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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.
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?
On average KidConfidence counts 2-4 kids friendly video game releases a week. Unfortunately today’s games retail for around $49-$59, which breaks about every child’s Piggy bank that we can think of. To make matters worse, let’s imaging your kids just spend all their savings on a game only to find out that the cover looks much more appealing then the game is.
Besides the obvious, which are: Always check KidConfidence before buying a game and don’t rely on the cover artwork to tell you about the game- how about renting the game!
Your local video store may carry some titles but chances are that these are rather old and for sure not the game your kids want.
Thanks to Sean Spector and Jung Suh (GameFly’s Founders), this problem has been solved. Since 2002 Gamefly offers the latest and greatest video games for all video game consoles and handhelds.
For one flat monthly fee of $21.95 (plus any applicable tax), GameFly lets you rent 2 games at a time, with free shipping, no due dates and no late fees. Or, for $14.95 a month you can rent one game at a time. There are no additional charges. Pre-paid postage on all rentals is included too.
Besides the steadily increasing number of Gamefly subscribers, we can confirm out of our own experience that Gamefly’s rental system works flawless.
Simply click the “Rent This” Icon on our individual Review pages or check them out at Gamefly.com
Following up on last year’s groundbreaking finding that 35 percent of American parents play computer and video games, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) today released a new survey of “gamer moms and dads” in time for Mother’s Day, showing that over a third of gamer moms (39 percent) play games by themselves at least once a week, and 37 percent report playing computer and video games with their children at least once a week. Gamer moms also play video games with their spouses; in fact, among couples who both play computer and video games, 59 percent report playing together.
“While gamer moms clearly enjoy playing games with their kids, they’re not just ‘kidding around’ – they also enjoy playing alone and with their spouses,” said Carolyn Rauch, senior vice president of the ESA, the trade association that represents U.S. computer and video game publishers. “In fact, a majority of gamer moms (54 percent) say they will play video games as much or more often once their children move out of the house. These women may be married with children, but there’s no doubt that they’re here to play.”
GameDailyBiz reports that awareness and use of the ESRB ratings on video games is increasing. Some interesting statistics that came out of the study performed by Peter D. Hart Research Associates:
We think ESRB ratings are important here at Kid Confidence. We also think that a community of parents sharing experiences and learning from each other can provide an even better view of what games our children should be playing.
What do YOU think?
