Pixels and punctuation: Video games for writing and spelling

5 Days of Video-Game Learning series: Video games that teach reading, writing and spelling skills

The adults in our family do all of our work – and most of our recreation – via laptop and phone.

My 80-year-old mom keeps up with friends and reading via her iPad.

While we don’t have the latest and greatest video-game systems, technology and especially gaming are a huge part of our lives. Is it any surprise that they’re a major part of our teenage daughter’s homeschooling experience as well?

We’re not just talking the standard “educational games” here. We firmly believe learning happens all the time, and we’ve had chances to discuss all sorts of concepts in popular games like the Assassin’s Creed series, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, and more. We also believe in the value of apps for learning, in a traditional educational sense and beyond.

That’s why I took part in the iHomeschool Network’s “5 days of…” Hopscotch series with a look at 5 days of video-game learning.

Today, we’re talking about the ways some of our favorite video games have improved Ashar’s writing and spelling skills (not to mention her reading!)

Video games for reading, writing and spelling

When I sat down to write this post, I asked Ashar what video games she plays that she thinks involve the most reading or writing. An interesting thing happened – as she was giving me her list, she mixed in things like crosswords and other “traditional” games, not really distinguishing between “video games” and “not video games.”

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

That really interested me – and kind of solidified an idea that I had going into this series and couldn’t quite put my finger on.

My thought is that the division between “video games” and other stuff is pretty artificial. I mentioned in the introduction to this series that it really bothers me to hear people set different time limits for “educational video games” versus “regular video games. And I think this gets to why – the medium is not the message. If Ashar is reading about pet care, the location (on a screen in Pet Vet, or in a book by National Geographic) is just the medium. She’s doing the work – and the message is still there!

With that in mind, here are the games we came up with that dealt most heavily with these language-arts-type skills.

Wheel of Fortune – Ashar plays this on her 3DS, and we’d love to have it for the Wii as well so we can play together! It’s helped her word-building and recognition skills immensely (as has watching the show) – she now understands how words are put together, and that picking random letters isn’t as useful as critically thinking about what combinations make the most sense. It sounds strange, maybe, but that was a skill she’d lacked. She never was able to sight-read words because she just didn’t know how to “guess” what made sense in context, and I think Wheel of Fortune has helped her start to see letters as part of words and words as part of phrases. (As a side note – she loves to play Jeopardy, too, and when I asked her, “Well, don’t you have to spell the answers right in that?” she told me that it’s multiple-choice – and that she wishes it wasn’t! Who knew?!)
Moshi Monsters – I mentioned when we talked about games that promote social skills that Ashar loves leaving notes for her friends (and getting them in return) in this web-based game. She quickly found out that she gets better notes in response when her messages are understandable, and she loves receiving messages with new words! The best example there? When she asked me, “What is SALUTATIONS?” Now she leaves “salutations” for all her friends. Influencing the world with one word of greeting. Or… something!

Pet Vet series – This was far and away the “reading” winner (in addition to being a key math game in an earlier part of this post series) – and in fact, as we talked about it, Ashar decided she wanted to play right now and sat down beside me to treat some animal diseases as I finished this post. She’s now deciphering words like “cornifications” and “antifungal.” All of the game interactions are text-based as well as visual and aural, which makes it great for a variety of types of learners, and playable (though not very easy) for even struggling readers.

The rest of the series

Sunday: Why “All my kids want to do is play video games!” isn’t such a bad thing (introduction)
Monday: Virtual friends, virtual art: Video games for social skills and creativity
Tuesday: Digital currency: Video games for math
Today: Pixels and punctuation: Video games for writing and spelling
Thursday: Bringing the past to life: Video games for history and geography
Friday: Our fitness is pretty funny-looking: Video games for physical education

You can read all the posts here!

More five-day fun

This post is part of the iHomeschool network’s January 2013 “5 days of…” Hopscotch series.

You can see how some of my fellow bloggers are spending their five days here.

We’re sharing everything from tips and tricks for getting out of debt to using posterboard in your homeschool, from catapults to eating whole foods.

We sure are an eclectic group – I hope you’ll check out more!

And if you’re into the things we do in our family homeschool, check out my previous “5 days of…” series, 5 days of real-world math.

15 Jan

Digital currency: Video games for math

$5 Days of Video-Game Learning series: Video games that teach math skills$

The adults in our family do all of our work – and most of our recreation – via laptop and phone.

My 80-year-old mom keeps up with friends and reading via her iPad.

That’s why I took part in the iHomeschool Network’s “5 days of…” Hopscotch series with a look at 5 days of video-game learning.

Today, we’re talking about how some of our favorite video games have tons of math included.

Video games for math

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

There are a lot of “math games,” especially web-based ones.

I’m not opposed to those, but if you have a math-hater, math facts with circus animals are still math facts, you know?

The thing is, we’ve realized that the games that Ashar LOVES playing most have a huge math component.

Lego Star Wars – This whole series is for the DS, Wii, Xbox and Playstation systems (and includes Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Lego Batman, Lego Lord of the Rings and a bunch more) is a TON of fun for Lego-loving kids like mine. And guess what? You break bricks and collect coins. You use those coins to complete various challenges. And that means keeping track of the coins, as well as working on your logic and critical-thinking skills, which are a key part of real-world math!
Club Penguin – Ashar loves this web-based game, probably more than any of her others. It’s got a “mission” or “quest” format that you unlock progressively, which keeps the kids coming back, and to unlock various parts, players need to complete challenges. Many of them? Yep, math-based. There’s also a money component here, where you need to save up to buy igloo upgrades for your penguin’s domicile and, you know, cool penguin clothes.
Moshi Monsters and Webkinz – I mentioned these for creative play yesterday, but both have a significant math component as well. They have logic games, mini-games that are actually straight math-based (like Moshi Multiply, oddly one of Ashar’s favorites) and, as with Club Penguin, a significant money component that leads to all sorts of adding, subtracting and more!

Nintendogs and Cats, Pet Vet and Horsez – Again, the money component of these games is key. More so than in some other games, Pet Vet in particular requires you to really work for the coins to then buy upgrades, and there’s a lot of logic required about what upgrades you spend money on. Buy a horse stable and you can care for horses (and make more money), but you’ll have to spend a good bit up front. These are some longtime favorites of ours for science as well, again especially the Pet Vet ones!
Angry Birds – These apps/web-based games are HUGE for learning physics. (And it’s not terribly inaccurate physics – says this math major!) Ashar loves them, and likes doing things like saying, “Well, I’ll need 100,000 points for three stars, and if I have two birds left, that means I’ll get 20,000 points for them, so I’ll need 80,000 before I’m done.”
Rush Hour – This app is based on a board game, and we have that version as well. We play it more on our phones, though, because it’s great for something like passing time in a waiting room or in line! It’s a logic puzzle based on getting a particular car out of a well-packed gridlock.

These are just some of the games WE play. My challenge and encouragement to you is to look for the math in the games your own family enjoys, and, without being heavy-handed (there’s an art to that!), to discuss it. If you’re laying Minecraft tiles, be overt in talking about how you’ll use 20 tiles to make the floor of your house, and if you can, work in that there are four rows of five tiles. If you play Roblox, same idea. I talk a LOT about real-world math and logical thinking, because I truly believe if you get the idea, you’ll be able to get the “math facts” down without issue!

The rest of the series

Sunday: Why “All my kids want to do is play video games!” isn’t such a bad thing (introduction)
Monday: Virtual friends, virtual art: Video games for social skills and creativity
Today: Digital currency: Video games for math
Wednesday: Pixels and punctuation: Video games for writing and spelling
Thursday: Bringing the past to life: Video games for history and geography
Friday: Our fitness is pretty funny-looking: Video games for physical education

You can read all the posts here!

More great resources for homeschooling and unschooling math

This post is also part of the iHomeschool Network’s Massive Guide to Homeschooling Math.

Click the image to read many, many more posts full of great math advice!

Also, if you’re into the things we do in our family homeschool, check out my previous “5 days of…” series, 5 days of real-world math.