Hi Chrsteodu99,
Welcome to the Canon Forum. In order to give you some useful input about a new camera, the community would need to know what kind of price range you would be looking at. In general, cameras that have a larger sensor and fast lenses would be better able to capture children at their various activities. Fast lenses have a smaller number on the front of the lens barrel, such as 1.8. Something like 3.5 would be considered slower. Since you noted that you are interested in fixed lenses, I would suggest searching among Canon's high end point and shoot cameras. A camera such as the PowerShot G16 has a 1/1.7" sensor, and a 1:1.8-2.8 lens. The G16 sensor is a little larger than the ones in the PowerShot SX series of cameras, which are typically 1/2.3". Along with the larger aperture opening in the lens, the G16 is generally quicker to focus and allow higher shutter speeds to reduce blur than the SX series. But the cost can be as much as $400. It's also on the large side. A pocket version would be the Canon PowerShot S120, which runs up to $350. Roughly the same specifications as the G16, but without as many external controls, so it's very portable.
Most of the newer models of PowerShot cameras have a Kid's and Pets setting in the scene modes. If you don't see that, than using a sports mode should suffice since the mode sets a faster shutter to freeze the active scene better. There are not as many compact cameras to select from anymore with the camera companies moving away from small sensor compact point and shoots to high end large sensor enthusiast cameras costing many more hundreds of dollars. I'm sure that with a budget to work with there will be many fine suggestions from the people on this forum.
Steve M.
