4Kids.org: June 20, 1999

Give Peace a Chance
At the Peace Corps Kids World, you'll learn how to make a difference in the lives of others while exploring the globe. Roll up your sleeves at www.peacecorps.gov/ kids. Through stories, games and fun facts, you'll explore many of the 80 countries the Peace Corps serves around the globe, including Russia, Ecuador and South Africa. You'll also read about tasty dishes in Morocco and a schoolday in Papua New Guinea. Closer to home, you'll meet students who are helping improve literacy and building schools with ongoing projects in Africa. Find out how kids are changing the world every day in their own communities. Build the bridges of cross-cultural friendship today.

From England to Everest Armchair travel bugs who surf the Web are in for a worldly treat. At Curious Kids, you'll explore exciting nations, cultures and landscapes from around the globe. Journey out to www.curiouskids.com and find out what's happening in places as far away as Moscow, Rome and Beijing. The site is full of kid contributions, including stunning natural photography from Nepal, some opinions on Europe and a travel diary from Hong Kong. You'll find maps, interviews, adventure journals and a bookshop. And don't forget to check out Caitlin's Link of the Week, taking you to great travel sites from around the Web. Whether you're a city slicker or an outback kid, Curious Kids has a destination for you. It's a small world afterall! (This site is no longer available.)

What's All the Flap About?
Thousands of people around the world love bird watching. Just peck in www.birdsource.org and find BirdSource. You get to be a field researcher, reporting the spottings that help ornithologists track and map our feathered friends that are so important to the world's ecology. Where can you whistle with the warblers and find the falcons? BirdSource will show you, with tips for indentifying birds by sight and through helpful recordings of bird calls. Who's been nesting in your back yard or neighborhood park? They want to know! Be sure to keep up-to-date, too, on the discoveries, such as which rare birds have shown up in residential areas, and why some chickadees are having beak troubles.

When you know the answers to the questions below, enter your answers. If you are correct, you will become a "4Kids Detective of the Week." If a question is not answered it is considered wrong. Good luck.

1. How many years have the Christmas Bird Counts been counting birds?

2. How many curious kids are traveling the world?

3. How many years do Peace Corps volunteers serve?

1 year

2 years

4 years

Dear Amy: What is the best search engine that's OK for kids?-Lauren, Stratford, Conn.
Dear Lauren: Unfortunately, search engines return so much weird stuff that kids should ask their parents' permission before they do a search. Luckily, there are some sites just for kids such as CoolSpots at 4kids.org/ coolspots that link you up to kid-friendly sites. The good news is that most of the major search sites are developing filtered or kid-safe versions for young surfers. At Search Engine Watch there's a great page called "Kids Search Engines" at www.searchenginewatch.com/ facts/ kids.html. It describes what to expect at each site and has more links for parents about Web safety. (The second site is no longer available.)

Dear Amy: How can I make the address of my Web page www.brianspage.com?-Brian, Nashua, N.H.
Dear Brian: You want a domain name. A domain name is a unique Web address made up of common words so it is easier to remember. To get a domain name, first search to see if someone else already has it at www.networksolutions.com/ purchase. If the name is not used, contact your ISP and ask what steps to take to get a domain name for your Web page. Some ISPs charge extra fees for this service. (This site is no longer available.)

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