As a dedicated nerd, let me offer up my favorite kids-saving-money-to-play-dressup game, and the one (other than the sims) that really nailed the genre before all the corporate websites came along: Animal Crossing -- there's a version for the handheld Nintendo DS and one for the Gamecube (which means it plays on a Wii). Both versions are pretty cheap by now.
Animal Crossing starts with a boy or girl moving to a new town, which they get to name. You're greeted at the train station by a shop owner/raccoon who gives you a mortgage to a house and promptly puts you to work in his shop -- delivering packages to people in town, planting flowers, etc.
All the activities described in the article are in the game. The raccoon gets new furniture in his shop every day, so you can drop by to see if the chair you've been looking for is hanging around. You can pay off your mortgage (which results in an addition to your home -- more room for furniture and another mortgage), collect bugs (which are specific to the time of year and time of day) fish (same), clothes (you can design) and generally go about the business of being a little adult with the world's easiest source of income.
It's totally charming, full of little surprises, and has room for parents and siblings to get houses of their own. The writing is sharp enough to enjoy, and most of the gameplay revolves around helping people or being industrious. It's also designed for play in bursts of 20-30 minutes a day, because content is doled out on a 24 hour cycle. It's a little like an interactive advent calendar.
Anyway, it's one of the few titles around that is truly designed for both boys and girls to play, which is refreshing, and I think it succeeds pretty well on that front. It's also not online: the game is really designed to be played, a few times a week, with 3 or 4 people who live in the same house. I'll admit, I was in my late 20s when it came out and my girlfriend and I spent months planting trees and trying to catch rare fish. It is a great substitute for the Disney Industrial Marketing Online Doll House.
