Site has been lifehacked... Sounds interesting though, so thanks I'll add it to my child resource bookmarks.

David Hunter

Children can be children by playing games that many of us played when we were kids. ;)

tamar

or we could be really different and let children be children for a while.

edawnedsram

What's a Chid? :)

elsifer

I need to be educated on what a chid is.
Maybe we should let our chidren just be chids.

Actually, it takes educated parents to educate their children. You can play Monopoly for fun, but you can also turn anything (including many games) into learning experiences (without getting too pedantic).

Beware of the computer games that "teach". The APA recommends that really little kids get limited "screen time". They learn better through interactions with real people.

The article had a little bit of "scare tactic" in it... like this quote "The top 10 jobs we will have in 2010 did not exist in 2004 (as in, we are currently educating our children for jobs that don't exist yet)" Oookay. Yeah, duh. The whole point of education is to prepare you for the unknown. The point of training (i.e. on-the-job training) is to prepare you for the known.

Posco Grubb

Much better than the stock market games a lot of schools do, where kids pick some investment mix and whoever has the most gain at the end of the semester "wins". Teaches kids exactly the wrong things about investing.

Logical Extremes

It's a brave new world.

Laen

*yawn* I've seen that presentation before, and every time I think about it, the more I hate myself for ever giving it thought in the first place. The only really interesting tidbit was the one about how China has more intellectuals than we have people, that just made me laugh though. The presentation is a bunch of facts that most people will just take as gospel and not look at it from another direction.

I agree with POSCO GRUBB's sentiments in entirety. Well said.

I'd like to say, "Well, the rest of the article is about games to teach your kid, right?" ... no, it's just fourteen pieces of shit for you to buy. Sorry. Look, I used to love The Sims and I loved RTC a whole lot, but cut me a break. Sure, you learn some basic aspects of business but it's not really "viable", is it?

If you want kids to learn business, teach them REAL poker with REAL money (or items of value, so they learn when they lose, they actually lose).

I agree with LOGICAL EXTREMES - the last portion of AP Macroeconomics we did a simple 'stock market' game. This was near the end of the course, after the big exam, so it was about a month and a half. Nothing was actually taught regarding the stock market, it was just stupid. At least I got to use Google Finance :)

BTW, I think Chid is a fancy way of spelling Kid :P

Mike Sty

Chid = 'child' + 'kid' ?

yriafelc

Bad idea; if anything, keep your children away from the world of business.

If you think that your child should be doomed to the world of business, then let them understand "play"...the better businesses have play at its heart.

vergil66

Teach your chids how to spell child.

balls187

Mothers just do not let your children grow up to be economists. ;)

zolielo

How about, give them an allowance, and then let them draw pictures. Encourage your children to be creative rather than efficient and pragmatic. If they have trouble later in life, there's always Lifehacker. Just don't ruin their childhood by "preparing" them for things they don't need to think about.

Simply put, training children to operate systematically trains them to think systematically as well. Spare your child this fate and buy them some paints.

TheMelange

Whoa! For the first I totally disagree with LH.

Come on, let kids be kids. You only get to be a kid (excluding the kids in all of us) once and the rest you're doomed to live life as an adult.

As a wise man, Pink Floyd, once said:

"We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control...

Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!"

BlackBeard

It just really amuses me that most of the suggestions are the "tycoon" games, which I've found to be pretty worthless in terms of actual educational value. (They're also kinda boring, in my opinion.)

If you want to teach your kids economics, teach them economics. (Seriously, basic micro theory is pretty easy to grasp, even for 12-year-olds.) If you want to teach them money management, give them an allowance, buy them T-bills and maybe a few stocks. If you want to impress on them risk management, wait til they're older and discuss poker strategies. Add a couple more years, and you can cover basic hedging strategies on the stock market.

CWW

I working my hardest to raise happy, *loved*, confident, creative, problem-solving, fun-loving, sociable, generalist kids who are curious about everything. With that kind of upbringing, they can learn and do anything.

onesix18

I am always on the lookout for more games to play WITH my kids, but none of these really look very compelling because several are just solitaire-style games -- kid vs. machine -- or look too youngish. The exception is Monopoly, which we don't enjoy that much.

One great board game that fits this 'money education' theme is Masterpiece -- anyone remember that one? It has some interesting auction action, and has some decent art to talk about at the same time. My nine-year old can't get enough of it.

We also enjoy poker together as well. Any other ideas?

yagameister

@BlackBeard: Who says kids can't be kids playing The Sims and Monopoly? These are games that kids enjoy (and even request to play), after all.

tamar

If your kid is a wrestling fan, Total Extreme Wrestling might be worth a shot. It's basically a wrestling management sim, where the player signs talent, books feuds, etc. in order to try and succeed against other promotions. Of course, it's very complex, and mostly text-based, so it might fly over their heads a bit, but if you don't think they'd have a problem with that, it's definitely worth a try.

HeartBurnKid

I don't think business type computer games would really teach kids that much about business; To the kid its just a game and I don't think they will extrapolate lessons from a Tycoon game to the real world in any useful way.

I am also wary of the general tendency to turn every activity (training your children for life) into shopping (buying computer games).

Although my daughter is only 3 now, my plan is to teach her skills by having her do (at least a few times) all the real world tasks her parents do as she becomes old enough for each task. Grocery shopping, paying bills, minor home repairs, selecting and managing investments, cooking dinner, shopping around for a new appliance, etc. The schools don't teach this stuff and many parents don't either, and so lots of people hit adulthood in their 20s without the skills to take care of the basic business of life.

I also don't get the "let the kids be kids" stuff. Is being an adult so terrible that people should be shielded from its rigors for as long as possible, after which they are dumped into adulthood with no preparation? Why not instead just treat the tasks and responsibilities of adulthood as fun and rewarding challenges, something to be embraced not avoided?

AndyFromTucson

There is probably some merit to this, though do make sure not to force any particular kind of games on your kids, please. When I was growing up I was totally addicted to [en.wikipedia.org] . That game was hard as a 10-year old, but it was too amazing for me to put down!

smartperson

Personally? Haven't had a lot of success with games.

A great way to teach kids about business: own a business yourself (even a small one), then over the casual course of conversation share your excitement, your frustrations, your insights ... and keep it light ... 3 or 4 minutes at a pop.

Last night, my friends recounted a conversation between our 12 year old sons. They were having a goofy discussion about the existence of Santa Claus and my son wondered whether Santa would get sued by the toy manufacturers due to intellectual property right infringement of those name-brand toys his elves were copying. No joke!

taborro

Doesn't seem like anyone was suggesting anything other than "letting kids be kids". That's why the article is about games. And, nobody suggested that we try to discourage our kids from any other fun or creative kid activity. Sheesh. If they can learn to associate fun and creativity with something the rest of us apparently consider part of the burden of adulthood, maybe it will help them lead more creative, fun, AND financially successful adult lives.

Anyway, it seems easy to teach kids how to spend money and experience that familiar pang of guilt or loss when we spend it because we perceive it to be scarce. Anything that teaches my kids to think of money as something they can generate with their creativity and innovative thinking sounds good to me.

amolnar

I think its more important to teach our kids in their teen years or even beginning at 12. The public (aka, government) schools don't teach the kids for the future as much as they teach the kids to pass the government tests so the school district acquires more funding for their extracurricular activities. Hence, why so many kids graduate and don't know a thing about budgets, credit cards, financing, etc. Nor why they seem to think their only option is to get a good well paying stable job or career working for someone else rather than learning and being aware of entrepreneurship skills and opportunities, minus the bogus scam claims of owning your own biz.

If we teach our kids to think outside the box on these issues how much better off will they be once they are on their own? The schools aren't going to teach them. The UNESCO and UN have other plans for them. Its our responsibility.

A teen should be able to go to college knowing how to read a financial statement of so many varying kids.

How else will they have assets? Owning a home? Bogus! It takes money out of your pocket; Thus, making it a liability unless its totally paid off.

Its just like all the small real estate investors that think they will be wealthy renting or selling homes. Not in this market! Its wiser to invest in multi-family complexes. With the economy as it is now and in the next ten years, all those that have foreclosed and will/have filed bankruptcy will not be able to acquire a home the traditional way. That means apartments will be where its at.

Why not, as an example merely, teach the older teens such methods of earning a living or part of their living? Seriously though, the oriental nations out do us in maths because they understand more than just formulas. They understand financial statements, investing, financing, budgeting, etc., as well and they can and do apply it.

However, its like I tell my daughter: Its not necessarily whether you win or lose but more so HOW you play the game: Because in the end it all goes back into the box. Where your treasure is, there also is your heart. And its what is in your heart.. that's all you take with you when you die. That's it, and that determines the rest here and there. ;o)

Dr.Bohemian

One great way to help children learn about business is to not give them an allowance, but to offer instead to match whatever they are paid by someone else. In terms of a learning experience, nothing quite matches an actual job, no matter how small.

firefangle

As a teenager, my daughter spent hours playing Tycoon and Sims type games, enjoying them immensely. She didn't realise at the time just how much she learned about the complexity of managing organisational growth. Though even now, years later, I doubt she'd put it in quite those terms! I think they're useful as early reference points for the basics of good management such as planning, resource allocation, profitability, the importance of staff morale, and so on. And she had some fun to boot.

the-happy-manager