Ideas for "useful" wii/computer games?

[jduggan]

My dd is 6.5. She is an excellent student, homeschooling is fantastic for both of us.

I am looking for something for her to do for "downtime". Her brother loves k'nex, blocks, lego etc. and she has ponies/dolls/dress up etc, and she is not interested in those sorts of things anymore. I hate to admit it (since we don't have cable and really, really limit screen time) what she does love to do is - the computer! (her dad is an I.T specialist, maybe it's just coming naturally).

I want something for her to do to chill out when she wants, just like her brother goes and builds in his room for an hour, what can she do to just relax? I have to admit, the computer/games is something she really enjoys.

She's done all the starfall/pbs kids/brain pop stuff already.

Soooo, what's out there for games on the computer or wii that are some what useful for the brain/teaches something? It can't be toooo "educational" or she gets that it's just more school and that's not as fun, you know?

thanks so much in advance for your ideas.

[WhaleinGaloshes]

Other than the ones you mentioned, my DD loves Jumpstart (she likes the RPG-ish quest element and plays the games to earn gems to spend on her tasks) and then also this typing site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

which I showed her on a lark and she really went nuts for (surprised me.)

She's been playing some less-educational but still redeeming in some ways speed-type games with me from Big Fish. You can download these for an hour for a trial free...she likes Burger Shop 2 and Farm Frenzy ;-)

Big Fish is also full of Hidden Object (I Spy) games and match 3 games that are good clean fun for blowing off some steam.

ETA: This game is beyond my DD (she's 4.5) but my favorite Big Fish game of all time is this one: Fairy Godmother Tycoon. This is IMHO a quality game. It's funny (clean), increasingly difficult but easy to learn, educational/strategic and fun.

[march24]

Thank you sooo much!! Those are just along the lines of what I was looking for!
please post if you think of any more.

[cbyrum]

My kids, dd 4.5 and ds 5.5, both love Jumpstart.

[WhaleinGaloshes]

Last night and this morning, we tried out two new games from big Fish that were big hits.

Pet Pals, is a pretty realistic, technical vet simulation game that's tricky but very playable in Easy mode and the characters 'talk' so there is both listening and reading, which is helpful. There is a demo video that shows what I mean...:

http://www.bigfishgames.com/download...cto/index.html

There is also a series of Zoo vet games that have more reading and less talking:

http://www.bigfishgames.com/download...vet/index.html
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download...ame/index.html

so we played that one but it needed more help from me.

And Cooking Academy:

http://www.bigfishgames.com/download...my/index.html:

which is fun and interested DD also.

For some more ideas. At $6.99 for instantly downloadable games, most of which have a 1 hour free trial, I'm clearly a Big Fish fan