If your child is approaching the kindergarten years, he may be getting introduced to computer games or educational sites with games. I’ve sloughed through a great deal with my son and many come up quite empty. While certain CD-ROMS or sites from your child’s favorite Disney or PBS character can teach a bit, you’ll find a lot of fodder that doesn’t teach much to kindergartners except encourage hand-eye coordination with a mouse and keyboard. While seeking for guidance, I asked my son’s head kindergarten teacher for a referral. Here’s one that provides young kids from kindergarten through third grade with lots of activities in six subjects, working with various reading and math levels:  www.brainpopjr.com.

For kindergarten-aged kids, I highly recommend the math games, such as “dollars & cents.” Not only does it teach your child about the different types of coins, but it also provides an opportunity to teach the beginnings of addition and subtraction when parents tally up scores. A great way to encourage a variety of foods in the diet is the “food pyramid” game. Learning to sound out letters and form words can be a frustrating time for some kids. The “Big Word Wall”, while mainly for elementary-aged children, can also be a fun way for parents to discuss sounding out words and letters. Just type on a letter and a handful of words appear that the child can then listen to the pronunciations and definitions. These games, however, require parental involvement, so if you are looking for computer games that will give you a moment’s rest, these aren’t it for the kindergarten age-group. The site does have a short “movie of the week,” that really is educational, such as the one that teaches children about clocks by having a young girl explain clocks to her robot. But essentially, this site is one for the hands-on parent who’d like lesson ideas, tools, and games they can play with their children to encourage and stimulate learning. One idea is to have an older sibling play the games and read the instructions to your kindergartener. The site is also a good resource idea for babysitters.