How to Find Educational and Fun Games For Kids on the iPod

When it comes to games for kids, we all want what best for our kids. However, we do not always know what that means. I want something that is educational and my kids want something that is fun. Does that mean we can't get the same thing? Absolutely not! There are games that are both educational and fun.

Throw Tradition out the Window

As a teacher, I have to get rid of my traditional views of education. Education does not have to be boring. Kids can learn from singing and dancing just as much if not better than they can learn from flash cards and rote memory. The key to educational games is age and developmentally appropriate. Guitar Hero is actually an educational game for those kids who need to learn the music scale and it is required in many states as part of fine arts. Not to mention, if you buy some of the classic song you have culturally appropriate learning too!

Focus on Skills

Sure you won't find a game that will teach you advanced chemistry but you can find an iPod app that will teach you different cooking recipes. If cooking isn't your thing maybe you can find an app for crocheting or knitting. There are plenty of applications that can help you learn a variety of different skills. All you need to do is decide what you want to learn and then go online and search for it.

Make it more fun with a Timed Challenge

When you are looking for fun educational games, look for those with a time limit. Your average boring game adds a bit more excitement when there is a time limit. Adding is old hat but when you have to beat the clock, your adrenaline gets pumping and the game suddenly becomes more exciting. The same goes for a racing challenge. If you can find someone to race or a score to beat, then the game takes on completely new meaning. Otherwise, the game becomes boring drills you can do at home.

Keep it Simple

The most important part to teaching your child anything is keeping it simple. Math really is everywhere. It is harder to find a game that isn't educational than it is to find a game that is educational. Granted there are games more educational than others. However, as parents and teachers, we need to meet our children and students where they are and gradually lead them to the more educational side to living.

Do the educational games for kids have to be dull and boring? I don't think so and I certainly hope not! I do not want to live in a boring world and I do not want my kids to either.

Finding Free Kids Games Online

Online gaming has become an integral part of the Internet as kids all over the world log on and search for new sources of entertainment. Online gaming has evolved to meet this demand, making games slightly more interactive and free to sample, provided you sign-up for an account. Nowadays children can find just about any type of game they want online, even ones that mimic their favorite television shows and movies. Here is a current list of online sites that offer free online gaming for kids.

CartoonNetwork.com
The cartoon network online website is an excellent resource for online games for children. The network itself hosts around 58 different shows, which the network has based many of their games on. You can find games with your favorite television characters and take them through different fantasy levels. To encourage game play, the cartoon network has created a system of special badges that are given out to players that achieve certain point's related goals during the game. Each game has a number of different badges to collect. Anybody can sign-up for a free account on the website as long as they have a working email.

YTV.com
This online kids site also offers many age appropriate games for children of all ages. Children can play through role-playing games, arcade style games, puzzle, animal, adventure and seasonal games to choose from. In addition to this, games with many of the same characters featured on the popular TV network are also available, such as SpongeBob square pants.

Bakugandimensions.com
Bakugan dimensions online are based on the popular Japanese import series. The show follows a group of adolescents that participate in a card game, which activates small creatures to life. The online version of the popular show follows this trend, taking gamers through a variety of different worlds and challenging them to battle others and collect certain items. It is extremely popular and has children all over the world participating in the action. Each world you visit has a different set of items to collect, challenging the gamer to compete against others online.

TVOKids.com
This site features games for children of younger ages, TVOkids has games with an education twist. Some of the sections are puzzles and science, math and science, health and sports, art and music. Gamers will test their online skills as well as their cognitive abilities designed to make learning fun for children outside of school.

Learning for Children and Online Fun Kids Games

Video games have been often viewed as necessary evils of childhood. Parents often feel that games cause the mind to rot and lose focus on everyday issues and also hinder personality development. But various research studies show that online games help in the learning abilities of the children by improving their spatial abilities and improving their coordination.

Education are one of the best and most effective ways to teach kids without boring them. Kids have extremely small attention spans and they tend to get bored easily, one needs to structure the teaching process in a way through which kids will have fun as well as learn at the same time. Educational games fulfil these points with aplomb. There are various educational games which will help your kids learn and grow in a fun way. Card and video games are the two most popular categories in the educational games. Besides, one can also find variety online games for kids where you can play educational games for free.

There are many online games. Some of the more popular online games are card games. Card games also come in variety and from traditional card to flash card games, the choice is plenty. Some of the most popular card games include the Eat Right Cards, which help kids to develop healthy eating habits, the State Line-Up, Rat Race and the Around the World Card Game. Other educational online games include e-colouring books that are fun and at the same time can teach kids on various topics such as farm animals, birds, nature, and so much more. Election Day Colouring Pages, President Colouring Pages and Community Helpers Colouring Pages are also very popular among both parents and teachers. Grab any of these exciting educational games and have a blast with your kids at the same time watch them grow and learn.

Not only kids but there are also many educational as well as fun to place computer games for adolescents. Educational computer games range everything from history and government to science, math and so much more. If you are looking for some really amazing educational computer games, you might want to buy computer games such as Big Brain Academy, Carmen Sandiego, the clue finder, Genomics Digital Lab, Reader Rabbit, Quest Atlantis and the Urban Jungle. There are also many exciting educational computer games for adults such as the Democracy, Global Conflict: Palestine, CyberCIEGE and the Close Combat: Marines. Besides one can also find variety of educational computer games for daily day to day use like the Food Force, a great game to learn about notorious food, the typing of the dead which is a great game to increase your tying speed and so on. Grab any of these games and making learning a fun experience.

Apart from these, online games help the child develop teamwork and cooperation when played with others - many games are played online and involve cooperation with other online players in order to win.

Free Educational Games and Fun Free Games For Kids

You can teach your child a number of basics which are needed to get fun during playing free educational games. Here are a number of free educational games and fun free games for kids to play with your little one.

Learning Letters

Let an ongoing alphabet game for a day. Choose a special letter for everyday like A or B or C. Then play with your child along with the letter. You can also use the sticker of the letter and can fix those on wall or can choose plastic toy letters. But if you get start the playing with a letter a day then will become easy to make your child understand. In this way your child can identify the letters with no trouble.

Learning Order of Letter

Then teach your child the order of letters through simple ABCD song which is most popular in preschool days. If you are not familiar with this song then you can search for this one in internet. From there you will know about that and can make your child known about the order of letters easily through the playing song.

Learning Numbers

Numbers learning is also can be easily done by the same method of learning ABCD. The similarity is that you use those plastic toys as you can use for learning ABCD but these should be designed in numbers. In this way you can easily make your child understand about the numbers. When the little one will get the idea about these numbers then you can simply make him or her understand about its order. You can number your chair or stairs temporarily for making the little one introduced with the order of these numbers through free educational games and fun free games for kids.

Learning Fruits and Flowers

If you introduce books for making your child understand about the fruits then it will be difficult for him or her. But if you use a few original fruits and flowers or the toys of these naturals then it will become easier for your child to get it. These take the attention of your child more than a book or images. So try the way and let your child identify the fruits and flowers easily. In this same way you can introduce the vegetables as well.

Learning Animals and Birds

As previously mentioned a child can not understand easily or identify the things from books or images. So in case of introducing animals and birds, it is not possible to bring the originals. So you use their toys to make your child understand about these. As everyone knows that children love toys a lot and so it will make your effort easy to make the little one understand with names of animals and birds. Not only that, it helps him or her to remember this for ever. So, these are the easiest free educational games and fun free games for kids.

Kids Games - Online Gaming Is Now in for the Kids

When talking about games especially online gaming the number of kids games that are available are never ending. There are many which are specially designed for kids. These are fun to play, educational and even adventurous. Kids not only have fun while playing the numerous kids games available online but also learn many things while they play it online. Some of the kids games are designed in such a way that they are both entertaining as well as teach the child some special skills like logical reasoning or recognizing colors.

There are different kinds of kid's stuff that is available in the market and one can find a game suitable to the age of the child. That means that there are stuff for preschoolers to teenagers as per their requirements. With the growing popularity of the online games more and more kinds are getting into action. Though there many games which has a lot of violence in them yet it does not mean that a kid will play only that game. There are many enlightening games that are available online. When playing online you can check the feature of the game beforehand and can then decide which one you would like to play or download.

Batman games are among the favorites of kids. It is well known that it is based on the famous comic series and the cartoon series. The comic as well the cartoon series had many fans and so does the online games. These games became so popular that almost every gaming console used to come with a Batman game. Now you can easily find one of the games online and can even download it.

These stuff have both the adventure and the entertainment factor due to which both the kids as well as adults like to play this one. You can also play the flash based Batman games on about every web browser. There are simple ones for kids and also the highly graphical games for teenagers or adults. The difficulty levels are different as per the age group but the fun remains the same.

Where to Begin Playing Kids Games Online

Internet games for kids and their parents can provide hours of recreation for them both. Even parents who themselves play online games and video games may be at a loss of where to start with their child. There is no one right way or place to begin, but here are a few suggestions.

Believe it or not, one of the first places a parent can go to find great kids games online is not the internet, but their child's favorite television programs or the packages of children's products, like toys or foods. Television programs and businesses often have an online presence with games that are age appropriate for their target customers... kids. Since the family is already a customer, it is not onerous to see an ad or two about a product they already use.

Some typical kinds of kids' games a parent may want to hunt up are learning games like math games, reading games, typing games as well as other educational games. Puzzle games, memory games and mazes can also be great for intellectual development. Fun games also have a value in encouraging young children to learn mouse control and keyboard skills.

There is no need for the parent to call a child over to the computer to play. The parent can begin to play a kids' online game and in no time the sound effects or music will draw a child closer. They will then become quickly ensconced in their parent's lap. Let the child begin to participate by answering questions about what is appearing on the screen and choosing the next move in the game. A child's first instincts will be to touch and point at the screen. Eventually, encourage direct participation by letting the child operate an easy aspect of the game, such as pressing the spacebar. Ideally, the first games for young children should have very few keyboard options and a slow pace of play.

Usually the music, sound effects and colorful images of the game will be encouraging enough to motivate a child to continue to learn to play. At first a child needs a parent right at their side to play, but soon they will be taking over more of the controls themselves and even learning how to start a new game over by themselves.

Free Fun Kids Games Search

Parents are often searching for free fun kids games for their children to play which are both fun and educational in nature. There are many free fun kids games available for children to play online. These include math games, alphabet games, reading games, memory games, word games, spelling games, vocabulary games, sight words games and more. One of the best educational kids game for elementary age kids involves learning sight words online.

Free fun kids games that help children learn sight words can be one of the best investments an elementary student parent can make for their children. Sight words are taught in every elementary school in the country and provide the base for learning to read. It helps when children can get additional practice at home and have fun playing these free kids games at the same time.

Fun kids games focusing on reading and spelling are often interactive and allow children to practice their reading or spelling skills and measure their proficiency. Teachers and parents can help elementary students by encouraging the use of these types of games used for learning sight words at school and outside of the classroom.

Studies show sight words make up 50-75 percent of all words used in school books, library books, newspapers, and magazines. And the 25 most common sight words make up about one-third of our written material. Without question, these important words will play an important role in your child's early childhood education and impact your child's reading efficiency and reading development.

© 2008 Fish for Words

Big S, little m--What is the Right Mix of Sales and Marketing?

Don't worry; this isn't going to be an article about Sado-Masochism! Well, come to think of it, that term may apply to what some founders and senior managers in startups are doing to themselves and their companies. What I'm referring to is the VP who gets hired to manage both the Sales and Marketing functions. Oftentimes this turns out to be a job we call "VP-SALES & marketing". Thus the phrase "Big S, little m". The position is usually offered to a crack sales guy or gal, who also happens to have a marketing title somewhere in their job background.

JUST GO GET THE ORDERS

To high tech insiders the meaning is clear. The anointed candidate will be expected to go out and beat the bushes for customers, and bring in new orders quickly. Oh, and by the way, Mr. VP, you'll also be in charge of producing data sheets and attending a few trade shows. You know, all that marketing stuff!

In most of these cases, I would recommend that anyone being approached for a job like this run in the other direction as fast as possible. These positions are usually classic "traps". The attitude is "We've got a great new technology; all we need is someone to go knock on a few customer's doors and bring the purchase orders back to headquarters".

Hopefully, most of those reading will recognize that this is a recipe for a very unhappy outcome. The founders and senior management will be unhappy with revenue and profits, the VP will be unhappy because he's likely to get fired in 9-12 months. The other employees will be depressed and talking about how "Sales & Marketing" is the weak link in the company. And the investors, of course, will be very, very cranky.

Why does this occur? It often occurs when the key senior decision makers (CEO, CFO, Founders, etc.) don't have a background or appreciation for the difficulty of the sales function. And it's even more likely to happen when there is no key decision maker with a background in Marketing. The decision maker's attitude often includes an over-confidence in the role that superior technology plays in the overall success of a company.

IS TECHNOLOGY ENOUGH?

Certainly having a defensible technological advantage is a major factor in the success of a high tech company, especially when that company is in startup mode. The problem arises when management believes this is enough to "win". How hard is cold calling and knocking on doors for a sales force with an unknown company name? Not to mention an unproven product, which may solve a problem the customer may not yet know exists? I'll give you a hint--it's really, really hard!

Likely there is a lack of understanding of the crucial role marketing plays in establishing a new product in the marketplace. There may be a view that marketing is some theoretical, squishy function that is a waste of money, or maybe something that has value but the company just can't afford. Management thinks, we'll introduce the product, sell a bunch and build the marketing function later. Unfortunately, that thinking is as backwards as can be, and will usually lead to the unhappy results discussed earlier in this article.

Why IS marketing so important, and why is it such a critical mistake if it isn't a major part of the new product process? It's because marketing is crucial in every phase of introducing and growing the revenue of new products, from conception until end-of-life. In the beginning, an engineer may come up with a great new technology that appears to allow someone to do an existing task better. Or maybe it allows someone to do something that wasn't even possible before. But that's really just the beginning of the product development process. Product engineers aren't trained to closely match customer needs with the features of this whiz-bang new technology. Often they think it's easy - you just go ask the customer what he wants! But customers often don't tell you the truth; sometimes they lie, and sometimes they don't even know what they really want (this is the topic of a future column). And even if they tell you the truth, it's important to make sure that what these customers are telling you is representative of your entire target market segment. This is a task that looks intellectually easy on the surface, but for a lot of reasons, it's very difficult to get right.

Sometimes companies do get it right even without an experienced, professional marketing function in place. Let's assume for a moment that they do. There's still a very long way to go before those purchase orders start pouring in. The product must be positioned properly, relative to the direct and indirect competition in the market. It needs to be priced so that the market is willing to take a close look, but not so high or low that it retards the product's long-term profit potential. Will it be distributed only through the company's direct sales force, or should we court VARs, distributors, retailers or OEMs? What kind of pricing can we offer those partners without creating gray markets or channel conflicts? And please, let's not forget about creating a bit of demand for those poor guys and gals in the sales force. Cold calling really does suck! It's not good for anyone, the sales reps or the company's profitability. It will "burn out" your sales force in no time.

Marketing programs that generate hot leads, or even complete sales, are much more cost-effective than relying on highly paid (but beleaguered) sales reps to do their own inefficient "door to door" marketing. And how should we generate those leads? Via PR, Advertising, Direct Marketing, Partnering, Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Engine Ads, Trade Shows? The Marketing folks are the strategic quarterbacks of the organization who should be driving the answers to these questions--as well as executing the strategy within the required parameters.

IT MIGHT WORK--BUT DON'T BET ON IT

So does "BIG S, little m" NEVER work? Well, in some cases it not only works, it is even appropriate. Take the example of a semiconductor company selling a very niche chip to a vertical segment. They might have only 50 potential customers. In this case you REALLY CAN go ask the customer what he wants, and easily ask enough of them that you will end up building products that will apply to your entire target segment. With respect to lead generation, the target market is so small that traditional outbound marketing programs don't make sense anyway, and that "door to door" marketing by your sales force might work just fine.

But I propose to you that this example scenario is the classic "exception that proves the rule". In many, if not most cases, "BIG S, little m" will lead to failure - or at the very least, suboptimal performance. That's my view--as always I'm very interested in hearing yours.