Hey Pixelkiners! The U.S. Department of Education wants to make school as engaging as video games. That’s why they’re holding a Games for Learning Summit at the end of April. The Department of Education has realized that educational games can be a great way to keep kids learning, in and out of the classroom. According to a University of Indiana study, kids play 10,000 hours of games on average by the time they graduate high school—that’s about the same amount of time that they spend in school, according to Erik Martin, the lead on the Games for Learning project. They see games as a crucial part of future education, which makes a lot of sense.
Meanwhile, the Entertainment Software Association has unleashed its yearly “State of Video Games” report, which finds that 42% of Americans play games at least three hours a week, 56% of gamers are male, and 44% are female. On the parenting side, 79% put time limits on kids’ gaming.
If you’re not a parent, it can be hard to enforce limits those limits. Heck, even if you are a parent, it can be tricky! This week Suriel Vazquez writes about making a “no more violent games” rule for his nephews. As an uncle he couldn’t lay down the law about what the kids played all the time, but he did figure out how to make the rules in his own house. Kinda. Check out that article on Pixelkin for more.
Finding a way to communicate with kids—especially grown-up kids—can be kind of difficult. If you’ve ever asked a teenager “tell me about your day!” you know what I mean. Which is pretty normal, right? I don’t come home from a day in the office wanting to tell my mom about all the mundane things I did. What parents and kids can talk about, though, is their mutual passions and hobbies. This week Jerry Bonner wondered if video games are replacing sports as the thing fathers and sons chat about together. Check out his article on Pixelkin to see how he feels about this paradigm shift.
Finally, homeschooling parents looking for resources should totally check out this list of six games for homeschool education. From spelling to math to just general problem-solving, games can be great educational tools. That list is at Pixelkin.org.
That’s it for now! For those of you who came to our event at the EMP this week, thanks a lot for coming out! It was pretty awesome, and we’ll have a video recap of it soon if you missed it. Have a great weekend!
