In honor of National Video Games Day (that’s today!), I wanted to share a few of our favorite free educational games and websites that have benefited our family over the years.
All six of these sites are free to use and include a wonderful variety of resources.
Of course, life is too short to spend all one’s time surfing the web. Kids, like adults, need lots of fresh air and sunshine, exercise, and interaction with family members and trusted friends. So we recommend using digital devices in moderation. Encourage your kids to spend the bulk of their time doing tech-free activities. But if you are looking for ways to inject a little online learning into your children’s downtime, these sites would be a great place to start:
Our Family’s Favorite Free Educational Websites
Sheppard Software
This free site took our boys from knowing nothing about world geography to winning the local GeoBee. They offer math, science, and early learning games, as well.Seterra
This site is extensive. It boasts over 400 free map games in more than 40 languages. You can play online or download their app or even print out maps, quizzes, and reviews to do offline.Duo Lingo
This is a fun way to learn (or practice and reinforce) a foreign language. The basic version is free, but for a small fee, you can remove ads and make faster progress.Khan Academy
Whenever our high school/ college students come up against a concept they don’t understand in class, they come home and look it up on Khan Academy. It’s like having a personal tutor on the computer!SAT Question of the Day
Our high schoolers use this free service to hone their test taking skills — practice questions are delivered daily. You can also find online practice tests and lots of good information for earning college credit through CLEP testing.Librivox
Okay, so this site doesn’t have any educational games, but it does have hundreds of public-domain audio-books of literary classics you can download for FREE. We love to listen to books on tape when taking long road trips, and this is a very economical way to build your audio library.
When you’re ready to take a break from your digital devices — which we advise doing frequently — check out our book Get Up & Go for a wealth of fun off-line games and activities that will get your hearts pumping!
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