Games for small children

If exploited intelligently, video games can be a very useful tool; a tool through which children have the opportunity to have fun and learn at the same time. To better understand what I mean, try taking a look at the list of games for young children that I am about to offer you.

What you find below is a series of video games with content specifically designed for preschool boys and girls, or with a few years older (therefore currently attending the first years of school). Some of them work exclusively online, while others can be used even without an Internet connection. What do you need to use them? Nothing particular or complex, quiet. They can “run” without problems even on older or not particularly powerful machines.

Online titles can be played directly from the browser, any browser, as long as Adobe’s Flash Player is installed on the computer. Offline games – which are compatible not only with Windows, but also with Mac OS X, Linux and with portable devices -, on the other hand, can be downloaded and installed in a matter of clicks. You will find everything explained in great detail in the post you are about to read. Have fun, you and your little ones!

Among the games for young children that I recommend you try immediately, there are those hosted by the Internet Educational Games Free for Children website, which collects dozens of educational video games that can be played directly from the browser on a single page. Just connect to its main page, click on the image of the game to start, then on the link Go to the game and it loads immediately.

The titles available on the site are dedicated to various school subjects: Italian , English , mathematics , geography, etc. You can only view those belonging to a certain category by clicking on the appropriate tab located at the top of the screen.

The site is compatible with all popular browsers, as long as Adobe’s Flash Player is installed on the computer. If you need instructions on how to install Flash Player , check out my guide on the subject.

As for offline titles, I would like to point out Childsplay . It is a free and open source collection of games for young children containing various videogames for educational purposes. It is compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac OS X (although for the latter the latest version of the program is still under development) and can be used without any problem even offline.

To download Childsplay on your PC, connect to the official website of the project and click first on the Windows logo and then on the 1.6 folder and on the Childsplay-1.6_win32.exe link . When the download is complete, double-click on it to open the Childsplay-1.6_win32.exe file you just downloaded and, in the window that opens, click first on Yes and then on OK .

Now always click on Next , then on Install and Finish to start Childsplay. Then type your name in the Player Name field , click on the Login button and choose one of the hobbies listed on the main screen of the application. The games are all in Italian (including the vocal part).

In the mobile field, children with smartphones and tablets are entertained by Captain Lupetto’s houseboat , an app by Sapientino (Clementoni) designed specifically for children between the ages of 3 and 6.

The application includes numerous mini-games with increasing difficulty levels. Among these, there are: didactic pastimes useful for learning shapes and colors; purely playful games in which you have to prepare tasty recipes or choose the most suitable clothing for the day; memory games; brain teaser; matching games and puzzles designed to stimulate the minds of the little ones.

In all, there are 25 games contained in Captain Lupetto’s houseboat, all characterized by very colorful cartoon-style graphics. To switch from one pastime to another, just navigate between the virtual rooms of the house and press on the icons scattered on the screen, each of which recalls a different game.

The app costs 2.99 euros on iPhones and iPads and 2.69 euros on Android devices . For both platforms there is also a free trial of the application that includes only 9 games. You can find it by doing a very simple search on the Google Play Store (Android) and App Store (iPhone and iPad).