During the summer, my daughter and I visit the local library at least two or three times a week. My daughter has her visits down to a ritual. She starts by checking out the audiobooks, then moves on to the bookshelves packed with series like How to Train Your Dragon, Wings of Fire, or The Hardy Boys. If she’s lucky enough to snag an available computer, that’s where the magic happens.
For the past six months, her go-to computer games have been ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures and ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures. These games might be over 25 years old – practically ancient in the world of technology – but they’ve tested her skills in math, geography, logic, and science…and she loves playing them.
What’s truly impressed me recently is her old-school analog determination to conquer these games. Over the past week, armed with one of the library’s tiny pencils and a scrap of call-number paper, she’s started working out the tougher math problems by hand. The 30-minute computer time limit has always been a roadblock to beating the game, but now she’s making serious progress during her allotted time.
Her enthusiasm doesn’t stop at the library doors. She’s even found YouTube walkthroughs of the entire games (yes, they exist – here and here).
It’s funny to think that these games are old enough now to have kids of their own! While they may not be the cutting-edge educational tools of today, my daughter’s enjoyment of them is undeniable.
Learning Together 