Celebrating Father's Day with the Help of the Internet

Father's Day is here! Start the day by booting up your computer and begin planning for this special day. Kids can play games with Dad, find activities to plan, and discover creative ways to show they care. Fathers can find answers to their parenting questions and share experiences with other Dads. This column will show you some wonderful sites to visit.

To fully enjoy these sites you need a java-enhanced browser such as Microsoft Explorer or Netscape (A recent version of Netscape version two or greater supports Java). Microsoft Explorer can be downloaded from http://microsoft.com/ie and the current versions of Netscape can be found at http://home.netscape.com. To check which version you have: open your browser, click on "help" in the menu bar, and then click on the "about" box.

A great place to start celebrating Father's day is with Father's Day on the Net. This site blasts off with cool music. Here you can read the history behind the day and have fun with your dad. Activities to enjoy include putting a jigsaw puzzle together and watching a very short meaningless movie.

If your Dad is not with you on the computer or Mom needs something to keep the kids busy until Dad comes home, this site offers solutions. You can print out a picture, for Dad, and color it. You can also make a treasure chest for Dad. Instructions for the craft are included on the site.

Finally, you can let the world know how you feel. Post a tribute to Dad on the site.

Planning Tips

Need help planning for the special day? Check out Zia's Father's Day Home Page. It offers instructions for crafts to create, food to prepare, and games to play. My family has enjoyed making gooey-gak and going on treasure hunts. With adult supervision, the lunch menu is simple enough for any child to prepare.

The site also offers the opportunity to send Dad an E-card or E-tie, but when I tried it, the server returned error messages.

Cyber-Greeting Cards

I was determined to send my Dad a cyber-card so I tried other sites. Awesome Cyber-Cards for Dad really works and was simple to use!

You select a card, input your message and send away. Be sure to include your Dad's e-mail address and your own address so you both will be notified of the card's location on the Web. (The addresses can be the same) You and your Dad will receive an e-mail message saying there is a card on the web and how you can access it.

Just for Dads

Finally, for the new dads and for dads who want to connect with other fathers, there are sites which utilize the global village concept to find parenting solutions. The Dad's Den is a parenting guide, from the male perspective, for new fathers. Parent's Place includes lots of helpful articles and a live chat feature for parents to discuss child-rearing issues. For Father's day, they have prepared a special section compiling all their pages of interest to Dads.

Other Father's Day Sites

Don't know what to get Dad for a Father's Day gift? Check out the Fathers Day Gift Guide. It includes ideas from golf items and cologne to balloon rides and Arabian horses.

Stay-at-home fathers will enjoy the Newsletter for At-Home Dads.

Also of interest is the National Center on Fathering which conducts research on fathers and fathering and provides resources.

Just want to have fun? Try out The Wacky Web where you can create your own wacky tale. Also look at any of the Safe Surf sites. You can link to these fun sites, and more, from our Kids Page.

Footnote

In preparing this column, I found there are a lot of issues which are of concern to fathers in our society. To get an idea of the topics, which affect fathers, check out the results of the 1996 Gallup Poll on Fathering.

For this column, I selected only the sites which celebrate the joys of fatherhood. For the fathers out there who are interested in pursuing the issues, that affect them, go to your favorite search engine and search under the word "father." You may find what you are looking for. But don't do it today. Today, celebrate the joys with this column.

Input

If you are using the chat feature of the Internet, I would be interested in hearing from you. Do you use it to keep in touch with friends and relatives, to get information, for support, to make friends? Or do you use it just for fun? What has been your experience?

As you voyage down the cyber-path, you are encouraged to send me your ideas for topics you would like to see discussed and to share your favorite links. Send correspondence to me at: e-mail: Webmaster@cpubco.com, via post: Web Voyager, Ellen H. Fernandez, PO Box 2000, Clarksburg, WV 26302, or through our web site. Phone: 626-1466.

EDITOR'S NOTE Ellen Highland Fernandez is the Webmaster for Clarksburg Publishing Company's site and her column appears on the first and third Sundays every month in the Sunday Exponent-Telegram

Clarksburg Publishing Company, P.O. Box 2000, Clarksburg, WV 26302 USA
Copyright © Clarksburg Publishing Company 1997