Can playing Minecraft be productive for your kids
Spy Phone at Feb 17 2021 12:10PM
Can playing Minecraft be productive for your kids?
If you are reading this, chances are you are worried your kids are spending too much time in the blocky world of Minecraft. Although the game released in 2009 it is still one of the most popular games on the Internet with millions of players to boast of. But this simply adds on to your stress. Surely, no good can come from playing yet another video game? Can the kids learn anything from it at all? Turns out they can!
Here are the top reasons why playing Minecraft can prove to be rewarding for your kids:
1. Enhances Creativity
Minecraft opens a world of creative possibilities for your kids. They can build up anything from their imagination using blocks that fit within the game’s 3D grid. From sci-fi ships and fictional cities to pirate galleys and lavish houses, the sky is the limit. Take the example of ‘Westeroscraft’ which is one of the most breath-taking community-based projects that Minecraft has today. It recreated George R.R. Martin’s continent of Westeros from ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series. Safe to say, Minecraft can be an effective channel where your kids may discover their architectural talents.
2. Builds Teamwork
Your kids can play Minecraft on solo missions. Or, you can join in on the fun by setting up personal servers to achieve the game goals together as a team. You can build structures, pool resources, defeat enemies and do more which require cooperation and communication. This is a great way to sharpen your kid’s social skills, engage with one another, overcome the hurdles in the game and celebrate your wins together. These social skills learned aren’t restricted to the game and your kids can apply them in real-life situations too.
3. Develops Problem-Solving Skills
Minecraft reinforces problem-solving skills in kids from a young age. It has a ‘Survival Mode’ where the players have to find a dependable source of food and shelter. If you don’t, monsters come out at night to attack you. So, you must think out-of-the-box and come up with solutions quickly if you want to survive. The Minecraft ‘day’ lasts for 10 real-world minutes which means the kids not only have to figure out how to survive but also do it within a deadline. Unlike other video games that are rule-laden, Minecraft’s freedom makes it more challenging and encourages kids to another level.
4. Promotes Self-direction
Unlike most other video games, Minecraft offers an open environment without any linear event progressions that involve in-built structured quests. This means your kids can explore the unique world created by the game on their own at their pace without having to rush to complete a task. However, they still need to fight the enemies, fend for food, build shelter and perform other such tasks. But they are free to decide what they want from the game, find their own direction and achieve success. Whether it is to team up and defeat an enemy or collect resources to build stuff, they choose.
5. Teaches Patience and Perseverance
Minecraft teaches your kids patience like no other game. Even though the creative mode gives the players access to unlimited blocks, it still takes hours (sometimes months) to finish an ambitious project. Your kids will need the patience and perseverance to make their project see the light of the day and not give up in the middle. Besides, the rarest of blocks such as Diamond and Redstone are very hard to find making most tasks challenging. Eventually, as the kids learn to build traps, they will have to face failure and build the patience to identify its cause to try again and emerge a success.
6. Gives Global Perspective
Minecraft allows your kids to connect with other players from across the world. This is quite similar to how global businesses interact using tools such as Skype. Your kid is already learning how to interact with people belonging to different cultures and ethnicities. Minecraft’s social nature gives your kids a global perspective by teaching them essential skills like negotiating, designating roles, sharing responsibilities and more. All these skills are needed in real-world when your kids leave college and enter the corporate world. These skills can be hard to teach but are considered as some of the most valuable traits by a future employer while hiring.
7. Improves Math
Even though your kids may not realize, math is infused in the theme of Minecraft game. The concepts of division, multiplication and even geometric problems are scattered throughout the game without completing which, you can’t play the game. From dividing supplies equally among other fellow players in the team to estimating the area required for building a city, there is math everywhere. Some teachers have even used Minecraft in their classes to encourage the kids to construct more complex shapes, manipulate blocks and solve geometric problems.
8. Builds Interest in History
Yes! You read that right. If you are a parent whose kid takes no interest in learning history and finds it boring, Minecraft makes learning fun. How? Simply because the game allows you to import fully-reconstructed versions of popular landmarks, structures and buildings in addition to building your own. Minecraft lets you bring history alive from a textbook into its unique world where the kids can go on a virtual tour of say, the Eiffel Tower. Your kids are more likely to register buildings and landmarks and develop a keen interest in its architecture as they progress in their game.
Takeaway
So, the next time your kid wants to play Minecraft, maybe it’s not a bad idea to let them play it for some time. The game helps develop problem-solving skills, promotes collaboration and encourages creativity. Having said that, you can use mobile tracker free like the one offered by Phone Tracker to ensure your child doesn’t spend long hours on the phone. It is one of the most popular mobile tracker apps that parents use to monitor the mobile use of their kids.