Following my own advice about going to kid-friendly products to find kids games online, I started looking at different toy brands.
I came across the “American Girl” historical dolls and books, which are very popular with girls from the age 7 to 12 set, I understand.
My six-year old DD had recently seen the movie Kit Kittredge with her grandmother and was absolutely sold on “American Girl.” Since then we have been to the library for other movies and books in the “American Girl” series, and I have been asked at least once a day when Kit will come out on DVD.
I found that the website http://www.americangirl.com/fun.html has games and other fun stuff. We first tried the activities under the Kit persona. There is “A Day at the Zoo” which is a kind of menu screen of activities. We choose “Sea Spell” to play. Guiding a swimming seal with your arrow keys you circle letters to play a hangman word-guessing style game. We then tried “Monkey Puzzle,” and we found that you only need to tap your arrow key once to make the monkey on the tricycle move in the direction you want it to go. When the monkey hits an object you want to collect, such as bananas, he will stop. It was a bit of a planning-your-strategy game, where it was better to slow down and think a little although there was the pressure of a clock.
From there we moved on to a different American Girl, Samantha. First we tried “Samantha’s Sketchbook” which was a very nice art/drawing activity. You can start with a blank canvas or color any of the outline pictures they have, like a Samantha profile or a teddy bear. There are lots of choices in colors and differing “pens” and “crayons” to use.
We then tried the “Samantha Scavenger Hunt.” We were presented with a map of Samantha’s hometown and told we would need to find four things having to do with Teddy Roosevelt. I knew this would be a bit hard for DD, but it was fine because she quickly moved on to a “Blueberries Galore” game in one of the houses on the map screen. This one she played on her own for a while.
We barely touched the tip of the iceberg of the activities and games available on this website, and I am certain we will be back.
Post a Comment