Getting Started
How to use this website

Hi! Welcome to our new website

The aim of this website is to provide a safe and fun place for younger users of the internet. It is also a place for carers to share their views and experiences about the likes and dislikes of their children.

Join Dixie and Trixie the Puzzle Pixies for:

  • Puzzles: Includes on-line versions of traditional puzzles and brand new puzzles that you can't show on paper!
  • Games: Traditional word-games such as wordsearches (updated for the interactive generation!) and our own version of hangman, and strategy games such as and tic-tac-toe. We also have games for younger children which teach basic mouse control
  • Painting: Paint pictures and send them in for all the world to see!
  • Activities: Colouring-in sheets, instructions on how to build games and puzzles, and fun experiments!
  • Weblinks: Links to other good childrens websites
  • Reviews: Reviews of the best childrens books, toys and games

We will be continuously adding new content to the site so check back often...

How much does it cost?

IT'S FREE. YOU PAY NOTHING. NO MONEY. NO INTRODUCTORY OFFERS. NO FREE JOINING PERIODS. NOTHING. JUST USE IT AND ENJOY IT.

I'm sure you get the point! We don't charge for the website, but we do allow appropriate adverts. The reason for this is that websites cost money to run. We provide the content for free as a hobby, but we still have to rent webspace monthly on a computer so that you can have this site. We also have families to support!

You can support this website in a number of ways:

  • Provide games : If you are technically able then please provide games and puzzles. We use the OpenLaszlo web-application language and can provide examples and artwork to get you started.
  • Provide games content : If you feel like writing a wordsearch then send us an email containing the grid of letters followed by the list of words. The same applies for any other games. For example, if you are really into four-by-five block puzzles then send us some start and finish block positions!
  • Provide graphics : If you are artistically able, then we would appreciate drawings, graphics and artwork for this site to improve its appeal to a younger audience.
  • Provide other content : If you can't tell the difference between Javascript and a Lava lamp, then you can contribute by sending ideas for activities, games, book reviews, toy reviews, game reviews, website links, and ideas (and constructive comments) on how to improve the website generally. All will be very gratefully received!

See the "Contact Us" menu item for how to email us

Finding your way about

Navigate using the Main Menu at the left of the screen. The menu choices are

  • Home : This will always take you back to the front page
  • News : Check here to find out the new games we've been adding
  • Pre-school kids : Activities for pre-school children
  • 5 to 7 years : Activities for younger school-aged children
  • 8 to 10 years : Activities for children
  • 10+ years : Activities for genius children!
  • Activities : Things to do and fun experiments
  • Reviews : Reviews and recommendations of software, books, toys and games for different ages
  • Pixie Paintings! : Our painting program, pages and gallery
  • Activities : This area contains things that are difficult to categorise. It includes things like printable puzzles that don't have an on-line version, things to make and do, and some fun or educational content that isn't for a particular age group like a spy code generator program.
  • Google Search : Our web search engine that we maintain the list of sites to search. This makes it even safer than Google's "Safe Search" option. All websites are checked by a human for quality and suitability.
  • Links : Recommend and review other websites for children
  • Help : Help on using, and getting the most from, the website
  • Contact Us : Send us your comments and views

The age categories are just rough guides - children all develop at different rates so if they find a game or puzzle in one level too easy then just try the same type of game or puzzle in the next levels up.

What do I need to view this site?

The main answer to that is simple: a good web-browser

A web-browser is the program you are using now to view this webpage. There are a number of common web-browsers, and some are definitely better than others. The most common ones are:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer : This used to be the most common one with nearly 100% of people using it at one time. Unfortunately Microsoft became complacent and have only recently decide to update it. As a result, Internet Explorer version 6.0 and earlier is now very outdated, with poor support for modern web standards. Even so, about 80% of people surfing the internet still use it! Many users will currently be using version 6, as shipped with Windows XP. If it is not configured correctly (in common with other browsers), it can leave users vulnerable to unwanted software being downloaded onto their computer. Also, because of its widespread use and poor security, it is commonly targeted by hackers as a route to placing malicious software onto computers. See this page at Microsoft for improving safety. For safer browsing, Microsoft now recommend that users download version 7 of this browser and it is shipped by default with Vista. See the Microsoft Internet Explorer website for more details. Version 7.0 may be installed in the future as an automatic upgrade to Windows XP by the Windows software updater. I would strongly advise people to upgrade to this new version of Internet Explorer as soon as possible. It is a much better browser, although again Microsoft haven't implemented all the new web standards and so I would still recommend that people try Firefox or Opera instead. There are rumours that Microsoft is already working on Internet Explorer version 8 and we look forward to seeing that.
  • Firefox : This is a newer browser that has been taking most of the market share from Internet Explorer. It is free, will run on Windows, Linux and Apple computers, has good support for all the latest web standards, is easy to use and great for browsing. It is considered to be safe and is well maintained. It is our most recommended browser. It is also the one that we use for testing. There are help pages on this website which show you how to configure the Firefox browser for safe surfing.
  • Opera : This is a well established commercial, but free, web-browser. It will also run on most computers (including web tablets and mobile phones) and it, too, is gaining market share. It has a clean interface, supports the latest web standards and is easy to use. The latest version 9 is very fast, stable and has some very nice extras. We recommend it and support version 9 fully. You can get it from opera.com
  • Safari : This is the web-browser for the Apple Mac. It has a good reputation, but we don't run it here so can't vouch for it. We can't test our website on it and would welcome reports (and fixes!) from people who do.
  • Konqueror : Based on software common with Safari, this is a Linux web-browser. It appears stable and fast with good support for standards and we will be testing compatibility in the future.

If you know of any other web-browsers, then please let us know and tell us how the website looks.

We recommend a screen size of at least 1024x768 for browsing.


Plug-ins required

A plug-in is software that you download from a website that allows your web-browser to do new things.

Adobe Flash plug-in

Some games on this web-site require the Flash plug-in from Adobe. Most computers have this installed or your browser will ask if you want to install it when it is first needed.

If you have to install it manually, go to http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer and download the free player.

The Flash games on this site will work with version 7 or greater. Most recent downloads will be for version 8 or 9 of the player.

Version 9 of the Flash player is now also available on Linux. You may want to check out the GNU Gnash project at http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash which is developing an open source alternative. This also applies if you are wary of proprietary formats and want an open source solution.

SVG plug-in

SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics. Unlike normal images on a website, "vector" graphics represent pictures as lines, circles, etc. and not as a series of little dots ("pixels"). This has the advantage that you can make SVG pictures bigger or smaller and they will still be just as detailed. If you try to make an image bigger it will just look more blocky. If you try to make an image smaller then it will look fuzzy.

Modern web browsers such as Firefox 1.5 and above, and Opera 9 are able to draw SVG pictures on a web page. Older and non-conformant browsers such as Internet Explorer cannot, but Adobe has produced a plugin that will enable you to be able to. You can download it from the Adobe website (just click this link).

Puzzle Pixies uses SVG for colouring-in pages and pages for printing out, so that they will look great when printed out on a printer.

Common questions

Why do you not allow live update of on-line reviews, comment, chat and uploads of pictures?

This is a website for children, and is open to the public. That means ALL the public. Some people are stupid and mean and it is a fact of life that they may try to upload content and comment unsuitable for children. We wouldn't like our children to see this, so we check everything that is submitted. It is a pain, takes up our time, but is better for everyone.

Please send any other questions by email. Use the "Contact Us" main menu option.