Parents' Gaming Recommendations

With three young kids, who have a penchant for gaming, I'm always on the look out for games they might like. Every now and again I take a chance on a game and discover they really love playing it. Wouldn't it be great, I've often thought, to share these finds with other parents.

With this in mind I was excited to stumble across the first in a series of blog posts on What They Play, where parents are talking about the games their kids like first hand. Even though I write for the site, I had somehow managed to miss this little gem.

Each week, we'll introduce some games based on the observations of people that have experienced exactly
what our readers are asking about. Hopefully, seeing how other families have responded to games will prompt others to share their experiences, and everyone will learn about some new games that they weren't previoulsy aware of, or they may start to look at games they are familiar with in a different way.

This seems like such a good idea, I plan to put some of my potted gaming discoveries into a post for them (and no doubt share this back here with my GeekDad friends).

In the meantime you can enjoy reading about a little known DS game from Scholastic called Animal Genius. This game not only kept John's kids entertained for many hours, but it also taught them a thing or two along the way. He talks about how this has even affected the way they play with their (animal) toys:

[it] seems to have informed the way they play with their plastic animals too. Toys are no longer randomly distributed on the bedroom floor. Lions are kept together, and kept quite separate from the zebras. Elephants and turtles are afforded due respect.

I have quite a few candidates for my recommendations, but I wonder what gaming discoveries you
have made with your kids?