What's On Your Computer?

Computers are here to stay and our kids are learning to navigate them earlier and earlier. Heck, I'm even teaching my 2-4 year olds in my classroom a bit. So, what can the kids do on the computer? The popular sites that link to popular characters are always an option. My trouble with them is that the screen for the actual game is about 1/4 the size of your computer screen and then all around that little window are dozens upon dozens of links and ads that the kids inevitably click on. Half the time these lead to inappropriate sites for kids. More important it's FRUSTRATING for kids to not know where they are, how they got there, and how to get back. So......here are some recomendations that I've found and have tried and liked.

What's On Your Computer?    I absolutely like the sharp keys program as I can't TELL you how many times my daughter yells "Mommy, I can't close it!" after hitting a key on the keyboard that she didn't mean to.


Starfall
This is a favorite in my house, and in my classroom. There are many many things on here that are free. Actually anything on the main page is free. There is a link to More Starfall that goes to a subscription page. I got the subscription because the site is fantastic, my daughter loves it, and it was very inexpensive. The main Starfall page has great activities for kids learning their alphabet or just learning to sound out words. Also there are NO ads or links to outside websites and I like that they have their own characters, not all the licensed ones out there.

Other good kids sites:
http://www.pbskids.org/
http://www.helpkidzlearn.com/
http://www.sesamestreet.org/