Educational Online Games for Kids

Details: ABCMouse.com is an Early Learning Academy for children ages Toddler-Kindergarten.  A full interactive program to help children learn to the school subjects: Math, Science, Reading, Art, Music, Writing, Geography, Language Arts.  Each subject is taught in 6 different levels starting at Toddler age, with a high dependency for adult help, all the way up to Kindergarten.  Adults get to choose and set up how they want their children to use these tools, how long their children use these tools, and what level they start at and work towards.  Cost is $8-$9 a month, along with the option to pay for a whole year in advance.  Also can find deals for a free 30-90 days, or discounted yearly payments.

My Review: My 6 year old was watching TV one day during vacation and saw a commercial for

ABCMouse.com, he immediately started to beg for us to allow him to play these games.  When we finally signed up we were surprised by how much there is for children to do.  They have thousands of games, puzzles, songs, art projects, lessons and such to choose from individually by clicking on the Classroom setting.  Or they can click on the Step By Step journey that allows children to get all those lessons but by traveling around the world: beach, desert, mountains, Volcano etc.  They have to keep a fish aquarium and a hamster cage clean, fed, watered etc.  They have an "avatar" they can dress up, change all kinds of personal grooming aspects of the avatar, which also helps teach important life skills.  My favorite part of all these wonderful options, games, and interactions, is that my 3 year old now feels like he is doing home work/ school work/ school time just like his older brother.  He can even do all his own lessons by him self, because the level that he is on is so easy for him to use.  He still has challenges with the lessons, but using everything is super easy.

The most important part of this program is that whatever computer the child is going to play on, they need a mouse.  The lap top key pad just doesn't cut it.  My older son uses a wireless mouse, and my younger son uses a USB wired mouse.  The second most important part of this program is that the children are rewarded with online tickets, and prizes that they can cash in to get more fish, or better fish for the classroom aquarium, or more and better hamster stuff.  They can get better clothes for their avatar, and all kinds of other ways to cash in their awards.  This also allows me as the parent to go in and track their progress, and see what they did well on, and what they need more help on.

Pros: great price, great program, easy for children to use, love the challenges and learning tools

Cons: only goes up to Kindergarten.  I personally would love to see this go up to 2nd or 3rd grade for parents who want extra educational help for their children during school breaks, or just to help reiterate what is being taught in school.

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Zimbbos!

 
Details: 1-4 players, ages 3 and up.  Elephantastic pyramids.  Juggling fun!  Make by Blue Orange educational toys.  Who will build the most amazing, crazy and tipsy topsy pyramid of elephants, clowns, bears and lions?    Everyone is wooden, and high quality.

My Reivew: We love these types of toys, we've played with a few from the Orem Public Library's PERC center.  This one is the most fun we've had.  My kids love the little wooden elephants and the bears.  Its fun to learn about gravity, balancing, math and problem solving.

Pros: wooden toys, simple directions, easy to play.

Price: From Amazon.com

Zimbbos by BLUE ORANGE GAMES

Buy new: $27.99 $20.06

51 new from $16.14 

                           

                         

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Visual Explorers

Details: Comes in a set of 5 lenses.  This toy is for children 6 month and up.  Made by Marcel Education.  Young children can experience fascinating optical discoveries about color, light, reflection, color mixing, shadows, and more.

My Review:  We checked this toy out from Orem Public Library's PERC center.  My kids love this!  We found out that mixing red, blue, and orange light doesn't always mix the same way as crayons, and paint.

Pros: fun, educational (science, art)
Cons: the lenses can be scratched very easily.

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Number Hunt Game

Details: Six math games in one!  Made by Discovery Toys.  Earth friendly and kid fun!  Beyond learning getting smart is just half the fun of learning.  The hunt is on by rolling the dice and moving your disks along the trail through the jungle.  Add numbers and subtract numbers, count insects, and more.  Ages 4 and up, and 2-4 players, takes 15 minutes to play.

This product is organic and printed with vegetable ink on recycled paper and includes parts made from natural wood and bamboo.  This is sustainable and biodegradable and renewable resource.  All products meet or exceed ASTM safety standards.

Information: This sounded like a really fun game, as we're getting our 5 year old ready for Kindergarten this fall, but let me tell you we were all very bored with the game within 5 minutes.  The instructions are confusing even for me to figure out to explain to my children.  The two cool things about this game is that 1. its organic and biodegradable and environmentally safe, and 2. Its instructions are printed on the top cover box so you can't loose them.  I am not pleased with this game at all.  I do not recommend it.  We checked this out from Orem Public Library's PERC center.

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Mr. Popper's Penguin game

 Details: This is an all wood game for children 4 and up.  2-4 players, and it does have small parts.  You have 12 penguins, 12 colored eggs, 4 iceberg scoring boards, and 2 colored dice.  This takes about 10-15 minutes to play.  The penguins hide the different colored eggs and after they're all mixed up you take turns rolling the dice and lifting up a 2 penguins trying to find matching colored eggs.  Its a cute and fun twist on the matching game that gives kids hours of fun and laughter.

Information:  We checked this game out at the Orem Public Library's PERC center.  My kids ages 5 and 2 love this game.  The penguins are super cute and remind us all about Mr. Popper's Penguins the movie with Jim Carrey.  We've played this game a few times now and each time the kids get a kick out of trying to find the different colored eggs, and trying to trick me into loosing.  I really do like this game, its made by Blue Orange.  My only con is that this game should really be for children ages 3 to 5.  I would think anyone older than 5 would be bored with this game.  I highly suggest this game as a great way to learn colors, matching, and memorization.

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Melissa and Doug want you!

Have you heard, used, or seen any of the products that Melissa & Doug have in the stores?  I love them!  My kids have used tons of their puzzles, and we just got some of their games from the Orem Public Library's PERC center.

Well they are trying to reach 100,000 likes on Facebook and are offering a very large giveaway for it.  Help them reach their goal!  After all its still the New year and goals are very important.  Their products are so great, everyone should help them out!  Join in the fun and get a chance to win big!

Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/MelissaAndDoug

Hooked on Numbers

Details: DVD, MP3 songs, activity pad, journal, wipe off crayons, stickers.  Ages 3-5.  The Crayons conform to ASTM D 4236 (child safety regulations).  This Super activity kit is an educational extravaganza that's packed with learning and fun.

Information: This was another educational tool I checked out from Orem Public Library's PERC center.  First off, my kids and I sat down and watched the DVD together, and to be honest we were all very glad it was done because it was very boring.  The Amazing story was the best part, but my kids didn't really like it (and I say this because they watch lots of different educational DVDs or TV shows like: Dora The Explorer, Leap Frog, Little Einsteins, Dinosaur Train, Super Y, The Mickey Mouse Club House, etc.)  Secondly, my 4 year old who can write, draw and is learning to read basic words didn't like the little Number Journal.  He found it very frustrating because he had to draw things without any type of guide line.  He also prefers white erase markers to wipe off crayons. The Numbers Activity pad was the best part.  Lots of puzzles where you have to read the instructions to get the correct answers.  This was a fun part to do with my 4 year old.  Myself and my children didn't like anything except the puzzles on the Activity Pad.

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ABC Sound Bingo

Details: Do-Re-Me&You produced ABC Sound Bingo: http://www.drmy.com
Phonics fun with letters, sounds and pictures.  Learn all 21 consonants.  12 double sided bingo cards (one side is pictures, one side is letters), 120 chips, and a CD with 24 letter sounds and words.  2 picture options for every letter available throughout the 12 bingo cards.

Information:  I checked this educational tool out from Orem Public Library's PERC center for 1 week.  As I played it with my kids, I had a very strong memory of playing something like this when I was really young.  I remember listening to a cassette tape with sounds or animals and letters and trying to find those on a Bingo card.  Growing up my siblings and I loved playing that game.  So its been very fun to find this game to play with my own children.  I love the old school toys that are refurbished and still around for my own children to play with.  I highly suggest this as a family game, its fun, easy, and very educational!  My 2 year old was a little bored but with help from Mommy he was able to still listen and look for letters and pictures that start with specific letters/sounds.  My 4 year old loved it!

GeoSafari

Details: 12 plastic slides with insects on them to view under the light.  Games, codes, puzzles and more.  Easy usage, bright colors, fun, educational tool.  Sound on, off, and volume control.  Simple easy to understand instructions. For children 3 and older.

Information:  I checked this out from Orem Public Library's PERC center for 1 week.  My kids are ages 2 and 4 and love this!  This is a great parent child, or teacher child tool to use to help teach children about science, insects, listening to a question and then give the correct answer from what you see.  This company has a few different models, so I've posted a few different pictures, and prices that I've found on Amazon.com.  I highly recommend you buy or check out this product for your children to use at least once!  Its so easy my 2 year old knows how to turn it on, put the slides in place, and get to the easiest set of games.

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Discovery Toys

Educational Discovery Toys for Kids! 

Travel Tracks for kids is so simple and fun! And there are so many wonderful Discovery Toys out there.

Why this toy is so beneficial for learning . . . 

This is an educational hands on toy, not just because it can teach geography, earth science, problem solving, puzzle skills and fine motor skills, critical thinking skills and other life and social skills.  This is an educational hands on toy, not just because it comes with 2 wind up jeeps so your child can learn to share, or your children can learn to take turns, learn to wait for their turn.  They can also learn probability, and chance because the wind up jeeps follow paths the puzzle pieces create, and if an incomplete path or a path with a fork in the road, the jeep’s mechanism will compensate.  We found as we explored this toy that there are dozens of possibilities of how to make the tracks.  Your kit comes with 8 track puzzle pieces; that connect in many different ways!


  Learning is fun because… it's all about Discovery Toys  In the beginning, I found this at Saver's in Orem Utah, and paid $1 for this.  Saver's is a Thrift store, very similar set up like Salvation Army and Good Will, however, their store is a lot nicer.  There are organized racks of clean clothing, organized selves and bins for stuffed animals and kid's toys, books organized into sections like Kids books, informational, romance, etc.  This is a store that I really enjoy shopping at because we're on a tight budget.  So when I find a really good deal, I have to blog about it.  I mean who wouldn't want to know about an amazing product?  Ding! Ding! Ding!  I love hearing from my friends, from blogs, and peers what the best toys, and products are.  Especially awesome products for kids, because my kids rule my life right now.  My product review is from personal experience with this toy, and how my kids enjoyed using it.  As it is a Discovery Toy branded toy, I know it cost more than Thrift store pricing.  However, I'm very grateful that I was able to find it at such a good deal.  This was a great treasure that I found, because it introduced my family to the company Discovery Toys.  A company that focuses on helping children learn in fun exciting ways.  When you find a good company, with great products, you want to be able to easily purchase more products from them.  However, I have found that Discovery Toys is one of those companys where you need to find a Rep who sells the products, because only specialty stores sell these products.  


Check out this Product... This was a complete hit in my house!  See, my kids love to put the puzzle piece travel tracks into different shapes, and change the pathways to have the jeeps travel through the topography type of map full of volcanoes, glaciers, beaches, forestry and lots of other land.  I found that for very young children this is a great parent child time toy, as you can help teach the child about the different geographic areas the vehicles travel through, and you can play one on one with your child as there are only 2 jeeps that come in the package.  With older children they will be able to place the puzzle pieces, interlock the pathways for the vehicles, and be able to create a whole new world of imagination play.  I like to think of this as an educational version of the popular Hot Wheels tracks.  The jeeps are child hand sized (roughly 2 inches or so in size)  The only negative thing about this set is if one of the vehicles breaks (like the wheels break) you can't substitute it for a vehicle you can buy in Wal-Mart or Target.  You have to go back to a company Rep who sells Discovery Toys, and work with them.  I highly suggest this product for any of the following: in the home, Preschools, Home school groups, Joy schools, Co-op schools, and public school media or class rooms.

Check out another one of our favorites, "Measure Up Cups"!

My Rating? A BIG Thumbs Up!

If you liked this product review, come check out Trio Blocks.

Reptangles

Reptangles: Turtles that snap
Fat Brain Toys Reptangles

Details: design, create, build, 24 geometry turtles in 6 different colors.  Learn, play, puzzle, create thousands of possibilities.  Some designs are like: Third Order Rotational Symmetries, Truncated Octahedron, Lesser Rhombicuboctahedron.  Can you flip, slide, and turn?  Two Reptangles can snap together in more than 100 ways.  More than 50 puzzles, over 80 structures, essential math concepts.  Ages 6 and up.

Information: We checked this toy out from the PERC center at the Orem Public Library.  My 4 year old can usually play with toys up ages 6, but this one is very frustrating to me as the parent.  These turtles are supposed to connect in tons of different ways, by just using 2 turtles.  But I struggle just to get the turtles to connect in 3 different positions.  I'm not impressed with this educational toy at all.  Trying to follow the instructions is impossible, it takes forever just to get the stinking things to connect.  I do not recommend buying this toy at all.  I've played with legos, kintex, tinker toys, Lincoln logs, and trio blocks.  I design beaded jewelry, and paint so I know I've got skills to be able to work with things that are complicated, but this product just doesn't work.

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Silly Sentences

Why this game is awesome for kids! 

This game is for 1-4 players, starting at 4-7 years old. This game helps teach grammar skills for elementary aged children.  This is a puzzle type game, each piece fits together to create sentences.  Each piece is a combination of a word with or without its picture.

Some more details 

 My 4 year old had a blast playing this with me one afternoon.  We checked it out from Orem Utah Public Library's PERC (Parent Educational Resource Center) for a whole week, and had a good time learning how to play it, read and build sentences.

This game is easy enough for a preschooler to read and play. You could build 1-7 sentences at one time, and there were enough pieces to build hundreds of sentences with lots of different rules to help teach your child.  It helps teach adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc, and it helps teach site words to your children.  This was such a popular game from the Library, that there were a few missing pieces. However we still had enough pieces to do what we needed.

So if you buy this, which is very worth the money, it's okay if you loose one piece or two, there are tons of "a's", "the's", "and's", etc.  Which was pretty surprising because those are the letters/ phrases that generally don't have enough.  Another cool thing about this game, is that if your child is still learning how to read, some of the word cards have pictures.  Those pictures make it a lot more fun for the child too.  However, if you loose a noun or verb card well you can still play you just won't be able to put that picture card in the sentence anymore.

We Do Listen Foundation

We Do Listen Foundation

Details:  This foundation helps children gain a sense of inner peace, and learn to communicate to adults what they are feeling, what they are needing and want, and learning to protect themselves from bullies, violence, and give themselves confidence.  We Do Listen Foundation is made up of a group of volunteers of teachers, parents, therapists, writers, artists, and designers.  There are links to the animated books and songs and games right on the website.  Each song can be played from the website, and you can down load it too.  Each book is played directly on your computer.  The website does have music that plays when you pull it up, but there is a button that can turn off the music.

Information: The website is completely animated, and fun for children to look at as well as super easy to use for children and adults.  I love the bright simple colors of the website, the site is super user friendly.  The animated books teach really good lessons to children, great for preschool aged children up through elementary school.  I love the Christmas book!  The songs also teach good lessons, I love the Telling the Truth song!                                                                
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Link: http://wedolisten.org/

Trio Blocks

My kids LOVE Trio Blocks!

These creative building blocks are amazing

These are plastic blocks very different than Lego's, but a similar design as you build and construct designs.  A fun for kids, can be annoying to parents when heard constantly at 6 or 7 am is that when they connect together the blocks snap!  Brightly colored, themed by sets pick and choose similar again to Lego sets, Trio Blocks are perfect for cute chubby little fingers of toddlers on up to older children who enjoy thinking, building, engineering.  The company gives a wonderful focus on both boy colors and girl colors which may or may not be appreciated by all.  But in my household purple and pink are reserved by me, because of how my kids have claimed colors for themselves.  Daddy gets black, brown and gray...when he can't convince our kids to also allow him to use orange and yellow on occasion.  They are so much fun for both kids and parents a like!  I have spent many hours playing with these toys with my children.  Helping them put together the barn and tracker in the Farm set, or building the cars.  Each themed set comes with instruction booklets, or design booklets, as guides to help your child learn how to build different objects.  However, my kids rarely ever use those booklets, and just create on their own.  There is Trio Block Jr, and regular Trio Blocks for ease of use depending on the age of the child.  There are basic sets, beginner sets, medium sets, themed sets, and advanced sets.  My kids would die for the advanced Castle and Dragon set!

Learning is fun... with these are block sets.  They, Fisher Price, claims that sets grow in difficulty as your child grows up.  Children get to use their imagination with these.  These blocks have helped my PreK child understand addition and subtraction, sizes, and sequencing for school.  We use these with my 3rd grader for science, Cub Scouts, problem thinking activities, educational play time, and so much more.  Sometimes we'll ask the kids to create an object to show us when they are done.  Now, much like any other building block company, these can get pricey, and you'll have to buy a bunch of sets just to get enough different pieces to really give your child a great experience with these.  Even my husband and I both enjoy making things with these blocks, as do all my kid's friends.  Sometimes we have to take the trio blocks away when we have play dates because the kids all fight over the same pieces.  Another reason it's a good idea to buy a good amount of pieces.  These make great gifts for any occasion!  Holidays, birthdays, school rewards (say for learning to read, or finishing a work book without complaining) etc.  The best place to get the most options for Trio blocks is Amazon or Ebay.  They both have great pricing, and there's no guarantee that all the pieces will be there especially from Ebay.

 My Rating? A HUGE Thumbs Up!

If you enjoyed this product review, come check out Leap Frog Baby Learn Around Playground.