What is normal? What is traditional? What is a woman? (I had to toss that in there!) Most kids sit down for hours doing things they have no desire of doing. Not every kid loves History, Math, etc., but how you get them to enjoy it is what matters. 

The one thing I hear the most is that Video games cannot be educational or positive. Yes, there are shooting, hunting, and gore games, but those are just entertainment games. No, I’m not going to let Sebastian play Rainbow Six Siege for school because, guess what, that just won’t work out in our home.

Some kids might want to learn how to create video games. Great resources include Khanacademy.com, Codeacademy.com, unrealengine.com, Steam.com, outschool.com, and more. 

Considering video games as a resource, how can this be positive? Yes, you must be a parent and look into yourself, not rely on a tiny human’s word. Any game could be part of school then(trust me, Sebastian still tries!). With video games comes Math and Engineering and probably other forms of education. So why not let them embrace it on a monitored level?

SO! How do you turn it around as a positive? Let them play games for school. We do Fun Fridays / Flydays. On Fridays, we allow them to use that time to practice something via Video games or play specific games. There are so many that are great. Sebass wants to fly fighter jets as part of his career list. That took us down a massive Aviation rabbit hole. After digging and speaking with pilots on past flights. VIDEO GAMES! And that is how  Flyday came about. 

He spends the mornings doing research, whatever his heart desires about jets. We would set him up in the afternoons with his yokes, and off he went. We use Microsoft flight simulator. He does this on his Xbox setup with the yokes we snagged on Amazon( lots of different kinds to pick from !) .

Each week, we would work on something. If it was landing, take off the controllers or pick somewhere and fly there. We were able to come up with some fun ideas. All pilots I’ve personally talked to always mention using this or X plane another game used as well .

Besides learning to fly, there is a lot of engineering software. Along with the idea of flying jets, this young man would like to be a weapons engineer on top of this! Trust me when I say he is made for these subjects; he is!  Tinkercad.com is a great site! He can use this 3D CAD site to tinker with little ideas and designs.  One day, he and I went to the the atomic bomb museum. At the end of our trip, he had one project to do. …He had to replicate the nuclear furnace.

Sebastian’s Designs.

Using these things isn’t harmful or too much; it just helps inspire and spark creativity. Over the last year, Makayla has been playing Hogwarts Legacy for fun on Fridays. She has endured so many puzzles that she does not realize it. She is now a Hogwarts and Harry Potter buff. She is not a fan of Math and Reading …** Fun little kicker, turn down the volume and turn ON captions. ** .

She is slowly becoming interested in our favorite …Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. This game is the best for a homeschool curriculum. In it, you can select your world leader and build your empire. Later, I would enjoy breaking down this game so others can understand its excitement. My husband and I can easily get lost in a game on an afternoon. Yup , you can play together as different leaders! He does go easy on me. LOL

you can simply pick your leader , I went with Pedro II from Brazil . It show cases some small information needed to play this leader as you load in .

As you explore the game and functions , they offer full history on the leader. Along with details on what this user provides. They are all different with any outcome ! The best one yet… Gandhi nuking his neighbors… YUP ! Watch out for him.

As you build your empire you can attempt to achieve a Religious , Culture, Science, Diplomatic, and or a Domination win. More to come on how make this a tool for your future school year.

Now that I got to brag about some fun games , how can you use games in general to your advantage ? Look up what the Devs went off to create said game . Some use history as their guidelines, Learning about GOD of War sucked us into Greek Mythology . Black Myth: Wukong, looking into Chinese mythology. All of these things can redirected in a good way . This will take some time to get down of course . As wrap up some video game talk, sit down and enjoy some game time .

until next time folks!