25 Best Educational Websites for Kids

Here are the 25 best educational websites to educate, entertain and inspire kids

It can be a challenge to find appropriate educational websites for kids. Some kids websites have dodgy ads flashing up on screen while others are of dubious educational quality. Here are the top 25 educational websites for kids aged preschooler to school-aged. These websites, most of them free educational websites, will keep your kids entertained while expanding their knowledge. Some are Australian while others are from the United Kingdom and USA.

While the majority of these learning websites are free, a few are paid subscriptions such as Brainpop!, ABC Reading Eggs, Mathseeds and Matific. However, we’ve personally tried them and can recommend them as great learning resources. Try a free trial first to see if it suits your kid though.

Educational Websites for Preschoolers

ABC KIDS

ABC KIDS contains the best collection of Australian and international kids shows including Play School, The Wiggles, Thomas & Friends and lots more. There’s also educational component with games like Sesame Street’s Alphabet Hunt and Playschool’s Match the Toys and Colour the Rainbow as well as craft ideas and recipes for parents.

Website: http://www.abc.net.au/abcforkids/

Also available as an app: ABC  KIDS iview

 

ABC Reading Eggs

Kids can learn to read with Reading Eggs. It introduces kids to phonics, sight words and makes learning to read fun. ABC Reading Eggs is suitable for ages 3–7 and is often used in schools for Kindergarten. We used it with our daughter in the year before she started school and it was a great introduction to early learning. There are also supplementary books available for kids to practice letters and simple words. Paid subscription required. Try a free 30 day trial before you commit to purchasing a subscription. (no credit card required) There’s also the ABC Reading Eggs Learn to Read App.

Website: http://readingeggs.com.au

ABC Mathseeds

There’s also the companion website for math, ABC Mathseeds which introduces kids aged 3 to 9 to simple math. It’s a fun website for kids to practice math. Paid subscription required. Try a free trial before you commit to purchasing a subscription. There’s also the Mathseeds Play & Learn app.

Website: https://mathseeds.com.au

 

PBS Kids

American public broadcaster PBS produces much-loved TV shows such as Sesame Street, Wild Kratts and Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood. Their website offers educational games for kids to play. Kids can select games by character, difficulty level or latest available. Although there are videos,  unfortunately they aren’t available to view outside the US. There’s also a large amount of free printables available to download

Website: https://pbskids.org

 

Educational Websites for School Age Kids (Years K – 6)

ABC Education

ABC Education is a fantastic website that contains lots of free educational resources for primary and secondary students. It has engaging videos, games and fun educational resources which align to the Australian curriculum.

Behind the News features short videos which explain about current issues and world events – great for upper primary kids and older to learn about what’s happening in the world today.

Website: http://education.abc.net.au

ABC Reading Eggs

Kids can learn to read with Reading Eggs. It introduces kids to phonics, sight words and makes learning to read fun. There’s ABC Reading Eggs for ages 3–7. Paid subscription required. Try a free 30 day trial before you commit to purchasing a subscription. (no credit card required)

Website: http://readingeggs.com.au

ABC Mathseeds

There’s also the companion website for math, ABC Mathseeds which introduces kids aged 3 to 9 to simple math. Paid subscription required. Try a free trial before you commit to purchasing a subscription.

Website: https://mathseeds.com.au

BBC History for Kids

It’s a treasure trove of history on this website. Kids can enter ancient worlds, meet famous people and discover fascinating facts by exploring a wide selection of historical games and activities. As it’s a BBC website, it’s geared towards British history but there’s still useful information about ancient civilisations.

Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/forkids/

Brainpop!

An American website, Brainpop! teaches kids through a series of short animated videos. Engaging for both kids and parents. The website covers a range of topics from science and math to writing and history. As it’s American, it does have an American bias for history. Subscription required to unlock all the content on the website. However, you can access some free videos each week. For younger kids in years K-3, BrainPOP Jr is recommended.

Websites: https://www.brainpop.com/ & https://jr.brainpop.com

Code Club

Code Club is an Australian network of volunteer-led coding clubs. Their website also contains Code Club projects for Scratch, Python, HTML and Blender. They’re free step-by-step guides for young learners to follow and create animations, games, websites, and much more.

Website: https://codeclubau.org/projects

Digital Resource Finder

The Resource Finder features free for educational video clips from Screen Australia’s remarkable archive – one of the nation’s largest and most historically significant collections. It features an easy-to-use search engine for parents, teachers, and educators to find videos across a range of subjects. There’s a large amount of videos for kids to view for age groups from upper primary to Year 12.

Website: https://dl.nfsa.gov.au

DuoLingo

Do your kids want to learn another language? They can learn one of more than 25 languages including French, Spanish, Indonesian and even Klingon! The lessons give kids an opportunity to learn different phrases followed by quizzes. It’s free but there are ads. You can also choose ad-free option by choosing DuoLingo Plus for $6.99 per month.

Website: https://www.duolingo.com

Fizzics Education

Kids can learn all about science by visiting this website filled with experiments to increase their understanding on how things work. There’s 150 different projects to try including kitchen chemistry and light and sound experiments.

Website: https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization which produces short lessons in the form of YouTube videos. Subjects include math from Year 1 on, physics, chemistry, biology as well as economics, American and world history.

Website: https://www.khanacademy.org

Matific

Matific is a website which uses game-based activities to make maths fun. There’s different galaxies for kids to complete and they can complete it in their own pace. Matific supports the math curriculum from Kindergarten to Year 6. It’s a paid subscription ($19.99 for single grade for 12 months) but worth it if you want to get your kids excited about math. Of all the math websites, this is the one that my daughter likes the best. Your child can do a trial by playing the first set of activities prior to purchase if you want to see if it’s suitable for your kids. There’s also regular emails to a parent that reports kids progress. It’s a great report card to see how well your kids are doing in different math areas.

Website: https://www.matific.com/au/en-au/home/

MetKids

To introduce kids to different art works, visit the MetKids website by the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Made for kids with the help of kids, it features a large interactive cartoon map of the Met. Kids can click on red dots to learn more about the artwork. This enables them to view more details such as the background of the piece and when it was made. Kids can also search the Met collection by using the “Time Machine” to choose items by time period, geography and concept.

Website: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/online-features/metkids

NASA Kids’ Club

If your child loves space, visit the NASA Kids’ Club website. It’s packed with information about space missions, science and technology. On this section of the website, you’ll find games suited to kinder to year 4 relating to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). There’s also sections of NASA’s main website for older kids to year 12.

Website: https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html

National Geographic Kids

There’s so much to discover on the National Geographic Kids website. Kids can discover different topics relating to animals, science, history and geography. The Nat Geo website recognises locations and will redirect to the Australian site automatically. There’s loads of interesting articles and videos for kids to read.

Website: https://www.natgeokids.com/au/

Ology

Ology meaning “the study of” is the name of a fascinating science website for kids from the American Museum of Natural History. It’s packed full of information about different topics ranging from biology, human cultures and earth and space. It makes learning fun.

Website: https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology

Oxford Owl

Oxford Owl is an award-winning website from Oxford University Press, created to support children’s learning in reading and math. Based on the UK curriculum, it features games, recommended reading lists, and free e-books for kids aged 3 – 11. For parents, it contains expert advice, videos and tips to help your kids with reading and mathematics. Great tips on learning phonics, grammar and and times tables.

Website: https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/

Parliamentary Education Office

What does the government in Canberra actually do? Good question and one that many people struggle to understand especially in the current political climate. The Parliamentary Education Office website contains lots of information for students and teachers to learn about Parliament. There’s fact sheets, quizzes and videos.

Website: https://www.peo.gov.au

Scratch

Teach your kids to code using Scratch, a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Media Lab. It is provided free of charge. Scratch is designed especially for ages 8 to 16, but is used by people of all ages. It’s a graphical programming language which allows children to drag and combine code blocks to make a range of programs.

There’s also ScratchJr for kids aged 5 – 7 which is more appropriate for younger kids. It allows them to program their own interactive stories and games.

Websites : https://scratch.mit.edu and https://www.scratchjr.org

TIME for Kids

Especially for kids in year K-6, TIME for Kids is a free website written by publishers of TIME Magazine as well as contributions from student writers. It contains age-appropriate articles for each year. The articles provides information about current topics.

Website: https://www.timeforkids.com

Educational Websites For High School Kids (Years 7 – 12)

ABC Education

ABC Education is a fantastic website which contains lots of free educational resources for primary and secondary students. It has engaging videos, games and fun educational resources which align to the Australian curriculum.

Behind the News features short videos which explain about current issues and world events – great for upper primary kids and older to learn about what’s happening in the world today.

Website: http://education.abc.net.au

CSIRO

Australia’s national science organisation is engaged in research to confront the biggest challenges facing the nation. The website contains a lot of information about different research projects connected to health, climate change, farming and food production. Although it’s not specifically targetted to kids, it’s a useful source of knowledge.

Website: https://www.csiro.au

Digital Resource Finder

The Resource Finder features free for education video clips from Screen Australia’s remarkable archive – one of the nation’s largest and most historically significant collections. It features an easy-to-use search engine for parents, teachers, and educators to find videos across a range of subjects. There’s a large amount of videos for kids to view for age groups from upper primary to Year 12.

Website: https://dl.nfsa.gov.au

Eddie Woo’s Wootube Math Channel

Super star math teacher presents different tutorials about math on his popular YouTube Channel. Best suited to school years 7 to 12.

Website: http://www.misterwootube.com

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization which produces short lessons in the form of YouTube videos. Subjects include math from Year 1 on, physics, chemistry, biology as well as economics, American and world history.

Website: https://www.khanacademy.org

 

For parents

Common Sense Media

This website is for parents and it’s my go-to guide to determine the suitability of movies, TV shows, books, apps and games. Common Sense is the leading independent nonprofit organization with ratings and reviews which enable families to make smart media choices. Highly recommend for parents and caregivers.

Website: https://www.commonsensemedia.org

 

iParent

This website set up the Australian Government Office of the eSafety Commissioner helps parents learn how to keep their kids safe online. There’s information for parents of preschoolers to manage their screen time to dealing with issues of sexting, online gaming and pornography for parents of teenagers.

Website: https://www.esafety.gov.au/education-resources/iparent

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