It is hard to strike a balance between a child’s learning and entertainment. You might want to teach them a lot of things, but at the same time, you also don’t want to compromise on their fun.
Kids want entertainment. They are not much keen on learning, and it is understandable. Here our role as parents comes in. While they might want to watch cartoons all day long, as a parent, you must engage them in activities that improve their learning.
Generally, games are perceived as a waste of time. But, this is not necessarily true if you select the right games.
Kids love to play games. According to Statista, in the UK alone, 3-4-year-olds spent over 6 hours every week playing games in 2018. The chart below shows that the number of hours is increasing year-on-year.
Role of games in educating children
Games don’t only have harmful impacts upon the body and mind of the children. If chosen correctly, playing games can have a positive impact on children. Games can also help improve learning in children in various ways.
Researchers believe that games can serve as an excellent medium for imparting education. Topics like language and grammar can easily be learned if you make a game out of it. This is why learning apps for children are quite popular.
The benefits of games don’t just extend to the educational genre. Instead, you will be surprised how genres like adventure, role-playing, action, and strategy improve the cognitive skills among children.
How so?
Well, games that require quick thinking and action help boost hand-eye coordination in children, and genres that rely on plot points and strategy for success help in improving memory.
A study published in the Psychological Bulletin Journal noted that gamers tend to experience significant improvement in their cognitive skills. Therefore, apart from being a great way to keep boredom at bay, games play a key role in educating children.
Various gaming platforms offer tailored games aimed at improving the cognitive skills of gamers. However, there are only a few that specifically focus on children. One platform that has managed to deliver excellent games and videos for children is MiniMe.
What is MiniMe?
If you are an airG user, the chances are that you have heard of airG MiniMe. It is a popular subscription-based platform that features games and videos for kids.
For a nominal subscription fee, the platform provides unlimited access to a wide variety of educational games and videos. Each of these games and videos serves to improve the cognitive skills as well as general knowledge of children.
Once subscribed to the platform, users can play games on their mobile phones and tablets whenever and wherever they want, as long as they have a stable internet connection.
There are a few games that MiniMe offers for free, which allows parents to gauge the platform before committing to it. Upon trying out the games, we discovered some strategy games that can be extremely helpful for the cognitive development of children.
How does MiniMe help in educating kids?
Broadly, MiniMe offers two solutions – games and educational videos. Both of them have one objective: make learning as fun as possible for kids.
MiniMe Games
MiniMe features a wide variety of games belonging to different genres. This includes strategy, adventure, sport, arcade, education, puzzle, and makeup.
While you would expect only the educational genre to be beneficial for children, it turns out that games in the other genres are just as interesting and engaging.
For example, in the Puzzle section, you can find games like Connect Dots and Tri-memory, which requires critical thinking and tests your memory. While the games aren’t much difficult for grown-up children, we found them to be excellent for children below the age of 10.
Additionally, the various strategy games that are available on the platform can help boost problem-solving and decision-making skills in kids.
MiniMe Videos
Apart from offering games to its users, AirG MiniMe also has another solution for parents looking for entertaining, educational content – fun learning videos.
For a small subscription fee, MiniMe videos offer its users unlimited access to a wide variety of educational content. All of this content is animated to make it attractive for children. The information in the videos relayed through cartoon characters, thus making it easier for kids to understand.
For instance, one of the featured videos on the platform is Mika’s Diary, where the young protagonist interacts with the world and learns new things, which she then explains to her toys, and the young audience.
The interactive storytelling makes it easier for children to grasp and retain knowledge compared to conventional methods of teaching.
What makes MiniMe worth the subscription fee?
When reviewing the platform, we wondered if it was worth spending money on. After all, you could find learning games for children as well as videos on other sites as well.
After analyzing the platform, we concluded that MiniMe stands apart from other gaming platforms due to the following reasons:
Easy parental control
MiniMe makes it easier for parents to keep an eye on the content their child is interacting with. Since each game and video on the platform is free of ads and violence, it is pretty much comfort for parents that all the stuff on the website is safe and appropriate for kids.
Kid-Friendly
There is more to ensuring that a game is appropriate for children than the actual content. The ads and in-app actions present on the platform also matter. The good thing about MiniMe is that it does not feature any ads or in-app purchases, which makes it extremely kid-friendly.
Unlimited access
Games by MiniMe are available on smartphones, while MiniMe videos can be played on iPads, iPhones, Chromecast, Android phones, and tablets, etc. Once you subscribe to it, all the material can be accessed from anywhere at any time.
Ending Remarks
One thing is certain: technology, when used appropriately, has the power to hone the skills of children. MiniMe is just one example of such a platform. For parents, all that matters is to provide the children with the best tools for learning and entertainment. Do so, and they will surely reap the benefits.