My kids have always loved gaming. Board games, imagination games, computer games, games on paper, pretty much any game. In fact when they were preschool aged I could always get them to learn a new subject by calling it a game. I even tried that with laundry folding once, but they caught on pretty quickly that it was actually a chore and that was the end of that.
A number of years ago some friends introduced my kids to the world of online multiplayer gaming in the form of Wizard 101. At first I was skeptical and cautious of any online group activity that was not mom-controllable, for obvious reasons of safety. After checking the game and reassuring myself that indeed the service was completely kid-safe, the Hub and I joined up along with the kids. As they grew a bit older, I opened their privileges within the game to include chat functionality, as the good folks at Wizard 101 have designed their game to filter and immediately block all use of names, numbers, and any conceivable bad word.
And then the magic learning began in earnest thanks to that chat filter: spelling. If you type a word into the chat bar that is misspelled, the system filters and blocks it. The only way my kids could communicate within the game was to learn to spell. And so we began playing through the wizarding worlds together as a family, with the kiddos rapidly learning spelling and touch typing.
Recently I discovered my kids planning out their wizard battles prior to entering a game so they could be assured of having optimal card sets in their deck. This involves calculating the strength of a potential enemy (or enemies) including percent resistance they may have and figuring out how strong each one of their own attacks would be (including uplifts from the various gear options they might have) which gets even more complicated when some of their attacks act over several rounds of play. The math aspect is hidden from view but if, as my kids do, you want to play an optimal game (battles take a lot of time in the game and get in the way of playing out the fun storyline) then learning to quickly calculate and add and multiply percentages gives you a tremendous advantage.
And so learning comes in the strangest of places and the good folks at Wizard 101 may not realize what a wonderful spelling and math practice tool they have created, but in our house Saturdays nearly always include time playing Wizard 101 together.
