School holiday fun with online educational games for kids

Are you concerned that the kids brain cells will be fried by spending so much time in front of the computer these school holidays?

We’ve found a collection of online educational games for kids that may prove to be the answer to all your worries while still keeping them entertained. 

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All the big guns are here to help make online educational games for kids actually entertaining as well as academic.

All you need is your rural nbn™ connection.

There’s definitely something in the list for all ages, I know this because I’ve had epic fun researching this story for you and playing some of the games along the way.

Nat Geo Kids, Disney, Nasa Kids Club and Sesame Street were definitely highlights for me.

I’d love to know what you think when you get to the end. Pop over to our Facebook page and share your thoughts on this collection of games.

Online educational games for kids

1.   ABC for Kids

You would 100 per cent be expecting ABC for Kids to be full of educational gems and you would not be let down.

A visit to this site delivers games like:

• Noddy Toyland Detective Memory Match­

This is exactly what you’d expect it to be.

Each pair of cards represents a Toyland character. While the cards are face down, you turn two cards at a time to find the pairs. Each time you successfully match all the pairs on a board, you get a new BIGGER board, with even more cards to pair up.

Given I can’t remember where I put my keys most days, I’m thinking that perhaps I should play this one more regularly to strengthen my own memory muscles.

• Go Jetters Global Glitch

This is a cute little run-n-jump platform game that takes the Go Jetters across the world reversing the evil misdeeds of Grandmaster Glitch.  Along the way, the kids will learn all about global landmarks like the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, the Sydney Opera House and Chichen Itza.

Given none-of-us are travelling in the real world any time soon, this might be a great way to develop the kids’ understanding of the Globe.

• Peppa Pig Snorts and Crosses

Peppa Pig introduces strategy games for the littlies. It’s a game of old-fashioned naughts and crosses which can be played solo or against a friend. The winner from three rounds gets a virtual gold cup.

[IMAGE: ABC Kids website]

2.   Nat Geo Kids

All things science is naturally found at National Geographic. They’ve made this explosive entertainment to nurture young minds with games like:

• Quiz Whiz

Once the kids master one Quiz Whiz, they can just move on to another. There’s plenty to try.

Whether they do or don’t already know the answers, these games are set up to teach the kids all about the topics along the way. They’ll know a whole lot more about animals, the moon, dinosaurs and dozens of other topics by the time they’re finished.

• Memory games

Just like with the quizzes, the memory games are plentiful and stretch across many topics.

I was personally drawn-in by the cats memory game, but was quite happy to leave the big bug memory game alone.

Memory game topics include the colour red, arctic animals and birds among others.

[IMAGE: Nat Geo Kids website]

3.   Lego

Have you ever met a kid that doesn’t like Lego? The Lego Play Zone offers up some super cool games with plenty of out-of-the-box learning to be enjoyed.

Check these out for example:

• Emmet Vision

This is a great slice of augmented reality played with your phone. With your permission, the kids use the camera in your phone to scan things into the game during a treasure hunt to get Emmet packed for his space flight to rescue a kidnapped Lucy.

• The Lego Movie 2 Videogame

Through the magic of a free app (again with your permission), the kids can stretch their imaginations and turn their Lego creations into an animated movie. Filming is done offline with the finished product able to be uploaded to The Lego Movie 2 Videogame website.

There is an official Lego Movie 2 Movie Maker Building Kit you can buy to use with the app, but you don’t really need it. Your kids can learn the art of storytelling by building movie sets from their existing Lego pieces.  A quick search of YouTube will give you loads of examples of how this is done.

• Queen Watevra Wa’nabi Match

This is not a memory match game. In Lego’s own words, it’s a shape shifting match-3 game.

The goal is to make as many matches as you can before the timer runs out, and gain stars by collecting matches of three nominated card types on each level.

[IMAGE: Lego Play Zone website]

4.   Disney

ALERT: You do need to make sure your browser is up-to-date, and you have Flash installed for a lot of these games to work properly.

While I loved playing around on the Disney LOL website, it was very clear very quickly that for most games to work well, you really need the latest browser updates and to make sure Flash is working on your browser.

But there are so many fabulous games for kids all ages here that once I started down the rabbit hole, I soon forgot the initial tech hiccups.

Everything from Frozen through to Star Wars is covered, with loads of adventure and enthralling storylines to stir the imagination.

The Brain Games were fantastic treasures with games like:

• Disney’s Rock ‘n’ Spell (a spelling game, as you would imagine)
• Who Dun ‘ANT (a puzzle to solve the prank at Webster High)
• Towerinator (which challenges you to build a communication tower)

Other games in the Disney mix include various trivia sets, memory tests, lots of puzzles and much more.

[IMAGE: Disney LOL website]

5.   Nasa Kids Club

This is the ultimate space geek-out full of fun for kids, big and small.

Who knew that all you really needed for space adventures would be a rural nbn™ connection?

When you start to think that it really is time for the kids to get off the computer, there’s still plenty from this site to guide play and learn time in the real world.

Some of the great activities to discover at the Nasa Kids Club include:

• Explore Mars with the Mars Rover
• Spot the difference games
• Great stories to read
• Colouring in pages to download
• Puzzles to solve
• Instructions for building cool things at home like an Apollo Moon Capsule Craft or your own edible spacecraft.

[IMAGE: NASA Kids Club website]

6.   Starfall

This site is really for the very young kiddies from pre-kindergarten through to Grade 3.

Activities and games cover maths, language, arts and music with some games based around seasonal events for good measure.

Younger kids can build a snowman and learn a song while learning to read along, or they can feed the animals and learn to count at the same time.

Older kids can learn about harder things like phonics or poetry. Perhaps they’d like to build a robot while learning to count in ones, tens and hundreds.

Of course, these are just a sample of what’s available, with much more on offer here depending on what your kids are interested in and need/want to learn.

[IMAGE: Starfall website]

7. PBS Kids

Hop on board the Dinosaur train for colouring-in printables, a river run game, camp out adventure, opportunities to learn about specific dinosaurs, and so much more.

Alternatively, explore with Molly through her Alaskan Adventures where you complete activities that help you learn about all the cool animals that live in Alaska; Sled Dog Dashes where you can explore various trails while learning about what’s involved in such a big adventure; and Vegezilla where you learn about growing plants and how to find the information you need to do it.

Hanging out with Arthur is quite a bit of fun as well. Help him build a park and gain donations to buy equipment, navigate mazes while learning about new creatures, follow instructions to build homes for animals and so on the adventures roll.

There’s endless educational entertainment on this site.

[IMAGE: PBS Kids website]

8. Sesame Street

Choose gameplay around your kids’ favourite Sesame Street character.

Big Bird will teach the kids to draw their letters in one game, or learn numbers while playing basketball in another.

Cookie Monster more the favourite? Learn colours, shapes and sizes with Cookie’s Cookies. It’s a cute little game where the kids help Cookie package up his cooking to give to special people.

Count was always my choice growing up. His Number Ride will teach the kids to draw numbers, while his iconic counting of sheep has become a game designed to teach counting and put Telly to sleep.

Perhaps your kids need to focus on their words. Well Abby has that covered with her Words are Here, There and Everywhere Game. Through this game, kids learn their words by helping Abby collect items in the game that match the word being taught. It’s cute and clever.

[IMAGE: Sesame Street website]

This summary just skims the surface of fabulous online educational games for kids. There’s plenty more on the websites I mentioned, and there are even more game sites out there if you’ve got the time to look around.

If you have Sky Muster™ Plus, the good news is that accessing and playing these games is all included in your unmetered content.

If you’re on a standard Sky Muster™ or Fixed Wireless connection, please keep an eye on your data. These are all pretty low-tech games so shouldn’t cause too much trouble but definitely monitor your usage.

Not a SkyMesh customer? Check your address to see what kind of rural nbn™ connection you’re eligible for

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