To derive a double benefit from anything is considered a bonus, and this is especially the case when discussing leisure activities for children. The idea to fuse both education and entertainment into one activity is a goal of many educators; some would even believe that failure to do this makes the activity pointless. Drawing from examples in Sweden and reviewing games, such as Pokemon, I firmly believe that all activities should have an educational value.
Leisure activities are a perfect time to take advantage of the receptiveness in a child’s mind, and some countries are adamant about this. Take Sweden, for example. For many years they have legally stipulated that all children’s toys sold in the country should have some educational value. In addition, for such a rule to be passed it must be upheld by scientific research. Therefore, the advantage of incorporating an education element into toys is scientifically proven.
On the other hand, across the UK, children were wasting their time collecting and learning the statistics of each creature on each Pokemon card. If, however, these cards had been intertwined with more educational data the child could have simultaneously gained a more practical education. Due to the child learning large swathes of irrelevant and useless information it can be argued that the time would have been better spent with real facts and figures on the cards.
To conclude, scientific evidence from Sweden and fantasy games such as Pokemon with little educational value are two clear reasons why children’s leisure activities should have an element of learning involved.