One of the first--and still one of the best--overall sites that indexes helpful Web pages by subject is B. J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper(see "Sites and Software" for all Internet links). B.J.'s site has some genuine street cred--he's a kid himself! With help from his dad, B.J. has assembled links to more than 625 educational and entertaining sites organized into topics, each link with a brief summary of the corresponding site's merits by the 13-year-old homework king himself.

But B.J.'s directory, including as it does many sites intended for upper-level readers, is really for kids from the fourth grade on. Younger children will find more appropriate links at KidsClick! This directory, created by "a bunch of librarians," is nearly as comprehensive but contains links mostly to sites designed specifically for early middle schoolers. (A warning is in order: Although the reading level of the sites linked here may be for kids, we suggest some parental guidance since some of the sites cover adult subjects--the birds and the bees, for example--presented for kids.) There are also links to sites on hobbies, pop culture and even chores--including a great guide to doing your own laundry.

Other great all-in-one resources you might like to try to include StudyWeb, which claims to have more than 100,000 "research quality" links, many of them appropriate for or designed for kids; Schoolwork Ugh!, which has a link to an excellent tutorial on using the Internet for research; Ask Jeeves for Kids, which will answer your child's specific question with a child-friendly encyclopedia answer plus related Web sites; and the Internet Public Library Youth Division.