* Visit a children's playground of original games, puzzles, stories, music and cartoons at ABC Toon Center:
http://www.abctooncenter.com

* Brain Pop is a wonderful site for kids who ar curious about science, technology, health and other topics. Kids' questions are turned into original, 3-5 minute animated movies, ranging in topics from dinosaurs to blood to airbags. Each movie also features a multiple-choice quiz to test your child's (and your) knowledge of the subject. The site includes printable activity pages about each subject:
http://www.brainpop.com

* Funology.com is a great site for kids looking for a variety of fun activities. This site features science experiments, recipes kids can make, crafts, games, puzzles, fun odd facts, magic tricks and jokes:
http://www.funology.com/

* The Creating Music web site allows budding musicians to "compose'' songs on the computer with different instruments. It also has some other interesting musical games:
http://www.creatingmusic.com/

* Welcome to the "yuckiest site on the Web'', sponsored by Discovery Channel.. Yucky.com features yucky fun and games, creepy features such as Worm World and A Day in the Life of Ralph Roach, and gross information about the human body, including burps, ear wax and zits. Kids also can ask Wendall science questions, and read his answers to other kids' questions:
http://www.yucky.com

* Kaboose.com has some fun games and activities:
http://www.kaboose.com/

* Nick Jr. offers fun games and activities for young children, many featuring their favorite Nickelodeon characters like Blue from the children's television network:
http://www.nickjr.com/kids/flash_site/index.jhtml

* My daughter loves the Magic Eye books, where you stare at a picture until a 3D image pops out. This web site features a new Magic Eye picture of the week, as well as previous featured images. It also teaches you 3D-challenged folks how to do it:
http://www.magiceye.com/3dfun/stwkdisp.shtml

* Sand Lot Science is an interactive guide to optical illusions with more than 100 exhibits:
http://www.sandlotscience.com/

* Ben&Jerry's ice cream has a cool web site for kids featuring games and crafts. If you click on the Winter Holidays logo, you can print out snowflake templates, play with a virtual snowman and other fun things:
http://www.benjerry.com/fun/

* Boowa & Kwala web site is designed for kids ages 1-7, offering many fun games and songs:
http://www.boowakwala.com

* This is the site for all you crossword puzzle fans; there are puzzles and word searches for all ages; a great teacher's resource too:
http://www.kidcrosswords.com/

* Here's another good site for the crossword fans in your house. Monthly crosswords, built on a theme, is provided by Funk and Wagnalls:
http://www.funkandwagnalls.com/puzzle/getpage.asp?site=local&page=lobby.asp

* Prongo.com provides a great number of entertaining, educational games for kids, including math games, mazes, match games, tic tac toe, checkers and jumbles:
http://www.prongo.com/

* Fun Ranch features interactive games appropriate for families. To play the games, such as air hockey and brick ball, you will need to download free copies of Shockwave or Flash to your browser, if you don't have copies already:
http://www.funranch.com/

* KiddoNet provides email, webpage building, crafts and games for children learning how to use the Internet:
http://www.kiddonet.com

* You and your kids probably have seen the Hampsterdance, featuring the goofy web site of hamsters dancing. Now the site has been updated, and you can make them dance slow or fast:
http://www.hampsterdance2.com/hampsterdance2.html

* The site surfmonkey.com has cool, educational games for kids of different ages, including match games, pattern games, money counting games and math games. We especially liked the sample of the Carmen Sandiego: Math Detective game (located on the math games page), which can be adjusted for level of difficulty. We also liked 11up, where you try to make as many combinations of 11 as possible against the clock, and pyramid solitaire (both under math games). Just watch out for prompts that suggest you download programs; this isn't necessary to play the games while you are on the Internet. You can reach the index of games by clicking on:
http://www.surfmonkey.com/games/default.asp

* If you liked playing Battleship as a kid, you and your kids may have fun playing this computerized version, where you take on the computer:
http://scv.bu.edu/~aarondf/java/battleship.html