I just had to do a quick post to tell you all how much I LOVE Google images! A few months ago my daughter (who had just turned 2 at that time) and my husband were talking about our last trip to the zoo.  He asked her if she remembered the giraffe, and she shouted 'yeah!'  Then he asked her if she rememberd seeing the zebra and she chimed in enthusiastically 'yes!'  After a few of these she got more and more excited and wound up.  When he asked if she remembered the peacock, she started saying 'I wanna see the zeeber, I wanna see the zeeber' and we could see a meltdown approaching. 

My quick thinking husband typed in 'Zebra' in the google search box, and we went to the images page.  Voila!  Zebra's galore!  Big zebras, little zebra's brown zebra's black zebra's running zebra's, momma and baby zebra's.  That was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Now my daughter often comes up and shouts out what she wants to see pictures of and we "google it". 

 We've looked at spiders, ducks, seagulls, catapillars, giraffe's, bears, monkies, babies, mountians, snow, red cars, motorcycles, mexico(when my husband was in Mexico on business my daughter insisted on 'seeing' mexico), England, and sesame street to name a few, all unprompted.  We have spent hours looking at photographs, it's like having a full color encyclopedia with limitless information.  Since she is only 2 she's not interested in the text, just the images.  This is just the beginning, I can't wait until she's older!  I wish I had the same thing growing up!.  It's like having the worlds biggest library in your living room.  I remember when I was around 15-16 my parents got a computer version of Encyclopedia Britannica, and I spent HOURS AND HOURS reading the material, looking at pictures, listening to the music files, and don't forget the the timelines (my absolute favorite).  I can't wait until my daughter gets older and we get lost in Wikipedia together. 

Oh and for anyone else out there with young ones, I love Fisher Price's online learning games!  They have lots of games for all ages infant to preschoolers.  Both the girls love watching the 'Shapes and Colors' and the 'Animal Alphabet". 

Anyone else have online activities that they recommend for preschool age children? 

 All photos copyright Jessica Hughes 2006.