Yahoo!きっずニュース (Yahoo! Kids' News http://news.kids.yahoo.co.jp/ ) has articles about current events, which are introduced with simple summaries. There's also a section with explanations of vocabulary words related to current events.
One neat thing about this site is that you can use a "yomigana seal" to adjust how much phonetic help you want. Click the orange button in the upper right corner and then pick 1-2 grader, 3-4 grader, 5-6 grader, junior high school, or no seal. The stories show up with furigana over the kanji that students from those grades wouldn't know.
Edit: I just realized that this is supposed to be about "essential resources" rather than just helpful things. I think the Kids' News thing is interesting and potentially useful, but the only thing I really use is an electronic dictionary with the Kojien and a kanji dictionary and E-J / J-E dictionaries.
One neat thing about this site is that you can use a "yomigana seal" to adjust how much phonetic help you want. Click the orange button in the upper right corner and then pick 1-2 grader, 3-4 grader, 5-6 grader, junior high school, or no seal. The stories show up with furigana over the kanji that students from those grades wouldn't know.
Edit: I just realized that this is supposed to be about "essential resources" rather than just helpful things. I think the Kids' News thing is interesting and potentially useful, but the only thing I really use is an electronic dictionary with the Kojien and a kanji dictionary and E-J / J-E dictionaries.
Edited: 2008-11-02, 5:03 am