Parents' Guide to

PoissonRouge

By Jacqueline Rupp, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 4+

Simple bilingual math activities for pre-K kids.

Website http://www.poissonrouge.com
PoissonRouge Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this website.

Community Reviews

See all
age 3+

Based on 8 parent reviews

lindargeorge
lindargeorge Parent
August 14, 2015
age 4+

Great site for the younger set!

My kindergartners love this site. They sing along to Ten Green Bottles and Frere Jacques, or count along and figure out puzzles, sometimes they play with digital toys. There's no end to the fun that young kids can have. It's self-explanatory, too, so they can be somewhat on their own with the simple navigation.

This title has:

Great messages
JA_MIA_Mom
JA_MIA_Mom Parent of 4 and 13-year-old
May 5, 2011
age 3+

Simple and Sweet

Love it. Easy and not too flashy. Great intro site for children.

This title has:

Educational value
Great messages
See all 8 parent reviews

What’s It About?

POISSONROUGE has provided games and activities for young kids since 1999. Users click on a picture on the site's home page to access items that cover a number of basic skills, including learning the alphabet, numbers, shapes, patterns, and reading clocks. Some also touch on the arts: Kids can play a few notes on a virtual piano or color in shapes. A red fish icon leads back to the home page from each page.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (8):
Kids say (2):

PoissonRouge's home page is a playroom filled with puppets, dolls, and other toys. Click on one, and you're taken to a game or an activity. For example, a mannequin brings up a full-screen figure that can be posed in various ways. As with many of the site's activities, it's a simple exercise: Kids can click on the doll to see how the human body moves. Another activity involves a song that counts down from 10, using bottles as a visual. Kids also can see a virtual art museum and repaint portions of famous pieces; click on letters to hear them pronounced; or hear words \pronounced in French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and English.

Kids won't, however, find many instructions. The activities are pretty intuitive, but it can help to have an adult's guidance. PoissonRouge doesn't have a lot of flashy computer tricks or complex plots. But if kids can use a mouse, they'll be able to access the many projects -- many of which reinforce basic math and language skills -- and should have fun doing it.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about cause and effect. The site is designed around clicking on an item and watching what happens; how does that compare that to real life? For example, what happens if you bang on a drum hard, and what happens if you hit it softly?

  • The site doesn't feature any verbal navigation. Talk about how your child identified items to click on and the words that could correspond with each activity, if each were given a name and description.

  • Ask your child to identify a shape or pattern in real life after playing the site's shape and pattern games.

Website Details

  • Subjects: Language & Reading: letter or word recognition, vocabulary, Math: numbers, patterns, shapes, Arts: music, painting
  • Skills: Thinking & Reasoning: memorization, solving puzzles
  • Genre: Gaming
  • Pricing structure: Free to try, Paid (The site offers a free 10-day trial and a $19 annual membership.)
  • Last updated: November 4, 2015

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

See all recommended website lists

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate