What’s the Deal About Minecraft?

What Kids Can Learn from Videogames?

Minecraft is popping up everywhere! It’s in every store that sells kid stuff. Why? What’s the deal? Is it bad? Can kids learn from Minecraft and other videogames?

Don’t worry – it’s not bad! At least, not in excess. Some time on videogames is actually great for children, as we discussed in our past article.

We found that videogames help kids with reading comprehension, critical thinking skills, math, and even creativity.

But what about Minecraft? What makes that game so special?

Minecraft is so popular right now because it allows kids to unleash their creativity. They can literally build any world they want.

With skin packs and texture packs (modifications of the way the game looks), they can even bring their other favourite games into the mix – like the new Mario texture pack for Minecraft Wii U.

Beyond creativity, Minecraft is also an excellent way to teach math skills.

In Minecraft, the player can build structures on block grids.

For example, you might build a house on a 4 x 4 x 4 grid. You could easily make a simple 4 block wide by 4 block long by 4 block tall house. However, as builds get more complex, and you have more space (like 100 x 100 x 100), the amount of combinations becomes endless.

Kids must learn how to properly count, add, subtract, multiple, and divide in order to perfect their builds – which they are intrinsically (as opposed to extrinsically) motivated to do.

Finally, Minecraft can build social skills as kids cooperate to build bigger and better projects.

If you’re ready to reap all the benefits of Minecraft for your children, enroll them in our Advanced Minecraft program today!

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