Harry now has a computer in his room

[heidi]

It's my dad's old office one, and it runs Win 2000 (although I may update it to XP if I can find my old disk) . He's about to turn seven, and a good reader, but his computer isn't connected to the internet as a regular rule, although I have a pcmcia card so I can do it once a week for updates and stuff.

What games & software are good for his age group? He's used my computer to play online stuff a lot, under my supervision, so we haven't looked into software for a while. I'm thinking games, sciencey things, educational-stuff-that-doesn't-seem-educational, etc.

Any good recs?

Comments

[hedda62.livejournal.com]

Best kids' computer game I've ever become obsessed with played is Logical Journey of the Zoombinis (http://www.learningvillage.com/html/rZoombinis2002.html) - we have the older version, but the 2002 edition looks to be about the same. Age range is given as 9-14, but my kids played it several years younger with a little help, and it could certainly appeal to a smart 7-year-old. There are several levels of play so you can build up. It's not a math game per se, more a way of developing logic and categorization skills, and it's also fun, and the Zoombinis are cute.

[wickedelf.livejournal.com]

I don't have a kid, so not much experience there, but I know I used to love the Carmen Sandiego games, and Amazon has a bunch of cheap, used ones for sale.

[aim-toothpaste.livejournal.com]

Zoombinis is the best game EVER.

[gmth.livejournal.com]

My son absolutely loved the Jump Start series when he was that age. Also, the Freddie Fish series.

[february-sea.livejournal.com]

These are all tried and true Sprog!approved. :) (I'm sure there are more, but he's not home right now, and these are the ones I recall him really liking at that age.)

For maths:

Treasure Galaxy (http://www.allstarreview.com/treasgala.html)

Money Town, awesome for teaching math/money type skills. (http://www.kidsclick.com/descrip/moneytown.htm)

Reader Rabbit Math (http://www.kidsclick.com/descrip/rr_math69.htm)

And actually, in general, anything by The Learning Company (http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/104-9484367-3755949?search-alias=software&field-brandtextbin=The%20Learning%20Company) is pretty good, but it *is* pretty obviously educational; the name is a dead giveaway. :P Still, the Carmen Sandiego games are lots of fun--sort of detective-type games that teach geography and world culture...and I think there's a version that concentrates on the US, so that's nice, too. Sprog still likes Carmen Sandiego and he's nearly 11. :)

[ancarett]

Our girls get a big kick out of the Cluefinders series, particularly the reading based games:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/104-0729406-3317532?node=285153

You can get a bundle of one of the Cluefinders games with the Zoombinis -- I'd highly recommend that match up.

We also got a Lion King "Adventures in Typing" since youngest has to learn keyboarding for schools (special needs autistic, she's learning to do her work in the Kurzweil computer system) and that's helped both.

[psychic-serpent.livejournal.com]

When Ben was that age he really loved the Toy Story videogames for the computer. He also had a copy of Frogger, which is much more sophisticated now than the old arcade game.

[potatomaker.livejournal.com]

My brother used to love MathBlaster at that age. It's a basic numbers and math series that gets harder with each volume but it's all taught using fun games. You're the astronaut and you have this quest but to progress you have to beat these math games. http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/reviews/1st_look/new.shtml

This link has reviews by parents of a lot of education games and tools, so this might be a place to get some ideas

[ravensnape.livejournal.com]

Anything by Reader Rabbit or the Learning Company (Clue Finders) was and A+ in my house. Also good, disks by Learning Adventure, which included both Math Blaster and Reading Blaster.

[ravensnape.livejournal.com]

As an added note, I didn't read the sugestions above before I posted and by the looks of them there are several of us who are sugesting the same works. That says something!!!

Boston MoS Software

[(Anonymous)]

We are members of the Museum of Science here, and when we go my 3, 5, and 7 year old all want to spend HOURS on the computers in their Cahners ComputerPlace. They have some amazing programs there that are evaluated extensively for educational content and kid appeal.
Go to http://www.mos.org/doc/1268 and click on "Best Software for Kids" - there's a lengthy list of great programs (some of which have already been mentioned).

Stef (back to LJ lurking)

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Someone mentioned Freddi Fish, and if you can still get them, the Putt-Putt games and Pajama Sam by the same makers are all good innocent fun. Later, when he's 9 or so, he can move on to Spy Fox. I don't know if they're still available since Humongous was bought out, but if they are, they're great.

He's not too young for the Magic School Bus games either; my daughter went into 3rd grade knowing more about science than her teacher and she attributes it to those games. They're sweet and fun and very educational, but they don't feel as much like educational games as, say, Reader Rabbit or Clue Finders. The nice thing about Clue Finders is that they go by grade level, so your kid can always feel extra smart by jumping ahead with those.

The Jump Start series is good too. Hannah played them all... over and over and over again.

[macloudt.livejournal.com]

***looks at large stack of kiddie games next to monitor*** Focus on Scholastic and DK (Dorling Kindersley) brands as they're wonderfully educational and multi-level (he won't outsmart them in a month!), and see if you can get your hands on any I Spy games as they're fantastic for kids and fun for adults as well. Gareth's current favourite (he's just turned 8 but has advanced map reading skills) is Crosscountry Canada 2, which involves driving an 18-wheeler across Canada to pick up goods in different locations and making a final delivery, all the while making sure he eats, sleeps, has enough fuel, keeps on budget etc. I would think there's an American version available if Harry's up to such multitasking. Gareth's just a bit older but he is very good at this kind of stuff...I'm talking about the kid who can draw a map of the world off the top of his head and label at least 40 countries.

I would actually avoid any popular character games as they are more expensive and in my experience have less expansion potential than the bog-standard games.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

My kids sure loved the Reader Rabbit software games at that age.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and Freddi Fish, too!

[story645.livejournal.com]

Seconding mathblaster and jumpstart. I've played on both, and they're awesome. I played both for a while after I was too old and advanced for 'em.

Before they made sims, EA made a ton of worldbuilder simulatar games that help kids figure out science, ecology, economics, mechanics. Games like simcity, simhelicoptor, simworld and the like. Worth a look at least.

"The Incredible Machine" is this great problem solving game where you build crazy Rube Goldberg machines to yeah, solve the problems set on each level.

The scholastic booklets that they hand out in school tend to have some decent games.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Reader Rabbit stuff is good. There's also a Richard Scarry math CD that's kind of fun; Maya seemed to like it.

[trinity_clare]

I'll echo all the calls for JumpStart (get him the third grade one, it takes forever to beat), Freddi Fish, and Cluefinders. I'm the oldest in my family, and my parents wouldn't let any games in the house that my younger siblings might be scarred by, so I was stuck with those and Oregon Trail for years. It got to the point where at the age of 13 I could beat a game of Freddi Fish 5 in under 5 minutes. Thank god those days are over.