Spooky Halloween Stickers — print them out and attach them walls, refrigerators, windows, you name it.

Spooky Graveyard — compare the two pictures and find what’s different about them. (I loved this kind of activity when I was a kid.)

Spooky Memory Game — Your little goblins can test their memory skills with these print-out cards where they have to remember where the matching card is.

Hidden Picture and Coloring Page — another childhood favorite, you spot hidden items in the drawing. And when you’re done, you can color it.

Halloween Fright Site Coloring Page Creator — your little ghosties will have fun not only creating their very own scenery online, but will get a kick to print it off and take it with them for coloring.

[tags]halloween,coloring,fun,family,activities[/tags]

This year has been one of growth for me with regard to the blogosphere. I have learned more about blogging and gotten to know other bloggers, which has led to new opportunities. Most recently, I’ve taken the helm of another blog called Family Support Forum (FSF). I’ll continue to write for Family WebWatch, but on FSF I will be writing about a larger range of family related issues.

This new chapter in my life is the result of me getting involved with a network of blogs called the Blog Authors Organization. It’s the brainchild of Garry Conn and Christine Senter, two great people whom I’m pleased to be teaming with.

I feel Family Support Forum is a natural extension to what I do here and provides me with a wider scope of things to talk about and exchange ideas and information with others. I hope that you will visit, and perhaps add it to your reading list.

[tags]family support,kids,parenting,teens,children,babies[/tags]

“In Case of Emergency” (ICE) is a campaign that was thought of by a paramedic. In a lot of cases, most everyone he was rushing out to help had a cell phone, but no one would have known who to call to let them know what happened to the patient.

So by programming your phone with the number of the person you want to be reached in case of an emergency and naming it “ICE”, you’ll be leaving a message to those who can help to alert the ones you love.

[tags]ICE,emergency,cell phone[/tags]

I still can’t tell how it works exactly, but it looks very easy to use. You dip your wand into a “bucket” of light, stir it around to choose your color. and let loose on the wall. You can even have your drawing animated.

Discovered by Geekalerts.

[tags]philips,device,electronics,toys[/tags]

What makes Glubble different is that it’s not a typical web filter. Instead, it’s something that you tell it what you approve of. It also allows each member of the family to have their own customized access to the Web. If a site is not on your approved list, then your kids can’t get to it.

Once installed you’ll find it comes with a beginner’s pack of popular sites. You can add and remove as you like the sites you want. To get a preview, check out GlubbleWorld.

Through this GlubbleWorld of approved sites, you can also use popular search engines like Google and Yahoo. But not to worry: search results are filtered.

You have flexibility in the look and feel of Glubble, so you can make it age appropriate. If you find sites that you want to share with other families, you can do that, too. This feature could come in handy with a friends house or maybe visiting the grandparents. This way you’ll know they won’t be given free reign over the Web when they’re out of your sight.

One word of caution: I remind you that this is only for Firefox, which means Internet Explorer and other Web browsers on a computer are not affected. Kids have a way of being tech savvy, so they may already be familiar with the idea of other browsers that may be on your computer.

[tags]glubble,software,firefox,add-on,family,web safety,internet safety,kids,fun[/tags]

An attractive and well-laid out site, ChildNet International provides useful information for kids and adults, and done so in a variety of award-winning projects. There’s Jenny’s Story, a heart-felt story of a girl who started off making a friend online, then it turned to tragedy when they met face-to-face. And there’s ChildNet Academy, devoted to putting the spotlight on kids and those who help them achieve online excellence.

There’s also KidSmart, ChatDanger, Music & The Internet, and many more.

By promoting awareness and providing advice, they strive to instill “net literacy” skills in people of all ages. One of my favorites is Parent’s Resource, an interactive resource for parents to see another point of view on cyber issues and get tips on how to deal with them.

[tags]web safety,cyberbullying,cyberculture,parenting,family[/tags]

It turns out that my recent post about online coloring pages caught the eye of Charlene, someone who specializes in that category. Printables For Kids says it all, but if I left it at that, this would be too short of a post. This blog is a collection of things meant for downloading and printing for when your kid has those “I’m bored” moments. From word searches to coloring, there’s bound to be something here that your kid will enjoy. A great summertime activity resource!

Yes! I found another blog about Internet safety. We are the few, the proud! Typer Tappers deals with that topic and more, like technology and website design, for example. Check it out for a few tips.

And finally, there’s Organized Home. This resource has so many things a family can do to: de-clutter the home, organize the morning so that it runs smoothly, getting kids to do their chores, and more. If you’re the tangible type, you’ll love the gallery of printable documents designed to organize your day. You’ll find printable calendars, docs for meals and menus, family and school items. The list goes on and on. Be sure to visit!

Do you have a site or blog that you’d like to suggest to be placed in the spotlight? What I look for are things that increase productivity, promote education, family activities and entertainment, and whatever strikes me as useful. Drop me a comment and let me know what you’d like to see on my next edition.

[tags]spotlight,reviews,links[/tags]

That got me to thinking about how my kids may see me. They’re always asking me to have time on the computer. They either play some games on it or even worse, watch TV on it. It just becomes another mindless way of spending time.

I think in moderation that time on the computer and especially on the Web is a good thing. It’s a skill that I think everyone should learn, but if taken too much, it’s likely to do harm more than do good.

So just a reminder that as the kids are out of school, take some time to read with them, walk, play catch — something to create a memory that’s not about sitting at the computer. And even sharing some computer time with them is a good thing. At least you’ll be doing it together.

Club Penguin is a virtual world where kids, ages 8 to 14, are represented by penguin caricatures and can interact with other “penguins”. During the process of creating an account parents are asked to include their own password and email as well, thus giving them control should they feel the need. What I find nifty about this sign-up process is that it offers an appropriate age level for your child to join. Additionally, you can select what type of chatting capabilities you want your child to have: Standard or Ultimate.

I find these names a little misleading because you’d think “ultimate” would mean you would have all sorts of features available to your child to chat with anyone. Not so. “Ultimate” offers your child the ability to select from “canned” questions and responses; “standard” is the one that lets them type in whatever they want to other penguins.

Once your account is created, you’re dropped in the middle of a snowy town along with a lot of other penguins. It’s here you’ll find a gift shop, coffee shop, and a nightclub that are places you can visit. Now don’t let that last place scare you off! It’s just a place where you can have your penguin dance to the music.

If you tire of the place you’re in, click on the map icon and select another place to be immediately transported. Each place offers something worth exploring and some places even include games. Some games can be played with other penguins, while others are designed for one player. After you play each game you are rewarded with coins. Collect enough of them and you can “buy” things like puffles (a fur-ball pet) to take care of, and colors to change the look of your penguin.

You can also become someone’s buddy if invited, or invite others to be yours. Becoming a buddy with someone means you can send them a letter. You do this by using the built-in service (communicating outside Club Penguin is not possible). You can also quickly visit a buddy’s virtual home (or “igloo”, to use the vernacular) and see what they’ve done with the place.

Everywhere you go in penguin-land is the all-seeing moderator, which is represented by the capital “M” on a shield of gold. So if anything gets out of hand, they’ll step in and stop it. You can also report abuse to them. Club Penguin is qualified for the Better Business Bureau – Kid’s Privacy Seal of Approval, which should help put your mind at ease.

Basic membership is free, but premium membership offers you the ability to purchase more items of clothing to dress-up your penguin, decorate your igloo, and buy more puffles if you wish.

I find Club Penguin to be a good place for my kids to visit.

Summary

• As with any site that allows you to interact with other people, it’s quite possible someone could misrepresent themselves. So you and your child should always keep your guard up.
• Club Penguin is moderated which means someone is supposed to be watching what’s going on and prevent inappropriate behavior.
• Offers a safe way to chat with others, but it’s possible something offensive may slip through.
• Allows a child to express himself by obtaining colors and things to decorate themselves or their igloo with.

[tags]club penguin, kids, entertainment[/tags]

K9 Web Protection is a FREE service. I say service because the way it works is the sites you visit are filtered through their servers as opposed to them being checked through something that’s installed on your computer. You still have to install a driver on your computer, but the lion’s share of work is done remotely. The administrative control panel is actually a Web site you log into to view sites visited, offenses, and add sites to block or accept lists.

One of the things I like about K9 is that I haven’t noticed a significant decrease in performance while I browse. ContentProtect, another Internet filter I reviewed recently and one that I have been using for almost two years, seemed to bog things down a bit. I’m not blaming it completely, but the fact that I uninstalled it and installed K9 instead does raise suspicion.

With K9 you can’t create profiles for each member of your family, but its clean, easy-to-understand interface and ability to keep to certain types of sites from being viewed I think makes up for that. It tracks every site you visit and categorizes it for future reference. You can manually enter sites into its settings to have them blocked or accepted. And if you happen to land on a site that for some reason is blocked but you don’t think it should, you can either temporarily override K9′s decision for 15 minutes by entering the administrator password, or override it permanently. (You can even have the mascot dog bark when a site has been blocked.)

Though I have not tested it yet, K9 claims that it can block anonymous surfing sites — sites that allow you to “cloak” your surfing by entering a Web address into its own form. This is something that I know ContentProtect did not block on its own. Instead, you would have to add the anonymous surfing site as a blocked site.

One interesting thing I experienced just the other day has to do with the way K9 can block images. Using Firefox, I was browsing a forum which was inviting users to vote on logos for their products. The problem was I couldn’t view the logos. All I could see was a large empty space of where the logos were supposed to be. When I viewed it in Internet Explorer, I saw broken image icons, which confirmed that something was supposed to be there, but wasn’t allowed to be displayed. When I viewed the code to get the address for one of the images, I entered the address in another browser window to see if I could access it directly. That’s when K9 said the site was blocked. This particular image hosting service can be used to store images inappropriate for children (and adults) which is why it was caught by K9.

Summary
K9 Web Protection is:

• FREE!
• Easy to use
• Even blocks images from sites that are known for hosting offensive material but still allows a site using that service to be viewed (unless the site, of course, is offensive enough to be blocked)
• Provides one set of Internet filtering configurations for all users (not individual profiles)
• A Web-based service