My December/January Parenting magazine mentioned a website called CYKE.  CYKE, which stands for CYber Knowledge Emotion, has some good resources for parents, but I do not recommend it for kids.   CYKE is a new media design company which wants to improve kids’ emotional and physical health through websites, CD-ROMs, books, and videos.  The media are targeted to kids, parents, teachers, and health professionals.

The part of the site targeted towards parents includes information on emotions, child growth (babies to 8-year-olds), conditions, situations, therapy, medications, and resources.  Topics as diverse as Post Partum Depression, school, developmental milestones, and ADHD are covered.  Although not exhaustive, the site contains good information and is worth surfing through.

The part of the site targeted towards kids has some gems, such as the snowman activity, where kids can create their own snowman, name him (or her), and print out their artwork.  But the Land of Cyke, although full of good ideas and good intentions, is fair at best.  This is tough for me to say, because I love the concept of teaching kids about peer pressure, keeping their temper, and depression through interactive games.  But without spoken-word-help young kids can’t play independently, and kids old enough to read will get bored quickly.  Even worse, the games don’t work very well.  The Music Hall seemed very promising, but dead and broken links made it an exercise in frustration.  (For me!  And I am better at controlling my temper than either the Monkey King or my kids!)

CYKE has so many good concepts that I will continue to check back on it.  I hope they can fix some of their technical problems and –through spoken-word-help — make it more accessible to the younger kids for whose attention they are aiming.  But for the moment it is, unfortunately, a “CKYE-out” as a kids’ site.