The nursery told us that my son's computer mouse skills weren't great; reason being that he didn't get to use the computer at home. Following their feedback, I subsequently let him start using it and he's literally become obsessed. He is now a huge fan of computer games! Even when he's running about outside, he turns playing into levels and points... He also draws computer games too on paper.
I've restricted his use to weekends only and I time how long he is on the computer so that he's not on it for too long. I do however notice a change in his behaviour when he's been on it, and not for the better. But computers are now part of everyday life and are a life skill we need to learn. He gets computer classes already in Primary 1! At my house he only plays games on Lego.com (sometimes CBeebies) and his favourites are Lego Creator, Lego City and the Star Wars games.
I sometimes wonder where he gets it from, but when I think back to my childhood, my sister and I were massive fans of computer games. Ali more so than me, but we spent a lot of our spare time playing on our PC. My mum was keen for games to encourage our computer skills and so a few of our games involved typing commands of some form. A lot of the time we played together taking turns to be either the typer or the controller of the arrow keys. Our favourites were Leisure Suit Larry and Heroes Quest. Crazy to think though that we were aged 9 and 11 years when we completed Leisure Suit Larry. What were our parents thinking!?
We also loved Theme Hospital, Lemmings, The Sims and Prince of Persia.
We never owned a console and I'm personally not keen on them at all. Guess that's just down to my own experiences though. I have never owned a laptop or tablet either. I do now have a laptop for work but that's all it's used for. I also have a Kindle Fire but the kids are not even aware of its existence! I think if we had a tablet device with games on it then there would be even more fights!
My son has recently been asking when we can get an iPad and eventually I guess I'll need to buy a tablet device of some form. He's been drawing an iPad on paper & making up games in his head...
What are your thoughts on gaming for youngsters? What ground rules do you set and what games would you recommend for little ones?
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