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Educational PC games for a 10-year old
reminderGTO
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One of my relatives would like me to install some educational games onto his kids PC. The PC is a year old, dual core and I really doubt that system requirements are going to be a problem.
Anyways I'm looking for suggestions on some educational PC games. Something that would help with his English skills and grammar are a plus. Freeware is also a pretty big plus.
Anyways I'm looking for suggestions on some educational PC games. Something that would help with his English skills and grammar are a plus. Freeware is also a pretty big plus.
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Bookworm adventures deluxe (on Steam) is actually quite good. It's all about spelling words. The longer the word and depending on the letters you use the more points of damage you do to your enemies. You can try a demo of it to get an idea of what it's like.
Only other edutainment title I can remember is Operation Neptune, which is an old DOS game centring around maths.
Little off topic but I was 10 when I first read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. For me the best teacher of grammar and vocab was always just reading a lot by skilled authors. And it worked: perfect score on english half of the SATs and this was back before they made em all easy (nowadays you can get 1 or 2 wrong and still get an 800).
Edit: Other books I read about the same time that were just as enthralling - the Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander (book 2 of 5 is "The Black Cauldron"), first 6 book of the Narnia series, first three Foundation books by Aasimov, Red Planet by heinlein.
Make sure the child in question is capable of understanding the fine line between a fictional approximation of history and the actual historical record, though. Otherwise, hilarity might ensue when he earnestly tries to convince people that Christianity was founded in Boston, that Gandhi built Stonehenge, and that Cossacks weren't possible until military tradition was invented in 1789.
Bookworm Adventures is definitely a solid pick, in any case.
Yeah, I had a Geography teacher once who used it to illustrate things like city planning. It can be a really good tool for that.
As for Transport Tycoon, you can actually get a version of that that's free and works on modern computers. It's called Open Transport Tycoon Deluce:
http://www.openttd.org/
I'll second RiemannLives on reading books. I actually got started on sci-fi because I played and loved Dune II, so I picked up the book at a local library. Instantly hooked, I think I finished the first half of it that night.
Ender's Game is also a book that I'd recommend. Vocabulary isn't too tough, and it's all about children which helps its appeal no end.
Note that it doesn't have to be Civ 2, any of them would do fine, although I feel like the sequels got more complex in some ways.
You know what really helped me with my language skills and vocabulary whilst I was in school?
Adventure games. Monkey Island 1 and 2, Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Heck the Dig, Full Throttle, Loom, Grim Fandango, Monkey Island 3 (just turn off the spoken speech).
Seriously, adventure games. Lots of reading, logic puzzles to think through (although admittedly, not always the most sane logic), most of the golden era LucasArts adventure games are family friendly, and plenty of fun for the family as you guys try to figure out how to solve the next puzzle. You can even set the text speed. If you can get hold of any of them they're well worth it. You might have to run them through DOSBox but that's not usually too complicated.
These days adventure games are making a comeback in the indie circles, and there's a lot of good stuff out there. Main problem is that a lot of it is more mature and may not really be suitable for a ten year old.
Another option for plenty of language and reading could be RPG's. Games like Baldur's Gate 1/2 and Planescape: Torment had absolutely loads of text as you adventured through their worlds. Again, there may be an issue with the maturity of the content (the games can get quite dark) but it's definitely an option to keep in mind.
I honestly feel a lot of my language development when I was young was down to 2 things: Getting hooked on sci-fi books, and adventure games. Well, maybe also reading computer games magazines as well, they held my interest and were often quite technical so that really helped.
I might post later if I can think of some more recent, good RPG's and adventure games that might be appropriate.
...I think I might have played Civ 2 when I was 10, but I don't think I was very good at it.
Oregon Trail is funny. Mainly because of dysentery.
Oh, and ALWAYS ford the river. Because 40ft deep rivers are definitely fordable
I'd suggest Sim City.
I remember playing the original when I was little. I didn't have to deal with water pipes. I just had to deal with electricity, and some basic taxes.
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Are there any games for PC like the Professor Layton games? Because the Curious Village is pretty good in terms of making you think.
That aside, I'd have to recommend The Incredible Machine, Push-Over, Lemmings, Logical. Puzzle games are pretty easy to get into, even if they don't really help with language skills.
The Lucasarts adventures mentioned above don't even need any fiddling with DosBox, they run perfectly well in Windows using ScummVM.
I had forgotten about ScummVM. Heck, "Beneath a Steel Sky" is freeware now and can run on ScummVM. Although I've heard it's more dark (it's cyberpunk and set in a dystopian future) so I'm not sure how appropriate it might be.
I downloaded the demo for Bookworm and I'll let him try that this week. That sounds like a great game for vocab and spelling so it's sure to be a winner.
I have an old copy of Sim City 2000 that I'll let him try. I'm not totally sure if he's ready for any of the Civs (I have Civ IV) but if he gets a hold of Sim City then I'll install IV for him. If simulation games spark his imagination center then I'll buy Railroad Tycoon and other sim games.
As for adventure games those are all great suggestions, but I'm having a huge amount of trouble installing them on that particular comp. (I've got old copies of King's Quest somewhere) I'm going to try it again later with the help of DOSbox or scummvm.
I didn't even think of puzzle games but the Incredible Machine is a great suggestion. Yeah I'll check Crazy Machines 2 on Steam and see if it works for him.
Thanks all, I'll probably have as much fun as he does when I try these games as well. Getting him to read books is another ordeal but I guess I can help.
Depending on the kids humour, this may also have a plus in that the main character farts on command.
I actually worked at work on Saturday. Also I went out on a date with a real life girl.
Can you like, permanently break the forums?
Try to stay away from the games that even look educational... no one wants to play those.
Also wolfenstein 3d. Thats what I had when I was 10 and I turned out ok.