One of the most useful things about the internet is that it has made parenting, especially educating children, a lot easier than before. That isn’t to say that parents can abdicate their responsibility to the computer to raise their children, but rather that there are now a ton of resources available that parents in the past didn’t have in order to help guide the teaching of their children. Best of all, many of these tools are innovative kids games that are both fun and enlightening.
Here are some of the best free online games for helping you teach your children.
1. National Geographic Kid’s Games – First thing to note, this is the National Geographic Channel website, not the magazine. The magazine has some good games, too, but not all are educational. This site has a ton of unique and interesting educational games that are designed to develop skills in your kids that they may not even realize. They are presented in exciting ways, like World Secrets which follows a young woman around the world trying to help her find her missing father, giving all sorts of information about world landmarks and geography along the way.
2. BBC Bitesize – The BBC runs a really great website with some fantastic kids games. Most of them are more direct than the other sites, so you have specifically art games or math games. As a result, these much more straightforward games might not be nearly as interesting, but they are really good for a large age range and will ensure a high level of learning.
3. Primary Games – While not the best site, nor the most diverse, Primary Games has a few really fun, classic educational games with interesting new skins that will keep young kids’ attention. Their math section is pretty unique in that it takes very basic concepts for games and applies them to advanced techniques, so that younger children can get a head start on things they will need to know in the future, like geometry. This site also has an Android app and can be played on the Wii or PS3 as well, so there are plenty of options for delivery to your children.
Finding ways to both occupy and educate children can be a challenge, but at least there are options available that didn’t exist before. The dream of the internet as a giant educational tool has surpassed people’s wildest imaginations, as you now have access to work by the brightest minds in the world. So take some time out with your children, load up some free online games, and enjoy playing and learning together.
