Kid-Friendly Games By Subject

 
By Frank Lewis,
 
Kids these days spend more time in front of the screen than under the sun. They would rather throw virtual fireballs than actual balls, and many prefer to jump over flaming rivers than play hopscotch. This has nothing to do with you as parents. This is just evolution. Technology has changed the way the young generation thinks, talks, and ultimately - lives. There is no point in stopping it, because technology is prevalent and permanent. As good adults, the best thing to do is to go along with the flow. Evolve with the kids.

We all know that education is of the utmost importance. Gone were the days when playing video games are considered ban, non-beneficial, and threatening to a child's studies. With thousands of titles being produced each year for every gaming console imaginable, there are bound to be great games made especially for education. Here are some titles to give you an idea on how to incorporate education and video gaming.

  • Arts - Scribblenauts Unlimited (DC Comics, 3DS and Wii)

  • If your kid shows passion for the arts, then push it further by introducing Scribblenauts to him or her. This game is full of wacky characters, colorful setting, and a great concept specifically formulated to squeeze out the user's creative juices. This puzzle game is solved by drawing and materializing objects into the screen. Kind of like playing god - you solve people's problems by summoning random stuff. It's all clean (and challenging!) fun. This 3DS game is perfect for kids with a knack for drawing and fun pictures.

  • Physics - Little Big Planet (Mm, PlayStation 3)

  • The goal of this game is to build lots of structures to clear the levels. Played by a maximum of four people, Little Big Planet will teach young kids the basic concepts of physics. They won't even know about it until when they get older in high school. The great thing about this is that, while playing, the basic laws of physics are slowly being introduced to them, and as they progress, they would have mastered these laws unconsciously! It doesn't hurt that the characters are so cute as well.

  • Health - Eyepets (Sony, PlayStation 3)

  • Remember the Tamagotchi craze that took over the world? It spawned a game genre on its own. Petting games like Nintendogs have been selling like hotcakes. Eyepets is no different, except that you can now play with other Eyepet owners with this recent multiplayer update. The kids will learn what happens when his pet is neglected, spends too much time on the cold, or the first aid to fever.

  • General Knowledge - Several

  • Trivia games are a direct way to educate kids. Learning new information is made to be more enjoyable when presented in a variety of ways. Here are some of our favorites. Trivia Pursuit (XBOX 360), Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader (XBOX 36), Jeopardy (iOS), and Trivia Machine (PC). Of course, your job is to either tell them it's ok to make mistakes, or outright tell them the correct answer. Don't expect to get high scores even if you're already an adult - these trivia games can be really difficult. But that is why these trivia games are so informatively entertaining.

  • Mathematics and Logic - Portal 2 (PC, XBOX 360, PS3)

  • Hilarious, thought-provoking, logic challenging and, quite frankly, super annoying at difficult levels - Portal 2 is one of the best developed puzzle games in our opinion. The goal is to clear the stages using 'portals', passageways which you create to get from one point to another. Whoever said that the shortest distance between Point A and Point B clearly has not played Portal 2. Even as adults, we had great fun racking our brains on how to solve the levels. Using concepts learned in math and logic, it's a great feeling to finish the game with the power of our minds. This is the goal we're setting here - for kids to realize that a problem can be solved when you think about the solution hard enough.


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