This day and age, parents seem to believe that there are few Internet websites for their children to visit. Most parents will not even let their children on the information superhighway, because of well known factors. However there are many useful sites for your kids to check out. I will name just a few of them, that I would encourage your children to research.

Here are a few educational, but fun, websites:

http://www.discovery.com - This website, is a useful tool for research projects on just about anything. It includes real life stories about a variety of things and real- life expeditions where your child can look at in-depth studies of past ventures. You can also find news stories that are similar to those featured on the Discovery Channel.

http://www.animalplanet.com - This website, too, is also a useful resource for research projects and such: It provides live footage of a menagerie of animals and their habitats and news stories on animals and nature. The site also features an Animal Guide, which has information on anything you need to know about a certain animal. Earth Alerts tracks the happenings around the globe on different animal-related topics.

Both of these sites are excellent to use, and just plain fun for your children .

Here are some excellent search engines for research projects and such:

http://www.yahoo.com - This website contains top news stories from around the world, and local areas. This has been very beneficial to me throughout the school year as a source of additional information. If your child or children choose, they can have free email, so that can write to their friends online. This summer I kept in touch with buddies using this feature. It also has Instant messaging so you can send quick messages to your friends to start a conversation. This site contains many additional features such as a calendar that comes in real handy when you forget a special occassion, and various other parts that help this site keep you and your child busy throughout the summer.

http://www.altavista.com - This site also contains top news stories from local areas and the world, free email, and excellent searching capabilities.

http://www.dogpile.com - This link is similar to the altavista and yahoo sites. It is also useful when you need information on top news stories.

Here are some miscellaneous web sites:

http://www.odyssey.org - This is a useful site for me, personally, because it contains links to interesting web sites, information about almost anything you need to know about Odyssey of the Mind and many more good things for an O.M. team or anybody to use. You can also print out any kind of forms that you need to use for your team. There are scores from past tournaments, and they even have live footage from this past year's World O.M. Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee.

http://www.expressnews.com - This is another useful site for me. Every week we would have to do current events in science class about current topics in science in the world. I would use this site to check out the latest in the science world. I would also use this site to catch up with the latest news, sports, and weather, for almost anywhere in the world. If you accidentally threw the paper away, you can check out past articles.

http://www.disney.com - This website is mainly for young children. It has stories, such as "Mulan," " The Lion King," " Peter Pan," "Aladdin," and all of your child's favorite Disney characters right on their computer screen. What I thought was pretty neat is when your own child can write his or her own story, with their own made-up characters, and enter it to win prizes. This will give them the opportunity to just have fun and get ready for school with their writing capabilities. Other features of the Disney website are: games and trivia, where your child can play anything from checkers to racing games with people around the world; chat rooms, where there is a different Disney topic everyday of the week; and TV showtimes, so if you or your child forgets a time, you can go to the website and it's there for you. This is an entertaining site for you child.

I hope that you and your children will visit these sites that I have recommended. Thank You!

Hi, my name is Ryan DeLaGarza. I'm an 8th grader at Joe F. Saegert Middle School. I enjoy playing violin, piano, and the trombone. I also enjoy doing O.M during the school year. If you have any questions about this article or anything else, please feel free to email me at rad_omer@yahoo.com .

To contribute to the Internet Beat column, contact column coordinator Gloria R. Rivera at 303-5526, fax 372-1418, or riverag@connecti.com, www.seguin.net