Overview of Moshi Monsters

Moshi Monsters is similar to the other social networking sites for kids in that you adopt a pet (in this case a monster) and have to look after it and add things to its house. There is the map that you can wander around playing games, exploring and taking hints from your monster as to what to do next.  There are stores to buy stuff from and a few of the games I liked when I was exploring were:

Ice-Scream

Similar to a Diner Dash – type Game.  Clients come in and you need to give them the correct ice cream cone in a timely fashion.  The possible variations and toppings increase as you move forward levels.  This game is great for teaching children attention to detail and how to teach them logically the most efficient way to go about the task.  Fun for all ages although I would say ages 6 and up have less of a chance of getting frustrated!

The Underground Disco

A similar game to Tap Tap Revenge. Make your monster do some cool moves by pressing the correct arrow key as they come into the circled area.  This helps with musical timing as well as dexterity.  These games are very popular with kids.  This has 3 different levels and many different songs for each level -the more you play the more songs you can unlock.

Those are just two of the many games I found when I was wandering around. You can also play games from your room by clicking on the Puzzles button.  You can play the Daily Challenge which will give you more “Rox” for finishing or you can play many different puzzles ALL of which are educational.  You do need to read to play most of these so I would say ages 6 and up or earlier if you have an early reader or will help your child understand the rules.  Each puzzle games can only be played once that day and your high score is listed as shown here.

The puzzles are all unique but all are fast and require quick thinking.  Jig Saw Jam is a good example of what you will find in their puzzle section. Children can develop MANY different educational skills by playing the various puzzles Moshi Monsters has to offer.

Conclusion

Moshi Monsters is a step ahead of many of social networking sites for kids.  It is safe, it is fun AND it is educational. My kids (6 and 10) BOTH love this site and have fun exploring and do not think of the educational games as boring at ALL. In fact they gravitate toward them and THAT is a gift for parents who want their children to learn as they play instead of just kill time.

As you play Moshi Monsters your level goes up and you unlock more and more games and things to buy.  This keeps the children wanting to play more not even realizing they are learning simultaneously.  I love the structure, layout, graphics and safety of Moshi Monsters. I highly recommend this site to parents and kids for fun and educational computer games and the experience as a whole.

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Whizz Ball comes with many options and for the beginner and children under 10 — I highly recommend clicking on the “How To Play” and watching the tutorial.  My son who is 10 took quickly to this game and began with “Build Your Own Puzzle”.  This is also a good way (especially for older kids) to explore learning how the pieces interact with each other.

When you “Click to Play” you are brought to a page where many kids have submitted their own puzzles to be solved.  The goal of this game is to get the ball that begins by being dropped down the tube through the puzzle to the red bulls eye target. There are puzzles for all levels of skill play and kids also rate the puzzles.  You can search for the kind of puzzle you would like to do through difficulty, date, author, title, popularity or randomly.  My son loves the author way to search so he and his friends can keep up to date on their latest puzzle creations. I love that you can play this game by just entering a screen name and no additional sign up is necessary.  There are some ads but all that I saw were for shows and games on the Discovery Channel.

When you are in Puzzle Creator mode it is easy to save, load or share your puzzles with others.  There is no end to the types of puzzles you can create. The pieces are very fun and the innovative.  Here is a picture of a simple puzzle I made.  My son’s are much more complicated and he is having fun inventing them and seeing JUST how complicated he can make them.

Whizz Ball is just one example of the quality educational games you can find on Discovery Kids.  It is a wonderful site to explore for all ages.  Please take the time to check out Whizz Ball, Discovery Kids Games and all Discovery Kids has to offer.

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In Tropix your character is a monkey.  You begin on one island where you need to buy food as well as items for comfort and fun.  You get sand dollars by playing games. When you have filled your food, fun and comfort to their fullest capacity (while designing your island for your monkey) you are given a scroll which enables you to unlock a new game.  Tropix begins you with many games so if your child does not like one — there are many others to choose from.  There are many new islands to unlock and with each as you fill it with fun, food and comfort you will continue to unlock new games.

The mini games are a good combination of puzzle and arcade like games similar (but with their own spin on them) to bowling, solitaire,  Mah Jong, Zuma as well as their own games where you para sail or swing from vines.  They make each of the games a quest on the puzzle map – each increasing in difficulty and reward.   Usually when a game has many mini games my kids will stick with one or two — in this they like them all.  They even have a word game similar to boggle that I thought would be way above my daughter’s head that she really enjoyed… and it is increasing her reading skills.

I enjoy Tropix because it really combines fun and learning in a way that is good for the whole family.  I highly recommend it and would love to know what your children (and you) think of it.

Through researching this game more online I was happy to find out that Tropix 2: Quest for the Golden Banana is available now to play online or download.  I tried it out online and it is filled with all new mini games and lots more fun.  Click the picture or the above title to check it out.

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The premise – simple — move the circles so that the energy flow fills the audio containers. As you do you will hear different soothing melodies.  The music and graphics are simply beautiful.  Game play gets harder as you go on. I played all of Act 1 and made it to scene 5 on Act 2.  I HAD to MAKE myself step away but I WILL be back! My 9 year old son loved it as well. I would say ages 7 and up could “get” this game and really enjoy it.  Kids who are younger could just play with the shapes and music and enjoy it as well.

The below video gives you a good sample of the music and flow of the game:

This is one of those rare games I find that I will keep going back to and keep recommending to all ages.  THANK YOU to the creators of Auditorium for creating a game that makes you think and is visually and musically a masterpiece.  Click here or on the picture to play Auditorium now – you will NOT be disappointed.

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I love the Play First site because it allows you to do just that. You can play Mosaic – Tomb of Mystery free online and try it as you go through the many levels they include for free.  If you decide you like it you can download it. This is a game I could see the whole household getting use out of.

How to play Mosaic – Tomb of Mystery

Shapes are falling in the left column.  Click on them and drag them to where you want them. You can rotate them so they fit where you want them to.  Notice the pieces pile up fast… there is a crusher for unwanted pieces in the middle. If you find you are taking a little long to place pieces… make sure you utilize this feature and put bigger pieces on the crusher that you are not using. If the column fills up with pieces it is GAME OVER.  It is important to watch how many pieces you have and how tall that pile is getting.

Finish the level and move onto solving the next challenging puzzle.

Because of the speed of this game I find it appropriate for ages 8 and up.  But there is certainly nothing inappropriate for younger kids and if you have a child proficient with mouse usage that is younger they may certainly really enjoy Mosaic – Tomb of Mystery as well. Just make sure you warn them it might take a few times to get the hang of the game before they get past the first board.  I got to level 4 on my second try and my 9 year old got a bit frustrated but really enjoyed it after playing a while.  This game works the mind and is a wonderful edition to the puzzle genre.

Sponsored by The Unity

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Overview

Each location in ZulaWorld has a sign post where you can see what you can do there. There is also your notepad on the bottom of the screen you can check to find out. Your character can walk around from place to place or you can click on the map to travel further. There are planets to visit and there is lots to see. The game play is intuitive and be sure to watch the screens as they load to get clues and tips. I feel kids 5 and up can play but children that can read will definitely get around easier.

There is a lot to do for free and paid members. A paid membership is $5.99 for one month, $29.99 for 6 months and $49.99 for 1 year. As a paid member you get to do the missions and some games you don’t have access to as a free member. You also get to take your Fweebs (pets) out of hibernation. You also get to fly your spaceship to other planets and buy more things from an additional store for your spaceship. Either membership gets you a communicator where you can keep in touch with your friends online.

Different Activities

There are many different activities in Zula World. You can download screen savers, buddy icons and wallpaper in DONWLOADS .Here are a few of my favorites activities:

Sing-a-longs

Lots of songs to choose from with a bouncing ball over the lyrics while the video plays so your child can follow along. OR you can print out the lyrics from a pdf format.

Theater

Watch videos with the Zula Patrol characters.

Pets

Buy a cute little Fweeb to tkae care of — but don’t forget to buy the ice as well.

Games

There are a few games that are consistent at the places you visit at each Games location but there are also games among the environment to discover. Walk around and figure it out or check your notepad for things to do. Here are a few of my favorite games:

Recycling

This is a game in the environment — go to West Zulapolis and collect the garbage dropped. It gets put in your backpack and when you return it to the Recycling Center and put it in the correct bins you get a badge for the first one in each category; cans/bottles, food and trash.

Gorga Dive

Like hangman with a different (less violent) approach. You begin on a diving platform. Guess a letter right and you go up a level, guess one wrong you go down a level. The object is to guess the word before you fall into the water. Depending on how high you are — you will do different dives into the water upon completing the level.

Zeeter Says

Just like the good old fashioned game “Simon”. They begin easy – remember the colored buttons pressed in the order they present… get harder……

Find the Difference

A favorite in my household. Two pictures – notice the differences and click on them — can you find all of them?

Find the Pair

I like this one! They start off easy but get much harder as they add more shapes in different colors. This is a wonderful educational game that would teach children attention to detail and color/shape recognition.

Summary

There are more games and many more places to explore in Zula World. This is a brief overview of this new site and I do recommend it. I feel most children aged 5 and up would really enjoy this site. Enjoy this safe site with no ads, science themed with lots of cool games and fun music and characters! Thanks Zula World!

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Pet Pals (Animal Doctor) For Ninento Wii

Recommended for ages 10+ due to mild blood. If your child (or you) has ever had any interest in being an animal vet or learning more about animals THIS is the game for you. You start in a waiting room with pet owners waiting to bring in their animals for you to look at and treat. In the waiting room you have the computer screen where you can go and play jigsaw puzzles, a memory match game, an animal trivia game or learn more about animals. You can hover over the patients in the waiting room to see the symptoms of each animal before you choose one to work on. The animals are all pets; dogs, cats, parrots, frogs, rabbits, and canaries are some of the animals you will see. When you choose one you are brought into the treatment room and have a certain amount of time to figure out what is wrong with and treat the animal. You get points for doing things right and you lose points for giving the wrong treatment. They have various tools you can use such as magnifying glass, syringe to take blood, stethoscope for vitals, etc. Each requires you knowing how to use the wii remote to control the tool. The more animals you treat successfully the more tools you will unlock and eventually you will be doing surgery on animals! There is also the recovery room which has activities such as feeding the animals and caring for them while they recover. Again, you will unlock more activities as you play. Pet Pals (Animal Doctor) is a very educational experience. You can play on easy or normal level. The easy level walks you through and even lets you ask for hints if you are not sure WHAT to do with the animal next.

The games on the computer in the waiting room as appropriate for younger kids as well but there is a lot of reading and some mild blood while you work on the animals so I would say ages 9 and up for the real vet work. If you have an animal lover in your home that wants to learn more about animals, their bodies and the kinds of illnesses they get – Pet Pals (Animal Doctor) is the game for you!

Zoo Vet (Endangered Animals) For Nintendo DS

Recommended for ages 10+ due to mild blood. Similar to the Zoo Vet Pets game for Wii above but this is with Endangered Species. This game includes 30 newly written medical cases contributed by veterinarians practicing throughout the world. You will care for gorillas, elephants, penguins, polar bears, komodo dragons and more. This game takes advantage of the stylus by letting you use it as a tool for making precise incisions. As with Zoo Pets as you successfully complete caring for animals the missions will get harder and you will unlock more instruments.

There are also 6 different mini games, played on the office computer, where players can interact with the animals in their natural habitats. For example in one game you blow into the DS microphone to remove fleas from the animal. If you have someone in your family that enjoys learning more about animals and helping them I highly recommend Zoo Vet (Endangered Animals).

Pet Pals New Leash on Life (For PC or MAC)

This is a sequel for Pet Pals Animal Doctor and is very good. From amazon:

Pet Pals: New Leash on Life continues Legacy’s tradition of creating award-winning educational games designed for aspiring vets of all ages. Players can take part in each animal’s story and control their fate, providing rich and realistic gameplay. There are more than 30 animal cases created by practicing veterinarians from around the world showcasing 15+ different breeds of dogs, cats, rabbits and birds as well as exotic animals like iguanas and chinchillas. Players will encounter emergency situations with audio and visual feedback with a daily task system and weekly game-time that is new to Pet Pals.

I love that after the pets are healthy you can train them and teach them new tricks so they are more likely to be adopted. I also thought the interface was easier with the mouse than with a wii remote and on a bigger screen than the DS. I recommend all these games for ages 10 and up or possibly 9 if your child is a strong reader and loves animals. Any younger and they might not comprehend some of the more advanced procedures. This game offers over 30 animal cases from non urgent such as a drooling rabbit to emergency care for a kitten that swallows string. Beautiful graphics and intuitive interaction make it even more fun to play.

I feel these games offer a wonderful look inside the life of a Vet and also show just how important pet adoption is. If you, or anyone in your family has a deep interest in animals these games from Legacy Interactive are the games for you.

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INCH WORM & INCH WORM 2

Yeah, I DO LOVE maze games – these are my favorite games on the site! This one is very cute and starts off REALLY easy and adds challenges as you proceed. There are 24 levels in Inch Worm 1 and 24 more mazes for you you solve in Inch Worm 2. You can use the keyboard OR the mouse to play with game which makes it even more accessible for different aged children. My kids saw this game on my screen this morning and both (ages 6 and 9) wanted to play and asked that I show them this site later on after school so they can solve them separately. I have no doubt this would keep kids and adults entertained until all 48 levels were complete. This game is wonderful for developing logical thinking and problem solving.

FROG JUMPIN’

Remember the Game Hi-Q? Those pegs on a board — jump one at a time to leave as few as possible and IDEALLY ONE in the center hole? That is this game BUT the REALLY nice part is they start you off very easy and show you patterns. As you get to learn the patterns you can apply that to later levels and also for any future Hi-Q playing you might do. This game is GREAT for developing logical thinking. With cute frogs and music it also holds interest longer than if a child was just sitting playing the game. YES — I can finally learn how to leave one in the center hole!

MAZE CRAZE

This game is great for logic and creativity. Make your own mazes or solve some of the ones Zoopz provides. The object is to get the circle and the 2 x’s to meet. You do that by changing and adding to the maze using the pieces on the right of the screen. This game requires logical thinking and problem solving. The best thing is you can play the maze games to get a feel for them and then create your own. This game also allows for one or two player game play. LOTS of fun!

INK BLOBS

Ink Blobs is a very different art program that is easy for kids to get the hang of. Click on the word BLOBS to get the different screens of shapes you can use. Click on the color to change the color. Hold down the mouse button while putting a shape in place to enlarge it. You can rotate as well. Click on the word INK to draw the shapes with your mouse. Print out the ones you want to keep or just keep going to new pages to create more. An Art program all ages would have fun playing with.

MANY DOTS

There are many ways to use many dots which is a cool art program. If you choose a circle you get almost a “Lite Brite” type board and can click anywhere on the screen to add color. Click a few times to scroll through the different colors. If you click on the square it is almost like a banner template that you can decorate similarly. Click on the triangle and it appears as shown. You can click on the lightbulb for ideas or on the 3 numbers to get different looks. This is very fun to play with and if your child makes something they really like there is always the print option.

There are a few more games on Zoopz that I did not review that are also fun. The ones listed at first play were my favorites. With no ads, for FREE and the ability to play many different learning and creative games and I think Zoopz is a kid’s computer game site WELL worth the visit.

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San Francisco Symphony’s message and purpose is clear from their About Us page:

“We love music and are committed to music education, within our community and beyond. This website, in conjunction with our live performances, provides a great way for people of all ages to hear, learn, and have fun with music.

Consider this site your premier web destination for learning about music — that’s why it’s here! And, if you’d like to share this site with others, send them a postcard.”

I DO like this site and instead of just sending a postcard I thought telling other parents about it through my site would spread the word even further.

Instruments of the Orchestra

This is a WONDERFUL activity where children can learn a lot about all the different instruments in the orchestra, what they sound like, what their purpose is and where they sit in a big orchestra.

Click on one of the different categories of the orchestra; strings, percussion, woodwinds or brass and be taken into an area where you can pick the instrument you want to learn more about. This is illustrated here after I picked “Strings”:

Once you click on an instrument like I did you can see the instrument from different angles, zoom in AND hear what it sounds like. It also tells you a lot about the instrument. I have looked at many music sites and this is the one I feel you can truly get a good feel of music broken down into easily understandable steps. Due to the fact that there is reading I would say school aged children would get the most out of this site but it is certainly good for all ages from 5 – 105.

THE MUSIC LAB

The Music Lab offers many different activities as follows:

Basics — Learn about written music including the staff, notes and more

Tempo — Speed it up or slow it down and watch the drummer play

Rhythm — Hear patterns that make music move

Pitch — Play around with the sounds

Harmony – Mix it up with the Harmonizer

Symbols – Make it louder, softer

Instrumentation — Decide which instruments will play

Performalator — Play a tune or two

Composerizer — Make Your Own Tune

RADIO

Click on the radio to listen to different songs that fit into categories or to learn more about music in general. Lots of choices and your children will learn about music by visiting this section.

Send a Postcard

Send a postcard to another parent o r child to tell them about this wonderful site. You get to pick which one and customize it with a message.

I love the San Francisco Symphony site and if you are lucky enough to live in that area be sure to check out the section where they let you know about upcoming events. This is a quality site where children can learn about music for FREE. Pass this one on to friends and enjoy!

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Mia and The Bugaboo Bugs puts Mia back in her beautiful Victorian House. The graphics are gorgeous and engaging and there are lots of things to click on with results. Your goal in this game is to rid the house of the annoying bugs that have appeared. Mia and her friends know if the humans spot the bugs an exterminator will be called and that will not be good! You are Mia and guide her slowly by walking or quickly with her skateboard to find items to use to figure out puzzles. You also will come across 12 different learning games on your way that you will need to complete to move forward.

My 5 year old found that she needed help with this game the first time but I could see her completing it by herself the next time. This is a fun game to play with your child. An older child would probably be able to do it themselves. The Reading and Writing Games seem right on target for the age. I have heard people say that Mia saying “OK” every time you point to her to do something can seem a bit silly but my daughter and I had fun imitating her and now it has become a household joke to say “Okay” in Mia’s voice. The games have funny characters, wonderful 3D graphics and have you wanting to see how the story will end so much that you might have trouble getting your kids way until you complete it! Luckily there are save and load options which came in quite handy for bed time and continuing the next morning!

If you need a hint you can just click on Mia’s face and the more you click on her the more obvious the clues will become. The game also comes with a walk-through on the disk in case you need some extra help with solving it. My mother played this game with my daughter as well and they had a good time figuring things out and exploring the beautiful house. It is also fun just to click around and see what everything does. Mia and The Bugaboo Bugs is another wonderful installment in the Mia Games and I highly recommend it.

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