Are video games good for kids

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Since the digital revolution in the early 2000s, children have started to invest more and more of their time into video games. Studies show that the average American 8th grader spends 23 hours a week playing video games as opposed to 12 hours invested in such games by average 8th grader in 2001.

The average amount of time gathered by various studies carried out on the topic has increased a lot, although it has not yet been proven, whether video games are really worth the time spent on them or are just a waste of time and energy.

Pros of video games

First of all, we must consider that video games have become far more advanced than they were a decade ago. The graphics and the complexity of the games is more and more similar to what can be experienced in real life.

For example, several professional motorsports drivers have admitted that they are training for different circuits on video games, as the game features are very similar to the real circuit. Even some colleges use some video games in their studies. For example the University of Florida, University of California-Berkeley, Boston College and several other colleges use a video game called Starcraft in their management studies, as they believe it is a great way to develop stategical thinking of their students.

Besides the ability of different video games to develop the thinking and brain of young children, it has also been found that video games motivate children to learn different topics that they need at the game. For example, in Jyvaskyla University in Finland a research found that 6-7 year-old children, who started playing different video games at an open-ended computer environment were much more eager to learn reading and writing than the other children at their age. Also the children who took part in the survey increased their peripheral vision and language skills in English quite significantly.

Cons of video games

On the other hand video games also may have negative effects on the mental health of children. Already in 1992 Japanese professor Takashi Sakamoto found that children at the ages on 11-13, who were playing computer games most of their time, were less creative and emphatic than the other kids at their age range.

After the invention of different social networks like Facebook, children can get connected with other kids at any time, whether it would be in a game, smart phone or just a chat online. Although the quantity of communication has increased, the quality of information seems to have decreased. At the end it may result with social disconnection and increase in likelyhood for depression.

As children are spending more time playing multiple electronic games, the rate of video game addiction is also growing. Addiction in any area in life is not healthy, especially for young developing minds. Usually video game addiction results in increased aggressiveness, social disconnection with family and friends and lower academic achievement.

In a study conducted by Iowa State university it was found that nearly one in ten youths is addicted to video games. One of the main dangers in that particular addiction is that the player may lose sense between the fantasy world and the real world. In several cases children have found to be trying to imitate violence seen in video games. Many researchers suggest that there may also be a link between playing violent video games and bullying.

All in all, video games may have both positive effects and negative effects on children.

On one hand they increase different mental skills, on the other hand overuse of them may result in various mental health problems, lack of creative thinking and empathy. Overall we must admit that in healthy doses video games may have a positive effect on the development of children. As in every other area of life, there must be found a balance – a balance between video games and other activities, a balance between the real world and the fantasy world.

Is Kung fu good for your children

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Keeping your child physically active and enrolled in sports activities is essential for many reasons.

In today’s modern world, we have so much technology and children are starting to become fixated with these technologies from a younger age. We have pre-teenagers who have mobile phones and accounts on Facebook which limits their activity quite a bit.

Back in the 90s, kids were happy if they could play “don’t let the baloon touch the floor”, but today kids need all of the fancy gadgets and gaming consoles to keep them satisfied.

So how do we keep our children interested in activities outside of the home and pursuits that promote personal growth and development?

#1 – Kung fu for children is actually quite helpful and popular for a variety of reasons.

Kung fu is a traditional Chinese martial art that emphasizes not just physical strength and stamina, but also discipline, meditation, ethics and morality.

It also allows children to start learning self defense at a very young age which is one of the most important features. There are a great number of kidnappings and abductions to children every year and learning self defense and what to do in a situation like this at an early age will help reduce those numbers greatly. This is why enrolling your child in a Kungfu for children class at an early age is a fantastic idea!

#2 – Try to get your children involved in as many sports as possible without forcing them into sports. Not only will they meet other children and make new friends, which is good for their social health and social development skills, but it’ll keep them active and keep them healthy.

#3 – Also engage and figure out their personal hobbies or interests. If they don’t have any interests, try to help them find some and take them to the local library. Reading at a young age develops the mind and helps develop strategic thinking. Intellectual people often start reading about their hobbies and interests at a very early age.

What are the complications of inactive children?

While obesity is on the rise and activity levels are down in children, there are a lot of mental health and physical health complications associated with being inactive.

– Children who are inactive at a young age have a tendency to stay inactive throughout their teenager years and young adult years which may put them at risk for heart disease.

– Children who remain inactive through a number of years also have a higher risk of becoming obese which has a huge increase on the risk of developing physical health problems. There’s too many diseases to list here.

– Your child’s social life may suffer as well. Being inactive and sheltered away from everyone will only develop social disorders, anxiety or even depression.

Enrolling your child in a Kungfu for children class is just one good example of how you can get your child to be active and healthy. There are many different activities and things your child may enjoy, but try to limit their intake of video games and television to a couple of hours or one hour a day. We need to help children stay active as much as possible in the early years so that it hopefully carries on when they grow up.

Teach your children to be physically active from a young age, and teach them how to enjoy it. And most children enjoy Kung Fu, especially boys. They may later  keep a life time habit of engaging in physical activity, and scientific research has shown that this guarantees a better health and life expectancy.

the Rubik’s cube

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Everything You Need to Know about the Rubik’s Cube

The Rubik’s cube has been in existence since the mid 1970’s. This famous toy was named after its inventor Erno Rubik.

Each cube is made up of 6 sides each has a distinctively different color. There have been a number of different color cubes released in the later years but the original colors (orange, yellow, green, white, red and blue) remains the norm. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? The answer will surprise you.

The inventor Rubik first had it released in his home country Hungary where it was a huge success. Convincing the authorities to let him market his clever puzzle to the rest of the world proved to be a daunting task at first, but he was finally granted the patent to do just that.

This was just in time for the dawning of the 1980′, and it was such a massive hit that by the end of 1983, a total number of 100,000,000 units had been sold. The interesting thing about all these sales statistics is that the majority of these toy puzzles went on to remain unsolved.

It is estimated that at least one in every 8 people in the world has had an encounter with one of these cubes. The degree of distribution of the toy since its introduction makes it one of, if not the most famous puzzle toys of all time. Solving it takes a high level of concentration coupled with patience and mental fortitude.

The difficulty aspect of this puzzle is so high that the possible numbers of wrong moves are unquantifiable. This is why most people gather that calling it a toy does not accord it fair justice. The people who have managed to solve this puzzle testify that at first the whole experience is usually frustrating. When interviewed, they always cite their growth in skills stemming from an interaction they had with the cube while growing up or at some early stages in their lives.

To a normal human being, the cube may take days on end without making any significant progress. This could be due to the fact that regular people do not understand that there is a formula to solving this famous puzzle. How is it that the world record for the fastest Rubik’s cube solving is 5.66 seconds? The answer is speed cubing, this is where people try to solve the puzzle as fast as possible. And they used so-called algorithms, which are sequences of moves to be memorized in order to solve a specific part of the problem.

The world record holder, Feliks Zemdegs is one such fan of the speed cubing techniques. The cube’s impact on the world was so tremendous that it has been made into a sport. This is where enthusiasts of the cube get to compete trying to outdo each other.

Speed cubing involves a large category of disciplines. There is an event that seeks to determine the best competitor by having them solve a series of cubes in short time. Times from each cube are tallied and the one with the least recorded gets the tag of “best in the world”, at least till the next competition is held. There is also a blind folded class where participants compete as well.

All this continued interest has effectively ensured that the Rubik’s cube remains a relevant and integral part of our society and culture. It is a great games for kids, who can learn eye hand coordination, geometry, mathematical sequencing and much more.