Parents' Guide to

Poetry4Kids

By Jean Armour Polly, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 11+

Poetry playground littered with ads.

Website http://www.poetry4kids.com/
Poetry4Kids Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this website.

Community Reviews

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age 9+

Based on 2 parent reviews

bilbob
bilbob Parent of 10-year-old
September 30, 2015
age 12+

Reviewers need to know some basic facts

The basic problem most of the reviewers seem to have is (a) too much consumerism : Consumerism is one of the undeniable facts of life. All subjects translate to giving someting and getting something in return,Many parents do not reallize that you need to spend money to have a site like this. The alternative is to charge to be a member which many kids will shirk away from. The third and only option is to run a few ads in the site. The owner of the site earns money everytime someone clicks on an ad( not the big dollars perhaps you are thinking, but 1-3cents per 100 clicks. This is surely not a huge amount. The other objections are equally devoid of common sense. You burst your way in again through private lockers and then complain about the ethics of the comments. What else do you expect?

This title has:

Too much consumerism
inklesstales
inklesstales Parent of 10 and 12-year-old
April 19, 2009
age 5+

This is an enormously helpful interactive web site for children.

I run an award-winning web site for children myself, endorsed by the American Library Association, the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Internet Public Library, and even Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) has licensed some of my content for their own site. So I feel rather qualified to state that Kenn Nesbitt's "Poetry4Kids" site is a site that's rather ingeniously targeted and well-designed for inspiring children to think, read and write their own poetry, be creative, and laugh. Kenn Nesbitt is a talented, gifted author in his own right - and has developed a successful site that kids love and can contribute to, as well. I heartily recommend it to any parent and child and if you allowed SIX stars, I'd give away that. Five stars at LEAST for Mr. Nesbitt's site. As an expert in the field, let me tell you: I know what I'm talking about. -elizabeth williams bushey www.inklesstales.com www.inklesstunes.com
See all 2 parent reviews

What’s It About?

Poet Kenn Nesbitt's \"poetry playground\" features poetry lessons, funny poems, interesting contests, and even an easy-to-use rhyming dictionary. Nesbitt invites kids to rate his own poems, which in turn creates a \"Most Popular\" poems collection of witty verse. Members can join the site for free and get access to other content, such as entertaining MP3 audio recordings of Nesbitt reading his own work. Each member gets her own online journal in which to keep her writings, and discussion boards are also a feature of the \"members only\" side of the site.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2):
Kids say (2):

This site is an example of a good idea that has gone off-track. It's difficult to sort out the real content from the many ads, which pop up everywhere. Next to a poem about cleaning your room, you'll find more than 10 automatically served Google Ads about "Mops" and "Cleaning Supplies." This takes away from the site and costs it at least one star.

Parents should also take note that members' journals may be private or public, and if they're public, other people can and will comment on the entries and the comments will be public as well. lso, in the discussion forum, which has sections for both kids and adults, most of the topics are poetry-related, but others are off-topic. In one, for example, members discussed the pros and cons of anorexia.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about why it's dangerous to post personal information online. What kind of information is not safe to share on the Internet? Who should you tell if you see inappropriate content online?

Website Details

  • Genre: Educational
  • Pricing structure: Free
  • Last updated: November 15, 2019

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