How do I open a mutual fund for my children with about $1000 dollars, and where?

If you are doing it for education look into a 529 savings plan. Many states have them you can easily just open an account online and have the money deducted automatically each month from your bank if you want to add more, or you can just make it a one time thing.

It doesn't matter what state you use, I am in WA and have one for my kids in Iowa or Ohio or something like that. Just compare them to get what you want out of them. (lower fees, online access, etc)

The cool thing about it is if you have multiple kids and one doesnt go to school you can then use the funds for the next. (No school; no pile of cash to blow).

Look on the web for Fidelity, Charles Schwab. Look for no load funds only. That way your gains aren't lost to fees!

You can do it just about anywhere, etrade.com, ameritrade.com. Make yourself the custodian of the minor(s) account. Once you have the account you can choose a mutual fund, maybe a no-load index fund to get market returns since most don't beat the market.

a few other choices are Vanguard.com , Tradeking.com (cheap), Ameritrade.com , Scottrade.com

Look at Vanguard funds, but most of all, look to funds that are not loaded, front or back.

Loaded means they don't have a cost (%) to get in or out of the fund. Every fund will have annual expenses, but make sure you get one where the expenses are low.

Put them in a Vanguard Index Fund, indexing the total stock market.