The father of another twelve-year-old GR8 has come on over the headsets saying, "I just love what you do!" He laughed, and continued, saying, "My son told me what happened the other day--he got a kick out of it, and so did I."
I asked, "What was that?"
"Some guy came into your room and starting spouting off something about kids shouldn't be on this game, it's rated 'M', for mature, and this and that, and I guess he had a foul mouth, too. Then he started cussing at the kids, and you stopped him and said, '"You are absolutely right. This game is rated 'M', for mature. So, why is it that my room full of kids are acting more mature than you are right now?'"
I don't think he could help himself for long. I ended up giving him the boot. I don't think he liked it that the kids beat him up so badly at the game."
In a supervised environment, the online gaming experience teaches kids teamwork, lays foundations for commitment to responsibility, introduces them to operate user-friendly technology, gives them a healthy sense of competition, develops communication skills, and good sportsmanship, as well as, how to recognize poor sportsmanship, while giving them a venue to perfect their developing sense of hand-eye coordination.
Even better, I realized that gaming was teaching the younger ones advanced math. Yes, math.
One day, while playing Rainbow Six Vegas, I noticed my score was 3 Kills and 9 Deaths, giving me a negative six (-6) performance. I mentioned that I had a negative six, and one of the eight-year-olds asked, "What's that mean? A negative six?"
| "...he started cussing at the kids, and you stopped him and said, 'You are absolutely right. This game is rated 'M', for mature. So, why is it that my room full of kids are acting more mature than you are right now?'" | ||
I told him what a negative number was, and he replied, "Oh. We haven't studied negative numbers in third grade yet."
The notion had totally eluded me!
Then, I took the time to explain a very short example of the definition of a negative number, and how they are derived, and I told him that he would learn all about negative numbers in school, soon enough.
Days later, he must have been looking at his kill/death ratio, when we heard him say, "I have a negative five."
"What's did you say?" I said.
"That's right, isn't it?" he asked, "I have three kills and eight deaths, so that means I have a negative five, right?"
"You're right!" I said, realizing that he just learned how to compute negative numbers through studying his character's kills and deaths.
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