We also played some text adventures, but I wouldn't recommend them for today's kids. Back then it was just cool to sit in front of a computer in the first place so bashing our heads against the wall for months trying to get a babel fish didn't seem as frustrating as it actually was.
VNs and Twine style IF would be less frustrating, although a lot of those are probably not age appropriate for younger kids.
> although it takes a bit out of me lol
So much this. Preparation took time, and the game itself consumed a lot of my time and mental energy. Sadly, this came to a point were my daughter was highly motivated to play, but I was often not in the mood for that or had enough time to play, so our sessions became less and less frequent, to disappear entirely. I think it's been more than one year we did not play (she is 7 now).
Nevertheless it was a great experience. All fathers should consider give it a try. For the record, I never really played this kind of game before, just witnessed some.
We probably played more than 30 games. Toward the end it followed the same template where she was a witch (a gentle witch of course) that went from towns to towns to solve issues (generally related to magic). Most often she had to learn a new incantation along the way to help her in this adventure. Sometimes she also had to use previously learned incantations written on her notebook. That was a bit a trick on my part to get her read a bit. Drawing a basic plan of the city helped a bit, so toward the end we did that a lot.
In one year or so, his brother will be old enough to play, so I might try again. Something that would help is pre-made campaigns (just in case someone knows some nice resources for that). As I am thinking about this, I guess generative IA can be leveraged for this purpose.
For IF, my kid has enjoyed doing some Zork with me, but the puzzles are pretty difficult.