Interactive games

I’ve put a bit of info together about one of our sponsors – busythings.co.uk to draw your attention to their great website. Busythings is an online subscription service for 3 to 6 year olds and SEN children. Parents, teachers and children can quickly and easily access an ever-growing number of fun yet educational activities and games. The website is used in over 3000 schools and nurseries across the UK, is available through libraries in Australia and is now available directly to home users.

I tried out the free games on the site with my 3 year old nephew Osian. He really enjoyed. He thought the wonder wheel game was particularly great. He spent ages creating his own designs and experimenting with different colours and shapes (it mimics the effect of putting paint in a salad spinner). He was quite captivated by it. I was also very impressed. The games seem to be really well designed and have a lot of educational value. Also, I think the site itself looks great and is very easy to navigate.

As well being able to access a certain amount of free material you can also sign up for a free trial (7 days for home users and 28 days for schools and nurseries) after which you will be able to access the 120 plus activities. These activities are grouped into art and music, mathematics, understanding the world and literacy themes, but I’m confident based on Osian’s experience that children will be having so much fun they won’t even realise they are learning! As well as interactive games the site also offers clip art, worksheet makers and printable activities. After the free trial has elapsed you will need to pay to continue using the service. However, the yearly subscription is very reasonably priced and given the amount of content on the site it seems to represent very good value for money.