This is a strange time in kids online computer games. There are now social platforms much like myspace and facebook (for adults) for children. I address these first 2 broadly in my other post on Kids Computer Game Recommendations Ages 5-8.
So I will start with those in more detail: Club Penguin and Nicktropolis offer lots for free and Club Penguin offers a lot more if you sign up to be a full member for $6/month. Both will need a parent to enroll and check emails for enrollment information and to set settings. I recommend setting the settings as stringent as possible. Though Disney (owns Club Penguin who they just bought for $350 million) and Nickelodeon obviously are doing everything they can to keep kids safe on these platforms — it is still new and I sleep better at night knowing I can have my kids play these games and not worry about someone contacting them with inappropriate materials or words. You can set it so your kids can only send/receive pre-written messages by the site such as “Hi, how are you”, etc. instead of freely chatting. Of course if you have an older child you can use your own judgment on how and you want to set them up.
In Club Penguin you design your own penguin and can visit locations and play minigames to rack up coins to spend in stores. You can buy clothes for your penguin, an igloo, puffles (pets you need to take care of) and furniture and things to decorate your igloo. The mini-games are cute and if you know another friend’s penguin’s name you can meet up with them in one of the rooms and play games. This summer was my first look into what my future holds…. My son was online with his girlfriend (3rd grade — awww) and on the phone with her at the same time playing games. I had to seriously limit the phone and the computer time and had a flash of what my life will be like when my daughter is old enough to do these things as well! The question I have about these social websites is are they educational? I can see that my son has more of an interest in saving money now because he is playing games to earn coins to save for stuff in his igloo. But the mini-games aren’t really educational — more entertaining like fishing, sledding, etc. My son feels he is being social but personally I would rather see him in the backyard playing with a friend. Club Penguin limits what you can buy and what games you can play if you don’t sign up for their $6/month membership. I’m still on the fence about these social platform sites for kids. Yes, they learn more computer skills but I don’t know if these really much educational value. I limit my son’s time on these sites and make sure he gets some REAL in person friend time as well. If you do spend the $6/month as my dad was so nice to do for my son (AND you are a member for a while) THEN you can apply to be a spy. The upgrade to being a spy lets you play mini-adventure games in club penguin and they are fun and work your child’s logical thinking skills.
Nicktropolis is the same thing except you have a room you are decorating and you design your own person. You go to different places racking up points to spend on items. You can see your favorite nickelodeon characters here and some of the games are cute. They add mini-goals like find all the treasure hunt items and you are entered in a sweepstakes. But the only thing you have to do to gain all the items is to spend lots of time wandering around the site…. I still don’t really see much educational value but since these are the latest and greatest you can be sure your child will be saying “but EVERYONE is a member mom — geessh!”. I plan on using time on these sites as a reward system once school starts. Do all your homework WHEN I ask the first time and you can meet up with a friend on Club Penguin or Nicktropolis for 1/2 hour…..
Nick.com and Nickjr.com : depending on what shows you let your kids watch they will find entertaining games with their favorite nickelodeon characters on these sites. They both offer some learning games and some purely fun games. Nick Jr offers more in learning games since it is geared toward younger children. Nick Jr also offers a lot of useful information for parents; crafts to do, recipes, shops….
Scholastic offers a site where as a parent you can go and check out age appropriate links to learning games in EVERY subject for ALL Ages. It’s kind of hard for a child to get around the site but it has tons of links to GREAT learning games. You can find the ones you like and then bookmark them so your child can revisit the site later on their own.
There are tons of free online gaming sites for children but I have found few with quality learning exercises. With my kids it is always a balancing act. If they do some school work or have had their social play time away from the computer… they get some time on the computer. I limit their overall time and their time for “purely entertaining” games since there are tons of great educational software games. There is no reason for children to be on violent sites playing violent games when there are so many other options. Please visit my other blog and feel free to leave comments and suggest other games and/or sites I might have missed. Thanks!
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
