Summer website

There are a number of at-home online options for kids to spend their time in a fun and creative way.

‘Zapzany’ is a website, specially meant for children and teenagers. The website offers a platform to budding authors and creative kids.

On this site, children can publish their stories and artwork; write about their favourite city/ village; chat with other children in a safe environment; and read the news from around the world. Contributors earn points for submitting stories and artwork, and are sometimes interviewed on the ZapZany website.

Hooked!

Aparna, a mother of two children, living in the US, is hooked to this website ever since she heard of it through her friend.  Her children regularly surf this site and have participated in a writing contest.

“The most thrilling achievement for them is to see their stories/ art work published in the MiniBuzz section of the site. It boosts their confidence and makes them happy,” says Aparna. She is very appreciative of the site which is a treasure trove of information and improves their communication and social skills free of cost.

As a parent she says she enjoys the parents’ forum on the site, as “it makes me realise that pretty much every parent is in the same boat as far as raising children goes”.

For everyone

Aparna recommends the website for all parents of school-age children, and to all children.  “Once you log on to the site you see how simple the instructions are and how many interesting links there are,” she adds.

While parents have given the site a thumbs up, Malavika Rao, a tenth grader at National Public School, Rajajinagar, is a regular ZapZany visitor. “I visit the site at least once a week, ever since I got to know about the site through my aunt. I find it very exciting.” As one of the first contributors to OmniBuzz, the online publication, she says, “The fact that I could improve my writing skills, read other children’s stories/ essays and improve my vocabulary inspired me to write for this site.” She thinks it is fun to read the comments posted, and news headlines from all over the world.

Winning point

“But the most exciting thing that happened when I contributed my first article was winning 500 points. I love this concept. This is a good motivation to write regularly. I wish to see my own book in print one day. I hope we will soon get merchandise signed by celebrities like Johhny Depp,” says Malavika.

To encourage creative thinking and writing, ZapZany awards points to children everytime they submit a story or article to be published online. They can accumulate points and win exciting prizes. Once a child collects a 1000 points, the spotlight is on the child and the website will post an interview with the child on the ZapZany homepage.

Travel posts

And, for those children who travel, they can write about their favourite city/ town/ village in the “Talk of the Town” column, and earn points, too. Vandana Kumbla, whose son recently wrote about Kumbla, her ancestral village, loves the fact that her son got a chance to connect with his native village and cherish his memories of the place.

All this and more! This website launched by a group of parents, who felt the need to engage today’s computer-loving children in a constructive way, rather than forcing them to switch off the computers. They only want to see more and more children around the world benefiting from their efforts.

“Our concern for our own children and teenagers inspired us to launch this site. There is a great treasure of information on the internet but very few sites catering to the children and teenagers in an interesting way, specifically. We hope our efforts get the expected support, which will motivate us to develop our website further”, says one of them.

Log on to www.zapzany.com and start enjoying right now!