My sister finally woke up and is divorcing her jerk (YAY!). She has just moved into her new apartment, and I am setting her up with a computer, both to work from home when she can and for the kids to learn/play on. They are 3 and 5.
However, I know nothing about the kids’ side of the Internet, and I’m sure my sister doesn’t either. I’d very much appreciate some recommendations from any Doper parents, teachers, etc., of kid-friendly freeware games (Windows) and Web sites that I could download/add to her browser bookmarks.
My oldest daughter is 5 (6 at the end of the month) and my youngest daughter is 3. Same age as your neices/nephews. My kids like Nickelodeon, also be sure to check out Nick Jr. which is geared towards the Pre-K crowd. PBS Kids is another good one as is Cartoon Network. If they are girls check out Barbie, and Polly Pocket. If I can think of more later, I will post them here also.
I suppose I could have mentioned that the 5-year-old is a girl and the 3-year-old is a boy. But I have always been careful to avoid sex-specific themes in toys, clothes, etc. that I give kids as gifts. And for these kids, their paternal in-laws give them nothing but electronic toys, so it falls to our side to keep them in books, Tinkertoys, Legos, etc. I also try to avoid the commercial stuff, unless it’s something they’re already into. My niece loves a lot of the Nick shows (Dora, Little Bill, Oswald, Blue’s Clues) and is getting into chapter books.
Thanks much for the suggestions so far! Keep 'em coming.
I believe that all of those shows that you mentioned are on Nick Jr. There are lots of spelling & matching games on the Nick Jr. & PBS sites I listed earlier. My oldest daughter rarely needs my help with the computer or any of the games any more, and her reading, writing and vocabulary are all very good for a kindergardener. She is also fluent in Chinese and has picked up quite a bit of Spanish from Dora/school. I’m very proud (read: jealous) of my daughters linguistic skills.
Neopets is awesome, although maybe a little old for the little one - it’s entirely free. You pick a pet, you feed it, play with it, etc. There are all sorts of neat little games, you can fight your pets in the arenas, you can build up a financial empire - it’s a lot of fun and I’m not ashamed to admit my Neopets problem. Check it out and see whether you think the kids are old enough to grasp the games; they come in a range of difficulties.