Summer is here! Before you know it you’ll be hearing cries of “Mom I’m bored” or “Dad I don’t have anything to do” Gathering some safe, educational but fun PC activities can help you turn your family PC into a virtual treasure chest for your child. Help preserve, reinforce & expand upon the learning skills your child gained during the school year. The following activities are free & provide a sampling of the vast Summertime learning options available for your child.
Origami for kids - Origami-Instructions.com gives a history of the ancient art of paper folding & offers a nice variety of very cool, easy to follow instructions for both kids & adults.
The International Children’s Digital library – The International Children’s Digital library has a goal to collect at least 10,000 books, in 100 or more languages, they seek to promote knowledge & cultural understanding to children on a global level.Kids are partners here, helping the library to develop a useful database that supports kids around the world in searching, reading & sharing digital content.
Windows Live Essentials - Windows Live Essentials This powerful, free software will allow your child to experiment with photo editing, slide show creation & movie making. Photo Gallery, Movie Maker & Windows live Writer are amazingly simple, easy to use tools that can have your child creating family blogs, vacation videos & more!
Learn a Foreign Language - Vistawide provides listings of shareware & freeware foreign language software & listings of CD’s that cost under $10. The site also features resources & recommendations for more expensive but more advanced, in depth programs.
JigSaw Planet – Allows you & your child to create jigsaw puzzles using pictures uploaded from your PC, you can select difficulty levels, shapes & rotations to play alone, together or even to send to friends. You can also put together puzzles shared by others on the site.
Arthur the Brain – A PBS Kids presentation, Arthur the Brain provides “social & emotional learning” for kids via games, video & clubs. Comic Creator, Marthur Video Mashup & Baby Kate stickers will provide hours of safe, learning fun for the younger child.
TuxPaint – This award winning, free, downloadable Computer Art drawing provides the young artist with an amazing set of paint brushes, stamps & magic effects editing tools. Tuxpaint is a program that is used offline, no worries about your child having to access an online site. The program also features Parental/ Teacher controls to allow you to customize various features of the software.
Animation & Movie Making – Nicholas Academy provides a nice list of programs to start children ages six & older off into exploring the creative world of animation & film making. Your child can learn all about the film making process, write scripts, create story boards, direct films & much more.
This is just a small taste of the vast variety of resources that are free & easily accessible on the internet to help your turn your family PC into a virtual global exploration station for your child. You can sit together with your child & plan out a summer program that will be sure to cure those summertime boredom blues!
Creating movies, exploring the worlds of animation, photo editing & computer programming requires a powerful, multimedia PC. If you are considering a new computer for your family, check out the Asus Essentio Desktop PC or the elegant, space saving Asus All In One PC both systems are Intel powered, robust, energy efficient, & amazingly affordable computers.
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