My nephew turns 9 in a week or so. His folks are getting him a PC and are looking for a “fun learn to type program”. I throw it out to Dopedom to come up with some suggestions.
It has been a long time since I was nine, and even then the hardware was rocks and the software was mud. sigh…
These guys were where you went for the “fun learning” stuff when I was that age, and it looks like, if anything, they’ve bought up even more brands in the decade and a half since then. If the world were a just place, they’d have released updated versions of the stuff I remember quite enjoying as a kid, but that unfortunately doesn’t appear to be the case. The better Super Solvers games and Think Quick! were soooooo cool.
The other games I remember pretty well from that age group were the Munchers games. Again, lots of fun for a dork in the making, and not necessarily so helpful any more since all of this was discontinued a decade ago.
(It’s worth noting that the educational games were about as fun as the “real” games back when I was nine; there’s a lot more out there now even in just something like Wii Sports that might make it harder to keep the kid’s attention with the educational stuff.)
Edited to add: Actually potential useful idea! Does the kid know how to play and/or like chess? When I was a little kid I used to play against my dad every Sunday afternoon. One of the first computer games I remember was a VERY old version of Chessmaster than I played on his 386. You could expand on that thought and go towards other classic games that aren’t necessarily educational, but will definitely make the kid think, which is really just as good.
Thanks Kiros for the tips. It looks like The Learning Company is still in business (although it has gone through several owners over the years). I like how you can sort their product offerings by age and grade. It gives me a good starting point.
Typing of the Dead
Mavis Beacon + zombies