For the PArents

Digital Citizenship/Safety

Parents Guides to Movies, Games, apps, and almost all things digital

Parents, I believe that you should make informed decisions.  Please keep up with what media your children are consuming!  While I am not a fan of banning anything across the board, parents should be aware of what their children are watching or playing.   Parents should make informed decisions about their own children's access to content.  

• Commonsense Media (https://www.commonsensemedia.org/)- Please visit this site!  This site provides detailed information and reviews about websites, movies, TV, and apps.   You can find content based on your child's age and interests.  Each review has a brief section that provides information about positive messaging and questionable content.   As with anything, it is your choice as a parent what you let your child watch.   Please read reviews and don't go by the age suggestion automatically.  What you may find appropriate is different than what others may deem acceptable.

• Kids-in-Mind (https://kids-in-mind.com/)-   This is a new website on my radar and I haven't thoroughly review it, but I appreciate any website that breaks movies down and gives examples of what children will see in the movie or show.  This helps me as a parent decide if I want to let my child watch by themself, with me, or prohibit my child from watching.

Programming

Computer

• www.code.org (K-5) - Learn the basics of programming. In their CSF course, they have material for pre-readers through middle school. Students can create their own accounts and run through prescripted puzzles to help them learning logic, reasoning, and computational thinking.

•  Scratch.mit.edu (1-5) - Learn to program using blocks. Students may create their own accounts. (Be aware that it is free to post projects and some Scratchers have added music or games that may not be appropriate for everyone, so supervision is encouraged.) 

• www.tynker.com (2-5) - A great programming site (some parts you must pay for, but most of the site is free). This site helps children as they transition from block programming to actually writing code. 

• www.vidcode.com (5-12) - This is a more advanced programming site for those students who have a good grasp of programming concepts. 

Tablet/Phone 

• ScratchJr (K-5, Ipad and Chromebooks)- Students can create interactive stories by connecting programming blocks to each other. Students can make their characters move, talk and interact with other characters. 

• Kodable (K-5, Ipad) -Students direct their fuzzes through mazes by laying out a set of directions for their character to follow. (School Code=abzrw3e)

• Hopscotch (3-5, Ipad) - Students can create games for their Ipad on Hopscotch using the Hopscotch programming language. 

• MIT App Inventor (4-5, computer, Android) - This for advanced elementary programmmers. Students can create their own apps on the computer and test them on their phone. 

• Lightbot (K-5, Ipad, Android)- Lightbot is a fun game that teaches children sequence, patterns, and procedures. 

Digital Art

• Pro Create (4-5) -  Apple iPad program.  This is one of the few I have paid for.  If you have a budding artist, this provides an amazing amount of features to take your child's digital art to the next level.

• www.pixlr.com (3-5) - Pixlr has two sides, Pixlr Editor and Pixlr Express. Express has some basic editing tools, and filters, and a collage maker. 5th grade used the Editor side when creating their project for Winter 2. Pixlr editor is like a light version of Adobe Photoshop. You can do some great photo editing with this website. 

• Art Rage (K-5, www.artrage.com) - Art Rage is a very robust paint program for the PC. It is a paid program. You can create with different mediums, use stickers, and stencils to create your own works of art. It is a fairly complex program and would be best suited for those older children that are enthusiastic about art. It works well with digital tablets. 

• Paint.NET (3-5 , www.getpaint.net) - Paint.NET is great image and photo editing software that is free to use. It can be downloaded from the website above. 

• Tux Paint (K-5, Downloaded from www.tuxpaint.org) - Tux Paint is a fun little paint program for all ages. You can download a stamp package that adds some fun stickers, and children can play with the Magic Tools to create symmetry, fill in area, make snow, etc. Very easy to use and free. 

• www.pixilart.com/draw (K-12) For those parents that lived through the Nintendo Era, pixilart.com lets you draw pixel based pictures and add frames to animate them. 

Local Technology Groups, Clubs, Camps, etc.

Awesome Inc.-  Awesome Inc. provides coding clubs and camps for children.

Newton's Attic-   Newton's Attic provides creative STEM classes for students during the summer and when Fayette County is not in session.

University of Kentucky STEM camp-  Provides summer classes in robotics and other STEM activities.