For the first time in a long time several weeks ago, I played a video game and finally got so frustrated that I had to put it down. Sadly, it was my favorite learning game on thinkSMART: Sudoku. I love them both dearly but I am absolutely horrible at Sudoku (though slowly improving). Occasionally, I have to just back away to compose myself. Learning games can be so tough, but once you finally beat them, it feels wonderful.
Let me take you to the year 2004, back to the game that last got me so frustrated: Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within on the Xbox, sequel to the Sands of Time. While it’s definitely a full-on action game, there are quite a lot of problem solving- and logical puzzle-games to get your brain moving.
I was on certain point where I had to go to a different area of a castle, but the stairs had been destroyed through the decay of time. For three days, I tried to learn the proper method of how to advance in the game but I finally got frustrated and stopped playing for two weeks. Finally, I popped it back in to the Xbox and by sheer luck and accident, I realized I had to use the environment in order to scale the walls and finally got to the next part. After that, I learned to pay more attention to the environment around me both in the game and in real life.
Back to Sudoku: So after a few days of frustration with my DS, I got up and said, “Sudoku, you’re going down!” I was given my monster grid and was determined to beat the thing and not get schooled again. Finally, after 10 minutes of intense logic and concentration…success! I outdid Sudoku! Not only that, but lately, I’ve been sneaking in games of Sudoku in the local paper. Thanks to thinkSMART and all its excellent learning games, I can see my arithmetic and mathematical logic improving.
Some learning games like thinkSMART may be very tough at times, but they all have great lessons we can learn from. We just have to stick with it and continue working!
