Kids Games & Coloring Pages at Club Penguin
Free Child Development Activities for Play Therapy
Jul 6, 2009
“Club Penguin is a snow-covered, virtual world where children play games and interact with friends in the guise of colorful penguin avatars, “ according to the Club Penguin mission statement (author unknown) web page, dated 2009. Club Penguin was launched on-line in 2006, and in 2007 the club partnered with the Walt Disney Company. The home office is in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Many activities for kids are free, but some require a membership.
Free Children Games & Other Play Therapy Activities
Children can play games, explore the virtual penguin playground, chat with friends, print coloring pages, and read comics for no charge or membership requirement. Other activities such as “priority access, exclusive parties, and other opportunities” require a membership. Providing some activities for paid members enables Club Penguin to be third party advertising free.
Two chat activities are available. The “Ultimate Safe Chat” has parameters including a “predefined” menu for greeting cards, and messages. The “Standard Safe Chat” allows kids to send their own messages to other penguins, but filtered within certain words and phrases, and with safeguards against phone numbers and revealing personal information.
Charitable Club Penguin Game
In 2008, the Club Penguin game players were given the opportunity to win “virtual coins.” Club Penguin donated these coins, with real money, to help kids in need. The campaign ran December 12-22, 2008. Two-and-one-half million players donated their coins supporting causes for children. According to the Club Penguin web page, “Coins for Change 2008,” saw more than three billion coins donated. The coins were votes to determine how Club Penguin’s charitable organization, New Horizon Foundation, would distribute one million dollars.
The "Coins for Change 2008" votes were counted by Club Penguin and distributed to:
- Partners in the Horn of Africa received $30,000 for kids education, play therapy, and other programs for AIDS orphans in Ethiopia.
- Partners In Health received $300,000 for child medical care in Haiti and Rwanda.
- Free the Children received $330,000 for community development of schools and educational opportunities for children in India, Ecuador, and rural China.
- War Child received $340,000, for kids hurt by war, for their education, child rights, and poverty reduction due to wars in Georgia, Afghanistan, Northern Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Club Penguin donated another $500,000 to support charitable activities in the countries where the club’s international offices are located:
- Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.
- Brighton, England.
- Sydney, Australia.
- São Paulo, Brazil.
Club Penguin lets visitors interact as a penguin avatar in a snow-covered, colorful virtual world. Free imaginative activities are available for kids to learn and grow. Some educational benefits are reading practice, development of computer skills, and play therapy role playing. By managing their “virtual coins” children can improve their math and money management skills.
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