katherinesaund

Our 10 yo son loves both Neopets (neopets.com) and Toontown
(toontown.com). They are both very child friendly and Toontown has won
the parenting award several years running. Both promote reading skills
without the children knowing it. Neopets is interesting in that you
"adopt" pets and have to feed them, and read to them if you want their
intelligence to increase, etc. Jellyneo.net is a great help website for
understanding the game and how it works. You can have a shop,
advertise it on the boards, etc. I have a Neopets account, as well,
and we give gifts to each other. I'm karatekidsmom if you want to visit
me on the site. My son has even learned to utilize html code as a
result of this game!

Toontown is more of a cooperative game. Again, reading is strengthened,
and the phrases you can use to communicate are limited and therefore it
is a safe online environment, yet very, very fun.

Julie (momx12), I'm so sorry to hear about your mom. My Dad has lung
cancer and we found the following book very helpful, "The Cancer
Battleplan Sourcebook". Congrats on the little one that's on the way!



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guideforthree

Build A Bear Workshop recently launched a new online community called
BuildABearville. My 10yos goes there occasionally. They also have a
safe chat feature. Accounts are free to anyone who owns a Build A Bear
(even if you bought the bear 10 years ago). You earn points through
various activities which you can then use to buy clothes and furniture
for your virtual bear and his condo.

http://www.buildabearville.com/#

My 10yos and 7yos have recently discovered GuildWars. They play it
online with their dad and grandad. Our idea of the perfect family
gathering is a LAN party;) Like WOW, you buy the software and then
play online. Unlike WOW, your account is free with your software
purchase. As we currently don't have any WOW players in our family, I
can't say how the actual gameplay compares.

Tina

Julie Hiniker

Thanks for the tips. We just recently added a couple of computers to the house and set them all up on high speed so this is a fun new world of exploration for us. my 16 yr old is a geek of the first order(we call him our resident geek and our 22 yr old our professional geek) and it looks like a couple of the younger's will be following along. I love my computer for emails and research, but with some of mine it seems like an natural extension of their bodies.

Thanks also for the book recommendation, If we don't get too many inches of snow today I'll stop by the library and book store on my way home from mom's appt. today. She finished radiation to the tumors in her lower spine last Friday so we are in to see the head of her team today.

Julie in MN
mom to the darlin' dozen.(Hoping we will be changing this to the bakers dozen in about 7 months!) Grandma to Paul and Ryne and soon to be born Peyten!




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