious days of sunshine and flowers. A relaxed and lazy feeling hangs in the air, with one small exception: ninety days of the kids being out of school. Screams of "I'm bored!", fights between siblings, and constant trips to town to keep them occupied are enough to cause any parent extreme mental grief. But never fear. With the advent of the Internet, we now have an overabundance of sites to guide us in keeping those little darlings happy (and out of our hair) during the long summer months.

Activities are available for children of all ages. Some sites feature craft ideas, others games to play outdoors. In more quiet times, kids can learn how to write a story and get it published, or how to cook the family meal.

Let's begin with a wonderful site that's sure to make you smile. Think back to your own childhood, to those great games you played in your backyard. Remember Kick the Can or Dodgeball? At the Games Kids Play site, you'll find the rules of over 250 backyard games.

What about online computer games? Children's Online Games features a multitude of games that children of all ages can play over the Internet. Examples include Battleship, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and Iceblox.

Another fabulous site is Berit's Best Sites for Children. The site contains interactive stories, online games, coloring books, sounds and movies, and much more. Kids can chat in a controlled environment with other kids or find an Internet penpal. A unique and helpful feature is that all of the sites included are described and rated.

Is it time for some fresh air? What better way to spend a delightful summer day than by flying a kite you made yourself? At Anthony's Kite Workshop, you'll find instructions for making a multitude of kites, such a Peace Dove kite, the Quick and Dirty Paper Bag Kite, or the Classic Meattray Rotor Kite. The site also features kite construction tips, flying games, and kite stories.

If the kids are driving you crazy with nothing to do, the Summer Fun site may be just what you need. The site features a wide variety of old fashioned excitement in categories such as indoor and outdoor activities, recipes and craft ideas, and garden and food fun. Under outdoor activities, I found ideas such as Clubhouse Painting, where you add a few drops of food coloring to a bucket of water, give the kids a couple of old paint brushes, and send them on their merry way to paint their own club or treehouse!

Here's a site you sure don't want to miss. 365 TV-Free Activities features just what it says: 365 activities to keep the angels in your home occupied for hours on end. Categories include arts and crafts, fantasy play, math and numbers, older kids' play, and my favorite: Tire 'em Out. Under Recycled/Reused Household Materials, you'll learn activities such as Animal Puppet Stage, Cereal Box City, and Easy House of Cards.

A unique site for would-be writers in grades 4 through 7 is the Young Authors Workshop. Young writers will learn how to find story ideas on the Internet as well as tips on writing, revising, editing, and getting the story published.

A well-rounded site for activities for children is curiocity's FREEZONE. There, you'll find puzzles, monitored chat for kids, and things to do like paper airplane instructions, recipes for kids, and Virtual Verse to create poetry. Kids can even test their comedy skills at the Open Mike or play MooseLibs, which are crazy partial stories that they complete.

Few children can resist the temptation of a seemingly endless supply of game ideas. At the Play a Game site, the games are divided into easy and harder to suit kids of all ages. You'll learn how to build your own railroad or play Ghost, a two-player word game.

Last, but in no way least, Bonus.com is a fabulous site packed with things for kids to do in categories such as play, color, explore, dissect, and imagine. The site boasts having over 572 things for kids to do! Under Dissect, they can dissect a body or design their own car. In Arts and Crafts, kids can learn how to make Pebble Pets, Stained Glass Windows, Olympic Medals, and more.

So be sure to use the Internet this summer to help you keep your children occupied and happy.

Robin Nobles is a freelance writer who can be reached at robinnobles@robinsnest.com.

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