Time Wasters: Kid Edition

Susan and I (but mostly Susan) have all kinds of creative & crafty mischief going on in the background, but unfortunately not a whole lot we can share on the old bloggidy-blog right now.

(side note: some of it is related to skirt week.  have you started thinking about skirt week yet?  cuz you should.  it is coming.  maybe you’re thinking about sponsoring or providing a skirt tutorial, in which case you should contact us!)

So, just to keep this area of the interwebs in smooth working order and not collecting dust, I thought I’d throw this post up.

Do you have kids like mine that like to be entertained by new and exciting things at every moment of the day, whether or not their mom is stuck on the couch breastfeeding 80% of the time?  Then this is the post for you!  (assuming you answered yes)

I thought I’d share some of our family’s favorite internet-based entertainment for kids with you all, for those moments when you’ve already played 87 rounds of candyland and uno and read every book you own twice each and they’ve used towels as capes and ran around the wood floors until someone slipped and got a bloody lip (not that I’m speaking from experience or anything).

First up, an educational option: Starfall.com

You all probably know about this one as it’s an oldie but a goodie.  My older daughter went from not being able to recognize all her letters to sounding out short words by using this website and these dvds.  I think it’s a great resource for the preschool crowd.  You can get a paid membership which will earn you more content, and it’s probably worth it, but we’re still making do with the free stuff.  Starfall does letters, words, numbers, colors, shapes, early reading techniques, etc., all with an interactive platform.  This site also taught my 3 year old how to use a mouse (right click & drag and drop).

Next, a not as educational but super fun option: Princess Maker (thanks to Natasha for introducing this to us!).

It’s basically an online paperdoll with countless interchangeable options for hair, skin, clothing, accessories, facial expressions, backgrounds, etc.  I have to admit I’ve been sucked into this site a time or two also.  warning: this site also has lots of other “makers”, including unicorn and pony and monsters, so I would recommend keeping an eye on your child while they’re playing so they don’t get into something not as child friendly.  I keep a little red chicken timer on the computer desk so I can limit their time on this site to 15 minutes (otherwise they’d play for 12 straight hours, no joke).  This site is currently the only incentive I have left to keep my 3 yr old from pooping in her pants every day, that’s how good it is.

And finally:  Cornify

This is one of many online “coloring books” where you choose the paintbrush size and color and go to town on a bare template of your choice.  A quick google search will produce lots of these for you, but my girls love this one because it’s all unicorns and rainbows.  I would give this site higher points since my kids love it so much except its one fatal flaw: a lot of the text is in comic sans.  This is completely unforgivable in my book.  Though, to be fair, if there was one place in the world where comic sans font was acceptable (there’s not) it would definitely be on a site dedicated to rainbows and unicorns.

And to give you an example of some of the beautiful artwork you could make using Cornify, here’s one my daughter drew today.  Yup, she colored the entire thing black.  I’ll be printing this out to take with us to her next therapy session.*