Activities for the Home

As the Internet is a visual world, there are lots of activities that will engage (and educate) children. For example, introducing Google Maps to your kids is a good way to help them understand distances and maps, while getting them familiar with a real online tool.

Build a “personal world map” with your kids. On Google Maps choose the tab “satellite” to get an actual aerial view of your street and help your child locate your home. Then locate various important locations for him/her, such as relatives’ and friends’ houses or your cottage. Images will be even better if you use the free software Google Earth.

2. YouTube and your family

As soon as your kids start going online, show an interest and become involved in their activities. Have fun together: play their favourite online games, watch the videos they like and take them to sites that you think they will enjoy. This will help establish the idea that online activities are meant to be shared as a family.

Search YouTube for television shows that you used to watch when you were the same age as your children and share these with them.

3. A family blog

In this day and age, families find themselves living further and further apart. Why not bring your family together virtually by creating a family blog where you can share day-to-day life with grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends? Using anecdotes and photos, a blog is more user-friendly than a series of e-mails as you can peruse them at your leisure. Also, a blog can be secure, meaning it can be accessed only by those people you choose.

Creating a blog is quite simple. The Web site Blogger.com has an easy step-by-step process to get you started.

They also provide a video that shows you the complete process.

4. Contributing to an online encyclopaedia

Do your kids have a passion, a subject or an artist about which they seem to know everything? Why not encourage them to publish this knowledge by adding to articles in one of the many online encyclopaedias. Articles can be on anything from World of Warcraft, to snowboarding, Velociraptors or computers.

For children, use: Wikijunior.

For teens: Wikipedia (consult the "New contributors’ help page" to learn more about how to contribute).

5. Consumer reviews… for the whole family

The book you gave your youngest last week was a great success (you’ve already read it to him several times), however, the set of headphones you bought your eldest was a disappointment. Why not sit down with your two children and write consumer reviews of these products? Many online stores (like www.amazon.ca) provide places where consumers can share their kudos or concerns – and you get to help future consumers make better choices.

(Try using humour in your reviews. It’s more entertaining to write and read!)

6. Making online donations to support charities

Media coverage of natural disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes or famines is particularly traumatic to kids. Making an online donation to an aid organization to help relieve the suffering of the people involved can be a way of making your children overcome their feelings of helplessness. Research with them – or with older kids have them research – which organization to donate to. Point them in the direction of well-known aid organizations such as the Red Cross, CARE or Doctors Without Borders. Explore the sites and find out more about the work they do. Let your child choose the charity and how they want the money to be directed.

Make them aware that during disasters there are fraudsters who put up fake Web sites to collect money. Teach your kids how to be sure the organization they are giving to is a credible one.

After donating, follow the news for stories about your chosen organization and the work they are doing. This way, your kids will get a concrete idea of how their donation has translated into action on the ground.

7. CyberCitizen Challenge

Media Awareness Network has designed an Internet literacy Challenge for Girl Guides of Canada with activities for all levels from Sparks to Rangers. Parents can ask their girls’ guiding leaders to do the Challenge in their units, or you can participate in these activities as a family in your own home.

8. Internet literacy games

Media Awareness Network’s Web site also features a number of games to help kids become more Net-savvy:

Co-Co's AdverSmarts: An Interactive Unit on Food Marketing on the Web (Ages 5-8)
In this unit, Co-Co explains how advertisers target kids online, teaching young children to recognize online marketing techniques used in "advergames" and other immersive Web environments.

Privacy Playground: The First Adventure of the Three CyberPigs
(Ages 8-10)
In this first adventure, the CyberPigs learn about online marketing and about protecting their privacy as they surf the Internet.

CyberSense and Nonsense: The Second Adventure of the Three CyberPigs (Ages 9-12)
In their second adventure, the CyberPigs explore the world of chat rooms and learn to distinguish between fact and fiction, and to detect bias and harmful stereotyping in online content.

Jo Cool or Jo Fool:Interactive Module and Quiz on Critical Thinking for the Internet (Grades 11-13)
This interactive online game takes students through a series of mock sites that test their savvy surfing skills. The game ends with an online quiz that gives students an even more in-depth level of information.

Allies and Aliens: Interactive Module on Online Hate (Grades 12-13)
This animated module takes students on a mission from Planet Earth to assess the varying degrees of prejudice, misinformation, and hate propaganda on the "Galactic Web."