We just LOVE educational games in our homeschool. Do you use them? Well, we recently had the opportunity to review Mayan Mysteries from Dig-It! Games for the TOS Review Crew and what a delight! My kids always love when they get computer time. But we do like to limit it; however, in order to appease their desire for computer time, we like to utilize educational games or game-based learning into our homeschool day or weekends. I always think it’s fun when we get to sneak in learning games into the weekend!
Dig-It! Games has some great education games available for iPad and computer. Mayan Mysteries is a delightful game that fits what we are studying in history this year. This is why this is the perfect game for us to add to our homeschool.
Mayan Mysteries is a computer based learning game. It can be played from any computer with internet access. The access was simple to the game and my daughter, 10, got started on the game right away. She LOVED it! “This is fun!” was what she would say. She would play for a long sessions at a time. Sometimes 10 minutes but usually about 30 before she would sign off and move onto something else.
I liked that she is learning during that time on the computer. She is using her reading comprehension to figure out the storyline and mystery, her critical thinking skills to solve the mystery and play the games, and her keyboard and mouse skills to maneuver through the game. She liked the variety of activities and earning points for artifacts.
Being that she loves adventures, mysteries, and archeology, this game was a definite fit for her interest level. My son has similar interest, though only 5 and not a strong reader. He didn’t play the game himself but would sit with his sister and she would read to him and he would help her solve problems. I love that they were both into the story and enjoying the game while learning about the Mayan’s, artifacts, and geography.
The game begins with a setup of the story and the characters. The story is set up to be read like a comic book. It is very colorful and easy to read.
After the story line is set up there are instructions on how to proceed, shortcut and hints are available throughout the games.
Some of the activities and games included highlighting on the map an area that was discussed during the reading, determining what to bring to a particular location based on the storyline, “digging” for artifacts and learning about each artifact that is found. This was one of my daughter’s favorite games.
In fact, when I asked her what her favorite games were she said “digging for artifacts and the challenge questions.” After reading over materials, the student can take a quiz or complete challenge questions for points. She apparently really enjoyed this, which I think is great!
She enjoyed earning points for completing exercises and activities while working toward solving each part of the mystery that was laid out for her in the story.
Both children truly enjoyed the game and I loved that she was learning, using her critical thinking skills, reading and having fun all at the same time. Learning games are a great way to keep things interesting in homeschool and Mayan Mysteries from Dig-it! Games is a great find! I definitely recommend it.
You can purchase your own computer based Mayan Mysteries game from Dig-It! Games for $3.99 for a single-user from the Dig-It! Games website.
Dig-It! Games also has Roman Town iOS app available which, if we had an iPad, I’m sure we would try. You can see what the rest of the TOS Review Crew has to say about Mayan Mysteries and Roman Town from Dig-It! Games by clicking below.
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