Web fun for 3 to 4 year olds

November 10, 2007 6:36 AM

Please recommend a good puzzle or activity website that's suitable for a 3 or 4 year old.

Good: Boobah Zone seen here is ideal. You can click just about anywhere and just have fun.

Not so good: Well, for example, BBC Cbeebies -- the ones I tried invariably start out with instructions and require very specific keypresses that have to be memorized. It's for an older age group.

Ideas? Thanks.

posted by rolypolyman to computers & internet (17 comments total)

Bembo's Zoo is a favorite here. We adults find it as charming as the kiddo!
posted by spinning jennie at 6:41 AM on November 10, 2007

Kaboose's FunSchool Preschool section seems like it has some fun stuff targeted to that age range.

Up to Ten has some cute stuff.

Lil' Fingers is geared towards toddlers - it has easy-to-click stuff & stories that both have text and are read aloud.
posted by tastybrains at 6:44 AM on November 10, 2007

Have you checked out starfall ?
It is levelized, but there are definitely some areas which might fit the bill.
posted by project 2501 at 7:01 AM on November 10, 2007

The Sesame Street games section has entertained my 4 yr old for a long time. The Elmo games are pretty easy, good to start out with.
posted by selfmedicating at 7:04 AM on November 10, 2007

Seconding Up to Ten, especially, Boowa and Kwala. My children love it.

Playhouse Disney has some fun stuff as well, with Ooh and Aah being the favorite in our house.
posted by Sassyfras at 7:04 AM on November 10, 2007

This Jackson Pollock page is a favorite with my kids.
posted by bibliowench at 7:04 AM on November 10, 2007

. . . and it doesn't have instructions. Move the mouse to splatter paint and click to change color.
posted by bibliowench at 7:21 AM on November 10, 2007

Seconding Starfall.com
My kids love it.
posted by mistsandrain at 7:30 AM on November 10, 2007

NickJr has some cute games and activities for pre-schoolers.
posted by amyms at 8:06 AM on November 10, 2007

Webkinz and Club Penguin
posted by mattbucher at 8:33 AM on November 10, 2007

Orisinal has some really nice games. My 3 year old loves the one with the egg and the basket (3rd row from bottom)
posted by gfrobe at 8:46 AM on November 10, 2007

falling sand game might work.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:53 AM on November 10, 2007

To get a sense of how the falling sand game works, begin by drawing small cups under each "waterfall". (You just draw with your mouse.)

If you want to get complicated, the different colors of "sand" are different materials (water, sand, oil...), and you begin by drawing with wax but you can change to drawing with other materials (algae, fire...). The interactions yield different behaviors (algae grows in water, fire grows in oil). There is also a "destroy everything" button - the yellow circle. I don't know what triggers that. If your little one gets attached to drawings, try to figure out how to avoid activating that. Otherwise this is just a mellow little activity.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:58 AM on November 10, 2007

Switch materials at the bottom of the screen. I think if you click on "Namekuji", you can deactivate the destroy-everything blob.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:59 AM on November 10, 2007

Nthing Starfall.com Kids have taught themselves to read on this site.
posted by Pastabagel at 8:54 PM on November 10, 2007

My 4 year old daughter loves CBeebies, although she is fairly proficient with the keyboard and mouse. She seems to work out the instructions by trial and error.
She also loves the Club Penguin site. We can let her loose in the "Ultimate Safe Chat" rooms where she explores the site and plays the (fairly simple) games.
If you're just looking to boost a child's computer skils, you could take a look at the BBC Computer Tutor site. You might need to go through it with the child a couple of times, but my daughter seemed to pick things up pretty quickly.
posted by oclipa at 2:29 PM on November 12, 2007

Kids' CBC is like CBeebies, but from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Mostly mouse-based games and activities. I don't see a lot of keyboarding here.
posted by j0hnnyb at 7:24 PM on November 12, 2007