In this modern day, children will always find a lot of ways to play. One good example is Minecraft. As a parent and someone who wants to have the best for their child, would you let your child play Minecraft?
Minecraft is a sandbox multiplayer online role-playing game where players take part in an adventure of a lifetime while also building their shelter, exploring the vast world, crafting items, and many more activities. While parents might be a bit skeptical of the game, here are the top 10 reasons why you should let your child play Minecraft.
Playing Minecraft Increases Creativity
One of the many reasons why kids and even adults love to play Minecraft is the ability to create anything they want. The open world of the game allows its players to be creative. You can build your shelter by gathering resources, craft items that you can use to mine for these resources, and much more.
The game is filled with different blocks that you can use to create something out of nowhere. For this reason alone, it makes the entire game the epitome of imagination and creativity.
Players are often left to their own devices, thus allowing their creative juices to flow. Some players even go as far as creating underground shelters and other lavish houses and mansions just to express their creativity.
Promoting Teamwork Amongst Players
Your child might spend hours and hours playing the game on their own but Minecraft also allows players to meet with each other. You can set up personal servers to protect your child from random strangers who might prey on your child's innocence but the game also lets them play with other kids as well.
Having such a social feature lets your child interact with other players who are also the same age as your child. Letting them engage with other children is a good way to build their social skills.
There is a party system where they can overcome different missions and challenges, and share their rewards with other players. Kids who play video games that have these types of social features are far more engaging in real life than children who are not exposed to such behavior online.
Teaches Your Child to Plan Ahead
Minecraft is all about crafting items, exploring different areas, and building new structures such as houses and farms. All of these require a lot of planning since you will need to gather a lot of materials to complete such projects.
It can be very easy to get overwhelmed when playing Minecraft especially if you don't have any plans. Planning allows your child to set proper goals and teach them how to complete such objectives.
This translates well in real life when your child begins to plan their day or even has a list of things that they need to do for the rest of the day.
Instills Proper Problem Solving Skills
The game might be easy to understand and play which makes it suitable for young kids to play but it also has some challenges that pose a difficulty for young minds. They will encounter many situations where they will need to decide how to deal with such issues.
Problems like where to build a house or how to retrieve a certain material in the game are just some of the things that many players encounter. Solving these problems takes a lot of skill for such a young player. The game teaches your child to develop proper problem-solving skills.
Whether it is a resolution for a simple problem like how to make a torch to complex problems like how to fix the foundation of your shelter, these problems can be resolved through proper problem-solving. Let your child develop this skill through trial and error.
Supports the Child’s Curious Minds
Minecraft features an open world where players can explore and craft many different things. With so many things to do, it is natural for young players like your child to become curious about what they can do within the game.
You can create walls, build houses, start a campfire, craft a new weapon, meet new friends, and do many other things. The possibilities are endless in Minecraft.
This piques their interest and allows them to be curious about the things surrounding them within the world. Let them experiment with different things within the game and see where their imagination takes them.
Learn Proper Resource Management
There are so many things to do when you play Minecraft. Part of the beauty of playing Minecraft is all about building different structures and living the daily life as a player inside the game.
Minecraft practically mimics real-life but provides easy access to the resources that are needed within the game to survive. With that in mind, the game teaches the player to properly manage all of the resources from materials needed to build a shelter to the food that they eat.
It may be easy to find them within the game but it can be challenging if you don't know how to manage your resources. Having this gameplay aspect available in the game teaches your child to be thrifty and resourceful.
Improves the Child’s Self-Confidence
Minecraft is a very social game where you also play with other players online. Interacting with other players requires a little bit of confidence from the player.
Strangers become friends when you allow your child to interact with other players. Let your child strike a conversation with random players in the game whether it is about the game or if they just want to express themselves.
This allows them to further improve their self-confidence. Independence is key to promoting a child's self-confidence and when you put them in an environment that is imaginative and freeing as Minecraft, you develop your child's self-confidence in a healthy manner.
Teaches the Child How to Code
Coding is just one of the many skills that your child can learn while playing Minecraft. This key skill can contribute to your child's curiosity and even drive them to become part of the IT industry later on. Players can change Minecraft codes to edit different gameplay aspects.
These changes can have small effects within the game such as the weather but there are also large changes that can affect the way the game is being played. All of these can be achieved by simply changing the codes within the game.
If you want to teach your child this important skill, it is best to start them young by letting them tinker with the game. This is probably one of the few online games that allow its players to change different aspects of the game.
Dedication and Focus
Minecraft has a lot of features and challenges such as quests and events. These challenges require a lot of dedication and focus from players to finish. Most players want to complete building their shelters or want to finish a certain mission so they can get the reward.
This enables the young player to train their minds to focus on their objectives and instill proper dedication and perseverance to get what they need within the game. This also teaches your child to have patience with the game and other players.
A lot of challenges in Minecraft take some time to finish and this requires them to extend their patience and widen their understanding making them more tolerant of adversaries.
Age Appropriate Content That Parents Can Also Enjoy
While many parents have resigned themselves to avoid playing Minecraft due to the game's simplicity, there are a lot of parents who support their child's game time by playing alongside them.
Sure, many parents have full confidence that Minecraft offers age-appropriate content but it also leaves the door open for them to enjoy the game. There are a lot of features that can also be enjoyed by adults.
The game is even designed with adults in mind hence parents can also enjoy playing Minecraft. Playing alongside your child will help strengthen your bond and you also get quality time together.
Developing Cognitive and Social Skills through Video Games
There are a lot of arguments about whether or not video games influence the minds of young children.
Minecraft is certainly one of those games that are at the center of such an argument.
While there is no direct research as to how Minecraft helps develop a child's cognitive skills, there is absolutely definitive data that video games help develop your child's problem-solving skills, help increase processing skills, social skills, motor skills, and more.
Conclusion
Minecraft continues to be one of the leading online video games that promote key learning skills for young children. There are so many reasons why you should let your child play Minecraft.
If you're a parent who wants your children to play an educational game, Minecraft is the most suitable game to play.
