Forget hand-scrawled notes stuck to the fridge door. With Wii you can leave messages for other family members on the calendar-based Wii Message Board. Whenever there's a new message, your Wii console will emit a pulsating blue light.

If your Wii is connected to the Internet, you can use WiiConnect24 to send messages to people outside the home as well. You can even receive messages pertaining to specific software, such as a note about the availability of a new item in Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City, the announcement of a new Mario Kart Wii competition or a new challenge sent by a friend for Big Brain Academy for Wii. Whether you want to receive such messages is up to you and you can adjust your settings to your liking.

The Wii Message Board also is the home of a log that details which software has been in use and for how long. This is a great way for parents to keep track of how much the console has been used on any given day.