Here is a great article about Webkinz in Knowledge @ Wharton. If you are a parent and are trying to figure out what Webkinz is all about, and wondering if it is ok for your kids to play, you should read this. It contains perspectives from parents with a variety of backgrounds including college professors and an educational psychologist. It also contains some nice vignettes of families and what the kids find to be so interesting about the Webkinz phenomenon. If you are curious about Webkinz, it’s well worth a read!

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Google just released the “Fastest Rising Search Terms” for 2007 and guess what? Children’s video games occupied two of the top 10. Webkinz and Club Penguin were the second and sixth fastest rising search terms on Google in 2007. I’ve played both of these games with my daughters, and found them to be safe, positive learning environments for them. And best of all, they are truly “fun” games.

Hmm…. I wonder if Video Games are becoming mainstream!?

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My kids, ages 5 and 8, continue to be fascinated by Webkinz. Many of their friends from school also have Webkinz and they are forming a little “community” by meeting each other online, inviting their friends to their virtual “rooms” and playing games together. I just ran across a very nice website called http://www.webkinzhub.com that has some good information for parents to understand how Webkinz works, and also has some tips and tricks for the kids.

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Hey, this looks very cool - ChipWits. You get to program a robot using icons and breakpoints. I’ve been enjoying the MIT Scratch Project, and this looks like it is along those lines. My 8 year old daughter and I will take a look later tonight and let you know what we think!

I found this via Ryan Stewart’s on AIR Weblog.

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On Saturday my oldest daughter and I both happened to get up really early for some reason. We started playing around with Scratch, a cool new project from MIT that I’ve blogged about before. And we made our very own video game!

In this game, you are a cute little creature named Gobo. You have to fly on your magic carpet and steal the fortune cookie from the Dragon’s bowl of magical cheese puffs. But watch out - the dragon breathes fire and *really* likes his cheese puffs!

^ Click the image above to play!

The creative ideas all belong to Abby (my daughter.) We had a lot of fun making this game. But where is the educational value in a game like this, you ask?

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