Kathy's Kids: Fun Stuff

> Fun Stuff<

Some fun links and downloads to brighten up your day.

> Games <

All games offered from this site are abandonware and shareware, readily available on many places on the internet. These are 100% legal games which are fun and educational.

> Installation Instructions <

Right click on the game title and select "Save target as" to download. Save them somewhere you will remember. When they have finished downloading, the file will appear where you saved them as a compressed (.zip) folder.

Before you can install them you will need to uncompress them. You do this by right clicking on the folder and selecting "Extract all". Follow the instructions that appear and you will end up with an uncompressed folder. Double click on the folder to explore it. To play the game, double click on the file that is called "PLAY" and the game's name (for example: "PLAY-WORD RESCUE ONE").

Word Rescue, Maths Rescue, Adventure Maths, Ablesoft, A Clock and Sim City: This is very important. As these are quite old games, they must be saved directly into your C:// drive in order to work. When you are downloading the file, make sure you are saving them to your C:// drive, or the game simply won't work.

Word Rescue, Parts 1, 2, and 3 (966kb) Suitable for most ages

A classic DOS game, Word Rescue is very close to my heart and I'm sure it will charm you too. It teaches and promotes spelling, logic, word meanings and hand-eye coordination. It has three difficulty levels: Easy (for ages 4 - 7) , Medium (ages 7 - 10) and Hard (ages 10 + , even adults might like to have a go!).

The nasty slimy Gruzzles have stolen all of the words in the world! Choose to be either a boy or a girl and help Benny the Bookworm get all of the words back into their books. There are many different settings, from grassy suburbia to spooky castles or a Texas ranch. This is great spelling and reading practice, which I got quite addicted to when I was a little kiddie. Before you download this, be sure to read the installation instructions.

Maths Rescue , Parts 1, 2, and 3 (1.10 mb) Suitable for most ages

Due to the success of Word Rescue, Maths Rescue was released. Maths Rescue follows the same basic story line as Word Rescue: As their plans to steal all of the words were foiled, the Gruzzles decided to steal all of the numbers instead. New sound-effects and slightly better graphics are introduced to support the same type of game-play as Word Rescue. It too has three difficulty levels: Easy (for ages 4 - 7) , Medium (ages 7 - 10) and Hard (ages 10 +) . These effect both difficulty of sums and difficulty of game play.

Benny Bookworm is now a butterfly, and instead of finding words you need to find numbers. To collect each number you must solve an equation, and if you get the answer wrong a Gruzzle will appear. The type of mathematical problems can be chosen at the start of the game - multiplication, division, addition and subtraction or a mixture. You also have the option of having some word problems too. Before you download this, be sure to read the installation instructions.

Tux Maths (1.76 mb) Suitable for primary upwards

Tux Maths is good practice in solving mathematical equations quickly and accurately.

Tux Paint (4.49 mb) Suitable for all ages

Rather like Microsoft Paint made simple, each artistic tool in Tux Paint makes an entertaining noise. This game is very therapeutic for anyone who feels like doodling, and great to breed enthusiasm for creating art.

Adventure Maths (353 kb) Suitable for most ages

Learn addition and subtraction in this adventurous format. May not suit newer computers. Before you download this, be sure to read the installation instructions.

Ablesoft (1.3 mb) Junior

This wonderful program is very basic and highly addictive. Ablesoft has many sections in several subjects, from maths revision to spelling. Until you register the program, it is a trial game and thus does not work to its full capacity, but once registered you will find it an invaluable revision resource. Before you download this, be sure to read the installation instructions.

A Clock (599 mb) Suitable for most ages

Learning how to read analog clocks can need practice. A Clock is an easy way to do this. It offers multiple choice questions and practice in converting digital time to analog time and back again. Before you download this, be sure to read the installation instructions.

Sim City (559 mb) Suitable for upper primary

Build your own city, manage its budget and fortify yourself against natural disasters. Before you download this, be sure to read the installation instructions.

> Recommendations <

There are some games that I cannot offer here as they are not shareware, but recommend should you wish to purchase them for yourself. When I was younger they were my favourites, and I still use them from time to time.
Operation Weather Disaster/ Operation Eco Nightmare: Made in 1997 by Discovery Multimedia. Foil the dastardly plans of the evil Jonah Rainwater by using your intelligence and solving puzzles. Both games are fully 3D animated, and promise hours of intriguing game play, teaching puzzle solving and ecology. This game is intended for ages 9 upwards.
Microsoft Encarta: This great resource is often being re-released by Microsoft. If the internet confuses you, this is the next best source of information. This enormous database of encyclopedia entries is easily searchable, and often has video supplements to aid in understanding.

> Links <

Some sites you may want to visit.

www.neopets.com
Create your own virtual pet and help it to grow. This site is free, non commercial and very immersive. It offers a lot of games, highly supervised and safe chat rooms, animations and stories.

www.scholastic.com
Scholastic is one of the best educational resource retailers in Australia. Their website has reviews, recommendations and online ordering for educational supplies.

www.liveandlearn.com
An online database of free educational software for lower primary school children.

www.edutainingkids.com
Reviews of educational software, videos and toys.

> Attention Parents <

If you have any more educational shareware or know of any more websites that would improve this section, please email me at pestilence@loggods.com. If you have any software to contribute we would be pleased to include it. Only abandonware or shareware is legal for this website, so please keep this in mind. Contributions can be emailed to me or given to Kathy on a disk.