Webkinz

It seems that all the rage among the 1st to 4th grade population is WEBKINZ. They are stuffed animals that "come to life" on the WEB. You purchase an animal, name him or her, and then use a secret code that comes with it to bring it to life in cyberland.

You are able to give your pet a home, furniture, food, toys etc. You make fake money by playing games, of which you use to buy fake things. Not only can you compete for fake money prizes against others, you can interact with them and communicate. (The "others" aren't fake, niece E has friends from school that she had met up with via the site.)

My nieces are very much into this. To check it out click here

Of course, they offer many different types of amimals so the youngsters want to collect them all (along with the trading cards).

I was talked into purchasing one myself, so I could play along with the nieces. Here is my new pet beagle, who of course, is named Maverick. Sad to say, I haven't been on the site since I first signed on, and last week I had my niece E check on Mav. (I thought I had starved him!). She said that he was just hungry, and gave hime some tastey fake treats. I certainly hope that he doesn't end up on virtual puppy skid-row due to my neglect!

So if you have a primary school aged child, or just want to act like a child, this is the newest cyberspace thing to do!