Zoodles Safe Online Games for Kids {Review}
Today Im delighted to share with you my discovery and experience with Zoodles, a popular kids educational and fun online browser. I introduced Emma, my two-year-old, to it after my mom sent me the link she thought it looked like something Emma could have fun with. And she was right!
After about a week of playing around with the games and seeing Emma respond positively, excited to be learning and to be able to sit at the computer all by herself, Zoodles contacted me requesting that I post a review of their Premium membership. I was all for it! And so, here we are.
What Exactly Is Zoodles?
Well first of all, Zoodles is FREE! There is a premium membership that gives you additional perks, but your child can enjoy it free! Isnt that great? I love free. 🙂 Zoodles is a safe way for kids (ages 2 8) to learn and play online independently. All content is age-appropriate and it is entirely parent-controlled, meaning that you create your virtual playground for your child, adding games you think your child might like and taking away any you dont like. You can time your children and set the browser to stop at the end of that time period. You can also customize the educational games available by adding more or less of a particular subject (reading, math, spelling, etc).
How Safe is It?
All content is screened by a team of educational experts that include but are not limited to teachers, child psychologists, and learning technology designers. One of the premium features allows parents to block ads when children are directed to a third-party website (only for games children cannot visit links that are not approved by Zoodles). Children cannot leave the browser unless they type in Quit in the upper right hand corner of the browser (effective for my two-year-old). Parents can block unwanted characters (like SpongeBob or Barney) from the content.
Our Experience:
This is what Emma sees upon first entering Zoodles through our Firefox browser add-on (I just click the big Z in our browser menu).
You can make a special customized browser for each child they just click on their name and picture. Next, we come to a list of games and educational youtube videos and cartoons.
Emmas favorite 2-year-old games are two ABCs games from the Fisher-Price website. And I love it because she can skip through to each screen (each letter) by hitting any key on the keyboard. She repeats each letter as it comes up, and now says the letter before the game does! Ive put it on video for you so that you can watch for yourself how adorable it is:
Awesome Features:
You can now record books like The Princess and the Pea and Jack and the Beanstalk online so your child can listen to them anytime!- Children can color in their art studio using the mouse.
- Navigational tabs for children to navigate on their own.
- Browse games by subject, characters, animals, etc.
- Adaptable for children with special needs!
- Parent Dashboard provides parents with everything they need to monitor content, see reports on what their children are learning, and promote subjects they would especially like the focus of the games to be.
Ready to download and try Zoodles for yourself? Visit www.Zoodles.com!
Explore Zoodles Online:
View a list of all free online games
Zoodles Free & Premium Features Comparison Chart
Zoodles FAQs
Zoodles Blog
Zoodles on Twitter
Zoodles on Facebook
Zoodles is offering three lucky winners a 3-month Premium membership to Zoodles!
{Prize} Three-month Premium membership to Zoodles! (3 Winners)
{Eligibility} Open to everyone!
{Mandatory Main Entry } Visit Zoodles and tell me which games you think your child would like most!
Optional Extra Entries Get 1 extra entry for each unless otherwise noted:
(Leave a separate comment for each extra entry!)
- Follow Zoodles on Twitter, like them on Facebook, or subscribe to their blog via RSS (1 extra each)
- Grab my Maternity Event button (sidebar) and put it in your sidebar for 2 extra entries!
- Like my Kindred Spirit Mommy Facebook Page
- Tweet this giveaway (daily tweets available!) You can use the Retweet button in the top right corner of this post if you want.
- Stumble/Digg/Facebook, or share this giveaway in some other way (email, etc) (1 extra each)
- Add my button to your sidebar
- Follow my blog, Subscribe to my blog by feed reader, and/or Subscribe to my blog by email (1 extra each)
- Follow me on Twitter (@kindred_spirit)
Giveaway will be closed on September 15, 2010 at midnight PST and winner notified by email and posted on this website (either in this post or in a new winners announcement post). Winner will then have 48 hours to reply to my email or I will have to re-draw another winner. Good luck, everyone!
Disclosure: I was provided with a 6-month premium membership to Zoodles so that I could share my thoughts and experiences with you. This post is 100% my own opinion and written in my own words, and was not edited or reviewed by anyone. I do not feel obligated to write a positive review Ill always share my honest thoughts on products.
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Category: Parenting