familytastic!

I spent over an hour on the Sesame Street website with Jake this evening while the others were out. I've always found the Sesame Street website to be a fun learning resource for the children, and tonight was no exception.

Jake spent most of his time playing the Elmo games. Because of his age, I aimed him toward the easier games, but he surprised me in his ability to retain information.

Letters & Numbers

For example, the Keyboard Elmo game (that's what we call it) allows your to press a key and a word beginning with that letter comes up on screen. If you press a number, Elmo counts teddy bears, hearts, etc up to that number.

After a bit of punching random keys, Jake began to work out the little animations he like and the letters that triggered them. He would keep pressing "R" to get the rainbow animation, for example.

Tallest & Shortest

We also spent some time on the Limbo Elmo game. This is a game where you have to select the tallest or shortest from four monsters to do the limbo dance. I was surprised that Jake could easily pick the tallest and shortest monsters - Rachel had some difficulty understanding the concept at his age.

One of Jake's funny little quirks was he started noticing which monsters were 'missing' in each game. If the pink one had been in the previous game, but not in the current game, he asked me where she (yes, she) went! I found myself making excuses: "She went to get an ice-cream", or "She went for a swim".

I also let him have a go clicking the mouse to select the monster he wanted. I find these online games are brilliant for getting kids used to using the mouse.

Over To You

Do you have any favourite websites you like to visit with your children? I'm always on the lookout for something interesting and different, so I'd love to hear your recommendations!