The Hindu Business Line : Download your story

It’s time to celebrate the summer sun, for sure, but sometimes time can hang heavy on your hands, especially with energy-charged children looking to you for inspiration.

It’s at such moments that you can contemplate the blessings of the Internet, for the information superhighway has story resources galore to make the vacations fun for you and your young ones.

Summers mean long days that are just right for read-aloud stories. Check out the page at http://www.vtaide.com/png/stories.htm

As the site declares, it’s full of “funny short stories for kids with music, special effects and pictures.” And humour is its hall mark. Take your pick from ‘A Woa Woa & A Wagging Tail’ or ’Big Sheep and Small Sheep’.

And the fun doesn’t end there. When the mood is more adventurous, click on the links ‘Adventure at Sea’, ‘An Adventure in Space’, ‘A Fight between Brothers’ or ‘Fire! Fire!’ to keep the good times going.

Of course, don’t fail to introduce your children to the joys of Indian mythology. Check out the pages at http://www.indiaparenting.com/stories/ dedicated to stories from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, gods and goddesses and of course famous Indian personalities who have made an enormous difference to our lives.

From Shri Aurobindo to Gandhi and the Panchtantra, the site’s USP is its wide variety. Even Aesop finds place here.

The site at http://www.longlongtimeago.com/llta_bookreviews.html looks deceptively simple.

It reveals its secrets only when you start glancing through its various links. It’s a virtual story world that has links to possibly every kind of story you might ever want to read or introduce your kids to.

From Shakespeare to the movers and shakers of today’s fiction world, the site is a treasure house of tales that you won’t be able to run through in a hurry.

Do you have your own special recipe to use the computer or the Internet to make the holidays a special time? Write in to paromita.pain@gmail.com