Artist and programmer Ferry Halim has created his own personal playground with dozens of cute and quirky flash games. Better still, we're invited to play as well. Orsinal has a wide selection of simple, but highly entertaining games. With adorable graphics and soothing music, it's easy to let time pass by as you play. The games are family friendly, but their cute graphics may be misleading. Kids will find many of these infuriatingly difficult. In fact, adults may find them to be as well. Still, the atmosphere is so tranquil that you won't mind the challenge.

If you're feel overwhelmed by the number of games at Orsinal (currently 60 choices), start out with Winterbells (right now the third game on the page). It's deceptively simple to play. Oh, and report back with your high score!

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Visit Orsinal

Linerider is such a fantastically simple game that it has become an online cult classic. To play Linerider, draw a line using the pencil tool. Press "play" and a boy will hop on his sled and attempt to sled down your line. If the hill is too steep going down, he'll fall off and crash, too steep going up, he'll slow to a grinding halt. Your goal is to keep him riding as long as possible. Sounds easy, doesn't it? The fun comes in creating sledding hills that are fun as well as working in terms of gravity. I highly recommend that new players watch some of the more advanced hills to get an idea of the possibilities.

By the way, the newest release of Linerider requires Microsoft Silverlight. If you don't have it or want it (or know what it is), click on the link to the old version of the game. You'll have just as much fun!

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Play Linerider

My mom bought each of her grandchildren a kaleidoscope for Christmas. Since the kids vary in ages, the kaleidoscopes ranged from your basic decorative cardboard tube with colorful plastic beads to a gorgeous blown glass affair. It was fun to peek through each kaleidoscope to see what the design would be.

There are a wide range of kaleidoscope drawing programs on the Internet, but one of my favorites is KaleidoDraw from ProtoZone Interactives. The online version is a demo of their full software, but the controls are intuitive and the results are beautiful.

ProtoZone has a number of software demos that involve working with patterns, including something mimic stitching, quilting and weaving. These are addictive!

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• Visit KaleidoDraw
• Check out the other ProtoZone pattern programs

Etch a Sketch is one of the toys that epitomize childhood for me. It's creative, simple, portable and fun to share. It was exciting to find an online version of Etch a Sketch for a whole new generation. This is a great site for playing around. There is a gallery of sketches made by other users (you may want to screen it before sharing with children) and you can post your own masterpiece. You can even email it to a friend. What a fun way to say happy birthday or I love you!

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Visit Online Etch a Sketch