If you're a parent or a teacher looking for resources to help your kids take their education a notch higher, you don’t have to look too far. There are lots of great free learning websites for kids to keep them entertained and educated.

Here are some of the best free educational websites for kids that they will want to keep returning to, keeping them out of your hair and ensuring they use their computer time productively.

1. BrainPOP

brainpop

BrainPOP tackles every subject from math to music with humorous animated movies. It breaks down even the most complex concepts into easy-to-understand chunks and uses relatable, real-life scenarios as examples.

The videos come with relevant interactive quizzes, activities, and games that help drive each concept home. Kids are sure to love Moby, the funny robot who appears in the videos.

The website is subscription-based, but there’s some interesting free stuff as well. Don’t miss the daily spotlight feature that teaches children about various timely and relevant topics, from US presidents to cyberbullying to American Indians.

2. Starfall

starfall

Starfall is a superb website for children in kindergarten and grades one, two, and three. There's no advertising anywhere and the content is all produced by a talented team of educators and creatives. However, some content is behind a paywall.

Your kids will shape their reading, phonics, math, and more through a series of fun activities. There's also a collection of seasonal games, cards, and cartoons.

3. Funology

funology

Want to limit your child's screen time? Keep them occupied and entertained with offline activities from Funology. The website may be designed as an idea toolbox for parents and teachers, but there’s no reason it can’t double up as an online laboratory and playground for the kids themselves.

Funology has instruction sets to help kids to try their hand at science experiments, arts and crafts projects, and even magic tricks. It also has plenty of games, jokes, and trivia that you can stock up on for later.

The site includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes, and they come with quirky names and descriptions to entice little chefs. Now, who wouldn’t want to snack on melon rainbow salad, a leprechaun’s favorite dish?

4. BBC Bitesize

bbc bitesize

While BBC Bitesize is aimed at the UK curriculum, it's perfect for children around the world of any age. It has lessons, games, and resources for all the common school subjects: History, Math, English, Science, and more.

BBC Bitesize also has topical learning to help children understand the news and educate them about the world generally, like how to spot fake news or how to prepare for getting exam results.

5. Funbrain

funbrain

Games are one language that every kid seems to understand without needing to learn it. Funology makes full use of this fact to help children master math, spelling, reading, and more.

Funbrain has hundreds of interactive games designed to educate and entertain kids. Some popular books and comics, such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Brewster Rockit, are available as free reads on Funbrain.

If you have a preschooler, head to the Playground section for games that will teach your little one mouse and keyboard manipulation. Bright colors, funny graphics and games, and a safe online environment make FunBrain the perfect online playground for kids.

6. National Geographic Kids

national geographic kids

Like its magazine counterpart, the interactive National Geographic Kids website gets children excited and curious about the world around them. The website's home page is a mosaic of colorful, clickable content designed to appeal to young minds. Stunning photos and videos of a wide variety of places, flora, and fauna keep both kids and adults hooked.

National Geographic Kids uses cool materials like facts, games, quizzes, and polls to teach young explorers various concepts related to geography, natural science, archaeology, and more.

7. Scratch

scratch

Coding is one of the best tech skills that you can encourage your kids to take up. But you won’t have much success getting them to explore it if you don’t make programming fun. Leave that job to Scratch, a web app that teaches coding with visual tools and an easy-to-use interface.

The website teaches coding via a "cause and effect" approach. You click on various color-coded instructions to see their impact on cute animal sprites. For example, by clicking on a specific button, you can make a sprite move 20 spaces to the left.

Scratch ensures that your child’s introduction to programming is far from boring. They can create and share animations, games, and interactive stories, learning to reason and think creatively along the way.

If this takes your child's fancy, here are the best coding apps for teaching programming to kids.

8. Science Bob

science bob

Award-winning educator Bob Pflugfelder (aka Science Bob) is on a mission to make science fun for kids. He explains various scientific concepts using video demos of experiments.

Kids won't find any “don’t try this at home” warnings playing spoilsport. They get detailed instructions to recreate the experiments—an approach that fosters a hands-on approach to science.

Kids can satisfy their curiosity about stuff like "why do we cry when we chop onions?" and "why do our toes get wrinkled in the tub?" via the Q&A section.

9. Seasme Street

seasme street

You can't go wrong with Elmo, Oscar, Cookie Monster, and the gang. The show aimed at younger children has a brilliant website packed full of preschool games, videos, and coloring pages.

The site is wonderfully interactive, especially the section where you visit Seasme Street itself and get to hang out with each of the characters. It's all voiced, vibrantly colored, and packed full of exciting games.

10. Mission US

Mission US

As much as kids dread math, they seem to dread history even more. What if they had a chance to “be there” when the events from our collective past unfolded? Wouldn’t they want to learn more about those times? The folks at sites like MissionUS certainly think so.

With its collection of free video games, MissionUS gives kids a way to immerse themselves as protagonists in US history. They can choose from different missions to complete. Each mission introduces them to a different time and aspect of history, like the Boston massacre and the anti-slavery movement.

Teach Your Kids Internet Safety

Hopefully, these websites can not only solve your kid's cries about being bored, but also teach them a thing or two along the way. Just remember to also educate your kids about internet safety—it can get wild out there and it's good for them to know the dangers.