OnlineMindPuzzles.com

Generally speaking, flowers, chocolates, and moonlit walks on the beach are considered romantic by young couples and old alike, all around the world. However, everyone is different, and one couple was drawn together by their love of math and puzzles, and has channeled that love into a website that is now picking up quite a bit of traffic and visitors!

Mathdoku.com is the online version of KenKen, which is a variant of Sudoku. Math puzzles really, in laymens terms! The site offers several different types of math puzzles, and they start out with fairly simple puzzles in 4×4 blocks, that only use the numbers 1- 4, and work up to puzzles that use 8×8 blocks.

Currently the site is now offering close to 1,500 puzzles, and receives almost 15,000 puzzle lovers daily. Players currently are timed on each puzzle, and the site offers hints to those that find themselves stumped for an answer. It also checks for correct answers, keeping players on track.

Another unique feature to Mathdoku.com is that instead of just offering up one puzzle a day, like you would get if you were playing the puzzle in an off line newspaper or something, you get a randomly generated puzzle selected from one of the many they have available.

There is even a no holds barred special op puzzle, called a no- op that hides the math to make it tougher for the player. As to the owners of the site, while they think Sudoku has already hit it’s peak of sorts with popularity, Kendoku’s future looks quite bright. The websites traffic did a pretty big spike in fact, up to 28,000 visitors when the New York Times started featuring a KenKen puzzle on it’s puzzle page.

So, while Mathdoku.com was born of love and romance, it is sustaining itself with solid growth and numbers, and is the next big thing in online puzzles and gaming. Ready to drop by and test your brain skills?

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Doko, a new game from dokodrop.com put out by Mammoth Brand, is an interesting new game for the tween set ages 6-13 that looks like it could be the next Pokemon craze if enough interest is garnered. It’s a bit of a cross between a trading game and an online game.

The idea is to collect what is called Doko disks and earn points for them. Every time you get a new disk, you register it online and snag some points. The Doko disk can then be traded up to five times. Each person who registers it after you also snags some points, as well as sending an extra few points your way. Sort of like multi level marketing in a way.

Currently you can trade up Doko points for actual goods. While the selection at the moment isn’t huge, with enough interest and popularity that would definitely change! You have to register online and choose a unique user name and password which is how you log in to track your points.

So how do you snag some Doko disk tokens? Currently the company is hiding them in plain view in public places like parks and things. So take a peek around, you just might find one. Otherwise, they are releasing them in May to Toys R Us and other toys stores. Retail price is $7.99. You will also be able to purchase them online as well.

It could be a great little way to get kids interacting and trading with each other. The premise is that you can trade them all over the world, and you never know when the Doko disk you happen to nab has been to China and back. Each disk has a serial number and each time it’s registered it records the location. So you can go online and see where it’s been once you have one!

It’s a pretty neat idea and it will be interesting to see how much it grows. Although personally I can’t see myself paying $7.99 for a little Doko token. My kids will just have to seek out the free ones!

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Games are good for kids? This is news you probably didn’t expect to hear! It’s true, the MacArthurer foundation has come out with a new study that shows just that. It seems that social networks and online games can help increase social skills, research skills, and the general knowledge of technology. Since that’s the way our society is headed these days, it might become more crucial than ever that kids keep on playing.

On the flip side, if children don’t have access to online games and social networks they are going to lack the skills that are needed to get on in the world as computers become more prevalent at home, at school, and in the workplace. The problem lies not with the fact that we are becoming so digital, but in teachers and parents who stop at nothing to keep their kids from playing online games.

It’s no surprise- the older generation simply didn’t grow up this way. The trouble is that children and teens really do need these skills or they will be held back socially and technologically in their lives.

Some children become so good at using video games, computers, and the Internet that they gain the skills that will help them get a great job after school. Building webpages and tweaking game code are skills that are incredibly high in demand and will be in increasing amounts.

This study concludes that schools, teachers, and parents basically need to loosen the strict guidelines that hold students back from playing games and joining sites like MySpace and Facebook. Of course, this does not mean that safety is not an issue! While children need to be able to join and explore these sites, it is still up to the parent to make sure they are safe at all times. Monitoring your child is the best way to ensure this safety.

The next time you’re tempted to tell your kid to turn it off and get to learning, take a second and think about the skills they are really going to need to make it through life. Homework is important, but so is becoming adept with technology.

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