Does your child spend countless hours in front of the television screen, controller in hand, playing his/her favourite video game? Do you have to call two, three, four times before s/he finally shuts the system down and comes to the table for dinner or goes to bed? Why can children sit still and concentrate for long periods of time on video games but not in the classroom?

For these reasons alone, many are inclined to discredit video games as creating a generation of mindless tech-zombies.

But can video games actually help children learn?

Turns out that some teachers are beginning to think so, and have used the game Minecraft in their classrooms with success.

A Gamespot article reports that teachers are using Minecraft to teach subjects such as physics, geography, and English, and are seeing positive results, including increased attention spans, collaboration between students, and better grades.

It doesn’t seem that video games are the only form of media making its way into the classroom. Teachers are encouraging the use of cellphones and Twitter as learning tools as well.

Do you think video games can be a valid learning tool? Is media use in the classroom the way of the future for education, or should children be learning better skills for focusing on things beyond television and computer screens? Send us your comments!

Looking for a way to spend quality time with the family this holiday season? Want to unplug and have some fun? Books and board games are great ways to get your child to put down the cell phone or video game controller and have some family fun while developing skills that can be transferred to the classroom when back-to-school time comes around.

Books can be a great stocking stuffer and give kids the chance to read material that interests them. Even if your child isn’t an avid recreational reader, comic books or magazines can spark their interest and encourage them to spend some quiet time reading. Reading together as a family is a great way to bond and can inspire discussion on different topics that arise as you read. Take turns reading paragraphs, act out scenes, guess what will happen next, and (if the book is also a movie) watch the film version together once you have finished the book. Encouraging your child to read for pleasure will increase their focus and concentration, expand their vocabulary and literacy skills, and is a hobby the whole family can enjoy.

Board games are also a great way to have fun as a family over the holidays. Although online and video games are often preferred by for our tech-savvy kids, board games are a great way to increase learning skills while having fun. Board games enhance skills such as:

• Problem solving
• Quick thinking
• Vocabulary skills
• Identifying patterns
• Deduction
• Memory
• Decision making
• Teamwork
• Persistence
• Creativity/Imagination

Have some holiday fun with the family this break by dusting off your favourite board game or curling up on the couch with a good book. Who knows, it may even be the start of a great family tradition for the New Year!

By now, the importance of summer learning is well known. Students of all ages need to keep the cognitive wheels turning in order to maintain their learning momentum and not experience the backward summer slide.

There are an entire summer’s worth of ideas available to keep kids busy all summer long–the sky’s the limit! But don’t let all the options overwhelm you. We’ve chosen our top 3 simple summer activities that should be on every family’s To-Do List. Maintaining academic momentum over the summer has never been easier!

1. READ! READ! READ!

Put less focus on WHAT is being read and focus on making regular, habitual reading part of the daily summer routine.  Novels, comics, magazines, blogs…  it doesn’t matter so long as you’ve got a reading routine. Want to take it to the next level?  Talk about what you have just read. Make connections, and look up unknown words. Research the book online, or draw illustrations for what you’ve just read—the key is to think actively about the reading.

2. WRITE!

Writing is an extension of reading–they go hand-in hand. Whether it’s keeping a scrapbook, writing in a journal, or blogging online, daily writing helps to develop those critical communication skills that lead to great essays and even better grades. Need some ideas about what to write? Start a short story and add to it every day, or simply recount the day’s activities. It doesn’t have to be well-crafted literature to help keep skills sharp. So pick up a pen, and grab some paper and write someone a letter, even if it’s only to yourself.

3. PLAY! 

Don’t underestimate the value of old-fashioned board games and puzzles.  Whether it’s Sudoku, Crosswords, or traditional jigsaw puzzles, games teach necessary higher-level thinking skills such as strategy and planning. Plus, they help develop focus and attention, and often incorporate critical school skills such as math and reading. Best of all, they can offer hours of family-friendly fun with a little  bit of learning mixed in.

We already know why it’s important to make learning part of your holidays, so, we’ve compiled 12 ideas to keep your kids mentally engaged over the holiday season. Check in often for new ideas, and if you have your own idea, we’d love to hear it!

Day 11: Get Puzzlin’

Crossword puzzles. Search-a-words. Puzzles. Sudoku books. All of these not only make great stocking stuffers, they are a great way to challenge the mind. Sure, they can be frustrating, but the process of trying to figure out a problem, and work systematically through the steps needed to reach a solution get the mental synapses firing on all cylinders.
You can turn these otherwise solo activities into group games by attempting a puzzle together, and talking trough the steps, and explaining your reasoning to each other.

Tip 1: Get Crafty Together
Tip 2: Snuggle Up With a Book
Tip 3: Take a Hike
Tip 4: Play Video Games
Tip 5: Roll the Dice
Tip 6: Use Your School Agenda
Tip 7: Go to the Library
Tip 8: Keep a Holiday Journal
Tip 9: Go Online
Tip 10. Send Holiday Thank You Cards

We already know why it’s important to make learning part of your holidays, so, we’ve compiled 12 ideas to keep your kids mentally engaged over the holiday season. Check in often for new ideas, and if you have your own idea, we’d love to hear it!

Day 5: Roll the Dice

Board Games are more than just a way to get families to interact—they actually teach valuable learning skills.

A simple roll of the dice helps kids develop higher-level thinking skills such as critical thinking, strategy, analysis, planning, creativity, cooperation, organization, and rule-following, as well as improving basic school skills such as addition, subtraction, and reading comprehension.

And, one other critical thing: Board games are a great way to step away from technology for an hour or two, Sometimes, it’s just fun to spend simple quality time together. And, if kids pick up additional skills along the way, then all the better,

Check the comments on our post Board Games and Learning for great game suggestions from our readers

Tip 1: Get Crafty Together
Tip 2: Snuggle Up With a Book
Tip 3: Take a Hike
Tip 4: Play Video Games

We already know why it’s important to make learning part of your holidays, so, with the holidays fast approaching, we compiled 12 ideas to keep your kids mentally engaged over the holiday season. Check in often for new ideas, and if you have your own idea, we’d love to hear it!

Day 4: Play Video Games.

This might seem like an odd activity to suggest, since your kids are most likely fully intending to play video games day in and day out over the school break. Research has indicated that video games might not be as detrimental to kid’s mental development as we tend to think. In fact, certain interactive video games might actually help children develop skills (math, literacy, and social) that pay off in the classroom.

If you want to spend some quality time with your kids, why not pick up the controller, and get them to teach you how to play? Putting the kids in the instructor’s seat forces them to think systematically, logically, and analytically about the game and how they play it.

Tip 1: Get Crafty Together
Tip 2: Snuggle Up With a Book
Tip 3: Take a Hike

We already know why it’s important to make learning part of your holidays, so, with the holidays fast approaching, we compiled 12 ideas to keep your kids mentally engaged over the holiday season. Check in often for new ideas, and if you have your own idea, we’d love to hear it!

Day 1: Get Crafty Together.

Crafts are a great family holiday activity because they reinforce many important school skills such as attention-to-detail, following instructions, and maintaining focus, as well as encouraging creativity and imagination. Plus, kids have a great take-away that they can feel proud of!

There are many great craft sites available. Check out Oxford Learning guest blogger Secret Agent Josephine’s many great crafts on Alpha Mom. This one for holiday wreaths is budget-friendly and uses many supplies that you have around the house. Families with older kids might like her recent holiday artwork project.

School is almost done for the year. Over the course of the year, students have been taught a lot of information in the classroom—all of it very important knowledge that can, and will, become the academic foundation that they will build future careers upon.

But what if the most important lessons that students learn over the school year—the ones that will help them in their future careers the most—are being learned during recess?

Recess, it turns out, is more than just a time for kids to burn off their excess energy so that they don’t drive the teacher nuts; it’s a chance for kids to learn social lessons that are as important in an office/corporate/networking setting as any amount of education.

Here are Oxford Learning’s 12 Career Lessons Learned During Recess:

1. Not everything goes your way all of the time, and nobody likes a pouter.
2. Tell people what you think, but remember to be tactful.
3. Don’t be so caught up in playing marbles that you don’t notice that the touch football game is getting closer and closer.
4. Challenge gender stereotypes.
5. Test your limits.
6. Apologize right away.
7. Don’t do anything that would horrify your mom.
8. Reach out to the shy kid.
9. When in a race, give it all that you’ve got.
10. Do a silly victory dance, especially when other people are watching, but don’t be cocky.
11. Help someone up.
12. Don’t make people wait for you.

So, when your kids tell you that their favourite school subject is recess, there’s no need to worry. After all, they may be learning more at recess than you ever thought.

Printable PDF Version: What’s Good on the Playground Is Good in the Boardroom