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Edutaining Kids
.COM
Parents' Guide to Children's Products for Fun & Learning
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Edutaining Kids
.COM
Parents' Guide to Children's Products for Fun & Learning
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here's nothing quite like a fresh pack of markers, new tubs of
paint, and a pile of paper to inspire kids to create masterpieces. But
there comes a time when kids want a little more. You can happily
turn to some good software titles to help keep creative juices
flowing, and hope that they will help encourage more off-the-computer fun as well. 
Click and
Create with Mia is a lesser-known but valuable software program
dedicated to both creative free-play and some art instruction. Players
can draw freely or opt to copy sample drawings in "Draw"
mode; paint with a wide variety of tools in the "Paint"
section; work with geometric forms to create characters and
landscapes in "Shapes" mode; create such printables as
greeting cards and letterheads in the "Projects"
section; or create animated scenes in "Multimedia" mode.
Step-by-step drawing lessons are included. Cute! Our
Rating: A-
JumpStart
Artist contains a solid free-play creativity toolbox, as well as games that teach kids
some art history, art styles, textures, color mixing, and more.
Kids can also do some virtual crafts, creating puppets, quilts,
and the like. Kids help create an animation in a fabulous activity
that gets the most raves--children use art tools to finish 3
objects that are then included in an adorable animation. Best
of all, these decorated items appear in the movies exactly as they
were drawn. Another activity is a game of concentration with a
delightfully educational twist--kids match items that turn into
clues that they then use to identify a piece of art. For example,
one session turned up 4 clues: hunting, landscape, semi-realistic,
and winter. Kids then had to choose a piece of art that matched
the clues (after the animated guide explained the meanings of each
clue). In this case, "Hunters in the Snow" by Pieter
Brugel was the correct choice. This program is best for kids
approximately 6-8, and is now available in a value-added bundle:
