Why buy a gaming console for your preschooler when there are a multitude of games they can play on-line? These games encourage eye-hand coordination and usually incorporate some educational aspect as well.
My four year old can get on-line and play games without needing any adult help. My two year old loves to watch. I love that they are learning numbers, letters, colors, Spanish, matching, reasoning, and other valuable skills.
My Favorite Preschool Sites
Nick Jr – This site has all your child’s favorite TV characters, like Dora the Explorer, Blue’s Clues, Little Bill, Backyardigans, Diego, and more. There are games, stories, video clips, art, and pictures to print. My girls love Dora and visit her site frequently.
PBS kids – Features all the characters found on PBS television shows such as: Arthur, Teletubbies, Barney, George Shrinks, Cyberchase, Maya and Miguel, and others. Most of the activities have some educational value. Teletubbies and Barney feature games even toddlers can play with some adult help. For grade-school kids, my personal favorite (and my son’s) is Cyberchase, because all of the games are math based.
Sesame Street – If your child loves Sesame Street like mine do, they will love visiting all of their favorite characters on-line. There are lots of activities covering a range of development abilities from toddler to grade school.
Adding Sites to a Favorites List
To ensure that my preschooler only visits the sites I want them to, I added their favorite sites to a Favorites list. It is simple to do:
1. Go to the site that you want to add to the list.
2. Click on Favorites, found in the menu options at the top of the screen.
3. Scroll down to “Add to Favorites”.
4. A box will pop up. Type in the name you want the site to have and click “OK”.
Then whenever your child wants to visit the site they can click on Favorites, a side bar will appear, then they can scroll down to the site they want.
My children know they are only allowed to visit the sites on their list. Then I don’t have to worry about the content that they are viewing.
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