Educational Components of Wii

[Love_My_Babies]

How do you use your Wii for educational purposes?

I have been anti-video games for the kids since day 1. So, since we got a Wii almost a year ago we have barely used it. I found out the other day that we can stream hulu and other television and movie programs via the Wii onto the tv. So, I went through the process of setting it up, and we have several wildlife and history programs and documentaries set up for viewing over the next several months.

I had to enable the internet channel in order to stream video. When I did that, the news and forecast channels automatically set up. They are amazing. It is a globe that you can spin with your controller and click on any city in the world and find out local news, weather, sports, etc. Totally cool, and the educational opportunties are endless!

We also checked out an African Safari Wii game from the library. It is really cool, too. The kids are photographers for a magazine, and they have to find animals, tracks, plants, poop etc. as they are assigned by their magazine editor. The subtitles are very educational and interesting, too.

So, this leads me to think that there must be other uses for this machine besides collecting dust. Anyone else use their Wii for educational purposes??

[annettemarie]

We use ours for gym/wiggle breaks on rainy days and stream movies from Netflix. That's really been about it. Oh, and the globe you can turn 360 for weather is pretty cool as well!

I'll have to check out the Safari game.

[Quaniliaz]

I like the african safari game, too - although no one else in my house seems to like it. Can you stream hulu without paying a fee? Last time I checked it wasn't free... If it is, I would love to try it! We do use our wii to play netflix play it now movies on our tv, which is pretty slick.

[ohiomommy1122]

we love the active life games to get out energy and we love wii big brain acadamy and endless ocean both are educational

[tankgirl73]

I was going to mention Endless Ocean too. DS is a marine nut and he just LOVES it. It's very low-action... there's no enemies to defeat or big mysteries to solve. There are some challenges and some kind of quests, but they're totally optional whether to do them or not! 99% of the game is just swimming around in the ocean looking for fish. Sounds like that safari game might be a similar concept?

Big Brain Academy has its pros and cons for me. I find it annoyingly cartooney and flashy and noisy. But the puzzles are fantastic. My DD who is only 3.5yo loves to play it, and it's really quite interesting to see the games she's actually quite good at!

I also do like the basic sport-type games, and the board-game or outdoor-game kind of games. Though they're not strictly "educational", they're like "family fun" without being "video-gamey".