Games and the Younger Generation

As many people know, and if you don't know me you'll soon find out, video games play a large part in my life. Ever since I first got a Nintendo Entertainment System for my 10th birthday back in 1990. 
It was sort of inevitable that once I grew older and began a family that my children would also probably enjoy video games. Sure enough, that's the case. My 10 year old daughter is as avid a fan of video games as I ever was. My 5 year old daughter really could care less, she likes games if they involve Dora, Sleeping Beauty or Hello Kitty. My 4 year old son is amazes more than any of them. 
I make it a point to sit down with them when they're playing a game and play with them or watch them as they play. Today I was amazed by my son. He shouldn't amaze me, but he does. 
Recently I downloaded Super Mario Bros. 3 from the Wii's Virtual Console. It has become his favorite game. When I got home from work he asked me if I'd play Mario 3 with him and I told him I would. We sat down to play and usually he'll play and get a few steps into a level and possibly jump over a goomba or two then he'll die. Today though, and I've begun to notice it over the last few weeks, he finished nearly all of World 1 by himself. He was pulling off moves that many veteran players do and finishing levels I thought he wouldn't even begin to be able to complete. He's very aware of the worlds as well. He's beginning to learn secrets that help get him through levels. I saw him backtracking to get items that he had missed by taking a certain route through levels. He had the patience and button mashing skills to complete a level that scrolls automatically. that's usually a level I skip, because I don't have the patience to complete it. He was even using the inventory on the map screen to use items he'd gotten from the Toad House's. I hadn't even shown him that. He figured that one out on his own. 
I say these things not to brag on my son, though I would do that at every opportunity, but to say this. When I was younger video games were still new and weren't something kids his age were really introduced to so when I was 10 I had trouble doing things my son at 3 and 4 can do now. Younger players are learning far quicker skills like problem solving and deductive reasoning through playing games like Mario. It takes some really good hand-eye coordination to complete levels in many of the games today. Games from the past were much harder than they are now. I think back then they had to be. You didn't get the opportunity to play as many games then as you do now. Because of that the difficulty had to be ramped up to allow longer to play through games. The classics are great tools for learning certain skills. 
Don't keep your younger children away from video games because you think they're too hard. Give them the controller and help teach them the buttons they need to press to do certain things in the world. From there they'll begin to figure out how to solve many of the problems a game throws at them on their own. You certainly can give hints and clues and I think you should, but they'll be able to guide themselves before long. 
Young gamers, also, are not stupid. They can spot games that are not fun or have no real challenge to them. I bought my daugther a Dora game for the Gamecube because she really liked Dora. My son played this game as well, but it didn't last long before they were onto things like the original Super Mario Bros. The Dora game didn't offer them any challenge. They simply had to follow a preset path and press a button to jump when they got to a cliff face or wall they had to jump over. The only appeal, I think, it had was that it was a character they were familiar with. Soon though Mario took that spot when they wanted to play a game because it was challenging. 
Sit with your youngsters when they play and just watch them. You can literally see their brains working. They're learning different ways to approach the challenges that face them in games like Super Mario Bros. or Viva Pinata. If you teach them the basic controls that allow them to navigate the world they'll learn how to stomp on goombas or get their pinatas to do the Romance Dance. It'll amaze you.
It will be a long time before my son is ready to tackle a game like Halo or Metroid. Because those games pose challenges that baffle even the veterans of the game world and because they may have content you just don't want your children viewing, but the lessons they learn from Mario will carry through to other parts of their lives and you'll be that much more proud of them.