My son is 5 1/2.  He does Webkins.  Leapfrog has some good games on their site once you register.  the amount of time varies.  As a rule we let him play on the computer one day a week and then he can be on for an hour or so.  Too much time makes him cranky.

A very good precursor to Headsprout is:  www.starfall.com, a free site.  Here children learn their upper and lower case letters and phonics of each letter.  It's a great preparation for Headsprout.

Hi Danielle,

My Kindergartener also does HeadSprout and loves it.  We also bought him a program called KidPix that lets him do art on the computer.  The PBS website has some fun games for younger kids.  

In terms of amount of time, I think opinions differ here.  My pediatrician believes that ALL "screen time" should be limited to no more than half an hour a day (TV + computer).  My son's teacher on the other hand thinks TV time and computer time are different and encourages us to let him use the computer more.

So right now he watches no TV during the week and then does one headsprout episode a day (15 - 20 minutes) followed by 20 minutes or so of KidPix (which I always have to DRAG him off of!)

I'm interested to hear what others have to say on this.  

Try this site to get your kids safe FREE McGruff Internet browser for kids.  http://www.mcgruffbrowser.com/

It's for older children 7 to 13 years of age with a parental control module.

My son will be 5 on Feb. 18. He has been using the computer since he was 2 1/2. His first computer program was Jump Start Toddlers Classic Version by Knowledge Adventure.  After that we used Pre-K, Kindergarten and now he is using 1st Grade Jump Start. He really loves it. Also we have Clifford Phonics, Early Reading, and Early Math with Dragon Tales by Brain Play- Scholastic, among many others.  My son is now in Kindergarten and he reads many level 1 and 2 books. I am so glad we allowed him to use the computer. Using the computer is a privileged he earns with good behavior and he must ask permission to use it.

Hi Danielle,  I just found this new browser for kids ages 3-11.  It only gives them access to sites that have been pre-screened by teachers and parents.  It looks like it's not live yet but could be great when it is!  http://www.kidzui.com/  Hope this helps!

Kat