Jump Start Pet Rescue for the Wii

jump start pet wiiAs 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”…

Primary Games — Safe Educational & Fun Computer Game Site

PrimaryGames.com
Primary Games is an educational site for children. It breaks its games down nicely into many categories including; Math, Science, Language Arts, Social Studies, puzzles, arcade, Top Ten Games and also the Game of the Day. There is also a section where teachers and parents can search for curriculum appropriate games. You can register to have your high scores saved but it is not necessary and this is a free site. They do have ads so as always I issue caution for younger children (who don’t know the dangers of clicking ads and being taken off-site) but the ads did not seem inappropriate. This site has won many awards and I can see why…. Most of these games run using Shockwave, Java or Flash. Here are a few of my favorites:

Super Sleuth — An Original game for ages 8+. Gather evidence and…

Smart-Kit — An Amazing Learning and Fun Free Online Site for Children

When I found Smart-Kit my first thought was “wow, this site has SO MANY fun thinking games — it is PERFECT for my site”. The Smartkit site was founded by a Neurologist (M.D.) and has many fun and educational games in several categories. Every once in a while, the founding Neurologist will add an educational post about brain health and enhancement. It would take weeks to go through all their games but I have found a few I whole heartedly recommend. I also recommend checking the site out for yourself and think there is something here for ages 8 on up through adult (and a few for even younger). The ads are just for other games on their site so it is safe to let an older child play independently but the younger children would need your help navigating and figuring out some…

Jump Start World Kindergarten — A GREAT way to prepare your child for 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.…

Fun Brain — Educational and FUN

Fun Brain is an educational site right up my alley! They have links for teachers and parents, MANY short arcade styled educational games and a whole other world called Poptropica which is a social network where you solve an adventure-typed game and wander around challenging others to arcade games (as you learn). This site has many ways to search for age appropriate games, MANY different ways to utilize the resources on it and stands out because they went about the design so differently. I have limited time to spend testing it and this was one site I wished I did have more time for. I will give you some highlights and you can check it out for yourself!

Funbrain.com


Menus — LOTS OF THEM This is a site that will require some looking into WITH your children and bookmarking some spots before you let them…

Top 100 Free Educational Online Games

For those of you who have not added the Stumble Upon application and toolbar I HIGHLY recommend it. I come across wonderful sites through it and the following is one of them. Stumble Upon allows you to say what kind of sites you are looking for and will only recommend sites liked by others. It also allows you to rate sites with a thumbs up or down.

The site is an off-shoot of a school site and has a list of the:
Top 100 Free Educational Online Games

You will need Shockwave or Flash to play most of them.

Have fun – -the list has the grades listed that each game is appropriate for and the ages are from Preschool – Grade 6 so ages 3-12. Thank you Oscar for this wonderful list.

Rainforest Maths — A Wonderful Math Game site for kids

Rainforest Maths is a GREAT educational Math site with hundreds of free activities for kids from ages 5 – 12. The activities are broken down by age/grade and seem be right on target with some activities and a bit ahead with others in correspondence with what my children are learning in school in the US. The site is built from Queensland requirements. I highly recommend visiting this site and checking out some of the activities.

I will recommend a couple from each age range but as you can see when you visit with 30+ activities for kindergarten aged kids and over 200+ activities for 6th grade children — there is a lot to do and my best suggestion is checking it out with your children and working with them on areas they might need help in. With there being no ads on the…

ABC Ya — A GREAT Educational site for K – 5th Grade

ABCYa’s tagline is “where technology and education meet”. I definitely agree and can easily see classrooms using this site. They break up the site by grade level from Kindergarten right through fifth grade. The Kindergarten games would be fine for some younger kids and the other games seem right on target. I will outline a few of mine from each grade level and will link directly to them as there is no registration necessary to play. There are ads on the site and while these look like they all link to other kid-friendly sites there is the worry of kids getting to another not-so-safe site. I would keep an eye on the younger ones when on this site to ensure they can find their way around and be safe. They also have words spelling out the games instead of pictures…

Brain Pop & Brain Pop, Jr – GREAT Educational online sites

I recently came across Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr and afterward spent an hour with my 4 year old daughter exploring Brain Pop Jr. These sites have been winning awards since 2001 and are well worth checking out. They have many activities and videos for free and a subscription service for access to everything on their sites. Schools, libraries, media centers and parents can use them for education and fun combined. Here is the summary from Brain Pop’s site telling you “Who They Are“:
  • BrainPOP (http://www.brainpop.com is a pioneering developer of engaging, animated content that motivates and inspires children to learn. Each month, BrainPOP welcomes more than 1,000,000 visitors to its websites, reaching roughly 13,000,000 students in homes, classrooms and computer labs worldwide.
  • Hosted by an expressive orange robot named Moby and his teen companion Tim, BrainPOP movies cover everything from the Underground Railroad to…

Kids Educational Computer Games (Ages 3-10)

Ages 3-5
My old favorite to teach was Thinking Things 1. These games are not the traditional learning games. The ages are 4-6 although my daughter started playing at 3 and had fun with it. The games include one where the kids can create their own musical and shape collage, my favorite where you own a “fribble” (cute cuddly puffballs) shop and have to get the customer the kind they want; be it curly haired, glasses, color etc. which is great for young ones to learn sorting and colors. All the games are cute my only warning would be that some may have trouble getting this older game to work on Windows XP. It worked on my daughter’s computer no problem but when I tried to install it on another it just wouldn’t work…..

Dr. Suess’s Preschool Learning is a GREAT game. There…