Video games are fun

The first video game I owned was Alien Addition on the Texas Instrument TI-99/4A.  The objective was to destroy descending aliens by solving math problems.  It was fun and I learned how to solve simple math problems pretty fast.  I never had an Atari, Nintendo, or Sega game system.  My parents held to a simply philosophy: we will let you have video games if it teaches you something useful.  I only had Alien Addition.

While I admire my parents philosophy, we haven’t adopted it’s strict guidelines.  With 5 different gaming platforms we’ve got video games gal-or.  Most of them with no redeeming value outside of pure entertainment.

One of the things we have is an iPad that my kids LOVE.  I’ve downloaded a variety of simple puzzle games that teach them strategy, allocation of resources, and some general laws of physics (he said with a sheepish grin).  Recently I was thinking about Alien Addition and wondered if there was a modern day equivilant that would teach some basic math skills.  What I found was Rocket Math.  The game lets you earn money by solving math problems.  You can use that money to trick out your rocket that flies to space where there are bonus points.  Pretty sweet.

Learning should be fun…right?  Sure, there are times when it isn’t fun, but the larger scope of learning should be.  But am I teaching our kids that unless learning is fun, it isn’t worth learning? Sometimes learning is hard work, and hard work is often grueling.  I don’t think we’ve given enough thought on how to parent our kids through the “grueling things” of life.  You know, the whole “do it because you should” parts.