Video games as part of an education

Nick loves his video games. I know I am not alone in wondering how bad or good they are for his overall mental and physical health.

However, it is important to get kids to learn critical thinking, planning, organizing and other forward thinking skills. These skills allow kids to learn to prepare for future events, to consider many options or possibilities, and to think outside of the box. These are very important skills for artists, engineers, scientists, and inventors as well as anyone who needs to be able to solve problems and find unique solutions to them.

When kids are young we give them board puzzles and games that encourage this kind of thinking. As they get older we find computer games that teach them reading, math, spelling and the like, but we generally consider video games as "just for fun" and not so much educational. Some game creators have tried to make educational video games that teach math or other subjects, but because their main focus is teaching they sometimes use the same tricks over and over again and the games lose their fun value after a while.

Nick really has fun with video games and I thought I'd do some searching to see if there were some that could actually be helpful. He really enjoys building games on the Wii and his DSi and PSP, so I'm encouraged by that. He has to think ahead in order to build structures that won't fall down. With his Sims games he has to find ways to protect his citizens, which also requires some planning ahead.

However, the games for those systems are expensive and add up quickly. Plus, he does become bored with them after he's beat them. That means buying more games and running out of money quickly.

After much research I found that Big Fish Games has a lot of really inexpensive puzzle games that I can feel comfortable buying and they won't break the mom bank.

They have many online games you can play for free and the games you can buy are only $6.99 (and they have $2.99 specials every day). They have quite a bit to choose from for kids of all ages (including the parents). I really enjoy the Match 3 games and Nick really likes the Hidden Objects games. They have games that are suitable for younger kids and Brain Teaser games with Professor Fizzlewizzle among others.

I like Big Fish Games a lot and would suggest them to anyone who tends to buy a lot of games but doesn't want to spend a whole lot every time. They've got a lot of selection and Nick and I have a lot of fun with the games we get. You can always test the games out for an hour before you buy them too, giving you plenty of opportunity to decide if it's a good fit or not.