1. DK Find Out!
The newest online encyclopedia for kids is from DK, the publisher of beautiful illustrated reference books for children. Their free online encyclopedia, DK Find Out! is also full of images, however in addition your kids will also enjoy sound and video animations.
DK Find Out! is very easy to use. From any page on this online encyclopedia, the user can easily search for what they are looking for or browse through a variety of subjects and then narrow it down if they want to something more specific.
In addition to browsing and searching for research, there are many other fun and educational areas for kids:
- What's New
- Quizzes
- Galleries
- Fun Facts
- My Stuff
The website was created for kids ages 7 - 11, as well as parents and teachers.
- Parents may want to look up and find out more about what their kids will be learning. The Parent's section will be packed with tips and hints to help you support your child’s learning and education
- Teachers will be given resources to access DK content, articles to support classroom learning and ideas for projects and homework.
2. Encyclopedia Smithsonian
The Encyclopedia Smithsonian is a free online encyclopedia housed on the Smithsonian Website. The page is actually titled: Encyclopedia Smithsonian: Online Resources from A to Z. It is a great resource for people of all ages, but a very educational resource for students and kids.
Once on the page, you can
- Do a keyword search
- Choose one of eight large categories, including one called Kid's Favorites or
- Choose one of many smaller topics, such as Space Exploration, Dinosaurs, etc.
Whatever you choose, you will most likely wind up with at least two pages of results. And the results could be made up of:
- Activities and Games
- Online Exhibitions
- Online Features
- Research Resources
- Teacher Resources
- Fact Sheets
- Reading Lists
The resources available on the encyclopedia are amazing. My only complaint about the website is that it isn't clearly laid out. If you visit the Smithsonian Website, you would have trouble finding the encyclopedia (It is under the first tab "Explore").
Then, when going through the resources you find, it is very easy to move from the encyclopedia to other parts of the website without realizing it. The entire website is safe for kids, so that is not a problem, but you can easily lost track of your resources and where you are.
All in all, The Encyclopedia Smithsonian is a very educational website and is definitely worth visiting.More »
3. KidzSearch Encyclopedia For Kids
The KidzSearch Encyclopedia is set up like the old style directory that was often used in the 90s, but still works well with kids. Kids can easily just click one of the many topics in the directory. However, there is a search bar they can use also.
The results came from a simplified version of Wikipedia, created for kids, the Simple English Wikipedia. There are over 200,000 articles in it.
This is the same KidzSearch that also makes the Search Engine.More »