CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: BORED KIDS AT HOME? TRY DALMATIONS, GRINCH AND MR. POTATO HEAD (COLUMN 17)

CYBERTIP: Plan ahead for surfing with your children. The three plug-ins you will need to fully utilize many sites are Quicktime, RealAudio and Shockwave. Each takes about 7 to 10 minutes to download and install. So start about 30 minutes before you call the children to the computer.

Home for the holidays doesn't always have that warm and fuzzy connotation for parents. Area school children begin their holiday vacations this week, and parents may be scrambling to find activities to keep kids busy.

Much debate has centered recently on lack of censorship on the web. Plenty of reputable sites exist. Like everything else, parents should surf with their kids, or check out sites in advance. There are a growing number of good sites for kids.

Did the Grinch really steal Christmas? The answer may be found in Suessville on the World Wide Web, brought to you by the folks at Random House.

http://www.suessville.com

Peggy: This site offers six rather fun games including "Grab the Grinch" and "Green Eggs and Ham Picture Scramble." To play "Grab the Grinch," you need the Shockwave plugin.

Joni: The game is geared for younger children, pre-school and younger elementary grades, probably the same children who enjoy the books. I could catch the Grinch before he stole all 13 presents, but he is a little tricky.

Peggy: A nine-piece puzzle of "Sam and Me" is different every time. Complete the puzzles by clicking and dragging, then you can start bragging. You can ask the cat questions, like "Why are you called the Cat in the Hat instead of the Cat in the red bow tie?" He will e-mail us.

Joni: Within a day, the Cat himself answered. "The reason I'm called the Cat in the Hat is simply because that's my name and if I'm not called the Cat in the Bow Tie, you have Dr. Seuss to blame." Well that answers that.

Peggy: For fun and virtues, parents and kids can visit a page based on PBS's "Adventures from the Book of Virtues" series.

http://www.pbs.org/adventures

You can print and color pages, print a postcard or play a crossword puzzle and a number of games with Shockwave or Java, including a word finder and Concentration.

Joni: These games are for kids a little bit older. The words today are courage, faith, honesty. The mystery game is similar to Hangman. You don't get a hint.

Peggy: But here's a hint for parents. The words follow the theme of the page. Friendship was our answer.

Joni: You must have been good at "Wheel of Fortune."

Peggy: You can read and write stories about virtues. The creative endeavors should follow one of the following themes: Work, honesty, responsibility, compassion, self discipline and courage.

Joni: Some of the stories are posted on the StoryWeb. We read stories from children ages 4 to 13. They are fun to read. For other fun and games, try Disney's 101 Dalmation page at

http://www.101.com

Peggy: Several games from puppy puzzles to playing tricks on Cruella can be found under dog toys. You can dress Cruella or pelt this villianess with eggs. You can either play online or download the game. Some games may take two minutes or more to load for online play. My kids, ages 6, 3 and 2, love this page. It might be worth my time to download the games permanently.

Joni: The puzzle shows dozens of dalmations, which are difficult to decipher. I'm sure there's 101 dogs in here. I am not going to set any time records on this game. I did manage to muddle through.

Peggy: You can get other puppy stuff including puppies for your desktop, paintable puppies, coloring page puppies and even free trading card puppies. As a Christmas gift, you could download several of these games free of charge to your computer to play anytime.

Joni: You can also adopt a virtual dalmation on this page. Since my daughter is scared of dogs, that's the best kind of pet in our household.

Peggy: You can find other Disney games at www.disney.com.

Joni: If you're at a loss as to where to go on the Internet for children's sites, try the Ultimate Children's Internet Site.

http://www.vividus.com/ucis.html

It seems to have the listings to back up their boast. One nice thing is they sort it by age: pre-school and younger, 4-9 year olds, middle school and teenagers. They also have sites listed for parents and educators.

Peggy: One recommended site was a fun Froggy page. The address is very, very long. We recommend you link to the site from the ultimate list.

Joni: On this green page, you can listen to different frog sounds, and even meet some famous frogs like Kermit. You frog lovers can even download the Muppet theme.

Peggy: The sounds work, but on our Mac, we could only get it to work with SoundMachine.

Joni: Here you can find all kinds of frog stuff, frog stories, frog sounds, frog fables, The Frog Prince and how to take care of frogs. You can learn a Native American myth on why frogs croak.

Peggy: You can link to Disney's Muppet Treasure Island and its famous captain, Kermit the Frog. If you've been asking yourself can a frog really fence, here's your chance to find out.

Joni: Another recommended stop from the list page is the Mr. Potato Head Page, at

http://winnie.acsu.buffalo.edu/potatoe/

Peggy: Of course, these designers don't use his real name, probably worried about being sued. They refer to him as Mr. Edible Starchy Tuber Head.

Joni: I played Mr. Edible Starchy Tuber Head. He looked pretty weird. International versions of the page include pig latin and Canadian. They do link you to the official Mr. Potato page.

Peggy: And yes, they know, potatoe is spelled wrong. Perhaps Dan Quayle is their copy editor.

E-mail us at movnldd.net.

See you in cyberspace.

~Joni Adams is managing editor and Peggy Scott is graphics editor at the Southeast Missourian.