
Because of Halloween's popularity with kids and adults alike, there are a lot of websites with a Halloween theme. Today's focus is on interactive Halloween games, although many of this week's picks also have other free Halloween goodies such as e-cards, screensavers, and printable crafts. Enjoy!

To celebrate their "absolutely most way-favorite time of year," Ben & Jerry have created a Halloween playground of games and crafts. Interactive games are found in both obvious places (Halloween Games) and not-so-obvious ones (such as the Interactive Haunted House listed in the Flavor Graveyard.) There's also a Ben & Jerry Graveyard Screensaver, and a nice collection of printable crafts, mazes, coloring pages and word searches. Check out the print-and-cut skeleton with movable arms and legs that you can put together with brass fasteners.

I spent quite a bit of time playing with the googly eyes that followed my mouse around. Whoosh, whoosh! But then I came to my senses, and returned to the more serious task of checking out the more than twenty interactive games, and twenty-four printable ones (word searches and secret decoder games.) My favorites are Halloween Hangman and Halloween Quiz. For pre-readers, click on over to Feed the Hungry Ghost and BlackDog's Coloring Book.

In addition to the usual jigsaw, memory, and slider puzzles, Free Halloween has two really fun games you won't find on any of the other Halloween sites. Sokoban is an addictive Japanese strategy game played by pushing characters around the board. Mah Jong, played by finding the matching pictures, is an online variation of the Chinese board game frequently associated with middle-age Jewish women. See "From Ningbo to Hoboken". Because neither requires reading, they can be enjoyed by all ages.

Just listing all the Halloween topics at Kids Domain would take up more space than I have here, so I'll just mention my favorites. Party Fun is a good place to start when planning offline Halloween activities for kids. Clip art is excellent for use both offline and online (with a courtesy link back to Kids Domain.) I also liked the craft ideas, and the printable coloring pages, word searches and crossword puzzles. When visiting their online games page, be sure to follow the small links at the bottom to their Javascript and Shockwave games.

"Owwww, it's scary, wary!" I love this site; its bright colors just draw me in. Designed for the under-ten crowd, it's my pick of the day for anyone with an "inner child." Click around to discover the treasures. I won't ruin it by telling you where they are, but they include a jigsaw puzzle, scissor crafts, and a pair of find-the-differences pictures. Boowa and Kwala have other holiday specials (including Christmas, New Year's and Valentines Day) listed on the Events Index.
The following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!
Primary Games: HalloweenSurfnetkids: Halloween Games |
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