Yet another in what is becoming a series of online games for kids that aren’t mean to be kids’ games (see also Tiny Drum Machine and Blue Man Art):
Floorplanner is a Web-based application for room layout and design. You can click and drag furniture, plants, rugs, walls, and other objects to plan the home of your dreams or just a nursery for your new arrival. My four-year-old, however, took a shine to it. Budding Bob Vila that he is, he even chose to play with it last night in lieu of his usual evening DVD. The rooms ended up looking like a collaboration of Escher and Picasso, but he was very proud of his design. I figure it’s more educational and less annoyingly squeaky than a Bob the Builder video.
You can register for a free account (or pay for a Pro version that lets Realtors and other professionals save multiple projects), but if you don’t want to bother with either, the “Try-It” demo works fine for kids. (Demo projects can’t be saved, though.)
(Thanks to Lifehacker for suggesting it for us grownups.)
