There’s plenty of good (and free) play to be had on the Web, with the first stop for preschoolers often being the companion site for a favorite television network (PBS Kids, NickJr., or Playhouse Disney). PBS has just upped the ante with its launch of PBS KIDS PLAY!, an Internet-based, educational subscription service for families with preschoolers and kindergartners.
For $9.95 per month, kids (ages 3-6) get a continually changing array of games featuring their favorite PBS characters, and parents get the warm fuzzy feeling their kids are learning something in the process. These games are more than pumped-up versions of what’s available for free on pbskids.org — the PBS KIDS PLAY! curriculum is based on recognized standards and includes Math, Science, Literacy, Language Development, Creativity, Healthy Development, and Social Studies. The games change based on the kid’s skill level, and there’s even a built-in timer parents can set. (Parent Hacks loves timers for just about everything.)
There’s plenty more, including online access to full-length TV shows. Seems like a great way to sidestep the hassle of finding good-quality games for the little ones.
BUT. (Isn’t there always a big but?) (Heh. Big butt. Can you tell I hang around eight year-old boys?)
BUT…even though the games are online, the game player app only runs under Windows. Sadly, us Mac users are out of luck. Hopefully that will change if the service becomes popular enough.
Visit pbskidsplay.org for details, and for a 15-day free trial.
This reminds me of one of my hacks: Look for U.K. versions of kids game sites — there’s not the overload of advertising that’s on the U.S. version.
For instance, compare http://www.nickjr.com/ with http://www.nickjr.co.uk/ . On the U.K. site, you still get the Dora games (with a different accent, but that’s not a big deal), but without the three advertising positions on the U.S. site.
( http://www.nickjr.com.au/ in Australia has two advertising positions; http://www.nickjr.co.nz/ in New Zealand has no advertising, but a more limited set of games.)
The other plus is you sometimes find interesting characters/games that aren’t in the U.S. yet, such as Fifi and the Flowertots.
Thanks for this great resource. I’ve use many of these games in my classroom. Check out this blog with tons of other Kids Games.
http://literacyispriceless.wordpress.com/