Math can be a child's Achilles' heel when it comes to education. For some children, it is hard to get past the fundamentals. But a fun math game can engage a child as she has fun. Children can learn anything from addition to fractions, and from multiplication to algebra. On the Academic Skill Builders website, for example, a child can race a dirt bike against other children online. The faster a child figures out what the answer is to a problem, the faster her dirt bike will run. This free educational games site also allows a child to fend off tanks by shooting her answer at the right tank. While in Dimension U, for instance, a child can set up an account with a parent's permission; the site sends an email to the parent for permission. A child then downloads a free program to enter a three-dimensional world that mimics Halo games, and the child must compete against other children by gathering orbs to answer mathematical questions. It even allows children to customize the questions to improve areas in which they feel the weakest.
Although not as prevalent as math games online, language arts games range from those that focus on the parts of a sentence to games about where to put commas. Sheppard Software, for instance, teaches children where to place punctuation in a game called "Comma Chameleon." The child plays as the chameleon, snatches the punctuation from the air and places it within the sentence. Academic Skill Builders allows players to race turtles while placing vowels in their right position. Finally, Well Games allows students to compete in a game that tests their spelling skills within a crossword puzzle-like game called "Wordz."
Multiplayer games such as "Power Up" allow children to save a devastated planet and learn ecology along the way. It allows children to see what the lack of scientific inquiry can cause. Also, Dimension U allows players to quiz themselves as they compete against other players in a fully immersive three-dimensional games.
Learning the names of countries and their capitals can get tedious. A child can become disengaged before the lesson has started. Multiplayer games test the knowledge of the player as he competes against others online. Academic Skill Builder allows children to hop from country to country or state to state as a frog or penguin as they race to the finish line. The child must "hop" onto the corresponding country or state where the capital is from.