Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
General: How to Play Games with Your Kids
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
As part of our continuing coverage of kid- and family-friendly gaming, MMORPG.com takes a look at the best ways to game with the little nippers. Check out our ideas about gaming with Junior and then add a few of your own tips in the comments.
So the other day I wrote about being a Digital Parent, today I want to offer some suggestions about what types of games to play with your kids. This is tricky as I am not listing out games specifically, but more importantly talking about in game systems and skills that can help children learn and achieve a sense of accomplishment in a game. These skills can then be applied to real life in some scenarios, so let’s get started.
Read more of Garrett Fuller's How to Play Games with Your Kids.
)
Comments
Thanks. I am 31 years old father of a very over excited 12 year old son who loves gaming even more than i do. I often think if i should just take him under my wing and play together. But now i will definitely give it a try and instead of getting him to play the games i like , i will focus on what he likes.
I'm a 42 yr old father to 5 boys, and my oldest two (10 and 8 years old now) are the reason I discovered MMOs after a long time away from gaming. I was always keen for them to have fun with computers, both as a learning experience and well, just to have fun, really. Refurbished laptops from eBay helped a lot here - a useful tip for those with many children and a budget. We started off with an old copy of Age of Mythology I had from my student days and they loved it - learning a lot about classical mythology and history in the process. My 10 yr old still has a passion for history now which he wants to take further.
After several unsuccessful attempts to get AOM to work as a multiplayer game, an old med school friend of mine suggested we try Guild Wars. Three copies of the Complete Collection later and we were off, and have never looked back. Playing through GW my my sons and my old friend has been the best fun I've ever had with a computer, and we're all waiting for SWTOR and then GW2 now. My boys have also discovered Minecraft, which is proving to be an amazing canvas for their creative young minds.
I could not agree more with your article about the educational benefits of gaming. Of course, this needs to be tempered with rules about homework and chores coming before computer time, and the very important balance between outdoor activities and exercise versus online activity needs careful scrutiny. My boys are at the age when they would spend far too much time on the computers if I let them, but this is just part of parenting like any other boundary-setting that we have to do. The world our children are growing up in is very different now from when we were children ourselves - largely due to technology and the internet in particular. My feeling is that we need to embrace this as parents and encourage children to become the doers and thinkers, rather than passive consumers.
In addition to the reading, maths, history and problem-solving skills which can be learnt in-game, the other important benefit I became aware of was building teamworking skills. My children loved being part of a team, and having their own roles, following a plan etc. They learnt to deal with success and failure, learnt to be brave and go down valiantly for the team, and learnt to think about how their character would fit as part of the team, considering what skills to bring or how to develop their character.
Thanks for a great article!
My Son and I have been playing a ton of CoD:MW3 spec ops together.
He's 12 and is really good at games now.
Seems like Yesterday I introduced him to Super Mario brothers...
Damn... Time flies.
Playing: Nothing
Looking forward to: Nothing
My 2 girls (12 and 7) and my son(4) love playing Club Penguin and Wizard 101 together. Another nice tool is how to pay for the MMO. My kids will go out of the way to do extra work around the house if they want a game card for some "phat lootz".
Though my oldest is starting to bug me about playing EQ2 (my and my wife game).
Once again, thank you very much! I somehow feel a little responsible for this post, since I first noted how dumbfounded I am about what to allow and what not to... this is a great guide, thank you ever so much!
My nephew [now 7, started when he was 4!] has been playing DDO with me for years! His little brother has now begun to play...and I'm afraid I may lose my longterm gaming buddy to him!
They love solving the puzzles, jumping in the water, and just generally running amok in Eberron. The younger boy has ADHD, but has managed to stay with us to finish some of the shorter dungeons - I'm sure playing with us is better than just watching SpongeBob.
Good article!
<p align=center><a target=_blank href=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm><img border=0 src=http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/20.jpg></a></p>;
Great article indeed.
I'm not married nor have children but I always wondered what to do when my time comes, and this article helps to have some notion of what to do. I'm a sports coach irl (yeah, I'm a mix of nerd and sports guy) so I know how and what to do to educate children in that environment and situations, but in gaming I didn't knew we could use some of those ideas with them succesfully and bring it to real life situations.
Also:
This! ^^
I want say "thank you" to the all fathers, who play games with their kids.
I am a 36 single mother and I play various games with my five kids. I have four girls and one boy. One is old enough to play on her own of course. My other four which are 15, 13, 12, and 9 all play various systems and pc games. We play different genres as well. Me and my son(15) play Rift and WoW together. I let them play the games for like an hour or two each during the week sometimes. But recently I had to take all the systems due to my son not knowing when to get off during school days. So now I had to go back to letting them play during the weekends only and after doing their chores. I have no issues with children playing games at young ages. Just a moderation plan needs to put into play. My 9 year old loves to play CoD. I must admit she is darn good at it too. I mean afterall they sat and watch me play when they was little so I just knew they was going to do the same thing. Plus that is what my major is in college. I think the best time is when we play Just Dance series and Rockband series games. It shows you just how much fun you can have as a family and the bickering amongst them stop(thank goodness.lol) I even went as far as to go get a Genesis and the other old gaming systems just to see how they would react. They love the old games! So I say game on to us gaming parents!
I agree with all of this. Wonderful article.
Just don't forget the importance of bringing your kid out to kick a football, throw a ball, play some tennis, build a hut in the forest or any kind of activity that activates them physically. I've worked as an elementary school teacher for several years, and the amount of kids who sits indoor with their gameboy/psp all pale-faced and comes up with just a raised brow, when you ask them if they wanna participate in todays softball game with the rest of the kids, has exploded the last 5-6 years. Not to mention the amount of overweight, or even fat kids.
Anyway, good article with some great tips!