Here are a few of my favorite things:

Computer Games: (online)

1. Headsprout : http://www.headsprout.com/ is a great online phonics program K-1st levels is packed with great games, repetition, printable word cards and books, plus they mail you a map to track your progress and a bunch of full color books that go along with the program!
2. Starfall : http://www.starfall.com/ this is free! The learn to read portion has wonderful games, activities, and videos that teach phonics! Interactive stories too. Plus you can print out tons of worksheets that go with each lesson for reinforcement...and my friend discovered that you can order all the worksheets bound in a book for around $5. I saw the books and they are great!
   

Computer Games: (CDs)

1. Mercer Meyer's The Mummy Mystery-This game is awesome!!! The idea is that you have to find the 5 rings that will open this chamber in a pyramid to help the archeologist who is trapped in there. You travel all over Egypt in search of clues and items that you need to get more clues. You earn/find scarabs (which is used like money) along the way to help you buy things you need. It's tricky and requires lots of thought (which I love) but my 5-6 year old son has figured it out.... best part....EACH time you play it, it's different! He thought once he beat the game that the next time he played he'd just go straight to where all the rings were and get them right away...but he was wrong! The clues were different....things weren't where they were...it's a new game each time! Plus he learned lots of Egyptian vocabulary and map skills not to mention all the critical thinking that was going on!
2. Gary Gadget's Building Cars : He JUST got this game for his birthday a few weeks ago. Like the game above, it's a critical thinking game. The idea being that you use parts from the junk yard to build a car...but your car has to have all the necessary parts (engine, battery, gas tank, gear box, etc) you can also add silly and funny things. Then you go out into the town and drive around...but you might have to go through the mud road to get to the party that you just got invited to....and if you don't have the right tires you won't be able to cross the mud...so you have to go back home and rebuilt...or if you have to save the cat in the tree you have to have a ladder on the back of your car. As you do favors for others they reward you with extra parts! It took us forever to figure out how to get the horn on our car so he could honk at the cows in our way!! He loves it!!

More to come....