Green Face and Red Fish

With the sickness that has continued to linger at our house, we haven't had the health or energy to go play outside or hang out by the pool. In fact, we've spent a whole lot of time staring blankly at the television. As a measure to increase the interactivity, I've been letting my daughter spend some time playing online games. She now has four buttons of her very own on my menu bar. The games are mostly educational (but that can be our little secret, right?), though a few of them are just for fun.

She has so enjoyed her game time, I thought I'd share the sites we've been visiting.

• Starfall.com teaches basic phonics and reading skills though games, songs, and interactive storybooks.
• Poisson Rouge (aka Red Fish Soup) offers a wide selection of games in multiple languages.
• JellyTelly is already familiar to you if you've read my blog for awhile. In addition to the Bible stories and silly videos, they have a whole page of games, many of which are easier versions of popular online arcade games (so, ahem, parents might really like them, too).
• PBSKids is our most recent addition to the menu bar. The games feature popular characters from the TV shows. My daughter seems to enjoy them even though she doesn't watch most of the shows, though.

Because she doesn't read yet, my daughter refers to most of the sites by their icon: a star for Starfall, a red fish for Poisson Rouge, a jellyfish for JellyTelly, and a green face for PBS Kids. I must admit, it's a little off-putting to be in the middle of an e-mail and have her pop up beside me begging, "Can I play on the green face?"