Here at A Grade Ahead, we’re proud to provide your child with educational enrichment that can push their skills to new heights. While our enrichment programs can help students excel, there are many other fantastic ways that kids can learn and develop useful skills. These unconventional education sources are likely hiding in places you wouldn’t expect! These provide fun, exciting ways of learning that flex brain muscles and expand minds in new directions. One such source: the adorable life simulation game (“life sim”) Animal Crossing!
Nintendo started creating this series of games all the way back in 2001. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, released in 2020, has quickly become one of the fastest-selling console games of all time. In this game, you create your own adorable villager that lives on an island with cute, friendly animal neighbors. You can decorate your house, build friendships, and design the island however you wish. So how can this cutesy life sim help your child on their educational journey? Let’s find out!
The Benefits of Animal Crossing!
Language Learning
Animal Crossing is a fantastic source of language practice! The characters all speak out loud in gibberish, which leaves plenty of room for your child to flex those reading skills while following the captions. Animal Crossing’s dialogue is entirely written in a simple, pleasant, conversational styles that make it the perfect level for practice! Your child can talk to their neighbors whenever they want, using the reading skills they developed both in school and in A Grade Ahead’s English programs. Doing so, they learn more about the friends they can make on the island. Additionally, all of the game’s tutorials and instructions are delivered through written dialogue, making it a great place to practice following directions. Even if you forget what you’re supposed to do, speaking to a character again always points you in the right direction, reinforcing skills your child uses every day.
Are you interested in English help or enrichment for your student? Take a free assessment with A Grade Ahead today!
Building a Museum
One of the major activities in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the construction of a museum curated by an adorable owl named Blathers. The best part of this task? It is up to the player to gather items for this museum! Across the island players can dig up fossils, catch bugs, and fish in the ocean and rivers. Every time a new species is found, it can be donated to the museum, where Blathers will give actual scientific facts about the creature and put it on display! These aren’t fantasy creations, either. All of the fossils, bugs, and fish in the game are based on real-life finds! This means that not only can your child participate in the curation of a museum, but they can learn as they do so!
Is your student curious about science? This sort of work can be an amazing partner alongside A Grade Ahead’s science programs, or one of our enrichment camps like Eco-Explorers. Visit our website, or call or visit one of our academies to learn more!
Recipes, Planning, and Routines
Décor is a major part of Animal Crossing, whether it be indoors or outside. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, creating most decorations requires following crafting recipes. Players need to gather materials like wood, grass, stones, and metal from across their island in specific amounts before being able to create new items. Not only that, but players can plant crops, fruit trees, and more before harvesting them for ingredients needed to follow cooking recipes! All of this plays into yet another benefit: planning! Following a recipe and planning what you need to have builds skills that young learners will use for their entire lives! Players even need to make sure to water their crops and flowers to ensure that they grow beautiful and strong. Animal Crossing encourages building a routine that guides activities on the island, an excellent skill for anyone to develop at any age.
Ready, Set, Go!
Do you think your child might like to explore the rich environment of Animal Crossing? The most recent game is available now for Nintendo Switch! It is easy to start and guides players on their journeys to new discoveries! Animal Crossing is multiplayer, and each person controls their own villager. This means the experience can be shared easily between a parent and child! Playing a game that allows your child to practice and apply the skills they learn in school and at A Grade Ahead can be a great way to expand minds even further.
Animal Crossing is just another in a line of unconventional places where learning opportunities can be found! What if your favorite source of unconventional education? Let us know below! A Grade Ahead loves to explore new educational avenues!
Author: Jackie Aukerman, Curriculum Creator at A Grade Ahead
