Help Kids Play Safe With Online Educational Games

I don’t know about you, but I just don’t feel safe about having my guys hop online to surf the web. I love Kidzui, which I got to review for the Baltimore Education Examiner, but it is really for kids a few years older than mine. So, how to keep them safe and still let them feel like they are “big kids” who play online games? I personally head for one of the educational tv websites and then let them surf around the site, choosing games, watching movie clips, etc.

The three free educational game sites I use are pbskids.org, noggin.com and discoverykids.com. I prefer them over other kids’ tv sites because the advertising isn’t as heavy as it is on more commercial sites and it isn’t as easy for the kids to surf out of the site and onto the internet as it is with some of the other sites. Our favorite games are Curious George color mixing (PBS), Where’s Max on Max and Ruby (Noggin) and Scrub a Pup on Martha Speaks (PBS).

Of course, even the most wonderful site should be used on a limited basis. I usually set the timer for 15 minutes for the littlest guys and 30 minutes for the oldest guys. Once it rings, they have to go do something more active.