Nostalgia, Grief & Educational Computer Games

As we continue along in this uncertainty, I have found myself longing for times in the past. Not only because of my back problems (& recovery from surgery), but because I feel that nothing is really stable, even in the outside world. Through talking with friends and colleagues, I have found that I am not alone in this feeling. As a matter of fact, the majority of individuals that I've spoken with or read about are all feeling a bit off.

I urge you all to read this article from Harvard Business Review entitled "That Discomfort You're Feeling is Grief."  In this article, David Kessler, an author and expert on grief is interviewed. What I've mentioned above, the uncertainty, is called anticipatory grief. This is the idea that there is a storm brewing or something bad going on. It struck me when Kessler said 'with a virus, this kind of grief is so confusing for people. Our primitive mind knows something bad is happening, but you can’t see it. This breaks our sense of safety'. I think this stuck out to me so much because of the invisible nature of a virus.

I've read articles that say that there is a decent percentage of those infected with COVID-19 that don't even present with symptoms. These asymptomatic folks could be spreading the virus even further, especially if they think they are fine and are therefore not taking the social distancing mandate seriously. These are scary times. Whether we care to admit to ourselved that we feel some fear about the future or not is another issue altogether.....

Today, my thoughts on how I could combat this unsettling feeling led me back to my childhood. I was a 90s baby (and proud of it!) who loved to play computer games. My parents, very smoothly, only allowed my brother and I to play educational computer games. To be fair, I'm still very much a student in many aspects of my life and believe continuing to learn forever is what keeps life interesting.... but back when I was a kid, these games were fun and I had no idea they were educaitonal. I found myself longing to be back in the age where my biggest concern was completing a task in one of the various games that I used to play.

So I started searching to see if there was any way to gain access to these games today. When I was playing them, they were CDs. Nowadays, laptops rarely come with CD-ROM drives and the only way to use CDs is to have an external CD-ROM drive. This seems like way to much work and I don't even know if my family would still have the CDs from my childhood anyways! Luckily, some of these games are available online to play for free! It put such a big smile on my face looking through these various games and remembering how much I loved them. I figured the least I could do was share what I found for those who might have kids at home.

It hasn't been uniform how schools are handling their shut-downs during the outbreak. For the past two weeks, a large portion of schools have basically just been on vacation. Others have been attempting to do remote teaching, a novel concept for many teachers and schools alike. It is my understanding, from asking neighbors who have children and friends I have who are teachers and such, that most schools are now attempting to get some level of remote teaching going. While I think this is admirable, I do believe that school age children might struggle to stay engage with this method. I'm offering up these educational games as an addition to that type of learning. While kids aren't doing their virtual learning, they will likely want to play! Maybe try out one of these games (if your children fit the age range) instead of watching TV or playing a regular video game?

Here is a list of links (& descriptions!) that I found for downloading games or playing in your internet browser:

Zoombinis - This was probably my favorite game. A few years ago, I actually made sure that I had this game on my computer still. It's definitely a bit odd if you haven't ever heard of it..... You are helping these little blue people (zoombinis) make their way to this safe space by completing a bunch of puzzles and critical thinking games. I still love this game, even to this day!

Gizmos & Gadgets - This was one of my brother's favorites! You are battling an evil scientist through building cars and planes to race his in... the only way to win is to beat him in the races. Along the way, you have to solve science puzzles dealing with magnets, electrical circuits, simple machines and more.

Super Solvers: Spellbound - I know I played this game, but can't recall too much about it right now. I might have to go play it myself!!

Treasure Galaxy - This one is another wacky one. It is definitely for a younger age group than Gizmos and Gadgets, but tends to deal with similar math and science subjects.

Backyard Baseball - I never really played this one, but I know that a lot of my brother's friends did.

Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon - Putt-Putt was one of my favorite characters when I was a kid. He was just an adorable little purple car that ran around going on adventures. This one is definitely very nostalgic for me. It is also probably better for a lower age group than most.

Oregon Trail - This is a classic! This game offers relatively simple choices, but requires the use of strategy, as well as luck.... I was never very good at this game. I always ending up dying of dysentry.

-Vicky


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