Most parents assume that video games are either harmful to kids, or at least not beneficial to their learning experience. However, this can’t be further from the truth.
In fact, many video games are designed with the intention of being fun and also educational in one way or another. Here is a list of the most fun and educational video games that can teach children a lot of great info and useful skills!
1. Minecraft
Minecraft is one of the biggest and most successful creative video games out there. Aside from being incredibly fun for children, it is equally an amazing learning tool. In fact, it’s such a great tool that many education providers have courses on coding and infrastructural design based in Minecraft!
Minecraft provides children with an endlessly explore-able and open world environment that allows them to learn while they play. For example, kids learn about logic, city planning and even electrical circuitry through building structures with Redstone. Kids can also learn interior and exterior designing through Minecraft’s core gameplay of crafting homes, villages and even cities and monuments.
The game has so much to offer, and with the right guidance, any child can learn incredibly useful skills which might even carry on into their future careers!
2. Final Fantasy Series
The Final Fantasy series has been around for more than 2 decades, with a handful of critically-acclaimed titles released. Each installment of the series is it’s own game with unique and beautifully crafted storytelling, fun gameplay mechanics, incredible music and heartwarming moments that really impacts the players.
In fact, each story in the series highlights social issues in a more light-hearted way, and each character, including the villain, has a background story that leads up to a moment of understanding. The storyline of each series always has a powerful moral message and theme that’s being carried throughout the game, essentially teaching players humility, morality and kindness in an easy to digest way.
Above all else however, Final Fantasy shines at wordplay. The games are stock full of witty and fantastical words that are often used in Shakespearean plays. In fact, it is widely known that many players have seen an improvement of their command over English by learning from playing these games.
3. Civilization 5
It is worth noting that Civilization 5 is designed more for fun and entertainment rather than education. However, it still has its own benefits. For example, it teaches children certain things such as strategizing, leadership skills and financial management in a fun way.
In Civilization 5, the players start off as a small civilization during the start of the human era. Players are required to slowly build their civilizations and discover or invent things such as agriculture, quarry-milling, horticulture, training livestock, etc. As the game progresses, so do these technological advancements.
Players will then need to learn about diplomacy, war strategy, trading with other countries for resources and such. By doing so, they can further progress their city into modernization, such as engine building, ironworks, and more.
The gameplay itself teaches kids about the basics of history, but also offers them a ton of unique skills that will help them as they grow older if they choose to cultivate it.
4. The Legend of Zelda : Breath Of The Wild
Breath of The Wild is one of the latest installments of The Legend of Zelda franchise which has been around for decades. However, Breath of The Wild is unique in its own sense and the gameplay has been praised as nothing short of revolutionary by video game critics.
Apart from the massive open world and exploration the game has to offer, the thing that stands out about Breath of The Wild the most is the freedom it gives you. This is paired up with the game engine which makes real life physics apply to everything you do.
For example, if you hold a torch near dried trees, it’ll catch fire. If it’s near meat long enough, the meat will get cooked. Or if you’re in a thunderstorm, you need to use a wooden sword or else a metal one would attract electricity to you.
This unique game engine provides kids and adults thousands of hours to explore the endless possibilities that they can do in the world. Plus, Breath of The Wild also provides players with over hundreds of puzzles to solve, all of which requires fundamental understanding of physics and motion to complete. As children play this game, they are developing a sense for science and calculation without even realizing it!
5. Scribblenauts Unlimited
Scribblenauts Unlimited was initially released back in 2012 and offers a unique gameplay mechanic that no other game offers in the market today.
It features a sandbox genre where players are required to complete quizzes and puzzles. The uniqueness comes from how each puzzle is solved. As players play a Scribblenaut, they have a notebook that allows them to summon whatever it is they want into reality. For example, writing “big nosed tiger” will summon a tiger with an unusually large nose. “Pink angry elephant” on the other hand, would summon a pink elephant that is mad at the target.
This huge level of freedom and creativity helps kids build their cognitive reasoning and also trains them on thinking out of the box, in the most fun and unrestrictive way possible!
Overall, not all video games are bad for kids! There are many games out there that present complex concepts in a fun and educational way so kids can be learning while they’re playing and not even realize it.
