Now for some learning - games, that is. Children’s learning games

The next series of entries will all be children’s learning games. These fall into several categories, adventure, puzzle solving, typing, and zappers. My children have played them all from Winnie the Pooh, to various science oriented puzzle games, to the Magic School Bus Games. None of the games that I will be describing are anywhere near as graphically rich or professionally done as the games I have mentioned, but they will tickle the small child’s fancy , and keep their attention for a while while the parent cooks dinner or performs some other chores around the house. And these games are far more interactive than “Blue’s Clues,” “The Backyardigans,” or even “Sesame Street.”

The first game I will describe is called, appropriately, ChildsPlay, and can be found here.

This game is unusual in that it covers many different types of games, from the classic memory games of matching symbols on cards shown on the screen, to zapping games where letters fall, or numbers needed to be added, subtracted, multiplied or divided. This game engine even has plugins that play mini-Pac-Man style chomping of the letters, Pong, and sounds. One game that is very interesting is a memory based sound game - this is supposed to teach memory for those children who are auditory learners, rather than visual learners. The kinesthetic learners are currently not supported, but who knows? In the future with the Wii-mote we could have a gaggle of games that feature motions for solving the puzzles, or producing sounds.

[tags]microface, open source, learning, children, childsplay[/tags]