Ooh, Clue! That and "The Way Things Work" are added to my list to buy. DS5 likes Connect Four too. I have changed my mind about No Stress Chess and may get it for the little(r) one, but DS5's playing chess all right already.
We did play the new Solitaire Chess by ThinkFun last night, and DS loves it to death-- you might want to check that out too. It's a bit like peg solitaire, in that you remove one piece every turn until you have one left, but it uses the chess pieces and moves. I think it's a great little logic puzzle game, and could be used to learn or reinforce the chess moves too.
For computer games, DS's recent favorites include:
Zoo Tycoon. More of a simulation than a game. Well worth the money, especially for the first version. Fun expansion packs include marine exhibits and animals, and dinosaur exhibits and animals. He likes this better than Zoo Tycoon 2, since he didn't like the interface of that one as much.
Master of Orion 2. A turn-based galaxy conquest game. You take over star systems, terraform planets, develop tech, build ships, battle, conduct diplomacy, etc. Sort of like Civilization, but in space.
Warcraft 3. He loves this, but we haven't played in a while (just too busy, and games take a while). Plenty of opportunities for strategic play. The characters are like little army people, but animated and more fun.
The Bloons Tower Defense series, which can be found at ninjakiwi.com and some other places. Balloons advance along one or more paths, and you have to pop them, by placing dart-throwing monkeys, Jedi monkeys, bomb and missile towers, mortars, pirate ships, glue-splattering monkeys, etc. A lot of fun, although once we killed it through infinite levels on the hardest difficulty level together, he lost interest.
Meeblings and Meeblings 2. Another ninjakiwi.com game, hosted at other sites as well. It's sort of like Lemmings, except you have to save bouncing, floating jellybeans (sorta). It's good fun, and takes good problem-solving skills to solve the tougher levels.
... plus some old, small stuff I take from machine to machine (Hex, Lemmings etc.).
