You haven't tried this have you? I did. My 8 year old wanted a little netbook just for this kind of stuff (PBS Kids, Nick Jr and Webkins). The flash user interfaces for these things were beyond useless on the tiny netbook screens. Anything below 1024x768 isn't in the design center for these little cames and it basically doesn't work. Try it in the store before you buy if you're considering this.

I agree there is lots of good content, but much of it won't actually work on a low-end netbook -- and flash doesn't scale down to even try.

If you want to do this kind of hacking go get an Aurdino. There's a whole world of home brew stuff cooler than we could have imagined when we were kids.

http://www.arduino.cc/