Club Penguin from Disney

If you and your friends would like to waddle around together online, be sure to check out Club Penguin. You can take part in a variety of virtual activities and...

• Customize your penguin character
• Build an igloo
• Socialize
• Submit your artwork
• Have snow-ball fights
• Play ice hockey
• Swim in the ocean
• Dance

There are live moderators and modes at signup where parents can restrict what text the kids can "say" and "see" down to predetermined lists. For parents who are understandably concerned about their children socializing online, there are several reviews and suggestions. Here are two pages about Club Penguin that you will want to read first.

• What They Play - Get the Facts on Club Penguin
• What They Play - Today - 8 Ways Kids Outsmart Online Rules

Too Much Information

When using the Internet, it is amazingly easy to give out too much information very very quickly.

Create Your Very Own Fairy at Pixie Hollow!

Ever since Peter Pan hit the theaters, children everywhere have loved Tinkerbell. As the years have gone by, Tink's world has been expanded to included many other magical fairies and a whole forest. They even have an online version of this forest that anyone can play in. It's free to join and create a character.

Disney has done the best job they possibly can in keeping this community-driven site safe for visitors.

There's also a special place on PixieHollow.com just for parents! Visit the Parents' Center to read more about our magical online world and Fairy safety. You can also download an Arrival Day Kit to make your child's arrival into Pixie Hollow extra special.

As part of our commitment to creating a safe online environment, Pixie Hollow is free from third-party advertising and offers parental controls, which allow you to monitor your child's chat permissions and account history. To manage your child's account, please visit our Account Manager.

So fly on over and visit the Disney Fairies @ Pixie Hollow!

Kids Can Name NASA's Next Mars Rover!

Let's get signed up for this as soon as possible. Kids can name NASA's next Mars Rover!

Vegetable Orchestra

Eat your vegetables! Or at least make music with them.

It's Time For Halloween Hangman Again!

I originally wrote about Halloween Hangman last year, but now it's time once again for everyone's favorite Halloween game! Try this and other versions of Hangman.

Psst! Olivia! You're welcome!

That Quiz - Math Test Activities

Check out some fun stuff to do at ThatQuiz.com - Math Test Activities.

Math test activities for students and teachers of all grade levels

Elementary Sites - Math Links

Check out this link for some fun math sites. Visit Elementary Sites at Tucson Unified School District.

TagYerit.com - Painted Pumpkins!

It's October and that means preparing for Halloween. Check out this page about Painted pumpkins.

Here are some other examples that I found.

We started this page a few years back after several of our visitors submitted their painted pumpkins for us to post. It's not something that Flo or I have done (other than my Pumpkin Head Astaire mask). After seeing them, we understand their appeal. And they are definitely quite popular with you, our visitors. ENJOY!

I'm very excited about pumpkin carving this year, but perhaps it's time to paint them instead...

Whack-A-Bone

It's time for Whack-A-Bone!

Use the style and fun of a video game to learn the bones and parts of the body. Get faster and faster with patience and practice. Soon you will be an expert in anatomy.

How Many Dominoes? 30,000!

Found via neatorama.

AOL Helps Keep The Whole Family Safer Online

I got an AOL tip in my email recently. It regards the kind of initiatives that their company is doing and has always done to try and help keep kids safe online.

Do you know what is considered "Cyberbullying"? Do you know how to deal with a Cyberbully? Our new online safety Web site, SafetyClicks, can help. Featuring articles, videos and an interactive quiz, the site is designed to keep parents "plugged in" about how to best protect kids and teens in a Web 2.0 world. And don't forget to download our free parental controls software -- it's new and improved, making it the most comprehensive free parental controls available. Plus, it no longer requires an AOL screen name for use.

Learn more at AOL.

AP Chemistry: Combustion of Methane Bubbles

I hope that my kids someday have a teacher that is this cool.

An experiment performed by Mr Hambleton of Monta Vista High School involving the bubbling of methane gas through a solution of soap and water to form bubbles. The bubbles were then ignited.

Everyone remember to keep safety in mind at all times and take things slow. Don't try this at home.

National Geographic News

Here's the latest newsletter from National Geographic.

Planets Align for the 4th of July

I hope that I remember to check this one out while we are watching the fireworks.

News Flash: On 4th of July weekend, NASA forecasts lights in the sky.

No, not those lights. Look beyond the fireworks. Almost halfway up the western sky, just above the twilight glow of sunset, a trio of worlds is gathering: Saturn, Mars and the crescent Moon.

See the full article and information posted yesterday Nasa.gov.

Sonic Boom

Wow. I did not know that.

Discovery Channels's Boom-De-Yada

Go Mike Rowe! Here at Arconati Kid's Korner, we love the Discovery Channel and we hope you do too!

Book: 100 Top Children's Movies

In our house, we love movies. But it's sometimes difficult to pick new and interesting choices for family-friendly viewing from the rack of new releases. However, the good news is that there are many great classics available in other sections that would make great choices. Some of them may not even be in the kid's section or immediately obvious choices.

In 'The New York Times Essential Library: Children's Movies' (Henry Holt and Company), film critic Peter M. Nichols looked beyond Disney and traditional forms of children's entertainment to assemble a collection of films that are stimulating for the whole family, including adults.

See the full list of 100 top children's movies.

Spirograph & More Spirographs

The Spirograph was one of my favorite art toys as a kid. Here's a digital version written as a Java Applet.

Created by Anu Garg.

A Spirograph is a curve formed by rolling a circle inside or outside of another circle. The pen is placed at any point on the rolling circle.

If you would like to get the analog version, you can find them on Amazon.com at the following two links.

• Craft Book and Kit (Board book)
• The Spiral Draw Book (Klutz) (Spiral-bound)

Opportunity cost - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You can learn a lot at Wikipedia. For instance,...

Opportunity cost is the cost (sacrifice) incurred by choosing one option over an alternative one that may be equally desired. Thus, opportunity cost is the cost of pursuing one choice instead of another. Every action has an opportunity cost. For example, someone who invests $10,000 in a stock denies oneself the interest that one can earn by leaving the $10,000 dollars in a bank account instead. Opportunity cost is not restricted to monetary or financial costs: the real cost of output forgone, lost time, pleasure or any other benefit that provides utility should also be considered.

Opportunity cost is a key concept in economics because it implies the choice between desirable, yet mutually exclusive results. It has been described as expressing 'the basic relationship between scarcity and choice.'

View the full entry about opportunity cost on Wikipedia.

Earthquakes Magnitude Scale and Classes

Very early this morning here in St. Louis, Missouri, we experienced a Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake (Google Earth). Then later in the day we experienced an aftershock of magnitude 4.5.

Would you like to learn more about Earthquakes Magnitude Scale and Classes? Visit the UPSeis: an education site for budding seismologists.

60 Minutes Report - Return Trip: Back to the Moon

This video report and the several that are linked from it caught my ear. Mostly, it was the following colorful tagline that opens the story.

You may not know it, but the journey to send humans back to the moon --and beyond-- has already begun.

Hear more at Yahoo! Video - Return Trip: Back to the Moon. Although one piece of sad related news is that the space shuttle program is being retired. However, it is being replaced by a new program.

Spitzer Space Telescope - NASA

This handout photo received on February 12, 2008 shows newborn stars as they peek out from the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Planets resembling Earth can be found orbiting many sun-like stars in our galaxy, increasing the prospects of finding extraterrestial life on some of them, according to a study released Sunday. (AFP/NASA-HO/File)

Space is amazing! The possibilities of what is out there are limitless. See Print Story: Yahoo! News - Yahoo! News Photos.

What Kind of World Do You Want?

Would you consider placing info about this on your website? Autism numbers are skyrocketing and these children need all the help they can get.

I want to thank my mom for sending me this link and the description to go along with it. Since the money involved sounded a little hard to believe, I checked Snopes.com, and it turns out that it's legitimate.

The band, Five for Fighting, is generously donating $0.49 to Autism Speaks for *each time* this video is viewed. The funding goes toward research studies to help find a cure for autism. When you have a moment, please visit the link below to watch the video and pass it along to your loved ones. They are aiming for 10,000 hits, but hopefully we can help them to surpass this goal.

Help Five for Fighting Change Her World.