Parenting Tip: 7 Activities to Supplement Computer Games and Unleash Your Child's Creativity

Parenting Tip: 7 Activities to Supplement Computer Games and Unleash Your Child's Creativity. Many parents are concerned about the impact of computer games on their child's development. Here are seven ways to supplement computer games to encourage your child's creative development. Children can create character profiles and make up their own stories based on characters from their favorite computer games. It might be fun for your child to put himself in the shoes of some of the characters. This is a good way to help a child develop empathy.

Some kids are kinesthetic learners, and can make 3D models of computer game characters out of clay or papier mâché. You can create your own computer games using hundreds of software tools. Tools include "The 3D Gamemaker,"* for example, which allows you to create games by pointing and clicking. You can scan in your own images, record your own personal sound effects, and import your own 3D models.

Even if we enjoy playing them, many parents are concerned about the impact of computer games on their child's development. We are concerned that allowing our children to play computer games for more than an hour per day will turn them into antisocial, obese couch potatoes. We believe that reading to our children or reading child stories to them would be preferable. However, computer games are here to stay, so why not use them instead of fighting them? This article explains how you can allow your child to play computer games while also encouraging the development of their creativity.

Many parents are concerned about computer games because, unlike reading a child story, they do not require a great deal of imagination. Here are seven ways to supplement computer games to encourage your child's creative development:

#1 Create character profiles

Characters can be found in some computer games. These characters are already well-known and developed thanks to the Harry Potter games. Other games, on the other hand, may have more "shallow" characters. This is an excellent opportunity for your child to further develop the characters. They can create a character profile by imagining who their family is, where they come from, where they go/went to school, what hobbies they enjoy, how they feel, and so on. Your child can then draw or sketch the character and scenes from their life, past, present, and future. Finally, your child can create profiles for the characters' friends, family, pets, colleagues, droids, and so on.

#2 Make storyboards.

When you think about it, many computer games are simply interactive stories. As a result, your child can make up their own stories based on the characters from their favorite computer games. Consider this an extension of the computer game. You could even pretend to be a member of the computer game company, working on a new version of the computer game.

There are several approaches you can take depending on your preferences and those of your child. You can write a script, draw cartoon-style illustrations, draw illustrated scenes (pictures), or draw pictures with text.

#3 Keep a Diary

It might be fun for your child to put himself in the shoes of some of the characters. This is also a good way to help a child develop empathy. Write a diary for your child as if they were one of the characters.

#4 Create a Virtual World

My son has created his own virtual world. He's made detailed maps, descriptions of all the creatures, plants (over 100 in total, all fully illustrated), and lands in it, as well as a complete history of this fictitious world. Your child can design a virtual world that is an extension of an existing computer game or something entirely new.

#5 What's for Dinner?

If your child enjoys cooking, why not create some special recipes based on what people eat in the virtual world of the computer game? What is their favorite dish? What is the country's national dish? These "recipes" could be made from real, edible foods or from non-edible materials (make sure your child does not consume the latter!).

#6 Get Your Hands On

Some kids are kinesthetic learners, which means they learn by doing. If your child is one of these, they can make 3D models of computer game characters out of clay or papier mâché. Life-sized models can even be built in your garden or backyard. You can, for example, carve a character out of an old tree stump or log.

#7: Design Your Own Computer Game

What could be more creative in the world of computer games than creating your own game? Computer game companies go through a process similar to some of the steps described here when creating a game, so you might be able to use the results of your fun work to create an actual computer game.

You can create your own games using hundreds or thousands of software tools. However, unless you're a "techie," you should probably use one that doesn't require any programming or advanced computer skills.

Software tools like "The 3D Gamemaker,"* for example, enable you to create games by simply pointing and clicking. The 3D Gamemaker includes a scene, sound, and 3D object library that you can use to create your own games. To make your game more unique, you can scan in your own images, record your own personal sound effects, and import your own 3D models.

The Multi-Choice Creation System (MuCeS) allows you to create Multichoice adventures in which the game player selects one of several options based on what she believes will be best for a given situation.

These are just two examples of the many possibilities. The point is, you don't have to be a "rocket scientist" to make your own computer games. Consider how excited your children will be to design their own games. Computer gaming will never be the same again!

Conclusion

Some parents believe that computer games have a "unhealthy" influence on their children, but when combined with some of the "offline" child story creation activities described here, you will not only unleash your child's creative genius, but you will also have a lot of fun doing it.

* Please keep in mind that I have not (yet) used any of the software described here. The products mentioned are only provided as examples.