Even if it was a movie your daughter loved, the spin-off might be a dud. When a big budget kids movie is made, the tie-in is usually a rush job that has not been planned properly. The game sometimes attempts to follow the film story too closely, leading to a boring one-dimensional tour through some of the more popular scenes. And of course if game makers run out of ideas, the result is a collection of bad mini-games that do not logically tie together well. Not that all min-games collections are bad though. (Sesame Street’s Once Upon a Monster is a notable exception and also an excellent girl’s game to consider)

Children learn quicker if they’re playing and having fun. Math, normally a boring subject for my 8 year old daughter suddenly became very interesting when she had to calculate how much money she still had to make to buy a bird house in the game Viva Pinata. In the same game she also realized that she could turn cheap plant seeds into grown plants that could be sold for a profit. This is a concept that will hopefully serve her well in later life.

Here are some game categories that I have seen from experience that are surefire winners with younger girls:

• Dress-up (Barbie Jet, Set & Style)
• Dance (Dance Central series, Just Dance: Disney Party)
• Pets (Fantastic Pets, Kinectimals)
• Princess (Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey, Disney Princess: My Fairytale Adventure)
• Life Simulation (Viva Pinata Series, The Sims, Farmville)
• Brainteasers (Brain Challenge, Big Brain Academy)
• Party (Mario Party series)
• Cooking (Cooking Mama)