Computer Sites to help Preschoolers Learn

Our kids LOVE playing computer games.  I am amazed at how quickly they learned how to manipulate a mouse and navigate webpages.  Our favorite site by far is Starfall.com, but there are so many other sites out there that deserve a shout-out!  If you have a favorite computer site/game that you enjoy with your toddlers or preschoolers let me know so we can include it in our list!

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1. Starfall

My favorite site – and it’s free!  My toddlers learn their alphabet and shapes in their “ABC’s” sections while my preschooler is learning how to mix letters together to form words in the “learning to read” section.  This site says that it goes up to first or second grade.

2. PBS Kids

My kids love Word World and several other PBS shows!  PBS has a lot of games matching the shows that kids enjoy.  The ages range from early preschool to young elementary.   Another great free site!  There is an off-shoot of the PBS KIds site called Sprout.  This site has a ton of other games and you can search for them by the type of thing you are looking to learn (ex: colors) or ages, or favorite TV characters.

3. Kneebouncers

This is a great site for toddlers and preschoolers.  It has large graphics, great for my toddler to be able to navigate to and from.  The games are boy-friendly, but my daughter likes the trains and cars as well.  In order for this site to work, you do have to disable any ad blocker that you might have.

4. Suessville

We love Dr. Suess books, but this site is a little advanced for my preschoolers.  Some of the games they enjoy but many of the games use full sentences and require early reading skills or parental help inorder for preschoolers to enjoy.  If your child is an early reader, check out the games here!

5. ABC Ya

This is great site for gradeschooler, but my preschooler enjoys several of the kindergarten games.  My only main complaint is that they use a lot of text buttons, this means that I have to help her “re-find” the game she is looking for as my daughter is not yet reading.  I do appreciate the educational focus and the emphasis on vocabulary-building.  This site also has games for older elementary aged kids.  I am sure we’ll be back to it more in the future.

6. Disney Go

My little gal loves all things princess, Disney has princesses.  Lets just say she enjoys this site.  I found some technical difficulties, again relating to adblock, which limited our enjoying all of the features on this site.  But if you want to play Cars or princess games, this is definitely the place to go!

7. Big Universe

Miss going to the library this week?  This is a great site where you can read hundreds on children’s books online.  It is not the same thing as holding paper in your hand, but is a good second!  I can see this site being great with an early reader.  My kids still prefer the hard copies!

8. Peep & The Big Wide World

So many preschooler and toddler focused sites, emphasize reading and phonics.  I love Peep as it gives us some diversity in our computer time!  This site has a number of science and math games.  I do wish this site was a bit more kid-friendly in its navigation.  May of the titles of activities are text links and my kids struggle to re-find the one they want to play.

9. Storyline Online

Are your kids driving you crazy asking you to read to them, over an over again?  This site has kids who will read the stories to your kids.  I love how you can see the pictures as they read to you!  Really, it feels like we are at storytime!  This isn’t really an “interactive” site, but it sure beats TV!

10.  Professor Garfield

We discovered this site with the help of Nicole and I loved how easy it was for kids to “hear” phonics with many of the games that they have.  My only wish was that they would have the words written out so my kiddos could see the rhyming relationship between “duck” and “truck”, for example.  This is a site we will definitely go back to!

Honorable Mention:

Baby Smash - Great for toddlers!  This is the program that we use to first introduce our kids to keyboarding.  My one-year old loves hearing the sounds as she “types”.   Here is a post where I explain Baby Smash and another program called Kid Key Lock.  They work really well together.  This is not a site, so it is in the “honorable mention” section, but its free, and that is always nice.

Bon Jovan

This site is not free, and although advertised to go up to age four, seems to be more toddler appropriate.  That said, it has a block that eliminates the chances of your child deleting or altering any of your files!

Thanks to Michael for sharing the photo of his son!