Websites for Little Girls

My five year old girl loves the computer. She's been on it for years and uses the keyboard and mouse with ease. Lately, she's been a little bored with the various websites she generally plays on so we've been on a mission for new ones and here's what we've found.

You can add a dot com to just about anything these days, including toys. We've tried this only with toys my little girl likes, but I'd imagine the same success could be achieved by using the boy ones. What we've come up with, I'm listing below.

1. www.strawberryshortcake.com - Plenty of games and activities here. There's also links to screensavers, music, coloring sheets, and recipes. There's also a characters and stories section for introduction to the many different friends of Strawberry Shortcake.

2. www.bratz.com - Very cool site with loads of games. My little girl loves to dress up the Bratz girls on the site and spends time making them as perfect as possible. Any Bratz fan will love this one.

3. www.mylittlepony.com - Beautiful site with links to products, videos, news, and events. Under the playtime link, you will find a nice selection of My Little Pony games and activities. A printable coloring book is also available.

4. www.pollypocket.com - Everything Polly Pocket and so much to do. My little girl loves the music on this site and loves the shopping games.

5. www.barbie.com - This site is loaded. Games, sneak peaks, shopping, radio, etc. There is plenty to do on this site and any girl who loves Barbie will appreciate the variety. Little girls with their own computer can set it as their home page and can decorate it anyway they like.

These sites are just some of the better ones we've run into. I encourage any parent who's looking for new sites for their children to experiment. Scoobydoo.com also takes you to a site where you can play Scooby games. Also, keep in mind your child's favorite television channels. Dot coms added to these generally take you to a website that provides games and activities based on the characters shown on that channel. Some of our favorites are below.

1. www.nick.com
2. www.nickjr.com
3. www.playhousedisney.com
4. www.disneychannel.com
5. www.noggin.com
6. www.cartoonnetwork.com
7. www.pbskids.org

These sites may seem like all fun and games, but trust me, my child has learned more than I can even begin to list, not to mention the computer skills she's learning. Like it or not, no matter what the career, it is likely your child will need to know his or her way around a computer. My child can backspace, delete, use the arrow keys, type, make corrections, etc. She finds her way around all of the above sites with no assistance and has mastered many of the games. Do I let her spend hours a day online? No, but I think some time will be of use to her later. She starts school this fall. I'm hoping this experience will help. So, put your little one on the computer and try some of these sites. They'll love it.