Common Sense Media Takes Your Kids to Camp Virtual
School's out for the summer! Whether your kids are at home, at the pool, or working summer jobs, they probably have less structure than they're used to. What can you do to help? How about sending them to summer camp? Well…virtually. Using our new Learning Ratings, it's easy to pick apps, games, and websites that let kids have fun while keeping up their existing skills and building new ones.
Select your child's age above to view our recommendations.
A Camp Filled with Learning Activities
These categories can help guide you to the best learning tools based on your kids' interests and the skills you want them to develop. We also provide additional tips and activities that you can use to support your kids as they sharpen their skills.
OUTDOOR EXPLORATION
Wilderness adventures, observing nature, animals, and fitness.
SCAVENGER HUNT
Puzzling, problem solving, and sleuthing.
ARTS AND CRAFTS
Art, building, modeling, and tech creation.
CAMPFIRE FRIENDS
Making friends, positive online behavior, and managing emotions.
INDOOR ACTIVITIES
Reading, cooking, and personal development.
TALENT SHOW
Singing, dancing, and self-improvement.
OUR LEARNING RATINGS
We rate media on both age-appropriateness and learning potential based on developmental criteria from some of the nation's leading authorities. We make recommendations about which age each title is appropriate for. Then we evaluate the learning potential with these ratings: BEST, GOOD, FAIR for learning, or NOT FOR LEARNING.
BEST: Really engaging, exceptional learning approach.
GOOD: Pretty engaging, good learning approach, could use improvements.
FAIR: Somewhat engaging, OK learning approach, falls short on some counts.
NOT FOR LEARNING: Not recommended for learning.
Who Runs Camp Virtual?
Common Sense Media is the leading independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology.
- Outdoor Exploration
- Indoor Activities
- Campfire Friends
When you were young, getting in touch with nature meant hikes in the woods and trips to the zoo. But today's digital environment lets your kids view nature in a whole new way. With these fantastic games and apps, they can get much closer to thousands of animals, have fun while being active, and even travel to the moon and stars.
Dora & Kai-Lan's Pet Shelter
Dora and Kai-Lan teach kids about the responsibilities and emotions that go along with caring for animals as they perform pet care tasks like brushing and feeding. If kids fail to care for their virtual pets, they've got to face sad-looking kitties and pooches.
LeapFrog Explorer Learning Game: Pet Pals 2: Best of Friends!
This puppy sim helps kids learn the basics of caring for a pet, including addressing its physical and emotional needs. They can learn addition and subtraction through the dog show game, plus basic money saving and goal-setting.
i Learn With Poko: Seasons and Weather! HD
This gentle introduction to the weather helps kids learn the basic concepts. Poko takes kids through three engaging games about weather conditions, how to dress appropriately for the weather, and activities as they relate to weather.
Sesame Street: Ready, Set, Grover!
Kids can learn about healthy lifestyles as they get some good-living tutelage from their Muppet friend, Grover. They learn about the importance of being active and eating well and play out this advice by running, jumping, and dancing.
S'More ways for you to help:
• Give your kids real responsibilities with pets at home. Let them come along when you take your pet for a visit to the vet; or, if you don't own a pet, visit an animal shelter.
• Take a trip to the zoo. Ask kids to draw the animals and objects they see and write down their names. Help them make up stories about the animals and write them down.
Quiet time is welcome after outdoor play and helps children refocus their energy. We've hand picked these apps, games, and websites to help young campers develop basic reading, writing, and other early learning skills.
The Backyardigans
Kids can practice basic early-learning concepts, including color identification, pattern recognition, and rhythm. They tap musical instruments to a designated rhythm and hone their hand-eye coordination by steering through an obstacle course.
Elmo Loves ABCs for iPad
A cute and cuddly host makes alphabet practice fun. Kids can learn how to trace and recognize both capital and lowercase letters. They can also learn beginning spelling skills and practice listening to Elmo's interactive cues and guidance. At almost every step, kids are empowered to choose.
Every Body Has a Brain
This game makes brain science surprisingly alluring. Kids can learn all about the biology of the brain, including the names of its regions and how they work together. They also get a peek at the differences between human and animal brains.
Dora's Cooking Club
Kids can learn arithmetic basics, such as numbers and patterns, as well as a few more advanced concepts, such as fractions, as players assist Dora and her family in putting together a series of recipes. The plot emphasizes cooperation and respect.
I Spy Castle
Kids can learn new vocabulary words, sharpen their observation skills, and practice logical thinking. Faced with all types of hidden-object puzzles, kids find patterns, create paths, and determine the arcing trajectory of an arrow.
ItzaZoo
Reading is magic as art comes alive. Kids can learn skills for reading comprehension and problem solving as they add free-form artwork to colorful kid-themed landscapes. The storyline helps kids associate words with objects and actions, and questions challenge them to think logically.
The Electric Company
Remember learning to read with the Electric Company when you were young? Now your kids can learn basic reading skills by putting together compound words, adding prefixes and suffixes, and sorting words by the sounds they make on this companion site to the popular PBS TV series.
Speech With Milo: Interactive Storybook
Kids can learn storytelling skills by recording their own story over the illustrations from Milo the mouse¡¦s original tale. Kids interact with the story (which was created by a speech therapist) and creatively develop stories of their own.
Monkey Preschool Lunchbox
Early learning skills made fun by acrobatic monkey. Kids can learn basic preschool concepts like colors, shapes, fruits, counting, bigger/smaller, and solving simple puzzles. A silly monkey shakes his head for wrong answers and does flips for correct ones.
Starfall
This outstanding learn-to-read site is sure to engage little ones. They can learn pre-reading skills that help them build toward reading short online books. Skill acquisition is appropriately gradual; kids begin simply by sounding out different letter combinations.
PBS Kids WordWorld
Words come to life with friendly and familiar pictures. Kids can learn -- and see -- how words are formed from letters and the sounds those letters make. Letter by letter, kids build words that transform into the shape of the objects they define.
Word Wall HD
Kids can learn word recognition and word building, as well as phonics-based letter sounds. The app features four colorful games that are easy enough for very young pre-readers.
Sesame Street: Elmo's A-to-Zoo Adventure
Loaded with foundational content for preschoolers. Kids can learn alphabet fundamentals -- part of the basics for learning to read. Animal-themed mini-games help kids learn to recognize letters and the sounds they make.
S'More ways for you to help:
• Let kids help you cook. Have them gather, count, and measure out ingredients. Encourage them to eat nutritious meals, too.
• Ask kids to help plan their own lunches based on what they've learned about healthy choices. Celebrate fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods, and refer to foods like cookies as “sometimes” foods. Have them aim for five or more colors on their dinner plate.
Kids can make lifelong friends with these lovely apps, games, and websites. Learning to share, to relate to others, and to label feelings are important skills that help young kids develop relationships.
Feel Electric!
This app is a fun way for kids to get in touch with their emotions. Kids can learn emotional awareness, expression, and language skills from Feel Electric! videos, photos, games, and emotionsrelated vocabulary-building activities that star the cast of the PBS show The Electric Company.
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Kids can learn social, emotional, and thinking skills. Mister Rogers' songs and interactions teach kids to identify, understand, and handle feelings. Games encourage exploration and observation, and parent tips are comprehensive.
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
This game will help teach kids vital social and emotional lessons. Kids can learn about friendships and cooperating with others as they play games with friendly monsters. Based on Sesame Street's “Whole Child” curriculum, this game also helps kids learn lessons like matching colors and musical pitches.
S'More ways for you to help:
• Help kids think of the Internet as being similar to their neighborhood. They should ask you if they want to go on the computer, just like they ask you if they want to go outside.
• Advocate to have bullying prevention programs put in your child's school. For young kids, it's best to select those that teach kids about treating others nicely -- online and offline.
- Outdoor Exploration
- Indoor Activities
- Arts and Crafts
- Scavenger Hunt
- Talent Show
- Campfire Friends
Older kids can observe new flora and fauna from all over the world at Camp Virtual. Looking skyward, they can view maps of constellations and get tons of celestial information with stellar apps, games, and websites. Quite an addition to the telescope, huh?
Angry Birds Space
Kids can learn about gravity, momentum, and trajectory. The space setting teaches kids how small objects are affected by gravity. Kids can also observe the durability of different surfaces and use momentum to ricochet objects off of one another.
Geo Walk HD – 3D World Fact Book
Stunning visuals provide a great backdrop for kids to learn about a wide variety of subjects, including animals, plants, people, and places. Information is presented in easy-to-understand nuggets accompanied by dazzling photographs that help bring facts to life.
Britannica Kids: Solar System
Designed to fuel a budding interest in astronomy, this app can teach kids all about the solar system through a broad range of learning material that covers the physical properties of the sun, moon, planets, and comets, as well as physics concepts like gravity and space.
The Magic School Bus: Oceans
Experience the wonders of the ocean in this terrific underwater field trip. By joining Ms. Frizzle's wacky adventure, kids explore the different levels of the ocean and meet the marine life that lives within them.
Botanicula
This fantastical setting is a beautiful way for kids to learn about ecosystems and the environment and practice their puzzle-solving and reasoning skills. Observant kids may recognize relationships between trees and their creatures and how parasites can harm this system.
NASA's Space Place
These visually complex games incorporate detailed scientific information. Kids can learn facts and information about space through projects, Q&As, and interactive games. Find games and photo galleries on topics ranging from the solar system to technology.
Exploratorium
With this immense library of do-it-yourself experiments, kids can learn about astronomy, the human body, the brain, and other scientific principles through short interactives and beautifully presented follow-along procedures (e.g., cow eye dissections, connection between smell and taste).
Rainy days at camp used to mean hours inside reading books and writing letters home from the top bunk. While letters have been replaced with emails and paperbacks are now tablets, kids still need help developing critical reading and writing skills in the digital age. Help them pass the time productively with these terrific apps, games, and websites.
Cosmos Chaos
Kids can learn a plethora of advanced vocabulary words in this cute sci-fi adventure. The boy or girl protagonist explores and chats with scores of characters, picking up the words' meaning through context clues.
Super Scribblenauts
In this compelling environment for language play and media creation, kids can learn to think logically and let their imaginations run wild as they solve puzzles by writing new objects into a scene. Any word they spell is transformed into a digital creation and then incorporated within the game world.
Scribblenauts Remix
In this welcome departure from true/false, right/ wrong scoring, kids can learn logical thinking, exercise their creativity, and boost their spelling skills as they brainstorm innovative solutions. What¡¦s more, kids are validated for choices that could work, even if they aren¡¦t the best answers.
Word Central
Study the dictionary through these interactive games. Kids can learn how to spell, define, and discover words' origin. A different buzzword is offered every day, along with a short history lesson about the language it stems from.
SpellBoard
Kids can learn spelling, though how much they learn depends greatly on how accurately they enter spelling study words. They can also create their own list and record words and related clues or upload photos related to each word.
S'More ways for you to help:
• Offer suggestions -- like word options, synonyms, or clues -- to encourage kids who are easily frustrated. Play word games like Boggle and Scrabble to help kids build vocabulary and hone spelling skills.
• Encourage kids to keep a diary and use the new words they've learned. Ask them to jot down observations from being outside, as well as to describe their emotions and feelings when they encounter new situations.
Arts and crafts -- it's not like it used to be. Say goodbye to lanyards and tie-dye, and say hello to innovation and animation. These inventive apps, games, and websites will help your kids create digital art and construct new universes.
Art Academy
Kids will get in-depth knowledge and gain expert tips about creating quality artwork. Through 10 incredibly detailed lessons, kids are introduced to sketching and painting techniques such as shading, adding perspective, and color mixing.
Scratch
Kids can learn to make their own animations, video games, art, and music videos with Scratch's visual block-based form of computer programming. They quickly learn programming concepts like loops and conditionals, as well as bottom-up problem solving.
Gamestar Mechanic
In this rare game that allows kids to own their work, kids can learn how to create basic video games. Directions are clear and easy to follow, and creations are real and playable. The process of building these games teaches kids to think both mathematically and creatively at the same time.
Max and the Magic Marker
Kids can learn basic concepts of physics, movement, prediction, and logic. They playfully experiment with leverage and gravity as they make imaginative drawings that get Max through the game.
S'More ways for you to help:
• Encourage kids to make spin-offs or other versions of these apps, games, and websites. Give them cardboard and art supplies, and challenge them to make a board game or book version, for instance. They can even create a Rube Goldberg-like contraption, keeping track of their attempts and successes.
• Conduct physics experiments to help kids understand real-world concepts, such as seeing how high a ball bounces when it's dropped from different heights or observing how it rolls on different surfaces.
Remember scavenger hunts full of crafty clues, mysteries, spies, and friendly competition? Now older kids can take an expedition into new worlds online as they role-play as pioneers or solve problems with these fun apps and games.
Mission US: For Crown or Colony?
This first-person history adventure is a fun way for kids to learn about U.S. history during the pre-Revolutionary War era as they assume the role of a young man who has just signed on for a printing apprenticeship in Boston.
Nancy Drew: Alibi in Ashes
Kids can learn how to think and reason like a detective by stepping into Nancy Drew's shoes. By talking to others, using police equipment, and snooping, kids collect data, analyze evidence, and make deductions based on the facts they gather.
Skylanders Spyro's Adventure
Action and cartoony violence mesh with great team puzzle solving and strategy in this game. Kids can learn to investigate problems and logically figure out solutions, either alone or acting as a team. They observe clues that may come in handy later, try different possible solutions, and figure out how items work together to be helpful.
The Oregon Trail
Kids can learn about the history of the American westward expansion of the 1800s by participating in this adventure simulation from the point of view of a pioneer family traveling by wagon train from Missouri to Oregon.
Sid Meier's Civilization V
Kids can take on the role of an empowered ruler and learn about the historic events that led to the birth of human civilization and the factors that have altered its growth. Players win by rapidly growing their civilizations as they simultaneously learn about significant discoveries, leaders, and inventions.
Portal 2
This inventive spatial puzzler can teach kids how to solve problems through observation, deduction, and hypothesis testing in a three-dimensional world. Problems generally have specific solutions, but players arrive at them through an organic process.
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
Magic aids kids as they learn about solving problems and puzzles while collaborating with others to explore and understand new environments. As they learn to use the magic, they work out the rules of a new system and learn how to survive and thrive within.
Long gone are the days of the Mashed Potato and the Twist. Kids and their friends can find new moves this summer with games that will really shake it up.
Dance Central 2
Campers can learn how to find their dance groove with these fun, fast beats. Professionally choreographed moves will help them improve their dance skills -- and get exercise in the process.
Disney Sing It! Pop Hits
Kids can learn music-related skills such as rhythm and pitch as they sing along to prerecorded tracks in this karaoke game. Kids can actually train to become better singers by completing Sing It Pro mode, a series of virtual singing lessons hosted by singer Tiffany Thornton.
You remember “harmless” cabin pranks with toilet paper and toothpaste, right? Today's teasing gets magnified on the Internet with its public face and endless networks. These picks teach kids to seek friendships and work together against ill wishers.
Herotopia
Kids can learn about geography as they chase a group of bullies around the world to thwart their villainous pranks. Kids are encouraged to do good things for the community, including eco-friendly tasks.
Club Penguin
On one of the “stickiest” sites for young kids, they can learn how to behave and communicate effectively and respectfully in safe online community. Club Penguin also encourages players to give the online “coins” they earn in games to charity and teaches them about good citizenship.
- Outdoor Exploration
- Scavenger Hunt
- Indoor Activities
- Talent Show
- Arts and Crafts
At traditional summer camps, most of kids' science knowledge came from being knee-deep in marshes and deep in the woods. Today kids can see science in the stars.
Solar System for iPad
Stargazing comes to life with this far-out collection. Kids can learn a lot about astronomy in a fun, engaging, and interactive way. Information about the sun, planets, moons, asteroid belts, and more teaches kids about gravity, patterns, and each planet and moon.
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
As kids face off on alien worlds, they can learn about strategy and tactics, as well as creative thinking. Gameplay focuses on military micromanagement, including building and upgrading the units, mining resources, and craftily placing the units on the map for maneuvers
Exploration at summer camp used to be about secret paths and hideouts in the woods. Today, strange and wonderful new worlds await, revealing challenging puzzles, brainteasers, and hidden clues along the way.
Machinarium
This charming adventure helps kids learn about experimenting to solve problems. Brainteasers stretch kids' imagination as they work their way through a touching adventure. When a solution fails, kids must approach the problem from a different angle.
Professor Layton and the Last Specter
Kids can learn critical thinking and puzzlesolving skills as a fascinating storyline propels them through a mystery. It unfolds piece by piece as players solve a wide variety of math brainteasers.
S'More ways for you to help:
• Encourage kids to come up with as many different solutions as they can within each game. They can try them out to see which ones register and which are most efficient. Suggest that they adopt this outlook with any new situation or problem.
• Suggest that kids solve puzzles with friends. Can they solve them faster? Ask whether they find any obstacles in working with partners.
Quiet time has gone online. Creative wordplay and vocabulary building help develop critical skills that can help kids stay at the head of the class in the fall. These apps and sites give reading and writing a new social spin.
HowStuffWorks for iPad
This massive collection of articles, videos, and audio podcasts helps kids learn just about anything. Learn how space tourism works, what the five most mysterious monuments in the world are, or how Olympic torches work.
Scrabble
This excellent game helps kids learn vocabulary words and spelling as they strategically place their tiles to form words with the highest points. And they'll need to use math to maximize their scores. They can play with friends using Facebook Connect or challenge random opponents.
Science Bob
Kids can learn about chemical reactions, vibrations and sound, surface tension, optical illusions, molecular structure, and other science-related topics. Kids can also find science fair project ideas on topics ranging from tornadoes to planets.
Scramble With Friends
This addictive word game can help kids learn to process chaotic information, finding words in a series of 16 random letters as they race through rounds. Kids can also improve spelling and build vocabulary.
S'More ways for you to help:
• Play related board games as a family, such as Taboo or Balderdash. You could even play a similar game by making up several definitions for an uncommon dictionary word and having people guess which one is correct.
• Get teens subscriptions to newspapers and magazines that have advanced vocabulary. The New York Times blog, The Learning Network, is a great place to start. If kids have e-readers, encourage them to look up words if they don't understand them.
Showcasing your hidden talents has always been a staple of camp. This summer, kids can get fantastic performing suggestions and encouragement with apps, games, and websites that have choreographed dance moves and karaoke for all.
GarageBand
Kids can explore their inner creativity by writing their own tunes and also learn about recording and mixing music with this virtual audio workstation. Kids will play a variety of melodic and rhythmic virtual instruments to compose digital audio tracks, and they can even practice singing by connecting a microphone.
Draw Something by OMGPOP
Kids can learn to improve their art and communication skills by sketching words in a creative way. Players work together to achieve a streak of correct guesses, rather than playing against each other.
Teens used to make simple furniture and weld things together at camp. Now they draw on their tech savviness to construct in 3D space. With this game, campers build their own structures and construct sprawling compounds.
Minecraft
Kids can learn creative thinking, geometry, and even a little geology as they build imaginative block structures in this refreshingly open-ended mining and construction game. An option to work with others on larger projects can spur kids to collaborate.
S'More ways for you to help:
• Relate games to offline building. Invite kids to build with wood, hammers, and other common materials. What's similar? What's different?
• Have kids collaborate with others to make bigger, more sprawling compounds and cities. See how big they can get before they collapse or become unwieldy.
