Sesame Street Games -  This was our daughter's first online gaming experience. At first all we could play was the Elmo's Keyboard-a-rama where she learned to press the spacebar to make Elmo laugh. (Yes, she was pretty young.) Then we graduated to pointing at the screen while mom or dad operated the mouse. By the time she was two years old she was taking over the mouse herself, although sometimes with frustration. Speaking of frustration the navigation on this website can be rather frustrating and slow-loading but we found it worth learning our way around because we spent hours and hours here. There are tons of games with all the Sesame Street muppet characters: Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, Elmo, Zoe, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Telly and Grover.

PBS Kids Games- Naturally after watching Sesame Street and PBS Kids programming, we gravitated to here. This website has a slew of games based on all the old popular and new PBS Kids shows: Dragon Tales, Teletubbies, Maya and Miguel, Barney, Arthur, Word Girl, even Sesame Street again. The interesting thing about the Sesame Street games on the PBSKids website is that they are different from the other Sesame Street games website. Also, it is nice that every time a new show is started on PBSKids, they update the website with new games. Many of the games are educational and require reading or math skills, others are great for the little kids.

The Barbie Website Games - For a little girl this website was great for dress-up games and especially dressing up the new Mariposa fairies. Very beautifully done graphics as you would expect for Barbie.

Nick Jr. Games site - Dora the Explorer and Diego, Blues Clues, and all the Nick Jr. favorites have a page of games and videos also from the television programs. Sometimes my daughter just plays the music and dances and runs around the room. That's not bad at all for an activity (playing on the computer) that most folks would consider sedentary.

For a list of many more free games for kids, see Kids Games Online.

Yahoo! Kids offers several kids card games online: Go Fish, Twenty-one, Canasta, Euchre, Hearts, Gin, Pyramids, Spades. An applet must load.

Bill's Games offers a no-fuss way to play Solitaire (also known as "Patience" in England) on the internet. Bill's Games is compatible with all browsers including TV browsers like MSNTV (WebTV), WorldGate and AOLTV. It doesn't use Java, JavaScript, Shockwave, Flash, or other plugins or downloads. We tried it and it works great.

For more information, you can check out Kids Card Games at kidsgamesonline.org.


photo courtesy of Michelle Chagnon.

BBC Schools Dance Mat Typing - "A fun colourful website with animation and games introducing touch typing to children aged 7 to 11." We tried this site and it works very well. We like that there is instruction and emphasis on proper finger placement on the keyboard in the first lesson. Recommended.

Play With Your Mind - A great assortment of original typing games including The Typing Test (an online typing competition... find out how your typing skills hold up against others), Focal Points (pay careful attention to the sliding number and capture them as they pass over targets), Typo (type as quickly and accurately as possible), Keyball (catch the blue balls and avoid the red ones with timely keystrokes as they bounce around the keyboard), Keypad Keyball (capture groups of different colored balls with your keypad numbers), Falling Words (type the words as fast as possible to prevent them from hitting the ground). Recommended.

The Super Sorter would be a great activity to do with your child before a visit to the library this summer. Let your child answer some multiple choice questions from the Super Sorter Robot, and the Robot suggests books your child may like. It makes reading the books all that more motivating.
Reading Is Fundamental Super Sorter

With levels begininng with the "abc's" and going through "learning to read, fun to read and I'm reading", Starfall has great activities to encourage reading. We especially loved the Zac the Rat and other animal stories. The game sounds out the words phonetically and slowly. Learn to Read at Starfall

For more Reading Games for Kids, try Reading Games at KidsGamesOnline.org

Online games are a great attraction for kids and their parents alike. A parent, who may be familiar with online games for themselves, may wonder where their child can begin, though. The choices for kids' games online are immense.

One great way to begin is to view your child's television programs with them and look at the toys or foods that are marketed to kids. Then go to the web and look up the sites that represent those programs and products. Often they will have kid-friendly games. These kinds of websites can be trusted by parents. The companies have a family-friendly offline presence, and their websites typically have no outside advertising links to divert a child into the vast World Wide Web.

The typical categories of educational online games for kids are math games, reading games, typing games and other learning games. Do not discount the value of puzzle games and mazes as excellent exercise for the intellect. Some kids games may seem like they are merely fun games, but they can help a child to develop mouse control and typing skills.

With the child comfortably seated on the parent's lap, the child and parent will both be able to see the monitor clearly. The child's first interactions with the game will be pointing at the screen and answering questions while the parent plays. A child may be satisfied with that much involvement to begin with. After a while a child may begin to operate a spacebar or rest their hand on the parent's mouse hand. A parent may need to give encouragement if frustration with the controls discourages the child.

At first a child may require a great deal of intervention to begin and continue play. After some time with the parent's assistance the child will be able to play alone and even initiate a start-over of a familiar game. Perhaps one will not be surprised to see how quickly a child will learn where the play button is, even without knowing how to read. In very little time the child will be entertaining themselves.

A mother and her young daughter team up to review
online gaming sites for kids at Kids Games Online.

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