Your nine-year-old can navigate the ocean of information on the World Wide Web like a veteran Navy captain. You, on the other hand, can barely get your ship out of dock. But now's your chance to show your kid you're not a complete landlubber.
In April, President Clinton ordered agencies to cast out to the Internet sea and put educational resources online. As a federal manager--and as a parent--it would do you well to know what agencies are coming up with. Clinton ordered the Education Department to write up a navigation guide for parents who are trying to keep up with their kids. The guide is slated for release by the end of November. In the meantime, several agencies have anchored some educational--and fun--sites on the Web to which you can steer your kids and get ideas for your own agency's educational online outpost.
The Environmental Protection Agency's Recycle City (www.epa.gov/recyclecity/) is an island oasis of fun facts and games. You and your kid can rummage through "Dumptown," as you learn about the recycling process and about things your family can do to be less wasteful. Recycle City was created at EPA's San Francisco office.
At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, kids can check out images of the Earth captured by KidSat (kidsat.jpl.nasa.gov), a program in which middle school students control cameras in space. The photo gallery has some pictures from a birds-eye view that will impress your young ones.
The U.S. Geological Survey's Learning Web (www.usgs.gov/education) links up to numerous educational activities, including "Ask a Geologist," in which kids can email questions to USGS scientists.
On the Treasury Department's Kids Page (www.ustreas.gov/treasury/kids), children click on the paw prints of "Trez the Alley Cat" to get information on money, savings bonds, and a history of the department (where Trez falls asleep).
Trez's well-to-do next-door neighbor, Socks the cat, guides youngsters through the White House for Kids (www.whitehouse.gov/WH/kids/html). The First Cat takes visitors on a White House tour and introduces them to the rest of the first family.
If your kid is still unimpressed with your Web sailing skills after all that, drop anchor at the Navy's USS Constitution Web page (www.ncts.navy.mil/homepages/constitution) and abandon ship. But take some ideas from other agencies back to work with you.
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