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It’s hard to find really good computer games for kids – even if you’re willing to pay good money for them. Here are a few we love that are free – including ad-free!
- Tuxpaint is the best free drawing software for kids that I’ve found. You download it, so your child is not on an internet site at all. It has stamps, different brushes, and even animation capabilities (which we have yet to explore). Your kids can even submit tuxpaint entries to the Doodle 4 Google contest!
- Red Fish Soup / Poisson Rouge is a multilingual (portions of the site are in English, French, Greek, and Chinese) site where children learn through explorative play. I see it as a virtual children’s museum of sorts – there are no games to win, but lots of cause and effect activities, as well as puzzles, songs, matching games, and more.
- Starfall.com is a fun early literacy site with books to read online, as well as holiday-specific activities.
- JacksonPollock.org allows even the littlest artist to create Jackson Pollock style paintings – found through Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile!
- Moneyville is Emma’s new favorite game, which I discovered thanks to Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns. You need to create a username, and it’s a game best played by kids who can read. It’s been a nice introduction to money management for Emma, and she gets to practice basic math as well.
- Your basic word editor that came on your computer. You would not believe how happy this makes my kids.
Besides being married to a computer scientist makes having technology in the home fairly inevitable, but I also think introducing kids to carefully-screened technology can be very beneficial. My parents invested in our first computer when I was four years old, and I credit the time I spent playing (again, carefully selected) games on that computer for giving me an intuitive understanding of technology that has served me well in life. Besides, friendly sibling competition combined with an entertaining typing game made me the fastest typist I know, which makes it easier to get blog posts written in the tiny bits of time I find – not to mention a PhD dissertation typed with a newborn on my lap!
What are your favorite computer games for kids? Be sure to check out other reader recommendations in the comments to my computer and toddlers and computer literacy posts!
What fun and creative learning have you been enjoying in your home? Last week, B. Inspired, Mama! shared 5 fun color mixing experiments – I LOVE her hand washing color mixing idea! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post about a child discovering craft scissors at Glittering Muffins, and I think my kids will have a blast with this cloud paint activity from Reading Confetti.
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Math Playground is our favorite this year (for Emma or older). We spend hours on there! You will want to play it yourself. :)
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maryanne Reply:
March 12th, 2012 at 8:31 am
Thank you for the recommendation! We’ll definitely try it out!
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My son really likes http://www.abcya.com and it has something for a lot of age ranges. And of course, we like starfall. I’m going to check into the others you’ve listed. Thanks!
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maryanne Reply:
March 12th, 2012 at 9:15 am
abcya.com looks great! Thank you! :)
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My kids have loved Jump Start, but it’s not free. I need to start the kids on a typing program, so they can start to learn to type……..
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maryanne Reply:
March 12th, 2012 at 9:37 am
Let me know if you find a typing program you like?
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I have to check some of the options you recommend. Anna’s school gives her access to raz-kids (a reading program). It’s a good site, but unfortunately not free. She also loves starfall and Moneyville. Lately she requested to return to Dreambox, so she has more options to play than she has time (we limit electronic edutainment to no more than an hour a day)
Visit Natalie … What My Child Is Reading–March 10, 2012
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Thank yo so much. I really limit my kids computer time but these all sound worthwhile. I know there are great sites but just didn’t know what they were, my kids thank you.
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maryanne Reply:
March 12th, 2012 at 10:00 am
We really limit any kind of screen time, but it’s nice to have good options sometimes! :)
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This is a great list of sites! Thanks! We just clicked through to have a go at the Jackson Pollock painting and are off to try more now. :)
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maryanne Reply:
March 12th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
I hope you enjoy the sites!
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Great list of computer games! My Emma loves to just type in Word. It’s funny how long it can entertain her!
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maryanne Reply:
March 12th, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Simple pleasures :)
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We’ve used Starfall before, and I know Sawyer uses it regularly in his Computer class in Kindergarten, too. But I hadn’t heard of the Jackson Pollock site. That is so exciting! I’m definitely going to be checking that one out.
Thanks for the shoutout, too! :)
Visit Krissy @ B.Inspired Mama … Simple Science: Green Daisies for St. Patrick’s Day
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maryanne Reply:
March 12th, 2012 at 1:49 pm
You’re welcome! I hope you like the other sites!
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My son loves to just type in Word. He spells things and sounds out words that I type. Thanks for the other tips!
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There are some new one you listed that I haven’t tried, thanks. My oldest (5) is enjoying kerpoof.com right now.
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maryanne Reply:
March 12th, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Will have to check it out – that’s a new one for us!
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We really like the cbeebies website for activities – there is a new section with Letters, numbers and words including other languages apart from English in Lingobugs. Some of the video’s and clips don’t work outside of the UK but most of the games can be accessed. J loves the Mr Tumble/Something Special games and is picking up loads of signs from it.
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Thanks for sharing these!
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We are on the same wavelength because I also posted yesterday about online activities for kids. I found a great site for teaching basic Spanish vocabulary: http://gratefullygrowingingrace.blogspot.com/2012/03/online-spanish-activities-for-kids-of.html
Visit Amanda @ http://gratefullygrowingingrace.blogspot.com/ … A Year of ABCs: E with art, literacy, math
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These are great recommendations1 Will check out. I’m sure my daughter would love some of these. I agree with you on MS Word. This simple tool can entertain them for hours! My daughter loves writing, resizing the fonts, trying different font types and colours. Inserts pictures in them..!
Visit Rashmie @ Mommy Labs … Art Experiments: Learning to Break Free from my Fears of Imperfection
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We love Reading Eggs (paid, free two week trial available with a few coupon codes we got 2 1/2 months free and you don’t give credit card info. until you perchase it. ) for advanced pre-k and up , Dream Box Learning (paid, free two week trial available) for advanced pre-k and up, abcmouse for preschool(paid, free one month trial available if you take a quick servey), Zoodles (paid or free depending if you want adds or not), Starfall (free), Nick Jr. (I sensor what they do here a bit).
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maryanne Reply:
March 16th, 2012 at 4:06 pm
Thanks for all of the recommendations!
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I just wanted to say thanks so much for hosting this linky every week! :)
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You posted a few sites I have not heard of before. I deifintely have to check them out.
Here are a few we like:
VocabularySpellingCity (www.spellingcity.com) great for spelling, vocabulary,and handwriting
Vocabulary Can Be Fun (www.vocabulary.il.com)Grades K-12 and also has stuff for college and ESL learners. Really neat site. This site offers games in various genres and also features really great articles.
Learning Games for Kids (www.learninggamesforkids.com) All types of games for various educational skills. They do offer typing games, too.
Sometimes you can find free games at Brain Pop, otherwise you have to have a paid subscription.
Joyfully,
Jackie
My Attempt at Blogging
Quaint Scribbles and 3 D Learners
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maryanne Reply:
May 1st, 2012 at 1:19 pm
Thanks for your recommendations – I’ll check them out!
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Oops! I noticed I typed the URL wrong for Vocabulary Can Be Fun. It should be
http://www.vocabulary.co.il
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maryanne Reply:
May 1st, 2012 at 8:40 pm
Thanks, Jackie!
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With all the things that kids can see in the net and with all those brutal games that some other kids wants to play instead. It’s really hard to find something that is educational and to fun to play. Those are awesome games! thanks for sharing..
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Thank you for this list. My older kids (about 10 and up) like sketchup. It allows them to build houses and boats, all sorts of things. It is profession quality but also easy to use.
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MaryAnne Reply:
January 7th, 2013 at 8:36 pm
My kids would love that! I’ll have to keep it in mind for when my kids are older – thanks for the recommendation!
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Another is xtra math, it is a no frills mastery program that works at the child’s level.
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MaryAnne Reply:
January 7th, 2013 at 8:37 pm
Thanks! I’ll check it out!
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Thank you so much for the websites I’m thrilled because they will have fun learning and growing at the same time and Moneyville is wonderful too thank you.
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MaryAnne Reply:
May 17th, 2013 at 12:29 pm
I’m so glad you like this list! My daughter LOVES Moneyville!
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