A free online game, "How to Train Your Dragon" from Nickelodeon provides enough of a challenge to keep your child entertained while she becomes familiar with mouse functions. At the lower levels, there are five or six different mini-games, each taking less than a minute to play. After you conquer your training level, you move on to faster and harder to hit upper levels. You do have to start over each time you fail.
"Constellations," a simple mouse-clicking computer game, helps teach mousing skills as well as learning about patterns. Your child simply clicks stars to build his own constellations. Encourage your child to name the constellations and create stories behind them just like the constellations in the sky. The only drawback to "Constellations" is the small star field. "Zoo Animals," another computer game for preschoolers, lets your child assemble pictures in sensible ways and accustoms him to working on a computer. The large puzzle pieces give many clues to the correct order to create a picture.
Teach your child to rhyme. Tell him stories that rhyme, and then set aside a time when you both try to rhyme everything you say. Allow your child to lead part of the time. Make up rhymes about things he cares about, his dog's name, his favorite stuffed animal or ice cream. When you can't play rhyming games with your child, let him play "Rhyme with Elmo" on the PBS Kids website, where Elmo says a noun and a picture of what the word represents appears on the screen next to several rhyming choices. When your child mouses over a choice, Elmo pronounces the object's name. Your child simply has to click the object to select it.
You remember this game from when you were a child; you say, "I spy with my little eye..." and then you give a clue to what object you're looking at. Big, black, curved, fuzzy -- any clue is acceptable. The reason this game thrives through the generations is that it's addicting, fun and a good learning tool. Using language to describe things is a skill, and like all skills, the more your child practices, the better he'll become.