My favorite game of the three I’ve played so far is called Slab Slinger. This game as does the others, gives you the option to play as either Fred or Barney.  You advance through the game by hooking onto stone slabs with Fred/Barney and their helper dinosaur and then tossing them to the turtles located on the opposite side of the screen.  This game works on math skills, specifically on angles and projectile trajectory.  You must choose the correct angle for the stone slabs to be thrown or you will completely miss your target and have to start over.  In addition to the right angle choice you are battling against a timer for maximum point accumulation.  As you progress further into the game the conveyor belt speeds up and different shaped stones are required for different turtles.

In addition to the games, there are a number of “Rock-tivities“.  This page includes links to coloring pages, a prehistoric postcard creator, a wacky word search,  pterodactyl origami, and a volcano lava creator.  The volcano lava seems like a really fun activity to do with your child, or for a school science project.  The site gives you step by step instructions to help ensure a safe time for all.  The postcards are interesting in that they have spots to upload your own photo face into the picture and could be fun little smiles to send to relatives or friends.   This site also has a section for all those cooking-lovers in Wilma’s Recipes.  It’s a fun section with a bunch of recipes that use the Flintstones cereals with names such as “Wilma’s Holiday Tree” and “Cocoa Pebbles Trail Mix Bars”.

All in all, this site is definitely worth checking out especially for the free price!  It’s really a site people of almost any age can find something worthwhile on.  Once onto the site there haven’t really been any ads around, Post Cereal’s brands are mentioned in the recipes and videos but nothing too in your face.  Enjoy!

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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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When using Neopets, your child has to create an account, which is free to all users. Some basic information is required, including an email address, in case of a lost password. Also with the necessity of an email address, it will require your permission for your child to engage in this site. The use of the account is to collect points and keep track of your Neopet. This game requires a child to learn responsibility about having a pet. For example the pet if neglected, can become withered and ill. This game allows your child to feel accomplished. By playing games your child can earn Neocash which is used to decorate your neo-home and revitalize your Neopets. All of these lessons are taught through over 100 games. These games can range from puzzles, educational (for example the game, Imperial Exam, is helpful with spelling) to games that are based upon pure fun. All of the games are geared toward children, with no violence involved. The games involve the use of the Neopets characters, which are adorable and friendly. Your child can also interact with other neo-pets within town, but it is not an online network for meeting new people.

This picture is one of the towns your child and their neopet can visit. It includes different shops that they can use to purchase new items for their Neopet with their neo-cash. Many of the towns are similar to this one, but different in appearance. They all include different games that are relevant to it’s neighborhood.

Although there are no pop-ups, as a parent, you may want to be aware of the ads that are on the boarder of the website. Also an ad will present itself before each game your child chooses to play. Fortunately, these ads are not inappropriate to younger ages. Most ads consist of children’s movies and cell phone coverage.

I have played Neopets throughout my childhood, and at the age of 20, still have friends who indulge themselves in its experience. All of my friends and younger siblings have found this game extremely enjoyable. This game is fun because it has its own child-like innocence. The only problem with this site is that it can be confusing in some regards. Luckily, there is a tutorial that your child can use to learn how to play.

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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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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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– 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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You start off the game on Mini Math Missions and must got through the 5 different games to receive a clue to find something of the professors and get your pay level for each task to raise. When you have solved 2 full Math Missions you can officially open your arcade. You must make more money to put in the games you want, pay for broken games electricity, advertising, decorating, food machines etc. which keeps your child running back to play more math learning games. You get a real feel for learning just what it takes to run an arcade.

My son LOVES this game. He is 8 and usually getting him to sit down to do any kind of work is a negotiation. Not for this game! He loves it and I have noticed his Math at school improving with the use of this game. from word problems, to shape puzzles, to figuring out weight/length — this game goes above and beyond to make learning Math fun. The characters, story, graphics, puzzles and games all contribute to this being a stellar game all around. The levels adjust accordingly as you get better and solve more problems.

This game gets a perfect rating from me. I think this is something they should offer at schools to make learning the required testing material a lot more fun! Get it to keep your kids doing Math during the summer! Check out Math Missions: The Amazing Arcade Adventure if you have a child that is between the ages 7-10 and you won’t be disappointed nor will they!

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I have loved Nintendo and their quality kids and adult video games since they started. I am so pleased to see that they not only have stayed the most inexpensive hand-held and console game system available but the one with the HIGHEST QUALITY for family content and education. I resisted getting my son a hand-held gaming system for a few years after he started nagging me for one. I felt he had his computer and didn’t need another distraction. I worried that he would be constantly wanting to play and that the games would have no educational value. I started researching the hand-held systems a bit more last year and was happy to find out that Nintendo offered VERY educational games for all ages — sorry I EVER doubted you Nintendo! At age 7, last Christmas, Santa was nice enough to bring him a Nintendo DS Lite .

The GREAT things about the Nintendo DS Lite are the great games available, the ability to draw with the stylus right on the screen, the dual screen graphics, the built in microphone that WORKS, the fact that it uses rechargeable batteries instead of replacing batteries and the ability to play some games wirelessly with up to 8 players. Once again Nintendo has exceeded even our wildest imaginations in the gaming industry and lead the way to the next level.

My favorite educational games broken down are:
Big Brain Academy: In Big Brain Academy you are working towards building your brain bigger and bigger. The puzzles are split up into five areas – thinking, memorizing, analyzing, computing and identifying. Each area has 3 games, with multiple difficulty levels — so at 15 games total you are getting a lot of entertainment and learning in.

Brain Age: Yes, Santa Brought this for ME but don’t tell my son that! He also gets enjoyment out of it and now that he is in 3rd grade and is learning multiplication and division he can use it to sharpen those skills as well. My whole family loves this game. There are a bunch of short games on this program that help with logical thinking, memory, math, reading (yes, there is a game where you read INTO the DS) and there is also Sudoku on it for those addicted where you use the stylus to write the numbers in the boxes. These games are truly addicting and you are learning at the same time. My husband said he noticed a marked improvement in his memory skills after a few days of playing this “game”.

Brain Age 2: I have not received this yet (my son will for his birthday in a few weeks — whoo hoo!) I will update this portion with my opinion once I wrestle it out of my son’s hands! : ) But I have heard great reviews and if it is anywhere as good as the first I see many hours building my brain ahead! The description is that there are 17 new activities that are all designed to help work your brain and increase blood flow to the prefrontal cortex. Whether you’re playing simple songs on a piano keyboard or monitoring the photo finish of a footrace, you’ll love your new mental workout! You can get this bundled now with the new Nintendo DS Lite which is cool black and maroon colors for only $149.99.

There are TONS of educational games for the DS Lite depending on what you are interested in or what you feel your child needs brushing up on. Nintendo makes learning fun and the DS is an amazing tool Whether it be Spelling, Math, or even the NY Times Crosswords, the Nintendo DS offers tons of ways to exercise your brain for the whole family.

Thank you Nintendo for maintaining your quality and cost over the last 25+ years!

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