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Send your kids to these sites to help them learn, study, indulge their curiosity, and get a fresh perspective on academic subjects.
ByJill Duffy
Jill Duffy
Columnist and Deputy Managing Editor, Software
My Experience
I've been contributing to PCMag since 2011 and am currently the deputy managing editor for the software team. My column, Get Organized, has been running on PCMag since 2012. It gives advice on how to manage all the devices, apps, digital photos, email, and other technology that can make you feel like you're going to have a panic attack.
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UpdatedJanuary 4, 2024
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Table of Contents
You want your kids to be curious and explore their interests. You probably also want them to develop skills that help them know where to go when they're stuck on a homework problem or struggling with new academic material. The best online courses for kids do all of that.
There are thousands of self-identified educational websites and apps. It's a broad category. "Kids" is an equally broad term. We use it in a wide sense here, so you'll find websites with learning opportunities for preschoolers (ages 3 to 5) through early college (18 years).
Below are our favorite learning sites for kids.
Best Flashcards for Teens
Brainscape
Ages 12+ years, with some content for younger learners
Free; paid accounts starting at $19.99 per month with other plans available for semester, year, and lifetime
Brainscape is an adaptive flashcard app and site that comes preloaded with excellent study sets for students in high school and beyond. For example, there are flashcard sets to study for the driver's ed exam in several states, decks for AP classes, and so on. Professionals can find study sets for passing standardized vocational exams, too. With a paid account, you can make your own custom study sets. There's a little content for younger students, such as sight reading cards, but Brainscape is ideally suited to learners 12 years and up.
Best for Middle and High School Math
CoolMath
Ages 13+ years
Free
CoolMath is a free site that explains pre-algebra, algebra, and pre-calculus concepts in ways your young student may not have encountered. By getting a fresh take on, say, polynomials, students ages 13 and up have a great chance at getting many mathematical concepts to click.
Best for Math for 12 and Under
CoolMath4Kids
Ages 12 years and younger
FreeThe same group behind CoolMath makes CoolMath4kids, which is suitable for younger kids working on more basic math concepts. This site covers addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions. It's more interactive than the version for older learners, with games, brain teasers, and quizzes.
Best for Kid-Appropriate News
DOGOnews
Best for Exploratory Learning
Funbrain
Ages 5–14
Free
Funbrain is a site where students explore topics of interest through readings and interactive content or play games to help them drill math concepts. This site is better for engaging educational curiosity than it is for getting help with specific subject matter. The games are hit or miss, with some suffering from poor controls and offering little educational value.
Best for Free Academic Learning
Khan Academy
4.5
Ages 5+
Free
Khan Academy is a virtual classroom for scholastics: math, science, computing, economics, life skills, history, reading, and language arts. It's been one of the most popular learning sites for years, helping students of all ages learn everything from phonics to personal finance. You learn primarily by watching videos, but there are quizzes, too. Kids aged seven and younger who might have a hard time navigating the website will find lessons and games that are appropriate for them in an easy-to-use mobile app called Khan Academy Kids.
Khan Academy Review
Best for Nature Lovers
Monterey Bay Aquarium Learning at Home
Ages 5–17
FreeThe Monterey Bay Aquarium has a subsection of its site called Learning at Home that contains online courses and activities for young people to learn about marine animals, ecosystems, ocean conservation, and related topics. The site is available in English and Spanish. In addition to online courses, which you can view by grade level, the site also has crafts, suggestions for parent-led activities, and short readings (facts and photos) about various animals and plants.
Best for Animals, History, Science, and Space
National Geographic Kids
Ages 5–16
Free
The online kids' version of National Geographic gives young people educational articles, videos, and quizzes on a variety of topics, including animals, history, science, and space. National Geographic Kids isn't as interactive as some sites, but it's a nice place to find short articles related to timely topics, such as a kids-appropriate history of Juneteenth. With a name like National Geographic, however, it is very US-centric in what it covers and how.
Best Interactivity
PBSLearningMedia
Ages 5–17
Free
PBSLearningMedia has a wealth of content that teachers can use or that students who are old enough to use a computer unsupervised can independently explore. It has videos, as well as interactive lessons teaching art, social studies, health and physical education, science, math, engineering, and other subjects. For very young children (ages 2 to 5), you can find more age-appropriate shows and interactive content at PBS Kids; we didn't include it officially in this list because it's a bit of a stretch to call it a "learning" site, though some content may be educational.
Best Study Aid
Quizlet
4.0
Ages 8+
Free limited version; paid plans $7.99 per month or $35.99 per year
Quizlet started as a flashcard app and has grown to offer games, quizzes, and other ways for young people to learn, review, and study. With Quizlet, you can create custom decks of material to study or look for content that other people have uploaded and shared. A free version gives you limited ways to interact with your content, and a paid account unlocks almost everything else. Some study decks shared by professional organizations may cost extra.
Quizlet Review
Best for Reading for 10 and Under
Scholastic Kids
Ages 5–11
Free
The Scholastic Kids website is a great resource of educational reading material for kids approximately 10 years and younger. There, you can find short educational articles geared toward kids with curiosity about roller coasters, genetics, animals, geography, and other topics. You can sort by grade level to find articles that are appropriate for the young learners in your life.
Best for Kids 5 and Under
Sesame Street and Sesamo
Ages 2–5
Free
For the littlest learners, nothing beats the classic educational content from Sesame Street or Sesamo (if you want the learning experience in Spanish or Portuguese). The two-to-five-year-old crowd can use this interactive website to play games, watch videos, make art, and more. The educational aspect is mostly in the form of learning how to follow directions, develop motor skills, identify basic shapes (like animals), and so forth.
Best for Elementary School Reading and Math
Starfall
Ages 5–9
$35 per year for Home membership; some content free
Starfall mostly focuses on content that helps children learn to read as well as learn and practice simple math. The interactivity is good and reasonably engaging. Some content is available for free, but you'll need a membership, starting at $35 per year, to access everything on the site.It’s only $355 per year to give an entire elementary school access, so ask your school administrator.
Best for Videos
TED-ED
Appropriate for young adults and mature children
Free
TED-Ed is TED's youth and education initiative. It's a site where you can find short educational videos about a wide range of topics, including those related to current affairs. For example, some of the latest videos on TED explain how face coverings prevent the spread of disease. While the site doesn't seem to have an official recommendation regarding the appropriate age group for its content, one video we previewed referenced HIV/AIDS and condoms, so it's perhaps best suited to young adults and mature children who are capable of either understanding or asking questions about some advanced topics.
Best Vocabulary Builder
TIME for Kids
Ages 6–11
Free
TIME Magazine has an online learning site for kids with articles that are entertaining and educational, available in both English and Spanish. TIME for Kids articles have interactive elements, such as a word look-up feature that helps young learners expand their vocabulary. You'll find book reviews for kids by kids, as well as insights on health, sports, conservationism, and more. You can sort articles into age categories to make sure your young learners get articles that will be interesting and accessible to them.
How We Pick the Best Learning Sites for Kids
To be considered one of the best learning sites for kids, an online resource must offer educational content for kids between the ages of 3 and 18.
We look for sites that offer specific academic help, encourage young people to explore educational topics that are of interest to them, or teach basic concepts and early learning skills to very young children. We also rate sites highly when they have trustworthy and accurate content, educational hooks, compelling materials and designs, stable and easy-to-use interactive components, and clear pricing and payment information, where relevant.
We include a few sites that offer educational material specifically targeted at the US education system, such as AP (Advanced Placement; that is, university-accredited) classes and Regents exams. We do not include sites that have specific online education for non-US systems. We also do not include services that are primarily meant for adult learners but have kid appeal. See, for example, the family version of the online learning materials in Jane Goodall's MasterClass.
Practical Tips for Successful Schooling at Home
More Education Resources
For more educational resources, see our 10 Essential Google Classroom Tips. And learn how to create a separate Windows account just for school on your PC.
Meg St-Esprit contributed to this article.
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I've been contributing to PCMag since 2011 and am currently the deputy managing editor for the software team. My column, Get Organized, has been running on PCMag since 2012. It gives advice on how to manage all the devices, apps, digital photos, email, and other technology that can make you feel like you're going to have a panic attack.
My latest book is The Everything Guide to Remote Work, which goes into great detail about a subject that I've been covering as a writer and participating in personally since well before the COVID-19 pandemic.
I specialize in apps for productivity and collaboration, including project management software. I also test and analyze online learning services, particularly for learning languages.
Prior to working for PCMag, I was the managing editor of Game Developer magazine. I've also worked at the Association for Computing Machinery, The Examiner newspaper in San Francisco, and The American Institute of Physics. I was once profiled in an article in Vogue India alongside Marie Kondo.
Follow me on Mastodon.
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