(Flickr/courosa)
I grew up in the height of the 80′s. A Nintendo Game Boy was my weapon, and I was never afraid to use it! My brother and I spent hours playing Tetris and Pokemon, and other pathetically simplistic games by today’s standards. I remember all too well the tiny screen and the buttons that were always getting stuck. You left your Game Boy at the bottom of your school bag at your peril as they were a magnet for stray crumbs and other lunch-time remnants.
It was all about platform games then and you’d so often catch our mulleted heads in a game of Mario and other bland variations on the theme. There wasn’t the amazing choice there is nowadays.
Today, clever parents are catching on to the fact that consoles can provide an incredibly safe and educational experience for youngsters. I can’t think of anything better than my child voluntarily switching on a 3ds and quietly learning about spelling, maths and shapes. It’s a great way for them to spend the wasted hours on car journeys improving their manual dexterity, reasoning and problem-solving skills, all whilst mummy fights with daddy over whether he really needs to listen to Manchester United slaughter Stoke on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Then there’s the amazing Wii, PS3 and XBox 360. It seems unfathomable what you can do in your living room nowadays. If it’s a rainy day and you’re faced with hours of slouching on the sofa watching the Goonies and other visual delights on LOVEFiLM, it makes perfect to get your mini Andy Murray showing off his skills. Not only do they get to keep active, they also learn about the various consequences of competition - daddy will really bust out the moves, and sometimes (okay, okay… Always) he’ll get to thrash mummy. And if tennis isn’t your bag, just you try and tell me your kids wouldn’t eat all their greens for a week just to give this a whirl!
Image courtesy of xboxlive.com
With big children’s films and tv programmes jumping on the bandwagon, there are so many big releases aimed at, and universally approved for, young children that you can’t really go wrong at the moment. Whilst I appreciate every right-thinking parent would want to limit the amount of screen-time their children are subjected to, we live in an age of technology and our children will ultimately have to work with it every day of their adult lives. Introducing it into the home as early as possible allows them to appreciate how to use it safely and responsibly.
So before you quickly arm-pull your little guy away from the games section at Curry’s, it’s worth investigating just what your children are missing out on. And next time you’re sat there, kids in bed, watching The Returned (if you’re not watching, you should be!) on television, just remember that it’s important your kids have downtime too.
Post sponsored by Gioteck
