by Wendy Brooks

Created on: May 23, 2008

Webkinz is the latest kid's craze that is spreading like wild fire. Webkinz is not just an adorable stuffed animal - it's also a virtual pet that children can take care of and play with online. It's the next best thing to owning a real pet without all the costs and cleaning up that goes along with having a real pet.

There is so much for kids to do on Webkinz. Children learn to feed, dress and bathe their Webkinz plus provide various rooms for the Webkinz to live in. They get to pick different room themes and furnish the rooms to their liking. Some of the furniture is interactive. For example, their Webkinz can swim in the swimming pool or make different recipes using a stove, blender or sandwich maker. Now, in order to provide their Webkinz with food, clothes and furniture, children play games to get Kinzcash. These games are not only fun but can be educational as well. There are memory games, math games, trivia games and word games as well as games that are just plain fun. So, children can learn while they're having fun raising money for their Webkinz. Kids can also take their Webkinz to the doctor for check ups and have their own garden where they can grow vegetables to feed their pets.

Webkinz also has it's own chat room where kids can talk with their friends and invite each other over to their rooms. They can send their friends a Webkinz present or compete against each other in the tournament game rooms. With so much to do, especially when their friends are involved, it would be easy for kids to spend hours on Webkinz. As parents, it's our job to monitor the time our children spend on Webkinz, or any other website. Webkinz is a great site for kids, but it can become unhealthy if the kids are spending all their time on the site instead of playing and being active outside.

In this day and age, we have to be very careful about the websites our children go on. Webkinz is a safe site where kids can play and learn at the same time. I would prefer my daughter to play on this website instead of a lot of the other sites that are available to kids. In moderation, Webkinz is a great place for kids to have fun with their favorite pets. My only problem with Webkinz is that they have updated their site so that now you need high-speed internet to access the site. Unfortunately, we still have dial-up so now my daughter cannot get on site to play with her 19 Webkinz. Oh well, I guess that's what they call progress!

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