What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this site offers games designed to
build on skills kids are working on in school; in fact, some
games are designed to be used in the classroom. The site does
have some minimal advertising such as banner ads and links to
other non-threatening sites.
Families can talk about how games can make learning more fun. How do cute graphics make learning numbers easier? What about interactive reading makes flipping pages of an online book exciting? How do matching games help build memorization skills?
Common Sense Media Review
The redesigned FUNBRAIN.COM offers more than 50 interactive
learning games for children K-8, plus tools for parents and
teachers. There's a clear divide between older and newer
content. Classic Funbrain games like "Grammar Gorillas," where
kids must identify parts of speech by clicking on the correct
words in a sentence, teach math and reading with simple
text-based interfaces and minimal graphics. The site also
offers newer Flash-based games with cartoon-like graphics, such
as "Fun Match," a card-matching game or "Math Soccer," where,
once kids answer a math problem correctly, they can shoot a
soccer ball past the goalie.
With so many games to choose from, kids are sure to find something that holds their interest, whether it's math, reading, or simply target practice. Kids can search by grade level or topic. Older kids will enjoy the online comics and books such as "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," which chronicles the life of seventh-grader Greg. Other features don't seem quite ready for prime time such as the FunBlogs -- intended to be news tailored to kids' age and gender. But the blogs (there are four total) only had a handful of entries each. Resources for parents and teachers include guides to the games, downloadable quizzes, and supplemental educational resources including flash cards.
The redesigned site is clean and highlights the large array of games, especially the newer Flash games. But there are some kinks that need to be worked out. For instance, clicking on the FunBrain logo from one of the Mad Libs Junior games took me to an old-style FunBrain home page with different navigation, which could be confusing to kids trying to navigate back to the home page.
Besides the minimal amount of banner ads, the site does have integrated advertising. For example, in a game called "Triviatronic," when kids answer trivia questions correctly, they're rewarded with a cartoon of Toucan Sam, the Froot Loops mascot.
Other fun game sites include Woodland's Junior School and Peramdi.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
