By Jennifer Comet Wagner

Parents have many things to worry about. It comes with the job. However, one of the things that many

parents worry about needlessly is playing video games. As you will see, gaming conveys many benefits

Why don’t you know about these benefits? The newspapers love to write stories about violence in video
games because it sells. However there have been hundreds of studies during the last decade on video
games benefits and some that also show that violent video games do not create violent kids. The fact
that parents were only hearing one side of the story was the reason that I decided to write The Gamer
Generation: Reaping The Benefits of Video Games.

Here is a list of the various benefits discussed the in the ebook:
In my book, The Gamer Generation, I share many resources – articles, books, websites, videos, etc.

1. Socialization – For most teens, gaming is a social activity and a major component of their overall
social experience.
2. Physical and Health Benefits – With all the new motion controllers, kids don’t sit still while
playing anymore. Video games are being created to help with a number of medical conditions.
3. Violence in Video Games: The Studies You Don’t See – “Video games are bad for you? That’s
what they said about Rock ‘n Roll.” There are a number of studies that disprove the theory that
violent video games make gamers violent.
4. Cognitive and Creative Benefits – Today’s video games are so complex that gamers become
experts at multitasking with improved cognitive processing.
5. Video Games in Education – Kids enjoy learning when they are having fun. And games are
perfect for education with the game design of clear goals, leveling up, ability to risk take and
rewards.
6. Educational Value of Video Game Creation – “It is paradoxical that many educators and parents
still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital
connection between them.”

Author Jennifer Comet Wagner with a character from Pop Cap's Plants Vs. Zombies.

7. Business and Careers – In Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, players develop the
ability to multitask, think creatively, work in teams, and become leaders.
8. Serious Games – “Serious games are games with purpose beyond just providing entertainment.”
Serious games are being created in many areas that are impacting the world with charitable and
other endeavors.
9. Family Connections – Video games can bring families together. There are so many family
friendly games that families can spend hours having fun together.

A recent article that I’d like to recommend is Are Video Games Good for Girls?  This is another excellent
article that brings out many of the benefits of video games.

As long as your kids play age-appropriate games, and don’t play every waking moment, gaming is not

something to worry about at all. It can actually be a very good thing. Give it a try so that you too might
reap the benefits of video games.

To find out more, you can find Jennifer Comet Wagner’s ebook,  The Gamer Generation: Reaping the Benefits of Video Games at Amazon.com.

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By Jamie Wiersma

Our family recently downloaded Oceanhouse Media’s omBook “Five Little Monkeys Go Shopping” by Eileen Christelow on our iPad2 (available for most devices). Mama takes her five little monkeys shopping the day before school. While they are in the store the monkeys keep wandering off. Will Mama ever have all of her monkeys together again?  If you are familiar with the Five Little Monkeys series, you already know that these are great books. But, the digital version is even more enjoyable for little kids because it is very interactive through fun monkey noises and words that zoom up and are spoken when pictures are touched.

There are three ways that this omBook can be read – Read to Me (listen to the narrated story with words highlighted as they are read), Read it Myself (read the book in its traditional form), and Auto Play (plays like a movie, automatically reading and turning pages.) The “Read to Me” version is great for my 5-year old.  He is able to follow along as the words are highlighted while the story is being read.

Things That Make this Digital Book Great:

• It incorporates early math by adding and subtracting the monkeys when they run off and then come back to Mama.
• The audio is great – the monkey noises and other surrounding sounds are very cute and add a lot to the story.
• The book encourages early reading through picture/word association. The words zoom up and are spoken when pictures are touched. Early readers can also follow along with the highlighted words while the book is being read.
• The pictures are bright and colorful.

 A Few Cons:

• It is not so great for my almost two-year old who likes to swipe at the iPad. His little fingers have figured out how to interrupt the story which then requires you to answer a prompt asking you if you want to continue or not. Then it starts that same page again. It’s probably an iPad thing, but it does get annoying. Especially on Auto Play it would be nice if the pages stayed locked.
• I think it could be even better if there was more touch interaction on the math side of things.

A Mom’s Perspective 

Overall, both my almost 2-year old and my 5-year old really enjoy “Five Little Monkeys Go Shopping.” The book is probably best suited for ages 3 – 6. I would definitely recommend the book to any parent that is looking for cute books to download for your child that also encourage additional learning skills in math and reading. The app is available at iTunes for $2.99. If you enjoy this book, Oceanhouse Media has a ton of other children’s digital books available such as Dr. Seuss, The Berenstain Bears, more Five Little Monkey books as well as many others.

* I was given a code to download “Five Little Monkeys Go Shopping” for my honest opinion. All opinions are my own.

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By Jamie Wiersma

Our family just downloaded Oceanhouse Media’s new omBook app Picture Me Cute As Can Bee* to our iPad. Basically, it allows you to take new pictures or add photos from your camera roll and place them into the story that your child is reading. Faces get inserted into cute spring costumes like a bumble bee, a bunny,  and flower.  My 5 year enjoyed taking pictures and manipulating them to prepare them for the story.  My 2 year old loved seeing pictures of mommy, daddy, Bubba and himself while having the story read to him. In addition to cute pictures, there are also interactive objects on every page that they are able to play with. The story is fairly simple but overall a cute, interactive app for young children.

Features that make this a great app:

1. Beautiful, colorful pictures and great narration.
2. Word highlighting for children just beginning to read.
3. Interactive objects on every page for little fingers that want to play.
4. Super easy to load pictures into the app and choose which ones you would like to use each time you read the story.

From a mom’s perspective, this is a great little eBook that allows very young children (1 1/2 to 3 years old) to play on the iPad as well as practice names of loved ones and springtime objects. For children a little bit older (4 to 5 years old), this is a wonderful tool to encourage early reading and simple enough for them to manipulate on their own.

Love this app? Oceanhouse Media also has a Christmas app called Picture Me Christmas Cutie. Both apps are available at the App Store – $.99 for Picture Me Cute as Can Bee and $1.99 for Picture Me Christmas Cutie.

*I was given a code to download this app in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.

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