Topstudy (www.topstudy.com) is an imaginative resource for primary and post primary students with a database of past exam papers and highly-interactive subject quizzes, games and problems. The Department of Education devotes an area of its site to Leaving and Junior Cert exams with past papers, marking schemes, previous results and new curriculum initiatives.

Leaving Cert students with college in their sights will find a comprehensive resource with information and advice on all third-level courses, CAO applications and the points system at www.collegesweb.com. The latest addition to the ScoilNet site is the online CAO application form (www.scoilnet.ie/cao), an invaluable tool which makes best use of the medium, while easing the college application process for one and all.

Directory-education site www.leavingcert.net is a jumping-off point for single-subject sites, often the personal pages of individuals. One such is Maths Together (homepage.eircom.net/mathstogether/), a brochure site, which shows parents sample maths tests their primary school children will encounter. Eo Feasa (homepage.eircom.net/eofeasa) is an Irish-language site offering online tutorials in written and conversational Irish.

Of as much concern to parents as their children's education is their welfare. There are many sites dedicated to providing practical help and advice to parents on children's welfare and social issues. A good place to start is the Department of Health and Children (www.doh.ie) offering an introduction to health policy and services.

Parents searching for information on specific aspects of their child's welfare can choose from a selection of specialist sites. From healthy diets (indigo.ie/indicom/file99.htm to advice on protecting your child from drugs (homepage.tinet.ie/gerwalsh/Drugs/parents.htm). After all, the real strengths of the Internet lie in narrow, rather than broad focus, the specialist rather than general interest.

The Nurturing Library (www.nurturing.ca/) sets itself up as the ultimate resource for "natural parenting with an alternative slant". Subjects range from pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding to education and single parenting.

For health and support organisations for children with special needs, the Internet has proven itself the ideal medium to disseminate information and facilitate interaction between parents. Caint (indigo.ie/caint/main.htm) is a site for the parents of speech-impaired children, while the Irish Society for Autism has a web presence at ireland.iol.ie/dary/isa.

If you wish to really become truly immersed in your child's activities online, you may want to help him or her build their own web page - or even a family website. Some sites, such as the excellent BBC site (www.bbc.co.uk/) or Learn the Net (www.learnthenet.com), bring you step-by-step through the entire process.

If you decide to go it alone, however, you'll need first off to get to grips with HTML, the language which allows you to read the content in your browser. Eircom's site (www.eircomlearning.ie/) features instructive HTML tutorials in plain English, as does Esat Clear www.esatclear.ie/support/websites/build.htm). Alternatively, you can get a program to do the work by using editing software packages, FrontPage and HomeSite among them.

As you get more adventurous, you'll want to add illustration and possibly other multimedia features. Images and graphics can be added and edited using a picture editing program; the most popular and easy to use are Paint Shop Pro or one from Adobe or Microsoft. Pictures can either be scanned from hard copy, taken from other websites, or downloaded from a digital camera.

You can store your web page on your own computer, until you're ready to open it to the world either by getting space from your ISP, or taking advantage of the free web space offered by sites such as Geocities (www.geocities.com). Once your site is live, both you and your children can derive hours of pleasure from making improvements, comparing with other sites and getting feedback from other families online together.

Deirdre Veldon is the editor of the Irish Times website, ireland.com. She can be contacted at dveldon@irish-times.com