I am not sure if this is a good thing or not, but my kiddos like the computer as much as I do. My four year old daughter loves online drawing sites and coloring pages and my son is a big fan of "Handy Manny".
While I love to let them play educational and creative games on the internet, I am always afraid that they will run into a site that I don’t want them to see. Not to mention all of the annoying little pop-up ads that seem to be strategically placed for accidental clicks.
I found this site Glubble.com a few months ago and was reminded of it the other day when my son was having a hard time navigating between two sites he loves to play on. It is a Firefox add-on (meaning you can only use it if you also use the Firefox browser…which I also highly recommend). Once you install it you create "tabs" for each of your children and small icons called "glubbles" with many of the most popular children’s educational and game websites.
What I love most about the site is that it keeps my children from exploring elsewhere on the internet because everything else is password protected by the parent.
You can also customize the homepage for each of your children. I filled my daughter’s site with Polly Pockets, Girl Scouts and American Girl type sites while my son gets Bob the Builder and Lego games. You can also choose age-appropriate sites.
I almost purchased the Fisher Price Easy Link Launchpad for my kids but I wasn’t anxious to have yet another toy piled on top of my laptop, desktop, printer, and drawing software. This has been a much better option for so many reasons. (Did I mention that it is free too)?
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I’ve come across some similar programs before but this one is new to me. What attracts me to it right away is the cost. Most everything I’ve found has a subscription fee or a download fee. I’ll check it out right away, thanks Traci!
Hello Traci
My name is Ian Hayward, founder of Glubble. Thank you for the kind words, I came across your post via Google.
Thanks for mentioning that Glubble is free! We believe that parents should not have to pay to protect their children on the Internet.
We also believe that families should decide what is and is not suitable for their own young ones, dependent on their own culture and beliefs.
The old filter parental controls like Net Nanny never delivered either of these things for my Wife and I, they were a combination of expensive & ineffective.
Please let me know how you get on, great blog btw Traci!
All the best, Ian
avenged heaven sevenfold lost avenged sevenfold
I’m all for anything thats out there for the kids. It’s so hard being a parent with the internet the way it is these days.