These days gaming for children has become more build-it-yourself focused. This is a pretty great concept; you can literally build your own game and the tools to do so are at your fingertips. However children get highly addicted to such games (any games really) and this is the case with my babies.
My 7 year old son and 11 year old daughter went through a Disney Infinity stage followed by a Minecraft stage, and now they are on a Roblox kick. I limit their gaming time, of course, but they hate when the timer goes off and they have to shut down their games and go outside to play.
My husband and I discussed our displeasure with their gaming addictions, and I started to do my own hands-on research to see what this "Roblox" was all about. If my kids were on it so often and enjoyed it so much than I made it my responsibility to find out what exactly they were being exposed to. It turns out that Roblox is a good game. I know what your thinking, when is sitting in front of a computer ever good for children. I know because that was my first thought. Hear me out...
I have a really hard time getting my 7 year old to read. He doesn't mind if it's a bedtime story but other than that he wants no business in reading. While playing Roblox he reads the conversations that appear during gameplay, he reads the instructions, and he reads the signs. So he's reading and he doesn't even realize it. He responds to the conversations which teaches him spelling and typing, which are two very important skills in today's world. He also loves playing the tycoon games which are games where you must acquire cash in order to make purchases. He is counting, learning about money, learning about buying things, and learning to spend or save all without realizing he is learning anything. Therefore the hour and a half that I allow my son to play Roblox he believes he is having fun while I know that he is using skills he needs.
Reading
Math Skills
Spelling
Counting
Money Skills
Typing
Conversational Skills
Geometry
Building
My 7 year old son and 11 year old daughter went through a Disney Infinity stage followed by a Minecraft stage, and now they are on a Roblox kick. I limit their gaming time, of course, but they hate when the timer goes off and they have to shut down their games and go outside to play.
My husband and I discussed our displeasure with their gaming addictions, and I started to do my own hands-on research to see what this "Roblox" was all about. If my kids were on it so often and enjoyed it so much than I made it my responsibility to find out what exactly they were being exposed to. It turns out that Roblox is a good game. I know what your thinking, when is sitting in front of a computer ever good for children. I know because that was my first thought. Hear me out...
I have a really hard time getting my 7 year old to read. He doesn't mind if it's a bedtime story but other than that he wants no business in reading. While playing Roblox he reads the conversations that appear during gameplay, he reads the instructions, and he reads the signs. So he's reading and he doesn't even realize it. He responds to the conversations which teaches him spelling and typing, which are two very important skills in today's world. He also loves playing the tycoon games which are games where you must acquire cash in order to make purchases. He is counting, learning about money, learning about buying things, and learning to spend or save all without realizing he is learning anything. Therefore the hour and a half that I allow my son to play Roblox he believes he is having fun while I know that he is using skills he needs.
Reading
Math Skills
Spelling
Counting
Money Skills
Typing
Conversational Skills
Geometry
Building
These are the skills that children are passively learning through playing on Roblox.com. So after doing my research, creating my own account, playing the game, I have changed my opinion about computer games and video games, well the building video games anyway. Because of the passive learning that is taking place I no longer mind if my children play on Roblox, though they are still limited in the amount of time they are allowed to sit in front of the computer to play. I feel better about allowing them the hour and a half of game time.