www.nwf.com
Ranger Rick is a raccoon (There he is on the left). But not any raccoon. This raccoon can teach your kids about Nature, Science, the World, the Universe! He’s a raccoon with a PhD! And he has a magazine, which is very popular in the US. This award-winning magazine now has a website and your kids are welcome to roam and learn!
The Fun and Games section is quite basic but fun! Fish food and Termite Terrace are both addictive but educational. Fish food teaches kids about the food chain (big fish eats little fish) and Termite Terrace quizzes the kids on their termite knowledge which they’re taught during the game. Matching Fish and Matching Apes is a simple game of pairs but works your kids’ memory. The only annoying thing about the games are all the different versions of Micromedia Shockwave you need to install.
The website also has a cool PhotoZone to give kids tips about taking good pictures. The Nature Quest section gives 3 interesting facts about a given animal each month. This month it’s birds.
What’s nice about this site is that it doesn’t have too much content. Kids get overwhelmed when there are too many games or facts. They want bite-sized info that they can memorise and then come and impress you and their friends with!
Quite good but don’t know if the kids would go on it that much. There’s only so many fish you can eat after all!
I thought this would be a great site to introduce your kids to before visiting the Museum of London. If they know a little already then they will be more interested in learning more cool facts I thought…how naive.
The ‘Create a Costume’ game is aimed at 3 to 5 year olds. Really straightforward to use but the woman announcing what does what can get very annoying. There are actually some Adult’s guidelines to help you make the most out of the game with your child. The costumes you create are actually based on real ones which are to be displayed in the Museum in 2010. That could have been a nice touch but 2010? My kids won’t remember this game by next year and neither will I!
The ‘Move and Make’ game is based on the same principle as the latter. But honestly having road tested both of these I was seriously getting annoyed with that voice over. I recommend switching it off. Maybe even leaving the website altogether. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I still haven’t been to the museum of London, put off by these stupid games. Maybe the Museum will be better though. If anyone has been let me know what you thought, and what is actually worth a look? Is it really a good idea to take a 5 year old there?
If your kids are nagging you to get them a pet and they won’t take no for an answer, distract them with Neopets! Neopets is a fantastic website for kids which takes them into the world of Neopia. When they sign up, they create a NeoPet. They have to name it, choose its colour and species and then look after it. The site contains 18 different magic worlds, all with different themes such as Middle Ages, Jungle and Fairyland. All these worlds have games, shops where you can ‘buy’ your neopet food, clothes, accessories with Neopoints. That’s teh currency in Neopia and it can be gained by winning games. It’s a very fun website full of endless entertainement. The only problem you may have is getting your kids off this site! It’s quite addictive but does teach them that having a pet means looking after it everyday! Neopets die if they are not fed and get depressed if they don’t get enough attention. Some parts of the site do involve PayPal though so do keep an eye on your credit card! Your kids might think it’s ok for them to ‘borrow it’ to buy their pet a dream house but it’s important for them to understand that they’re spending your real money on fictional belongings! Interesting life lessons to be learnt by all!
TV Series –Doctor Who
www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho
Doctor Who is one of the most popular programs on TV and for good reason. With its fair share of monsters, baddies, goodies, doctors, time-space continuum adventures and the like, it caters for all the family. And children love it! So is it ok for them to go on the Doctor Who website? And what can they do when they’re on it?
- The Trailer Maker: As its name suggests, this application allows your child to make a trailer. It’s quite simple to use once you’ve watched the Help Video on the first screen which explains everything. Fun if your kids dream of being film makers!
- They have over 40 games in the Games tab, ranging from video adventures to jigsaws, Sudoku, strategy games and action games. I tried the video game and it was quite fun though it felt like I was just watching another Dr Who episode, except this time the Dr is talking to you directly!
- There are good articles about the new characters arriving and characters of old as well.
The Episodes bit gives you a brief premise about each episode (good if you missed a few) and also offers videos and sound clips.
- I would recommend this site for avid Dr Who fans, young or old. Maybe children aged 10 and above though as there’s lots of reading involved.
www.Hasbro.com/transformers/en_GB Versus www.transformersmovie.com.
One can’t ignore the power of robots over boys (and sometimes girls). I decided to compare the Hasbro site (makers of the original Transformer toys) to the Transformer movies site. Here’s how they compared:
- Hasbro: Took ages to load the game pages and had very basic games and graphics. It had a robot paint game which was ok but pretty limited. On the whole not that impressive or child friendly.
- Transformers movie: This was very impressive. The music is dramatic, the graphics amazing and even the sound effects are exciting! Obviously the point of this site is to promote the film but it also has some good games. You can Robotize yourself, where you upload a picture of your face and then create a robot body. In the Fan Kit tab are many applications which can be posted to your blog or to your social networking account.This really is a cool website and you can tell they’ve put a lot time and money into creating it. Shame they didn’t make the same effort with the new Transformers film itself!!!