When I was young my brother used to play strategy games. War strategy games, and when Dungeons and Dragons came out they played that. I remember one time we were visiting New York City and he found a store that was hosting strategy games. When we went to pick him up they were playing WWII on a table that was a model of Europe complete with countries, terrain and figures representing armies. Not your average modern furniture. He was a chess player, and is a general math genius and today is a hot commodity programmer and project manager. I am pretty sure that strategy games contribute to the development of logical thinking skills, not to mention big picture planning and leadership skills.
When the hubster and I were first dating we played Magic the Gathering. We were actually in a league for awhile, which was fun. It turns out I am pretty bad player, though, so I never won any official matches.
So now that my older son is 7, its been really fun to introduce the two of them to Pokemon. I immediately recognized the format of the game - its kid of "Magic the Gathering, light." Simple enough for kids to play, it still retains the basics of strategy, logical thinking, and math.
Why is Pokemon good for kids?
* Pokemon encourages reading and reading comprehension. To play the card game you have to read the cards and understand the abilities and special actions.
*Pokemon requires math. You have to add up the points and damages and subtract from the total points of each card in play.
* Pokemon encourages logic and planning. You have to stock up your spare cards, so you go through the deck and have to be able to predict what will be helpful later on. You also will want to stock your deck with cards that go together.
* Pokemon are very kid friendly - they don't die after their battles, they faint and get rejuvenated.
Even the Pokemon Nintendo DS games have been great learning experiences for my son. They are very heavy on text explanation. When he first started playing he used to have to ask me to read the text. Then, as his reading ability caught up, he eagerly reads the text and understands the story behind the game. He loves his "Pokedex" books that list each type of Pokemon character and how they evolve into other types. It's great to see kids excited about reading - that is going to give them a foundation for a lifetime of enjoyment and learning.
