Free Children 39;s Encyclopedia Online
Sinikka Curz
This free online encyclopedia for students and kids has around 200,000 articles on every topic you could think of, from medicine and architecture to law. There's also a wealth of information on travel, culture, history, music, and other exciting topics,
The content is written in plain English, appealing to audiences of all ages. Just like Wikipedia, this online platform supports over 130 languages, including Turkish, Dutch, Spanish, French, and others.
Another cool resource is Fact Monster, a child-friendly platform covering topics like math and science, world history, arts, geography, and more. In addition to a free online encyclopedia for students and kids, it features a dictionary, thesaurus, almanac, spellchecker, and conversion tools.
Fact Monster also offers dozens of games to entertain and educate children. Some examples are Simon Says, Tic Tac Toe, Hangman, and 1010 Classic. Your child can also play trivia games and take quizzes to learn new things while having fun.
This free online encyclopedia for kids is part of the Sandbox Learning family of educational tools for parents and teachers. Its content is certified by the kidSAFE Seal Program, meaning that it's suitable for all ages.
As far as its functionality goes, you can use the search bar or browse by subject. Each category covers a range of sub-topics, and the information is brief and to the point. You can also tap into the Almanac, which focuses on topics like science, biographies, food, sports, and interesting facts about our world.
Is your child interested in music, history, plants, or sports? Does he want to know more about the human body? Then he might want to check out Academic Kids, a free online encyclopedia for elementary students and small children.
Each section has several sub-categories that will keep your kids glued to the screen for hours. The best part is, they'll actually learn useful things that may help them in school and broaden their knowledge.
DKfindout!, a free online encyclopedia for elementary students, features fun facts, quizzes, videos, and educational articles. You simply choose a topic and then click on images to access related subjects.
Most pages have colorful pictures with detailed explanations, close-ups, and clickable links. What's more, children can take quizzes to test their knowledge. There's a ton of content on science, anatomy, history, dinosaurs, art, and other cool topics.
The Library of Congress as a reference site for children may sound a bit odd. But the world's largest library has to be a great melting pot of knowledge. Plus, it has a separate online section for kids and families.
If, say, you want to know about American history, this is a great starting point. Click on America's Library, and you'll get to read America's Story and learn about the people and events that forged the nation. This section is filled with interesting facts, games, songs, and fun stories.
The family section also features all sorts of activities and games for young learners. You'll find out how to make mini-books, how to recreate centuries-old recipes, how to design your own lighthouse, and more. The puzzles and bedtime stories are a lot of fun, too!
A free online encyclopedia for kids cannot replace real-life experiences, but it can broaden your horizons. It doesn't make sense to ask your child to read peer-reviewed journals or lengthy articles when there are so many cool resources available.
In this digital era, children spend hours on their computers and smartphones. Chances are, your toddler will be more excited about learning from an online platform like Fact Monster or DKFindOut! than reading a book.
The internet is a very valuable and powerful tool, putting a world of information at our fingertips. The web has definitely changed the world, including the way kids do their research for school, homeschooling, or general curiosity.
Wikipedia is a free open content online encyclopedia where people from anywhere in the world can contribute information on any topic in different languages. Wiki articles can be edited to make corrections as well. The Simple Edition of Wikipedia uses words and grammar that is ideal for children, and also provides a shorter more concise version of the original article.
Wikipedia is not considered a 100% credible source of authority information for academic research, because it has been created as an easily accessible index and/or textual condensation of primary and secondary sources for information about anything and everything.
Examples of reliable sources include published works, almanacs, guide books, survey articles, timelines, and user guides. A scholar may also use a bibliography, dictionary, or encyclopedia as either a textual condensation or a secondary source.
Klexikon is a German online encyclopedia for children aged six to twelve years. It was launched in December 2014. The name Klexikon is a portmanteau combining the two German words Kinder [children] and Lexikon [encyclopedia]. Like its role model Wikipedia, the site was created as a wiki using the MediaWiki software. The text content is available under a Creative Commons By Attribution Share-alike version 3.0 licence while free media is taken from Wikimedia Commons.[1][2] Special rules were implemented to ensure that all content is suitable for children.[3] Moreover, all editors are required to register with an email address.[4]
The Klexikon encyclopedia was founded by journalist Michael Schulte and historian Ziko van Dijk, who was the chairman of Wikimedia Netherlands from 2011 to 2014.[5] The website is owned by non-profit association Zentrale fr Unterrichtsmedien im Internet [online educational media centre] which also hosts other types of Wikis.
One year after its launch, Klexikon consisted of 1,000 articles and 1,500 articles had been created after two years.[6][7] The Klexikon community of editors decides per consensus which articles should be created next so as to assure that the most important topics, school subjects and areas of interest of children are covered.[8]
Klexikon was supported by Wikimedia Germany in creating the concept of an online encyclopedia for children.[9] The concept was then refined by cooperating with Technical University of Dortmund and Technical University of Cologne.[10][11]
The German Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth considers the site a "useful" children's encyclopedia.[12] According to the voluntary self control association of German television, Klexikon's advantage is that unlike Wikipedia it is specifically written for children.[13] The Austrian School Portal wrote that Klexikon was a "great work of reference" which provided content that was specifically balanced for children.[14] The Merz magazine noted that Klexikon was an online source of information with relatively reliable content, but criticised that articles did not provide any sources. This was contrary to the need of sensitising school children for marking secondary information as such.[15]
Klexikon is the name of a wiki. It is an encyclopedia for children at the age of six to twelve. This encyclopedia in German language started in November 2014, its creation was supported by Wikimedia Deutschland.
The idea behind an encyclopedia is simple: to make knowledge more accessible. Readers can look up words they encounter in their lives, for example in conversations. Encyclopedias are invaluable resources that allow people to navigate the vast amount of knowledge that has accumulated over the course of human history.
Wikipedia is an example of such an encyclopedia and attracts readers of all ages, including young people. However, it is important to note that Wikipedia is not specifically designed for children. Many articles on Wikipedia are excessively long, contain complex sentences and use difficult vocabulary. Therefore, some of Wikipedia's content may not be suitable for children.
Nevertheless, children also need an encyclopedia. They come across unfamiliar words in school books, in the family, on television and in other contexts. They hear about diseases, social problems, inventions, historical events and famous people. An encyclopedia helps them to find information quickly and understand the basics. Even if an encyclopedia does not provide exhaustive information, it serves as a useful first step for further exploration.
An encyclopedia is an independent work that stands for itself. It is not part of a curriculum, for example in school. This characteristic makes the encyclopedia a universal tool for improving understanding of the world. However, it should be noted that an encyclopedia cannot replace the importance of textbooks, parental guidance, libraries or the extensive resources on the Internet.
A few years after Wikipedia was created in 2001, people started creating many wikis for different purposes. In several countries, individuals independently set up wikis specifically for children, both as readers and writers. On Meta Wiki, we have a List of wikis for children.
In 2014, Michael Schulte and Ziko van Dijk investigated these wikis and found a number of problems. The articles often lacked written quality: for example, they consisted of loosely strung together sentences. Many articles were not much easier to read and understand than Wikipedia articles. Some content was not really suitable for children.
The main problem was that these wikis tried to imitate Wikipedia too much. Anyone could easily create an account and post, which encouraged vandalism. There were few minimum standards and ensuring readability was not a high priority.
Another notable observation was that many of these wikis aimed to involve children as authors. Perhaps this was due to the widespread notion that children understand better what appeals to their peers. In addition, some people found it endearing that children could support others through their contributions. Some of the founders of these children's wikis were teachers looking for a platform to use in the classroom.
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