One of those "Oh My Gosh" moments came when I saw the game Oregon Trail listed. That game was one of my favorites as a kid. I loved it! It got me thinking, I wonder if you can still play that game? How cool would it be to show my firsties one of my favorite games when I was their age? So I went to the know all Google. And guess what ya'll?! I found it! For free! I'm not gonna lie-I totally started a game and it took me right back to the good ole days. Now there is the hunting aspect of the game which includes guns, so I'm sure that could be a touchy subject which may need approval from your administrator if you want your kids to play the game, but it's worth a shot. There is also an app you can buy, but I'm not sure how similar it is to the actual computer game.
Then it got me thinking. What about some of my other favorite games? Number Munchers? Treasure Mountain? The one and only Carmen Sandiego?!!! Yeah....I know there are some of you out there thinking O.M.GEE!
A quick 5 minute search on good ole Google revealed that Number Munchers and Treasure Mountain are both available to play online. For free! Without setting up any account! So naturally I showed my kids the games in computer lab and I kid you not, they was squealing and shouts of "AWESOME!" ringing out. They are totally excited to play Number Munchers as a math station. The great thing about Treasure Mountain is that it works on both literacy and math. They were equally excited it as well. I totally played a couple of games of both. It. Was. Awesome!
Would you believe it if I told you I even found Carmen Sandiego? All of the versions?! I remember playing each and every one as they upgraded them and made them more modern. Just type in Carmen Sandiego and pick your version! I liked the Where in the World version, but it would definitely be too hard for some of my firsties. They can always do the Where in the USA version.
This website seems to have a TON of other computer games that you can search if there is another one that you are trying to find. I'm guessing chances are you will have some success. I certainly was never expecting to find all of these games, let alone for free to play. The only downfall is that it will not keep track and save the kid's progress like the CD-ROM version would. I'm sure you can find most, if not all, of theses games to buy online if you wanted that option.
Either way, I love that my kids can play some of my favorite childhood games while still learning in all of the subject areas. Since I've introduced these games to them, they have been eating them up! Hopefully yours will too!
My oldest children now 23 and 21 loved the Oregon Trail in 3rd grade. I even found them talking about it when they were older and even up into adulthood! Sadly, the teachers where they went to school decided it was too much work and stopped using and teaching the Oregon trail a few years later so my youngest was not able to experience the fun!
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