Educational PC games? (or Wii/PS3/Xbox360)

[BillK]

Can anyone suggest any educational PC games for a 4 year old to help with ABC's and counting?

To this point - we've not introduced Zach to any form of console video game/pc game at all.

My wife went to Zach's preschool's kindergarten prep meeting and the guy from the school district mentioned computer time - so now she's all hot-to-trot to get Zach something for the PC (or Wii/PS3/Xbox360 - I have 'em all).

I told her that I could configure one of the 4-5 extra PC's I have laying around the house and set him up his own little PC station. I just think it would be better for him to be exposed to the PC rather than a console videogame (don't want him growing up to be a videogame junkie like me!).

Suggestions? Thoughts?

[bubbaray]

We've used the Fisher Price one for the past couple of years. DD#1 (nearly 5) is using the regular mouse and keyboard. She could probably do other games (heck, she could probably navigate the net) too.

Starfall has some stuff on their site that is quite good. That is probably where I would look first. If you're OK with commercial characters, NickJr and Disney have stuff on their sites too. I'm pretty sure there is stuff on the Wiggles site as well.

We are very opposed to video game consoles. We do have a Leapster for DD#1 and there are lots of educational games for that.

[mytwosons]

Hooked on Phonics has some computer games in some of their packages; Both math and letters. DS1 really enjoyed them!

[Momof3Labs]

Yes, www.starfall.com is excellent for pre-reading and early reading skills. DS1 is older, but loves I Spy computer games - there may be one for younger kids that works on number and letter recognition.

I also highly recommend surrounding him with letters and numbers. For example, DS2 has plates and a placemat with the ABCs and we talk about it just during the normal course of meals, etc.

[hellokitty]

You can also check out educational computer program at your local library. I know that the Reader Rabbit series is very popular. I'm not sure if leapster counts as computer time or not, but my kids like their leapsters. I don't think that wii, playstations, x-box, etc. are very educational, they are mostly for purely entertainment enjoyment and I think that the x-box in particular is geared toward men, b/c it's all shoot em up and car racing games (my Dh has one and I hate it, b/c I don't even like any of the games). There are a lot of preschool games online for free, like at starfall.com, pbskids.org, etc.. I personally wouldn't spend a lot of $ buying educational programs for preschoolers when there is so much available on the web and at the library.

[Percycat]

I am not the right person to be replying, it should be my husband, but since he doesn't visit this board....

My husband set up a PC in our kids playroom and created a profile for each of my children. The kids click there icon to log into their own page. On their page, he created shortcut icons to various programs already on the internet so that they connect directly to the internet site with the games they want to play.

PBSkids.org has a lot of games that deal with numbers, counting, letters, reading at various levels. You can explore the games and pick activities based on the shows your son enjoys or you can identify games that are at his skill level. The site is really easy to navigate and my children (now 3 and 6) are well adept at finding what they want to play.

Starfall.com is a great site for learning to read. It has various levels beginning with letter recognition and basic phonics to reading books.

My son also enjoys the Thomas the Friends site.

Somehow, my husband restricted the internet feature on my children's profile. They only have access to the sites they can get to from their icons. If we want to go to a different site, we log on using one of the parent profiles, which are password protected.

The kids at our preschool seem to really enjoy the ISPY software, if you are thinking about buying software. We also purchased a Spanish Lanugage program. My son enjoyed that when he was four, but really hasn't used it much recently. My daughter hasn't show much interest in computers, so we haven't show it to her.

Also, my son likes to play spider solitaire.... which as you probably know, is a 'free' game already on most microsoft programs. He would probably enjoy Tetris too (although we haven't give it to him). These games are good for motor skill in learning to move the mouse and pattern recognition..... I can't believe I can actually find positive things to say about addicting computer games!! : (

I recently found a site with some free typing games. I have asked my husband to give my son access to these too.

I have read your posts and assume you can read beyond my message to understand what my husband did. If not, reply back and I will see if my husband can explain more.

angela

[egoldber]

Sarah enjoys all types of PC games. Some favs that would probably about the level you want:

Blues Clues Kindergarten (or Preschool, but I recall the preschool being verrrry easy)
Blue's Art Time Activities
Franklin Kindergarten
Little Bear Kindergarten
Clifford's Learning Activities

Sarah has never really enjoyed the Reader Rabbit games much although they do get good reviews.

And yes there are soooo many free games on the web, pbskids.org, Noggin (although they have added ads and that REALLY annoys me), NickJr.com (again lots of ads)

[kedss]

We love Starfall too, and my mom got one of the olpc computers, and he has been using that and learning physics, LOL There are some good games at gcompris.net for numbers and learning how to use a mouse/computer skills. Fortunately(or unfortunately) our son now 5 has been able use a mouse since he was 1.5 years old. Now I let him play nickjr and noggin and pbskids on his own.

[brittone2]

We do almost no screen time intentionally, but I introduced DS to Starfall about 3-6 months ago (he's almost 5 though). Anyway, I'd go with something like that vs. a console game personally.

There's some research out there that even "educational" games aren't all that educational. Entertaining, yes. I'm not saying that he won't learn anything from a computer game, but as far as recognizing ABCs, etc. I'd probably rely on other means and consider the screen time entertainment, kwim?

That said, the early levels of starfall may fit what you are looking for.

[Ceepa]

Because you already have the PC equipment, I'd totally set up a little station for Zach (and eventually Ben). As far as which games to use, pp have given some great suggestions.