I vote for Endless Ocean and Big Brain Academy if you are looking for educational games. I totally agree that Endless Ocean is very calming. The music is very nice, and my son can now identify any fish he sees on the discovery channel or while watching the new series, Life. The diver even gets dolphin pals to explore with, and the game is very realistic. Our whole family loves Big Brain Academy. You can compete against each other or just against yourself as it keeps a record of your performance, like a report card.
My son is crazy about Lego Starwars, Lego Indiana Jones, and Scooby Doo. To me, they are not too violent. My son is very sensitive to scary things. BUT, I could see that these might be a bit violent to some. No blood, but there is fighting. I like the problem solving aspect to these games. Lots of abstract reasoning. My son has learned a good lesson in persistence from these games. I'm certainly not saying they are educational, but there are some good qualities to them.
My ds6 just said that Wii Sports is educational because you learn to play different sports. LOL These are good family games. We have had lots of fun with tennis and bowling especially. We all really like MarioKart as well, but it's definitely not educational. It's a driving game and is lots of fun for all of us. Good for working on visual spatial skills or hand-eye coordination? LOL
Wii fit promotes exercise and good health. We have this, and I hate to admit we haven't used it much.
We have to limit Wii time, or our son would become completely addicted. He has no self-control when it comes to Wii. It's the best reward and incentive we can use in our house, though! Ds6 is only allowed to play it once homework is completed and when he doesn't have another activity. If we see that it's causing bad behavior (which has happened in the past), we take a break from it for a while. These days, he tolerates it very well without behavior issues for the most part. He knows if we see any meltdowns when it's time to turn it off, he won't get to play for a while. We also provide opportunities to earn Wii time.
Hope this helps.
