by James Copher

Created on: May 24, 2008   Last Updated: November 24, 2011

In this fast paced world of technology it was hard for this father of two and product of the eighties to get used to the fact that my kids were more computer savvy at the age of seven than I was at the age of thirty-seven. We bought many computer programs for our PC such as," Disney's Learning Kindergarten, and "Dr. Seuss Kindergarten Learning system. These two in particular were great for our kids because of the familiar characters and ease of use. The Disney program has 60 activities on three disc and features such lessons as: Addition and Subtraction, Pick a verb with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Try Spanish and French, Telling time with Mickey, it even had build a sentence exercises with Goofy! My five year old was engrossed and engaged the entire time. He says the Spanish alphabet and speaks a little Spanish as well. He has his own alarm clock next to his bed that he can read and tell time on. My personal favorite part of the system is the phonics part of the program that has word building, rhyme time and reading comprehension. With help from the system he actually reads at a first grade level in Kindergarten.

The Dr. Seuss program is equally good and he has had fun with it as well. The best part of these programs is that it takes the frustration out of teaching the children phonics, and reading and gives you a forum to teach from. For parents seeing your kids succeed at something and having fun learning is it own reward. My wife and I picked up these programs at our local Target store for reasonable prices of 14.99 and 19.99. This is a good deal for the amount of software that is included in each package.

If you don't own a PC, then may I suggest the Vsmile system from Vtech. This system is easy to use with big buttons and large joysticks for little hands. The joysticks also have a neat feature that lets you move the the buttons for righties and lefties. The games play like arcade games with fairly good graphics but they make the user solve math problems, spell words, pick the right shape, finish sentences, solve puzzles, and so on before they are allowed to move on to the next level. My kids liked the games so much that they begged us to play them, and with characters like Spiderman, Batman, Superman, the X-men, Scooby Doo and Dora the Explorer it wasn't hard to get them to sit down with system. The system itself is 49.99, and games run from 14.99 to 19.99. The system and the game cartridges are made a lot like the old Atari system from the eights so they actually hold up pretty well, and they are easy to use for little hands.

Last but not least, I would like to nominate my personal favorite game that is a bit of a puzzle solving game too. Try the STAR WARS Lego games for the PC or for the Nintendo DS. Loads of fun and challenging but not too challenging. Kids get so engrossed in the game because even when you die you don't leave the level and the characters are Legos which is something that we all loved as kids and now the magic of computers brings our Legos to life. Way Cool.
I hope that this has been of some help, and remember you don't have to think that computer games are a waste of time for our kids, if we use them in a learning atmosphere they can be useful tools for our kids education. Just be careful not to take the games over yourself and start playing!

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