Six healthy ways to include games in your child's life

How often should kids be allowed to play games? We have the answer to that and many other questions for parents interested in introducing gaming to their kids lives.

In today's age of technology and gaming, parents often wonder how much (if any) time they should allow their children to play games. While traditionally it has been considered "unhealthy" for kids to play too many games, recent evidence suggests that's not the case. In November of 2008, the San Francisco Chronicle reported findings from the MacArthur Foundation that show children can gain valuable skills from playing games online.

Last winter, I bought my oldest son a desktop computer. It may sound a bit insane that a 4-year-old owns his own personal computer, but he was logging so many hours on my laptop that something had to give.

Of course, he doesn't sit on the computer and type his ABCs into a Word Document -- he's online playing games. PBS Kids, Disney Online and Nick Jr. are three of his favorite game stops. I have each bookmarked for him in Firefox on his own desktop -- he knows how to turn on the computer, log in, and navigate to each of his favorite sites.