CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: FUN SITES FOR KIDS AND FAMILIES EASY TO FIND ON THE INTERNET (COLUMN 51)

One more day before school starts for both our eldest children. Peggy's is a veteran. She starts first grade. Joni's daughter is starting kindergarten. We considered going to Internet psychiatry pages but instead decided to lose ourselves in fun family pages.

The Internet gets a lot of bad press for the dark side. It's there, but for the most part you must go looking for the bad stuff. On the other hand, we've found a lot of education and informational pages out there for kids.

Joni: This one caught my eye. Are you a raving toy maniac? Here's a page just for you, a celebration of toys and action figures.

http://www.toymania.com/main.html

Peggy: I have discovered that nearly 3-year-old boys don't want to play with Barbie. Not even Ken. My son wants an action figure with superpowers and enemies to defeat. At this site you can learn about the newest action figures. I need some help.

Joni: Based on what we saw here, I think these guys must be friends with our webmasters. Try not to faint when you see what figure was disfigured for this month's figtoon. The idea is very simple. They give you the picture of mutated action figures. You give them the caption.

Peggy: Also on this site is the pre-history of the Happy Meal. With four kids, I'm familiar with Happy Meals.

Joni: I didn't know the Happy Meal started in 1977. Before that a whole generation of McDonald's diners grew up eating meals without toys.

Peggy: The first Happy Meals were much less elaborate. But today, a successful toy promotion will bring parents charging through the Golden Arches. The Teenie Beanie Baby promotion resulted in a 6 percent increase in McDonald's revenue.

Joni: They also have a toy-related electronic mailing list and newsletter. For example, if you want to find out about Star Wars, Legos, cars, GI Joe they have it.

Peggy: Don't talk to me about GI Joe. Now that he's shrimpy, I'm just not interested.

Joni: This page boasts off-white pages, which is a rather long list of toy-related links. They are actually color coded. Red is for fan pages. Red is the color of passion. Blue is the color for industry pages, as in blue chip. Green, the color of money, is for the sales pages, focusing on buying, selling and trading toys.

Peggy: They also have links to software and games dealing with toys in their electronic toybox.

Joni: Next stop is the Headbone zone. It's party time for your brain cells.

http://web.headbone.com

This is a site designed for kids. It has a lot of games and it changes every day. They have prizes and chat. Let's see where should we go.

Peggy: How about the Rags to Riches Rescue Game or take the band Groovy Gravy on a 10-week concert tour?

Joni: They also have a secret decoder center. You can send secret messages. I remember when I was in high school -- long ago -- we folded our notes into tiny triangles. I ran across one written in green ink. It was pathetic.

Peggy: Yes, times have changed. You can decode or encode secret e-mail messages for your friends.

Joni: They have a free Internet research adventure that runs from September through December. Students will learn the basics of Internet research through seven cabbage-filled episodes. There is also a teacher's guide.

Peggy: For many of the games and adventures, you must register. But it's free. Some of the games require Shockwave.

Joni: Disney has a new web site for families.

http://www.family.com

It has information on parenting, learning, food, travel, activities and computing. Here's one: 26 great projects kids can do with magic markers, or the top 50 family videos. I've got to see the magic marker thing.

Peggy: You can learn to make tinfoil masks, marker spirals, sun catchers, styrofoam fish, posters, fancy fish and window pictures. You can also share your own marker ideas.

Joni: For 50 family videos, how many do you think are Disney? Well, what do you feel like eating? They have a recipe search.

Peggy: Chicken. We always eat chicken. It's the only thing I ever have in the freezer. And I'd like to make it in less than 15 minutes.

Joni: You have to be a member. We can't get the recipes.

Peggy: That's OK. We can find recipes on other sites, remember. There are still lots of things you can do at this site without being a member.

Joni: For example, under computing they have "Teaching kids Internet skills in five-minute bytes" and "Homework helpers." A favorite TV channel at my house is Nickelodeon. It's also online.

http://www.nick.com

There are games, magazines, something called juicy and even a movie promo, "Good Burger." She and Dad saw the movie. Rebecca chants "Welcome to Good Burger. Can I take your order?" every time we approach a burger joint. And somehow everyone is called a dude. Go figure.

Peggy: Let's look at the games. They have four. Watch Out, Nick Studios 3-D, What's Now and Turbo Trivia.

Joni: They have a green slime geyser to see if anyone is getting slimed now at Universal Studios. And you can check out the Gak kitchen to learn the secret of that green gook.

Peggy: You can go to the hair and makeup room to help Stick Stickly get ready for his next performance or help find a buried time capsule. Kids at Nick Studio buried it in 1992.

Joni: Of course you can send a virtual postcard. What's the good of a studio tour without a souvenir?

E-mail us with your favorite kid site at click@semissourian.com

See you in Cyberspace.

Joni Adams and Peggy Scott are members of the Southeast Missourian online staff.