Have you ever wanted a safe site for your children to play on that has it all? No more constant web surfing needed after you visit TVOKids! This site is filled with an enormous range of activities for children ages 2-5 and 11 & under  to enjoy.  It has games targeted towards reading, math, science, art, spelling, music, and sports, just to name a few.  TVOKids really provides a way for children to improve a number of important skills while still having a great time.  The fun doesn’t stop there, in addition to having a range of games, they also have a variety of videos which range from cooking instructions to providing tips and help on homework.

Each age group has it’s own home page with links to the games, videos and more.   I played games and watched videos on both age group sites and found them both worthwhile.  One of my favorite games on the older children’s site was called Dino Dan.  In this game you are provided with tools to find the fossils just like a real life archaeologist would  such as a sonar, a shovel, a brush, and a shifter which all need to be used at specific times.  You advance through the game by finding fossils in the dig site to form a number of different extinct dinosaurs.    

In addition to the dig site, another cool feature of this game is the Dino Lab.  This section includes a Hatchery (where dino eggs are cared for), a Yearbook (which shows some of the game’s character Dan’s friends), and a Dinocyclopedia (where you can learn about all the dinosaurs whose fossils you’ve found).  There are also a couple of dinosaur themed mini-games within that are unlocked after finding a certain number of complete dinosaur skeletons. A cool option about this game is that you can but aren’t required to create a login account.  This is nice for continuous play action and does require a parent’s email.  If you child likes dinosaurs they will most certainly love this game, I know i did!

Not to leave out the 2-5 age group site, a game that I thought was particularly entertaining and educational in the category of reading and spelling was called The Adventures of Sir Readsalot.  This game reads a page of a story aloud in a very silly sounding voice, while simultaneously highlighting each specific word.   This really allows the child to connect the sound with the visual spelling of the word.  After the short part of the story is read one word disappears and you must click around the  castle background to find the letters that make up the word.  Almost every object is click-able and moves around a little when clicked.  Even if you don’t click on the correct one to find a letter, you can enjoy the reaction from the object you did click as it moves around.  The game also helps you out in finding the letter if you are having trouble by providing a red arrow which will point to the desired location.

In conclusion, TVOKids felt very safe in my opinion  and had a variety of fun activities for kids.  The site is free and I have yet to see any ads located anywhere really on the site, which is nice since ads seem to pop up everywhere.  I highly recommend this site. Enjoy!

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As far as kid’s computer games go for the Wii – Jump Start Pet Rescue is one of THE BEST games I have found for 3-6 year olds. My children have played Jump Start Games since they were 3 and to see these characters come to life in a Wii game is WONDERFUL!  From designing their own avatar, to adopting pets to playing educational and fun games — Jump Start Pet Rescue will keep children entertained and learning for a long time.

My daughter, who is six loves this game.  She is a very good reader so thought a couple of the games were easy but still enjoys them and running around taking part in the many activities Jump Start has to offer. This game really makes children think and offers so much content that is educational AND fun. From designing their own “jumpee” (avatar) to running around and doing tasks and solving educational games — your child will be entertained AND learning for a long time. Enjoy this video to see some of the fun things Jump Start Pet Rescue for the Wii offers.

Some of my daughters favorite activities have been picking out a pet to play with, feed and train, exploring the worlds including going down the cool water slide and playing the MANY games that are offered.  Honestly my daughter is not easily impressed with games and she was blown away by this one.  Younger children might need a little help getting acclimated but the game design is very intuitive and this is the perfect game to begin your child with to learn how to use the Wii remote.

The game has 5 different worlds to explore with saving pets your main mission.  Your child will talk to and interact with the many fascinating and loved Jump Start characters to guide them to their missions.  There are games that educate in everything from math, letter recognition, repetition, memory and more.  Pet Rescue seems so vast and my daughter has played it four times for an hour each (my limit on games) and still has barely scratched the surface.

I think you can tell I like Jump Start Pet Rescue, huh?    I have reviewed many Jump Start products like their have a brilliant site (I reviewed it here and since they have added MANY additional features).  I also have reviewed  many of the wonderful games they offer for preschool through school aged children.  It was amazing to see these characters come to life for the Wii and I cannot recommend this game enough for ages 3-6. Thank you Jump Start for yet another amazing product.

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COMPUTER GAMES

There are many Dr. Seuss computer games and I highly recommend them. Now that they are older you can find some for under $5.00 a piece at amazon and they are well worth a lot more than that.

In the following reading games you can either have the stories read to you or you can play along. It will still read the story to you in play mode but you can stop on every page to explore. If you play along you have mini games throughout and just about everything your child clicks on will do something. I have so many wonderful memories of laughing playing these with my own kids. If you get The ABC game — try and find the little yellow guy hidden throughout every page. So funny and will get the kids laughing and give them a task while they are learning!

The Cat in the Hat

Green Eggs and Ham

Dr. Seuss’s ABC’s

The other Dr. Seuss games are wonderful and I have mentioned them before. My favorite is:

Dr. Seuss’s Preschool Learning is a GREAT game. There are 10 mini-games to play that teach memory, math, sorting, reading, etc…. Emma Sue a little girl very much Dr. Seuss style has lost her mom. You are helping her to find her by gaining clues as to what she looks like every time you solve a few levels of each mini-games. Yertl the turtle is here along with some other favorite Dr. Seuss characters. Fun for all and the difficulty increases as your child gets better at the games.

Seussville University

I was happy to find Seussville University. Seussville University offers games/activities in each of 4 categories; Math, Reading, Reasoning and Science. I will tell you what is offered in each category and recommend my favorite games from this site.

Math

There are 4 printable activities for your preschooler/kindergarten child to work on math. “The number 2, Zowers in Showers, Practice your Addition and Connect the dots. There is one math game in this category; “Count the Zindows in the Windows“. This game is wonderful for color recognition and early counting. The instructions are written and it might say “count the yellow findows”….

Reading

The printable activities include; “The Letter B”, “Pup in Cup”, and “The Ball is small”. The reading game is “Help Mr. Brown Color Letters“. This game is great for letter recognition and early mouse skills.

Reasoning

There are three printable activities for this age; “Which one if different”, “Which Two are the Same”, and “Wet foot, Dry foot”. There are two games under this category; ” Which One Comes Next” and “The Cats Concentration Game“.

Science

In this category you can print out an activity page which is called “Mr. Brown Can HOO” OR you can play 2 Science related games. “Find the Animal that doesn’t Belong” is just as it sounds and is great for young children. The instructions are written so you will need to read them to your child. “The Lorax Save the Trees Game” helps kids develop mouse skills as they have to collect 10 seeds in a bucket that are being thrown. Afterward they get to plant ten seeds as they decorate a Seuss scene and watch the animals move in as the trees are planted.

These games are from the University section of the site. If you go directly to Seussville you will find even more activities and games. I reviewed the preschool learning section but I highly recommend checking out the other things Seussville has to offer.

Dr. Seuss’s characters always entertain and the learning games are ones I feel most pre schoolers would have a lot of fun with.

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JUMPEE

When you first sign in you can alter your character that you will be using to explore the site. The best part is you can change the jumpee every time you log in and multiple times if you want. The Jumpee has many more options than some other interactive sites for making your person distinctively yours. You can edit their; hair, hat, face, shirt, pants, shoes, eyes, mouth, clothes, and color of the clothes and skin.

My daughter, Christina commented on this as one of her favorite parts about Jump Start.com:

I like Jumpstart.com because you can always change how you look. You can have different color hair, eyes, and try out different clothes for your characters each time you play.”

Jukebox:

Feel like exploring the land to a different tune? Stop by the jukebox and find one that fits. There are many options to choose from and I know my daughter enjoys stopping here right after she has adjusted her jumpee to her liking to decide which music she will run around to that day.

Theater

Watch movies that include animation and video. Very cute and the kids enjoy the different music.

Storyland (Ages 3-5)

This is a whole other land within Jumpstart. In Storyland kids can change the look of their house, watch movies that include fun sing along music videos, go to the dressing room to change, visit the school for MANY educational games or go to the library to play with the ABC book and the books you complete. The graphics are very cute in the school games and I think they are perfect for this age group. From number and letter recognition, to concentration type games for memory, lining up smallest to biggest, sorting and puzzles – these games encompass most of what a nursery school or kindergarten child would need to know. The games have cute graphics and will have the kids playing over and over again as they continue to collect prizes.

From my reader Marilyn L:

“My 4 year old daughter loved Storyland. She has not mastered moving around with the keyboard so the ability to just use the mouse in Storyland makes it more fun for her to navigate on her own. She stayed with the games in the schoolhouse for a long time and enjoyed planting flowers outside.”

In Storyland you ask some of the jumpstart characters how you can help them. As you complete missions and games your storybooks in the library fill with color. Once completed you can read the books. As you maneuver around Storyland with the mouse you will see you can interact with many things. You have a camera you can take pictures with. You can then put any of the photos taken on the billboard. You can plant flowers, display prizes and much more. This is a perfect environment for children ages 3-5.

From Nancy W:

“My 3 year old son LOVED the theater in Storyland. They had videos of many songs from his music class including “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. I had to help him with the mouse but we had a lot of fun singing and dancing with the characters. Very cute animations.”

From Natalie:

“My 5 year old loved the games in Storyland. It is perfect for preparing her for kindergarten for the fall. Her favorite games are the Critter Creator and Matching Ladybugs.”

Getting back to Non-Storyland activities….

ARCADE

Right now the arcade has two games but you can tell more are on the way. The game Dragon Playtime is GREAT for little ones. It has you taking care of your pet dragon by feeding it, playing with it and keeping it clean.

Margo says:

“My 4 year old son loved playing with the dragon. He liked that you can give it a ring to play with and play tug of war with it like a dog. He kept laughing at the sounds it made.”

The game Robo A GoGo is better for older children (5 and up) and is like Dance Dance Revolution. You have to push the corresponding keyboard keys as they get into their outline above to make your robot dance well. Miss and see you robot “not do so well”. The cute thing is you can design your own robot and play in multiplayer mode.

Justin said “It was cool to make my own robot — I like the silly things you can use as a hat”.

You can see from the many machines they have at the arcade that many new games are coming soon and I look forward to it.

There are other games as you wander around Jumpstart.com Wander over to the mine cart to play Ghosttown Grab. In Ghosttown Grab you run around the Ghost Town to collect bags of money – great for getting kids better at maneuvering around with the keyboard keys. You can tell by all the construction signs there is a LOT of great stuff being added to JumpStart.com. Right now there is tons of stuff to keep the 3-5 year olds busy and learning and I am sure there will be more activities for the older ones as they expand.

“Jenna really enjoyed running around getting the money bags. It was tough for her at first but then she got better at using the keyboard. I can see how this and the other games will help her develop her computer skills.” – Lisa T

The 3D environment and graphics are beautiful in JumpStart.com and you feel like you are in the story. I am looking forward to the additions to the site and thank Jump Start very much for sponsoring the contest for my readers and for offering quality content! Thank you to my readers that responded! I hope more of you will check out Jump Start.com

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One of my daughter’s comments about Jump Start was, “I like Jumpstart.com because you can always change how you look. You can have different color hair, eyes, and try out different clothes for your characters each time you play.”

What do You or your child have to say about Jumpstart.com?

Check out the video to see JumpStart.com in action:

Please see my previous posts for details:

Jump Start Contest

Jump Start Contest Extended

Stay tuned for my full review, comments and contest winner announcement on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009. Thank you and have fun playing on Jumpstart.com!

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Prizes:

– A copy of the newest version Jump Start Kindergarten called “The Legend of Grizzly McGuffin” AND

– Free 3 month FULL membership to jumpstart.com as a prize.

The rules are below and please see my previous post for reviews on the fabulous Jump Start products.

What to do to enter the Jump Start.com Contest:

1) Visit Jumpstart.com (free to play as a non-member). Or if you want to try out the full membership for one month you can use the Promo code 02CENTS to get a month of membership for 2 cents.

2) Email me a comment on or before Saturday January 17, 2009 11:59PM EST to: jennymannion@yahoo.com with SUBJECT: JUMPSTART CONTEST

I will NOT be accepting entries via the comments section (sorry) you MUST email me and follow the following directions for eligibility (sorry about being strict on this but I have been spammed repeatedly when opening up comments):

– In YOUR EMAIL TO ME: Tell me WHAT you like about Jumpstart.com and your name (at least first name and last initial) and a valid email address. Alternatively you can send in something your child said they liked about the site.

– THE SUBJECT OF YOUR EMAIL MUST READ: JUMPSTART CONTEST

(If you have a website, you can include that url info too)

3) I will include comments submitted by readers in my review of Jumpstart.com on Tuesday January 20. At the same time I will announce the winner. I will assign a number to each comment I receive in the order received. The winner will be chosen by a random number picker.

4) If you are the winner you will need to supply an address as to WHERE to mail the prize.

PLEASE feel free to email your child’s comments to me. Children play with games differently and something your child might find another might not find out about for MUCH longer. It is cool to see the different discoveries kids make when playing with games.

As an aside I thank my readers for helping jennymannion.com to achieve a wonderful web status of being in the top 100,000 websites worldwide via the Alexa ratings.  I love writing for both my blogs and it is a great honor to have made it this far.

Please continue to email me games you would like me to check out. Enjoy Jumpstart.com my daughter LOVES IT and remember to pass on the word for the contest.   Thank you!

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– A copy of the newest version Jump Start Kindergarten called “The Legend of Grizzly McGuffin” AND

– Free 3 month FULL membership to jumpstart.com as a prize.

What to do to enter the Jump Start.com Contest:

1) Visit Jumpstart.com (free to play as a non-member). Or if you want to try out the full membership for one month you can use the Promo code 02CENTS to get a month of membership for 2 cents.

2) Email me a comment on or before Saturday January 17, 2009 11:59PM EST to: jennymannion@yahoo.com with SUBJECT: JUMPSTART CONTEST

I will NOT be accepting entries via the comments section you MUST email me and follow the following directions for eligibility:

– In YOUR EMAIL TO ME: Tell me WHAT you like about Jumpstart.com and your name (at least first name and last initial) and a valid email address. Alternatively you can send in something your child said they liked or found cool about the site.

– THE SUBJECT OF YOUR EMAIL MUST READ: JUMPSTART CONTEST

(If you have a website, you can include that url info too — please no spam or you will be disqualified from the contest.)

3) I will include most comments submitted by readers in my review of Jumpstart.com on Tuesday January 20. At the same time I will announce the winner. I will assign a number to each comment I receive in the order received. The winner will be chosen by a random number picker.

4) If you are the winner you will need to supply an address as to WHERE to mail the prize.

Simple right? I wish everyone good luck and I am so happy to be giving out 2 of Jump Start’s great products as a prize.

I have compiled my previous info/reviews of JumpStart Products below for you to get an idea of the quality of their products:

INFO/REVIEWS OF JUMPSTART PRODUCTS

Jumpstart Preschool Advanced

Jump Start Preschool is a GREAT game for 2-5 year olds. It teaches mouse control and offers lots of fun learning games. Lot of cute animations in cute little voices…. The Jump Start games for any ages are great but the preschool is my favorite. It teaches them how to get in and out of the different games offered which allows the children to learn some early independence on the computer.

Jump Start Kindergarten

I gave my daughter Jump Start World Kindergarten for Christmas and it has been our favorite computer game to prepare her for Kindergarten. It has the cute characters that accompany all the Jump Start titles (by Knowledge Adventure) and lots more. For a very inexpensive price ($9.99) you get the starter software that comes with the first 2 of the 12 levels which has over 30 activities and games that your children can continue to play. Jump Start also asks a parent to sign up so you can receive progress reports and it will tell you what your child need help with. I think this is a wonderful game. You create your character and solve games to get gems to use for a variety of purposes. It is 3D, immersive and your child will feel like they are a part of a story. As the game progresses you will receive a pet to take care of, play tons of learning games and unlock new areas. After solving each of the learning games and some mini missions given to you by the characters in the game your child will receive a badge for completing this level. Getting the emails from Jump Start is great as it does not just tell you how your child is doing. It also allows you to leave messages on the blimp going by for your child and to do a lot more to customize your child’s experience playing the games. The map to get to characters and places makes it easy to maneuver and my daughter loves the goal of getting the badge filled.

The goals needed to make the badge also make it seem like an adventure game combined since you need to get things from certain characters and fulfill tasks given to you. Jump Start will ask you if you want to sign up for their subscription plan which includes 10 more levels at $8/level. It will wait until your child has finished one lesson before trying to download another. You can pay for a lesson at a time and then decide if you do in fact want the lessons to keep on going.

The games are age appropriate and are based on the US standards for schools. My daughter gets so caught up in the games she does not realize she is “working” on her numbers and reading at the same time. This is a safe game to let your child play alone or to watch them play and help them if they do get stuck and need assistance — it will depend on your 4 or 5 year old’s experience playing games by themselves.I highly recommend Jump Start World Kindergarten. My kids have a lot of the Jumpstart games for different ages and I do love them.

JumpStart First Grade (Ages 5-7)

JumpStart First Grade (Ages 5-7) is a GREAT game with tons of activities to teach addition, subtraction, reading, money, time, music, art and following directions. Children can change the level difficulty themselves by clicking on the level gauge on the screen. Lots of fun stories and music and engaging games.

Jump Start has MANY other games for all ages including art games and more. Amazon.com lists tons of good reviews for all Jump Start games. For more information on other games they offer and for reviews please go here.

Good luck in the contest! Jump Start is an amazing educational resource for children and I am delighted to include readers comments in my final review and to give away their quality products at the same time!

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PC Games Recommendations

Ages: Preschool/Kindergarten

Didi and Ditto Preschool “Mother Nature’s Visit”– Kutoka Interactive is famous for great games and I have written about their Mia games (which you can find in ages 5-8 below). Didi and Ditto preschool is a WONDERFUL game in so many ways. While the ages say 2-4 I would say ages 2-6 is appropriate. The 3 levels you can choose from make a big difference in playability by age. You have the option of playing the story mode or the activities separately which is wonderful for the little ones. The first thing you notice is WOW this game is Beau-Ti-Ful. The graphics feel like you are in a movie and it is very easy to move the characters around. The games will teach your kids mouse and basic keyboard skills through a variety of games. The games and puzzles test memory, cognition, logic and more. The storyline is very cute and my 5 1/2 year old daughter absolutely LOVES this game! I highly recommend this game for 2-6 year olds and haven’t seen a game as good as Didi and Ditto for this age group in a LONGG time! Whether it’s figuring out what animal tail fits which animal or remembering the parts to the instrument to help put it back together – the mini games are very entertaining and I realized my 5 1/2 year old has a MUCH better short term memory than I do!

Putt Putt is for kids ages 3-6 and is a car traveling with his dog sidekick. My favorites are Putt Putt Saves the Zoo and Putt Putt Joins The Circus. Although some of the others are easier for first time adventurers.

Freddi Fish is a girl fish traveling with her sidekick Luther the little fish and is for ages 4-7.
My favorite is Freddi Fish: Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse.

Clifford’s Learning Activities is a great game. You have very different mini-games that teach math, spacial cognition, logic and mouse skills. The music and graphics are great. If your child is a fan of Clifford The Big Red Dog this is a must. Teach Clifford how to dance, build a playground, play volleyball with T-Bone…. these just a few of the great games included.

Reader Rabbit Preschool has been a favorite of my kids for the last 6 years. The character has been around for over 20 years. This program develops your child’s essential learning skills with games that teach: – Pre-reading, counting, and Math. Always cute sounds and animations. A great learning game and includes sing along songs which are lots of fun.

Ages 5-8

Jump Start World Kindergarten was our favorite computer game to prepare our daughter for Kindergarten and she still loves it. It has the cute characters that accompany all the Jump Start titles (by Knowledge Adventure) and lots more. For a very inexpensive price ($9.99) you get the starter software that comes with the first 2 of the 12 levels which has over 30 activities and games that your children can continue to play. It sends the parents updates by email on how your child is doing and even lets you customize the hot air balloon in the game with a special message for your child. For more info and my full review click here.

Mia Games These have a little mouse on an adventure and games relating to that subject (Math, Reading, Science, Language). They let you pick different levels according to age so it is challenging but not impossible. The graphics and sound are beautiful. Mia is a cute character — her voice is a little too cutesy for me and I was pleasantly surprised my son didn’t write them off as “girly games” because of it. They have tons of great puzzles as well as games to keep you going until the adventure is solved. My son’s favorites were: Mia’s Math Adventure: Just in Time and Mia’s Reading Adventure: The Search for Grandma’s Remedy. These games can range in age from 5-9 depending on your child’s reading and math levels.

Wizmo’s Workshop is an awesome learning game that is often overlooked for almost all ages up until 9 as well. For the younger ones they might need some help with a few of the games. You are trying to win minigames to get parts of inventions Wizmo is trying to put together. You also get funny prizes and trophys for your “room” for winning games. A beautiful game and lots of fun . This one holds the interest from archery games, concentration type games, pattern games and even reading games…. An all time favorite in our home.

JumpStart First Grade (Ages 5-7) is a GREAT game with tons of activities to teach addition, subtraction, reading, money, time, music, art and following directions. Children can change the level difficulty themselves by clicking on the level gauge on the screen. Lots of fun stories and music and engaging games.

Pajama Sam is a little boy who is in his PJ’s solving his adventures. Ages 5-8. GREAT adventure game! My favorite of this series is Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When it’s Dark Outside

Spy Fox is a Fox who is a Spy and uses lots of cool spy gadgets to solve mysteries. Also an adventure game. Requires a little more thinking outside the box and is probably better for the seasoned adventurer. Ages 6-9 and my favorite is Spy Fox: Dry Cereal

Spongebob :Employee of the Month is an entertaining adventure game. If you can stand to bring ANY MORE Spongebob into your house! My kids loved it and we all had lots of laughs figuring it all out. A standard adventure game with inventory and logical thinking — although it is Spongebob so you might have to think outside the box at times!

AGES 7-10 and 10 and UP

Zoo Tycoon 2 is WONDERFUL and you don’t need to have played the first one. In it you can do tutorials to learn how everything works first. Then you have the option of making your own zoo from scratch or playing a game with tasks you have to complete. When you make a zoo you do EVERYTHING. Decide whether it will be big, medium or small and what location it will be in. You design cages, roads, amusements and food areas, gift shops, hire zookeepers and maintenance people, add animals after you have ensured their fenced area has the right ground, shelter, food, trees, rocks, toy, etc. In this version you can even play as the zoo-keeper if you like. You can also zoom in on people and see what they like about the zoo and what they don’t. You set up donation boxes around the zoo to earn extra money. For my full review click here.

Zoombinis Logical Journey is a WONDERFUL game. If you look at the reviews on amazon you will be amazed to see not a negative word can be said about the game — it really is brilliance. First you pick 16 of these creatures called Zoombinis, and you are supposed to free them from their island. On the way to their new home, there are several tests (games) to go through. Each game is great and will test logic and brain use. This is truly a game for the whole family and I have seen much younger children playing it as well as adults and everyone finds it intriguing.

Nancy Drew (Ages 8-12) offers a series of adventure mysteries that have great graphics, sound and are challenging. You are Nancy Drew are have to walk around talking to various characters gathering clues in order to solve the mystery. These are for kids that used to these kinds of games otherwise you might have a frustrated child on your hands! If you want to sit with your child and get involved in the movie-like adventure with them — these are the games for you! My favorites are Nancy Drew: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon and Nancy Drew :Message in a Haunted Mansion.

Spore: (AGES 10 and up): Spore has been called the game of the year by many reviewers and even Time named it one of the best Inventions of 2008. I wrote a detailed description of it here.

Hoyle Games — Hoyle is the champion of puzzle and card games. They have many games bundled together that you can play alone or against the computer. Whether it be puzzle, board or card games you and your children want to play — you will find it with Hoyle. Ages range from 5-adult and there are so many titels to choose from. Go here to check out all they offer.

For the computer but not technically computer games

There is no end to the online communities for kids now. Club Penguin seemed to have been a front runner but now there are so many more.

If you buy a Webkinz or Ty Beanie Baby 2.0 you get access to their corresponding online communities (Webkinz and Ty) AND get a cute stuffed animal for your child as well! My kid’s are still Webkinz fans but also really enjoy being online at Ty. Both companies have very good quality stuffed animals and wonderful and safe online communities for children to play games and take care of their animals.

Many online communities charge your child to be a member per month. Please see my reviews to judge which would be the best investment for your child. They are all very different. Jump Start is educational and animated much like their games.  Kerpoof is an art/movie/animation/creative based site. Dizzywood has an environmental theme behind it. Zookazoo has an animal and conservation theme. Club Penguin is the most famous and has a very easy place for kids to meet up safely but not much in educational games. It will depend on what you are looking for — for your child…. Club Penguin links to the site as I have not formally reviewed it but mentioned it several times on here.

Jump Start

Kerpoof

ZookaZoo

Dizzywood

Club Penguin

There are tons of other games with educational value that I have listed elsewhere on this site. Please visit my reviews by gernre and games specifically for different ages. I will be listing Part II with my Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii games soon which will have more listed for older children. Worried about gifts getting to you on time? Join Amazon Prime for $79 a year you are guaranteed FREE 2 day delivery and for $3.99 you can upgrade to 1 day shipping UNLIMITED throughout the year. I’ve been using it for 2 years and it helps with my late shopping! Happy Holidays!

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You can also check out these sites that have games for the holidays:

Here some links for the younger ones:
Fun Holiday Games from Kaboose online
Cute Penguin Diving Game
Lead Santa and his reindeer around a racetrack
Dinosaur Design has a cute one where you have Rudolph fly and avoid birds and other obstacles
Fast, simple adventure game as Alfie the Elf helps Santa – also from dinosaur design
A holiday memory game that is fun and BOY does it test you! (Also by Dinosaur Design)! My son Alex and I got a 91 — can you beat our score?
Make your own snowflake at the Snowflake Factory — fun — you can have the snowflake do different things after you create it. — yep Dinosaur Design They offer some other holiday and regular games as well but I featured my faves for the holidays.

And some for the teens and on up:
Miniclip Games has some fun ones for the older crowd. There are a few here for the younger ones but I’d screen them first.
Nitrome Games has some good holiday ones as well as others but I’d recommend screening them as well.

Spot the Differences (5 Differences)

Here’s a game I like to play with my kids: Spot the 5 differences between the two pictures by clicking on the spots that make them different. Find all 5 to be given another picture…. Addicting and fun for kids and adults! Enjoy!

Powered by: MySpace Games

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Printables4kids has printable word scrambles, mazes, coloring pages and activities for different ages and for a lot of your kid’s favorite characters. This week they are pointing to Alvin and the Chipmunks which is VERY timely due to my daughter’s obsession with the movie. They also have Webkinz printables which I have not seen anywhere else. You have to have Adobe Acrobat installed to print any of the activities.

A few other sites I have reviewed that have excellent printable activity sections are:
Conceptis Puzzles — from connect the dots, sudoku, picture logic puzzles and MORE — this site has a TON of printables to download for ALL ages.
Nick Jr. — All the Nickelodeon Jr. Characters have activities. Nick Jr. has a great search by activity, age, character section. You’re sure to find stuff to do with your young ones here. Most are for under age 6 but they do have a few for ages 6+.
Noggin has a bunch with its characters as well. I’d say this is for preschoool age and has some educational activities for preschoolers.

Those are my favorite sites for printable activities. You’re sure to find TONS for your children and YOURSELF! Have fun!

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