Kids these days are getting more and more addicted to online games. There are hundreds of websites with thousands of games that you can play for free, so your kid can spend literally a whole day in front of the computer playing them without getting bored. I’m starting to think if they are healthy or not for their minds and creativity. I have played a few of them myself and to tell you the truth there are some really cool ones that really make you think, like the puzzle games and maze games. On the other hand there are some really ugly ones in which your only goal is to shoot other people with crazy guns and really they should have an age restriction on them because of all the gore. I don’t know about you but I don’t want my son to shoot claim free credit zombies in the brain all day, so I looked up a few interesting games that could really help him spell words, exercise his brain a bit with a few simple math problems. I’m not restricting him to play only those types of games because he would lose interest in them really fast, so I join him on the computer and play 10-15 minutes with him a few “good” games then I let him race all those cars on the tracks and whatnot, but I try to keep him away from the really ugly ones that I think are not so healthy for him.
Same goes with my daughter, but she is a bit older than my son, so she likes to play all those dress-up games and nail decoration ones which are really much better than the gory stuff her brother stumbles upon. She is leaning a bit towards the more artistic side of things and that’s why she always likes to come up with funny outfits like Lady Gaga and other futuristic stars. Writing this I’m thinking I should convince her into taking an arts class and see if she has a certain talent, who knows what I have gifted her with. On the more serious note, she might discover that she really likes drawing outfits, instead of just picking up stuff from one side of the screen and dropping them on mannequins. Same could work with my son, there is a kart circuit a few miles away from where we live and he could really use a few lessons, but only in the spring after the snow melts away.
Playing is the best way for youngsters to learn new and interesting stuff, in the really early years of their lives, the only way. At kinder-garden they pretty much play all day, but seeing as the games are purposely made for them to interact as a group and act as a unit, they learn valuable life lessons, which in my opinion the online games cannot teach them. Sure, there are websites that host and boys alike which will teach your children great things, in a fun way, but still, this should come only as a secondary source of information and the time they spend on the computer shouldn’t be more than two hours a day at most. Even in those two hours you should check up on them and try to make sure they play games that help expand their horizons.