With the summer break now in full flow you may be looking for a cheap and easy way to keep your children occupied without it costing you a fortune, and without it taking up all of your day.

As parents, I’m sure you’re still very busy, and haven’t got time to be entertaining young children while they’re at home over the summer.

At the same time, you don’t want to just be dumping your child in front of Netflix all day, or leaving them playing games like Grand Theft Auto, or Fortnite. Apart from the legalities of children playing certain games, you just don’t want to be leaving a child sitting around playing computer games all day. I’m sure you get my drift.

So what are your options? You need something cheap, legal, isn’t going to take all day, and isn’t going to expose your youngster to overly destructive games.

This is where io games can come into play. They're easy to play, placid and calm, short, and are usually free.

io games tick so many boxes. If you just want to give your bored children something to do for an hour while you wash your car, or sort your bills out, an io game is ideal.

As they are so short and simple, the chances are your child won’t want to sit there playing it all day. After all, we don’t want to create more problems than we solve. So a quick blast on something like Agar, or Slither, might be just the ticket.

They’re also a good call if you just want your child to chill out for half an hour in the evening, calm down time. 

But where do you start to find one? There are hundreds of the damn things, and finding one that suits your needs could take ages. 

A quick search on Google will show you that two of the more popular ones are the aforementioned Agar and Slither.

These are both basic, they don’t involve shooting or killing, and they are both free to play. Both give you somewhere to start, and are a gentle introduction to the io genre.

For more older kids, or ones looking for a game with a bit more adrenaline, maybe a game like 1v1 lOl would be more suitable (although it’s not strictly an io game). 1V1 lol does involve a bit of killing and slaying, but in a more fictional environment. 

Starting with Agar, and that is simply a game about circles. Sound basic? Yes, and it’s as basic as it sounds. It’s ideal for a youngster needing to be occupied for an hour or so.

As a circle, you simply go around absorbing other circles. You grow in size the more circles you absorb, and it’s as simple as that. 

The next game worth taking a look at is Slither.io - with a name like that, you won’t be surprised to hear it’s based on snakes.

Another simple game, you just slither around on a board eating as much as you can. Again, looking to grow in size. If your head touches the body of another snake, you’ve lost. 

This is another very simple and basic game for a youngster to play. 

FInally, one for the older kids, and it’s 1v1 lOl. This is a battle royale, building simulator, and shooting game. Sound odd? Maybe, and I thought that when I first heard about it.

Basically, you build to give yourself a platform to fight from. Yes, you have to fight in this one, but it’s not extreme fighting. 

You can play against players from all around the world, and it’s a survival of the fittest game, with the last person standing declared the winner. 

The three mentioned games are just a starting point for the io genre. There are far more games, hundreds in fact, for you to choose from. 

They’re free, and easy to play, and hopefully this has helped give you some much needed downtime from entertaining your children all summer!