Educational games come in a vast array of choices.    Some are advanced software programmes that almost need a degree to just understand the rules.   Others are simple three or four piece jigsaw puzzles.   The one thing they should all have in common is that they should help develop a child’s natural curiosity and imagination.

Because something is labelled “educational” does not make it right for every child.   The highly technical game wouldn’t be suitable for a very young child that hasn’t even learned to assemble a four piece jigsaw puzzle.

Parents should look for learning games that are designed for specific age groups.   In addition you should look for particular toys or games that are on a subject that your child is interested in.

What should an educational game provide?

• The games should be fun to play; if not they will probably end up on a shelf gathering dust.

• They should fire up the child’s imagination.

• They should boost learning by developing new skills and improving existing knowledge.

• They should encourage the child to develop creativity and inquisitiveness.

• They should challenge the child to think about the problem presented and to act on its solution.

• They should help develop fine motor skills.

• They should calm anxiety in children who are challenged by conventional learning methods.

A game should not be too complicated or so difficult that it creates frustration in a child.

Games that are too complicated to learn can be hard to play and are more likely to end up back on that shelf.   Classic games like chess that are easy to learn but require practice to be skilled in are more likely to be played again and again.

Educational games can develop various skills.

Educational games can promote learning as well as develop certain brain functionality. A simple game like marbles can develop eye-hand coordination. Activities such as playing with building blocks and stacking them as high as possible without toppling them, will keep children absorbed as they develop essential motor and balance skills.

Educational toys are sold nearly everywhere. You can search for them online, or you can find them in most toy stores, bookstores, and even hobby shops. They can be as simple as colouring books or painting by numbers or advanced like algebra or foreign language teaching games.

Classic games are always sure winners, so you don’t have to search long for something new or unique. They have been around for a long time for a reason and are still on top of the list of basic strategy games. And they have very simple instructions that go with them.

Be part of your child’s education. Select a game that you would like to play as well. You’ll most likely be playing these games with your kids most of the time, so it makes sense that you should be able to enjoy them yourself.

Play is essential to learning, creativity, and discovery. It has been proven that it is important in physical, intellectual, and social development. It increases productivity, and even contributes to healthier living.

Play drives innovation.   Watch a child playing in the playground learn to incorporate various objects they find and put them to novel uses, developing pretend  play scenarios, and building on the ideas of others.

Inventors use these same skills to make imaginative and sometimes unlikely connections that lead to new products and sometimes exciting and important medical and technical advances.

People play around with a hobby which they sometimes develop into a business.

What does Play have to do with human development?

Research has proven that play:

Builds ability to solve problems, understand and follow rules, and mutually resolve conflicts.

Develops confidence and the courage to open minds to new possibilities.

With increased confidence comes the ability to develop creativity, more resilience, greater independence, and real leadership;

Strengthens relationships with others, increases empathy, and teaches teamwork.

Helps grow strong healthy bodies and reduces stress.   Allowing for a healthy body and mind.

Children who play do better in school and become more successful adults.

If a child is encouraged to play from an early age they learn to;

Formulate and ask questions, analyse and evaluate the answers to those and other questions.

Hypothesise, better predict possibilities.

Persist despite difficulties.

Make friends more easily and have more confidence amongst their peers.

So the answer is simple, play more, have fun, grow smarter, live happier,

Prime Areas

All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected. Three areas are particularly important for improving children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and increasing their capacity to learn, form relationships and flourish. These three primary areas are:

1.   Communication and language.

2.   Physical development.

3.   Personal, social and emotional development.

Secondary Areas

The other four areas combine with the first three to create a solid learning base.

1.   Literacy.

2.   Mathematics.

3.   Understanding the world.

4.   Expressive arts and design.

Communication and language development involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations.

Physical development involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food.

Personal, social and emotional development involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities.

Literacy development involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children should be given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest.

Mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures.

Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.

Expressive arts and design involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology.

The above is an extract from the Early Years Foundation Stage for the learning, development and care of children from birth to the age of five.

In the junior school they were given subjects like woodwork, metalwork and other subjects more suited to finding employment in jobs using your hands and brains rather than just your brain.

In senior school the emphasis was more on academic subjects, like science, foreign languages, higher maths and the like.

There must have been something going for this system as we once led the world in creating new inventions and products that the world wanted.

Once upon a time is now the present and we find that when we look back the education system did away with the junior school concept of teaching technical style skills, and concentrated on the purely academic style.

But of course all systems that are run by governments are subject to the whims of whichever party is in power.   The Education Minister of the whichever party is usually a brilliant, forward innovative thinker.

(Time out to recover from hysterical uncontrolled laughter).

So what has the government recently introduced?

University Technical Colleges!

Quote:

University Technical Colleges are a new concept in education. They offer 14-19 year olds the opportunity to take a highly regarded, full time, technically-oriented course of study. They are equipped to the highest standard, sponsored by a university and offer clear progression routes into higher education or further learning in work.

The students combine hand and mind to learn in a very practical way, integrating national curriculum requirements with the technical and vocational elements. The UTC ethos and curriculum is heavily influenced by local and national employers who also provide support and work experience for students.

UTCs specialise in subjects that require technical and modern equipment, for example, engineering, product design, health sciences, construction, and land and environmental services.

Aren’t we lucky to be led by such free thinkers, who are not afraid to try something completely new and innovative?

For more information on UTCs.

A child gets up in the morning and goes to school, that is his current life in real time.    When he gets to school does he go through the process of learning for real life?    That is the life that comes after school.

In my work life which is my real time I don’t learn things that I cannot use in my job.   I don’t learn something so that I can take a quiz or a multichoice test to see if I can remember the answers.   I only improve my knowledge with things that I can actually use in my real time life.

The conventional view of academia is that it is apart from reality.   Education seems to be accepted as theoretical.   This has got to be to the disadvantage of children.

If students are to enjoy school and embrace learning, our schools need to cease offering pointless or meaningless work.   If lessons in school were given a practical application, an obvious link to the real world, students would surely find learning to be more interesting and fulfilling.

Modern technology and the Internet have the power to open up schools to the real life connections needed to hold the interests of, and educate, students.

Technology allows us to find resources and make connections that expand our learning database.   A student doesn’t have to learn a foreign language in a stilted manner in a classroom when he can go on the net and learn it from an actual native speaker.

Sample problems on any subject can be found at the click of a button, more complex problems can be found for more advanced pupils, leaving time for the teacher to spend with the student who is having trouble keeping up.   This would allow students to grow their knowledge at a faster rate by those who are more able helping themselves, and those less able receiving additional help from the teacher.

The Internet allows students to take more responsibility for their education and learning into their own hands, giving it life and meaning.   It allows them to put their passions into whatever they choose knowing that the work they put into it doesn’t have to be meaningless.

The question is will our education system accept the challenge of teaching for tomorrow’s world?

I found this little story as I was browsing the net.

Diana Warren A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stamp on it and really mess it up but do not rip it.

Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirty is was. She then told them to tell it they’re sorry. Now even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind.

And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it. That is what happens when a child bully’s another child, they may say they’re sorry but the scars are there forever.

The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home.

Pass this on or better yet, if you’re a parent or a teacher, do this with your child/children.

In most families the struggle to balance working for a living, working in or on the house, raising kids with all the running around, taking them to football or other after school activities, or trying to help them with their homework leaves very little time to just chill out and spend time together and have fun.

Some times you might manage to have a moment of peace and you realise that your children are growing up fast, and soon they will be in their teens and not so prone to wanting to spend time with Mum and Dad.

Family game nights are your opportunity to spend time with the kids whilst they are young.   This is when you should be able to relax as a family and push your rushed and busy existence to one side for an evening.

You can keep things simple; once a week a member of the family gets to pick a game, it could be something energetic like Twister, remember that game!   It could be a card game or a board game.   The point is to try and disconnect the family from technology, no TV, i.pads or MP3s. and spend quality time together.

Think back to your own childhood and which do you remember more fondly; sitting in front of the telly with your family or some activity you did together.   That’s what good memories are made of.

An added benefit is that the children learn some useful social skills, like turn taking, learning to follow instructions, realising that you cannot win all the time and learning to accept that.

It is also commonly acknowledged that one of the most important components for helping children to mature and succeed in life, is parent involvement.   Overwhelmingly parents want what is best for their children. Parents are vital partners in their child’s education and life success.

Eco-friendly literally means earth-friendly or not harmful to the environment.  This term most commonly refers to products that contribute to green living or practices that help conserve resources like water and energy.

Eco-friendly products also prevent contributions to air, water and land pollution. You can engage in eco-friendly habits or practices by being more conscious of how you use resources.

SO, what do you do that would qualify you as being eco-friendly?   You only eat organic food!   You compost all your leftovers into a wormery!   (I’m actually thinking of doing that since it will give me some good compost for the garden).   You recycle all your newspapers!

Numenko has tried to be eco-friendly by trying to source all the wood used in the tiles from renewable sources, and where possible reusing the cardboard cartons that the games are boxed in to repackage and send out any orders.

We even have our pets trained to think eco-friendly as you can see from the images below that Snoopy is trying out a Numenko-in-a-bag carton as a new place to sleep.

Mathematics

Maths homework often leads to anxiety and panic for both parents and children.  Teachers recognise that the reason many children do not enjoy maths is because they do not feel confident about their skill levels.

A family games night is one way to bring parents and children together to practice maths skills in an entertaining and comfortable environment.

You can build skills and confidence at home by incorporating fun maths games into the next family game night.   Parents can see what type of maths their child is learning and how good a grasp the child has of the concepts.   But beware!   Occasionally the parent may have their own maths skills challenged by their children.

One of the earliest skills a child should master is how to add and subtract numbers.   Children often find repetitive homework and flash cards boring. You can improve their learning skills by playing games like Albert’s Insomnia, a beautifully simple to play card game.   It stimulates mental arithmetic and encourages the use of all the operators.

Money skills

Everyone grows up needing to use numbers and calculations in everyday life, simple things like checking your change, to understanding bills.

Start children early by exposing them to games involving maths and money skills.   Monopoly is an old favourite and can be found in most homes.

Geography

Other activities could include a Geography night.   Improve the families’ knowledge of Great Britain and find out new facts about the country we live in by playing Whereabouts.   This is a board game where you get to answer lots of great questions about our rivers, cities, counties, and lots more.

Whatever game you play as a family, the simple act of playing together is great for your children; it improves their social skills and encourages them to think on a higher level.   Perhaps you could even have games nights playing against other families, where the hosting family decides on which games are to be played.

Whereabouts Board Game

Alberts’s Insomnia

Go (Wei-qi) began in China, and the game holds a special place in board game history.   It is not only one of the oldest games known; it has more or less kept the same rules for longer than any other known board game.

Because Go is really a game about capturing territory, although it is often considered to be a war game.   It is not so much about aspects of war as it is about defining who owns what spaces on the board.  The pieces have no differing powers at, they simply serve to mark the borders of territory.

History of the Game of Go.

From its origins in China from perhaps as far back as 2300 B.C. Go spread into Korea in the second century, (where it is called Baduk ), and finally, it arrived in Japan,(and named igo) probably via trade routes, sometime around the year 700 A.D

The game got its name of Go when it arrived in America, but originated in ancient China.     Some say the game was created for a Chinese emperor for his sons as an entertaining way of developing their brain processes.

Even then they realised the benefits of game playing in education!

Whilst Go is a simple game at the outset, it has a depth and complexity that has apparently made it the only game that cannot be programmed into a computer to beat a master class human player.

Whatever the true origins of the game it is believed that the game does go back at least 3,000 to 4,000 years.   This makes it the oldest known board game, with the most consistent set of rules maintained over centuries.

By the 1600s Go had reached Europe, carried by the worldwide trade of the times to ports far and wide. Descriptions of the game were published in Italian, German and English in the first half of the fifteenth century.

In the last few decades it has gained a strong following in the U.S. A. where there are now national tournaments that send players on to International tournaments.

A short description of how Go is played.

“Wei-qi” means “surrounding pieces” which pretty much defines what the game is about.

Stones are placed on the intersections of lines, on a board with 19 x 19 lines.

Alternating one stone at a time, first black, then white play, in such a way as to take possession of areas enclosed by them.   It is the empty spaces (and the occasional captured stones) that add up to the individual’s score at the end of the game. This is the Japanese system of scoring, which is used in the United States.

Two basic concepts are important to Go: the “unit” and a unit’s “liberties”.

A unit can be one stone, or more. If one stone, it stands without any other stones of its colour “touching” above, below, to the right or left (cardinal points).   If more than one stone, it may take any shape consisting of lines and right angles.   Diagonal connections do not count in making units.

A unit’s liberties are any of the cardinal points directly around it that are empty. A unit consisting of one stone alone somewhere in the middle of the board would have four liberties; a lone stone on the edge of the board would have three liberties, and one in a corner would have two liberties. Units formed by more than one stone can have many liberties.

Two more concepts: “capture” and “enclosed territory”.

To capture an opponent’s unit, simply take away all its liberties by placing your stones on all of them. Captured stones count as one point apiece at the end of the game.   Remember that capturing is not really the point of the game.

Enclosed territory consists of empty intersections (including liberties), surrounded by your stones, that your opponent won’t or can’t put pieces on (or their pieces would be taken).   Each such empty intersection you possess at the end of the game also counts as one point.

End Game

The game ends when both players agree that no more stones need to be played.   Generally at this point all the configurations on the board are stable, with neither player having a place to put a stone that would threaten nor change the balance of the situation.

Players could put stones in their own safe territories, but this would reduce the number of empty intersections they control, and lower their score.   When a player believes this is the situation, the player “passes” and gives the opponent a stone as a prisoner.   If the other player agrees, then “passes” and gives their opponent a stone as a prisoner, the two passes in a row constitute the end of the game.

There are other concepts and rules but this gives a brief insight to the basic rules of the game.     Go is a game that can be played for hours, and has a handicapping system allowing a novice to play an expert.

Source:  www.ccgs.com