good self-directed online games/activities for 6yo?

[emmaegbert]

Thought you guys here would have good ideas. We have done little to no screen time so far which has been fine, but it means I am kind of in the dark as to what is out there! We're spending 2 months in a very, very rural place without any structured activities for kids and frankly without much in the way of other kids at all (other than his 2yo sister), and I am working mornings while my parents watch the kids, but I'd like to give my 6 1/2 yo son the option to do a couple of online activities he can do on his own with little adult input (loose supervision- he'd be using a computer in the living room). Anyway, I am not envisioning hours and hours or anything, just something he can choose to do alongside his other options (playing outside, playing inside, bike and skateboard riding, piano, reading, drawing, swimming, etc). Oh yeah, and preferably free.

I am looking for things that are non-commercial and not tied to any media characters. I am also looking for stuff that is kind of more, I don't know, creative or open-ended than a lot of what I see. Definitely not drills or anything like that. He is having a reading explosion right now, but is not a precocious reader (currently reading: Captain Underpants, Asterix) so not too text-heavy. Very visual/spatial kid, very creative, not a methodical step-by-step kind of learner. He's got access through his school to this "chess magnet" thing but it looks a bit boring to me (he is doing it right now on my laptop which is why I'm thinking of it!)

I say non-commercial but is there cool stuff on the lego site? He does love legos and I'd probably make an exception for that.

Thanks!

[Romana]

www.poissonrouge.com

No drills, fun stuff like optical illusions.  The child can explore the different pages.  Clicking on things makes interesting things happen.  My preschoolers like it, and my 5 year old still enjoys it from time to time.  I think a 6 year old with limited computer experience would find it interesting and fun, or at least parts of it.

[moominmamma]

These are all extremely open-ended, more like playgrounds than games per se.

Sodaconstructor. Physics play. Very simple parameters, very complex possibilities.

Armadillo Run, a downloadable game (limited demo available) ... Physics play again, but with problems to solve at each level.

RateMyDrawings. A pretty functional drawing website for digital art. 

Maybe an online flip-book animation site like the one at Benettonplay.

FallingSand games. Silly but creative little diversions with virtual substances falling and interacting.

Hope that gives you some leads.

Miranda

[UpToSomeGood]

I've been looking for that Sodaconstructor link for FOREVER.

Here are a few fun online games that my son likes; the first ones are not sandbox-type, but are chock full of problem solving:

Meeblings, Meeblings 2

Bloons Tower Defense 4

Neon Maze (... and lots of other Ninja Kiwi games, actually)

Minecraft

[Romana]

The "sodaconstructor" link goes to a bad link (ad site).  Does it no longer exist or is there a different link that does work?

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by Romana 

The "sodaconstructor" link goes to a bad link (ad site).  Does it no longer exist or is there a different link that does work?

Oops, sorry, I was going by memory rather than copy & paste. This one is correct. Sodaplay rather than sodaconstructor.

Miranda

[emmaegbert]

thanks so much- this looks great. I think we've got rain predicted next week so we'll try these out...

-Emma