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  Free interactive games are an excellent way for students to review academic information and to practice computer skills. There are interactive games available for all ages and all ability levels. Many game websites have at least one free game to sample, but there are a number of sites where all of the interactive games are free. And of course there are also interactive games that families and friends can play without a computer.
  
  

Fun School

• The Fun School page at Kaboose.com (see references) has games divided by subject. Under "Time Warp," for example, students can play various games loosely based on history, like "Pirates" and "Wild Word West." There are also science games, reading games, math games, language games, sports games, art games and music games.
  
  

Gamequarium

• Gamequarium.com has games for students in grades 3 through 6, with junior games for students in grades K through 2 and a special preschool area. There are literally thousands of free interactive games on the site. Students can play games that improve thinking skills ("Brain Games") as well as games about subjects like holidays, safety, science, reading, math, sign language, keyboarding, music, language arts, technology and character education.
  
  

BBC

• Students through age 16 can find games on the BBC's education site (see references). You can search by age (4-7, 7-11 and 11-16) and subject to choose appropriate games on this site. All academic subjects are represented, with some games being more challenging than others. "World War When," a game that has students put historical events into the appropriate time line, would probably even challenge college history majors.
  
  

Offline

• While we usually think of offline interactive games as board or card games (and thus not free), there are games you can play with no investment at all. Friends and/or families can play Math Baseball, where players move to the designated bases (such as corners of the room or yard) for each correctly answered math problem. You can also do Spelling Baseball or even Family Trivia Baseball in the same manner. Another free interactive game is Simon Says; to make it more challenging for older players, you can spell out the directions or play in a foreign language.