Turning game time into brain time.

• Position: What's New? Holiday Gift Guide

There's really no denying the fact that kids love video games, but should we be concerned when very young children play the games designed for their older siblings? One of our favorite companies has answered a call from parents to provide safe and educational content in video games for the youngest of players. In the first video-game platform made specifically for 3- to 7-year-olds, VTech, Arlington Heights, Ill., has launched the V.Smile TV Learning System--to great fanfare.

V.Smile teaches essential day-to-day skills and curricula such as math, language, and vocabulary through entertaining gameplay. The video games capture the child's interest and the learning just naturally follows. The system connects directly to the TV and has an extensive library of games, called Smart-ridges, featuring some of the most popular licensed characters, including Scooby-Doo, Winnie the Pooh, and The Little Mermaid.

The Smartridges are coded according to age level: Early Learning (ages 3-5), Junior Thinkers (ages 4-6), and Master Minds (ages 5-7). In Disney's Winnie the Pooh: The Honey Hunt, Early Learners explore the Hundred-Acre Wood in search of honey and play activities that help teach the alphabet, numbers and counting, and telling time. Junior Thinkers can learn vocabulary, matching skills, and phonics in Scooby-Doo: Funland Frenzy, as they solve...