Games for the Grade School Age

One of the current buzzwords in the world of educational development is "edutainment" or entertaining educational experiences. The goal with edutainment is to provide an experience that engages the student beyond traditional teaching methods, so they're barely aware they're learning something while having fun.

Professor Layton and The Curious Village and its sequel Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, both for the Nintendo DS, are great examples of edutainment video games done right. The games are rich in plot, revolving around mysteries which Professor Layton and his sidekick Luke must solve through a series of puzzles.

The Professor Layton games provide an educational experience in two ways: the game's plot itself is a mystery which the player must solve throughout the game, and the clues to this mystery are provided through over 100 unique brain teaser puzzles. The player is challenged by all types of puzzles: riddles, pictographs, number puzzles, and word games.

The games are visually beautiful and even include well executed voice acting during the story scenes. The touch screen is used heavily to interact with the puzzles and control the game progress, making good use of the DS hardware. There are also some extra fun collector elements in the form of room decorations for both Professor Layton and Luke, adding a fun extra challenge to the game.

There are also some great subject-specific series such as the Learn series which handle math, geography, and science, and the My Virtual Tutor series for reading at various grade levels.