My two-year old has very few words, but is taking an interest in my computer. He is able to pull up a chair, climb up, sit comfortably and he has worked out that moving the mouse around is fun.
I would like to get some programs that will be fun for him and preferably educational too. He really needs to learn more words, production rather than comprehension, but I guess that is going to be tricky.
Can anybody recomend some good software?
Our kids started with I Spy games, PBS games (e.g., Clifford, Arthur), and Reader Rabbit - all age-appropriate…
We liked Jumpstart Toddler for our kids. There are a couple games where all he has to do is move the mouse, or bang on the keyboard. As he realizes he controls the computer, he’ll be able to do more and more of the software.
I have a couple of things installed for my 2 1/2 year old niece-- BabyWOW and BuddyBrush. They came together in a pack called Preschool Accelerator and I got them at (dare I say it? ) BestBuy for about $7.99. She loves them, and can play them by herself. I put in the discs for her and she takes it from there!
One of my daighter’s favorites was Discovery Airport (fischer price). She has played it a lot since about age 2 and still loves it now at 3 1/2.
She also like Blue’s Birthday Adventure, but that’s a bit more advanced than discovery airport.
If you have a reasonably fast Internet connection, there’s lots of neat little freebie flash games at sites like pbskids.org.
I’d recommend avoiding Caillou.
I wanted to buy BabyWOW for my nephew. After having researched alot of different programs I decided that this is the clear winner. You got a great deal at 7.99; BabyWOW alone is 24.99 at online. Did you get this recently?
Just went to BB site and saw the package you are talking about but I see no mention of BabyWOW. Are you sure this came with it?
What everybody else said.
My 3 year old has been playing such games for six months now.
I had to get her her own computer (used of course) so she wouldnt be using daddys all the time.
Tip: Check out the local library and see if you can loan games from them to see if your daughter likes them, or if she`s ready to use them. Our library has a large stock of such games and we can keep them for a week.
We love Jump Start toddler as well. Entertains the kids and is educational.
What I like is the fact that you don’t actually have to CLICK on anything to get it to “do stuff” you just have to move the mouse over. We have a few stories from the Living Books Series. (Grandma and Me by Mercer Mayer, Dr. Seuss’s ABCs and others) These are rather mindless, but are fun for the kids. Set it to either “Read to me” or “Let me play” where they can click on things for them to react. I love the Nick Jr. website myself, but it’s not very educational.
Excuse me while I go off to check on BabyWOW.
Sorry, your son, not daughter.
Most of the television networks have website with Flash games for toddlers and they are mostly educational. Learning letters, numbers, colors, sorting, yada yada. My 3 y/o has been clicking around seriously for the last six months on some of the following:
http://www.pbskids.com
http://www.disney.com - get to playhouse disney section
http://www.thomasthetankengine.com
We have also purchased some of the Disney eduational software on CD (Pooh Bear, Mickey Mouse, etc.) but make sure it is a good match for what your kid needs and isn’t what he’s already able to do.
Our kid had already mastered most all of his 2/3 year old skills, so the software we bought recently have been for kindergarten and 1st grade. (We’re not pushy parents, but he’s very smart and can already read beginning reader books, so why hold him back?)
Paidhi Boy got a lot out of Reader Rabbit Toddler. He also very much enjoyed the Teletubbies CD rom, but he’s a fan of theirs and I don’t know if it’s still available at all.
He’s three, and clicking and dragging now, and plays with his 6 year old sister’s games (Powerpuff girls, Catz, etc.) as well.
I think this’ll do better in IMHO, so I’ll shoot it over there for you.
Get him started in FPS; Counterstrike, Quake3, UT2003, BF1942, etc, to build up his 1337 sk1llz so that when he gets older he will be able to play professionally.
My kid loved the Sim City games – he didn’t play them but by god he could create some fun disasters. He liked placing trees and drains and stuff.
I second the library idea. I’ve borrowed some from the library which I thought he would love and he’s been left cold by them.
Living books are great for teaching mousing skills. Paint is a program a lot of kids like to play in.
Two games which your kid’s a touch young for but which are excellent and have IMO misleading ages on the packet are the Zoombini range and the Dr Brain series. If you see those on special pick them up. Zoombinis in particular says 8+ but both my kids were playing them at 3.
Other favourites when P the Younger was 2 were dumping all the desktop icons in the recycle bin and changing the wallpaper and themes. their own computer is a terrific idea.
Our 2 year old loves fisher price’s computer learning system.
http://www.fisher-pricestore.com/fpecom/plsql/fp1.pdisp?catid=52574&groupid=59610§ion=&iseq=2
It’s neat as there are three levels where at level one any keypress gets you pretty pictures and stuff, level 2 it tells you what key you pressed (so for a you’d see an apple and it would tell you a … for 2 it tells you two, shows you two things and counts one two) then at level 3 it requests you to do certain things and responds depending on if you did things correctly.
We also have baby jumpstart for her but she prefers the other stuff for now (she also likes watching us play solitaire or battlegrounds but that’s not interactive for her)
The one thing I’m not too thrilled with is that the keyboard cover they use doesn’t interlock with the keyboard… so it tends to wander the house a lot. We’ve pondered bolting it to her desk but that would probaby just make her mad 
Any of the Putt-Putt games from Humongous/Infogrames are quality. I would go for Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo first and work through the titles from there. Your son may be a little young for them, but not much. My son loved them at 3 years old.
The first games my kiddo got (around 2, 2 1/2) were Fisher Price ABC’s and 123’s. They also loved the all art work games. Seconding the Putt-Putt recommendation, though 2 might be too young.