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preschool & kindergarten games?

T

texasdiver

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 17, 2009
2
0
Anyone point me to some good educational games for my 6 and 3 year old daughters? We just bought a brand new Mac Mini to replace an aging dell and none of the 50+ educational CDs that we have seem to play on the mac.

I don't want to mess around with emulation software or anything that my 3 year old can't load and play by herself. Any recommendations?

Seems like all the games for sale on sites like amazon are really for the old classic version of Mac. Or they say PC/Mac on the label but really aren't for OS-X

Anyone know of a good mac-centric online store for this sort of thing?

I know it seems like most of the kids games are migrated to online versions on sites like NickJr and PBS Kids. But those are all flash or java games that run in little tiny windows. What is the point in having a 20" monitor if your kids games run in little 6" windows inside browsers?

I just want to pick up some good educational games like the old JumpStart or Reader Rabbit games that will work on a modern Mac. Any advice?
 
Blair230 said:
Hi! There are a few places you can check. The best place to start is actually on the Apple website http://www.apple.com/games/gettingstarted/kids/

There are quite a few links to games for kids on there. See if any are suitable!
Click to expand...

Funny thing. Most of the kids games Apple mentions on their site are either online games or old companies like Knowledge Adventure that haven't updated their games for OS-X. So yeah, you can go order one of those old games and it won't work unless you are running the old Mac OS Classic. Apple doesn't even have most of the games it talks about available on its online web store. In fact, the only legit educational games it has for little kids are "Bob the Builder" CDs and I have girls who aren't into Bob the Builder.

On another site, someone mentioned Kutoka as making the best kids games that work on modern Macs. So I'm going to give them a try. It's really frustrating watching my kids try to play online games in little flash windows when we have a beautiful 20" monitor. The online games on the various kids TV web sites like Nick also generally launch into new window so you often have an online ad with audio coming in and talking over a game window that is on top of it. Very messy.

http://www.kutoka.com/_en/index.html
 
essential school readiness skills games

40 essential school readiness skills. Early math and reading, alphabet, counting, word building, sequencing and matching, to name but a few, are combined with adorable characters, stories, songs and surprises!

The games foster a love of the environment and an interest in wildlife, sea creatures and our planet.
http://schoolready.co.za/

Anne :)
 
mac educational games

Have you searched for apple's apps store? you can find various games for mac. keeping the age of your kids in view, mac educational games will be the best option. however if you wish you can also look for some websites on web that offers free and simple games for mac users.
 
vonmoris said:
Have you searched for apple's apps store? you can find various games for mac. keeping the age of your kids in view, mac educational games will be the best option. however if you wish you can also look for some websites on web that offers free and simple games for mac users.
Click to expand...
Uh it's 2012.... why'd you bump a 3 year old thread?
 
Pre school Games

Hi,

I would like to say instead of playing games through video game i would like to teach your child games through work sheet. I saw bforball.com were they have provided worksheet with all kind of games.
 
Kids Educational DVDs

My baby is 5year old now, I’m using fit4-future’s educational DVDs for her studies, I was used it from last two years, that time she was just 3 years old. But these DVDs help me a lot for her pre-school studied also, they are teaching some basic mathematics workouts with these DVDs, like learning subtraction, maths counting games, primary maths games etc. it helps toddlers specially. I’m really satisfied with fit4-future’s educational DVDs.;););)
 
This thread is really old but the situation still hasn't been solved. I can't find any software for my preschooler on the Mac OS X side of things. Her Ruby iMac G3 plays old educational games great, but she sits way too close and it worries me that her eyes could get screwed up. Plus my parents are going to give her a newer iMac. I would like to be able to buy some current software, I just don't see any.
 
The End.

Well, it's 2015, and there are still folks like me, and others who posted here who would LOVE to have full screen learning games for their kids on their nice big flatscreens. But it does appear that medium is dead.

Developers just stopped even trying after Mac removed Rosetta from the OS it seems. Really a shame, because the alternatives that are being shoved down our throats are "Apps for your iPhone or iPad".

But what about simple educational learning games of the old point & click style? On a big screen? For modern macs? Doesn't it seem bizarre that to do something so simple, we'd have to use old outdated computers?

Progress.... gotta love it.
:(
 
Hello everyone :)

I see I am pretty late on the post but I thought it's never too late for a game recommendation!
I have made a fun educational game for kids called "Happy Cook", which is available not only on Mac :apple:, but also on iOS, Android, and Windows ( to take the game to go :D): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/happy-cook/id1052538652?mt=12 .

I also mentioned Happy Cook in one of my posts: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/happy-cook-fun-educational-game-for-kids.1941513/

My 6-year-old daughter really enjoys the game and your kids might as well.
Please let me know if you guys gave it a try, I'd love to know what your kids thought!;)
 
Download and install Steam if you do not already have it. Then do a search on Putt Putt and Freddie Fish. The company releasing those games has some other series too I think that are great fun for little ones. These are not as learning focused as the old Learning Company (Reader Rabbit series) and Davidson (Math Blaster, etc.) games were and they are aimed at kindergarten age children or around that age but they are a lot of fun for the kids. From these they do have positive learning experiences interacting with the computer and learning to control it and to navigate around and enjoy what each title has to offer. These are re-releases of very old titles setup to run on modern systems. I am going to recommend to my daughter soon that she get Steam and some of these old favorites for my grandson who will be 3 in February and with a little help they'll be great first experiences for him on the computer. They are colorful and feature wonderful kid friendly characters. I remember well setting my own two little girls down in front of some of these along with the others mentioned that are no longer available and I soon had to compete with them for computer time. Guess who won those little battles?
 
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