Free Edutainment Software - want or not?

It is time for year end school holiday in Malaysia. It is also the time of high inflation, bad economy and for us to be cautious in our spending. I believe parents need to save $$ on games for kids. You can burn these free edutainment games for them as a gift in coming Christmas & New Year. A bit cheap right? What to do, tell the kids life is tough in coming years and take the opportunity to explain some economic concepts to them... :)

My 10 year old daughter and I take up the challenge and go around scouting out some free and best software for your reference. I select and she plays. Check it out!

Here are our favorite great/free Educatainment games.

1. My Wonderful World : It is a National Geographic-led campaign—backed by a coalition of national business and non-profit organizations to expand geographic learning in school, at home, and in communities. Their vision is to give kids the power of global knowledge. It is a great site for kids that like Geography and curious about our world. Online games teach them about Languages, Art, Music, Adventure and more. Best of all, this site has a simple 10 steps guide for parents and educators to bridge our kids' geography gap. From convincing your kids why Geography is important in daily life to exploring the world with online Atlas/Map and 2D/3D earth view tools. From getting to know the world by playing games to connecting your kids with oversea kids via collaborative projects. You will feel that World is So Small! My 5 stars site.
2. Kaboose Fun School: It needs ShockWave player to play. Full of many fun educational games for kids. "Globe rider" category brings you the fun of exploring our world and outer space. I personally like the hot air ballon game for learning about the countries around the globe with their wonderful land mark . Other categories like "Time Warp", "Formula Fusion" & "Fun Blaster Arcade" are worth checking it out. One unique feature of this site is that it has Interactive Quiz at some of the categories helping your kids to revise their encyclopedia knowledge. Even parents find it difficult to score full points. :) Should challenge your kid to try it out and reward them for getting good result. On top of this great stuff, there is a section for parents/educators. There are some guides on building your kids brain power, praise honesty and more. You should not miss it. Others like "Family Activities Games" and "FunSchool Printable" are worth trying out together with your kids too. My and my dauther 5 stars site,
3. Gcompris: You can download the software for Window and Linux OS. Window version will have less games to play. The reason is that it is promoting Open Source and expecting usage is on Linux OS instead of Window OS. You have to pay to play all the games for Window version. The package contains more than 100 games. Suitable for kids Age 2-10. and it is available in 40 languages. Glad to note that it has Indonesia version which is Malay Language suitable for Malay Kids. Frankly, I feel that Gcompris games are more suitable for Nursery and Kindergarden kids instead of Schooling ones. You judge it yourself!
4. Jumpstart: You need to register to play. This is a very establish company in edutainment software, worth trying out.
5. Yahoo Game: It is a mega site for kids. Also including Music, Movies, Horoscope, etc for kids. Good quality of games, especially those from Arcade & Movie/TV category. Even parents can enjoy it. Must try.
6. Sesame Street: Some of us grow up with this TV program as well. Great for pre-school kids. Guarantee educational.
7. Barbie for Girls It is a fast and rich in content and multimedia effect site for girl. A pretty site for pretty girl. Your girl will sure learn a lot about how to get prettier here. :)
8. Disney Playhouse for Asia : It is a professional multimedia site for kids, but sometimes I do find that it is too flashy and distracting. It also slows down the access a lot. No good for low broadband connection though. It is suitable for small kids of age 3-8.
9. .....Enough for now. Will add in new stuff from time to time. Do let me know if your favourite edutainment sites are not listed here.

MegaLinks (not really edutainment):

1. John Rice 10 Free Edutainment Software : Has a good compilation of educational games for you to check it out.
2. SchoolForge Edutainment Collection : Free downloadable software links. Great for those like to play offline.
3. Wikiepedia on Educational Games
4. Google Directory for Games: Mega directory linking to games avaialbe in the internet. It will take your life time to try out all the games here. Not worth wasting your life! Just zoom into your favourite categoy and stick to some of the great ones. For kids/teenagers, please check this out.
5. HotBeam Encyclopedia: Aside from providing online encyclopedia, it also provide in depth search about anything in the world that you want to know. No kidding. Picture and video are also available to enrich your learning experience. My 5 star Learning Reference.

Just in case, this is your first time hear about Edutainment. Here is the definition from Wikipedia. Have fun.

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