Online Freebies for Grandkids

You provide plenty of TLC when watching the grandkids, but sometimes you need some R&R. To get it, keep elementary school-age kids and younger occupied with these fun mind- and skills-building online freebies:

See also: When the volunteer room mother at school is Grandma.

Keep your grandkids busy with educational online games. — Artiga Photo/Corbis

• The Smithsonian’s kid site has activity sheets about zebras, squid, chocolate and other topics.
  
  
• TheKidzPage.com offers nifty drag-and-place jigsaw puzzles and educational games. Be prepared for 5,000 pages of activities.
  
  
• The EPA Student Center provides entertaining schooling on the environment (and useful homework help).
  
  
• HappinessisaHorse.com teaches users how to draw a horse’s head, among other challenges.
  
  
• Free Stuff 4 Kids has lots of categories — teachables, makeables, eatables, orderables, winnables and other ‘bles”that will keep your charges busy for hours.
  
  

To find other online or printable activities, including scads of coloring books, type Kids Learning Freebies (no quotes) into a search engine.

Sid Kirchheimer writes about consumer and health issues. Ask Sid a question about scams, deals and other consumer concerns.