You already know I have a bit of an "attitude" about video games. I used to flat out insist no video games would ever enter my house. Nowadays I am eating my words as my oldest son has accumulated a few consoles, we got a Wii for the family, and my kids play educational games on my computer. We don't spend a lot of time on them… maybe a few hours a week but I am happy with these changes because they have enriched our lives instead of detracted from them. I am not feeling that same love for TV but I have loosened up on the games even though I would say I have/had good reason to feel the way I did. I have a family member who is addicted to gaming. It can be just as bad as someone addicted to alcohol or gambling. When someone in your life can spend 40+ hours a week (as in ALL their free time, not spent sleeping or working) you begin to despise the object of their addiction.
BUT a couple games have changed my thinking on gaming.. as long as it is kept to a healthy minimum. I guess I am now thinking more about how gaming can be enriching as long as it doesn't replace REAL things like human contact, hobbies and activities. In fact I require that games in our house "encourage" these things, IRL.
Last year my kids started playing Magic Artists Deluxe, Kid Pix, and JumpStart World. The first two are not so much games as they are art programs. My kids REALLY enjoy them because it allows them to create paintings and pictures with all sorts of different tools and techniques… media art. At least two of my kids are very artistic (drawing, painting, sculpting) and I am not. Giving them tools to express their art has been a wonderful thing. Imagine how fun it would be for a child to take a blank piece of paper, color it their favorite color, use 5 different paintbrushes to swirl accent colors around, maybe take a sponge to blend some colors, then paste little hearts and stars all over it, and sprinkle with glitter or chocolate chips. Doing all of this on a computer allows for that wonderful experimentation. They use what they learn via these programs to create art offline too.
The last game is something we played while homeschooling. It encourages reading and math by making it a game.
This year we got the Wii and found a wonderful way to exercise and play active games like bowling and golf right from home. It even got my oldest son interested in running. And yet my kids still spend lots of time outdoors because the Wii only contains their adventurous spirits for a few hours a week. Keeping the Wii stored away when not in use helps with that I think.
The latest game we have been playing is on Facebook… Farmville. It got started when my mother introduced my daughter to the game and set her up a farm on my account, without my knowledge. At first I was not too happy because this was around New Years and I had read the resolutions of several bloggers to abandon Farmville because it was taking up too much of their time. Grown adults were having problems keeping their activity in check!
But all things considered it has been a great thing for my daughter and now my oldest son. They are learning so much about managing a farm, planting things, harvesting, taking care of animals, etc. They are also chatting with and "playing" with family members they don't get to see often, like their Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. It has helped them form personal connections with people, not a disconnection. It has also given them big dreams of gardening this spring and trying this Farmville stuff for real.
So I guess that is it in a nutshell… using media to enhance our lives not just entertain us. It is a tall order in this day and age but it can be done. Is it healthy? Well, that's a stretch. Is it educational? It can be. It is at all bad? No. Its all about turning something that can be lemons, into lemonade.
What are your thoughts about kids and gaming?
