Reading, writing, math and....Pokemon?

Those who know my family, know our son is a huge fan of Pokemon.  Trust me when I say, I was less than thrilled when his triplet cousins introduced him to Pokemon, and it didn't help that McDonald's was running their Pokemon promotion at the same time (and we were traveling quite a bit, which meant that he had opportunity to collect said promotion).  Why was I so opposed to this fad (that seems to be a recurring fad since the early 1990s)?  Honestly, I don't know, but for some reason it rubbed me the wrong way.  Maybe I thought he was too young (5 1/2), maybe I didn't want it overshadowing the highly educational value (in my mind) of the dinosaurs he loved, studied, researched, and fascinated me with facts about.  Whatever the reason, I was bummed as he became more and more excited about every card and action figure he collected.  I'd like to point out that he would buy his cards with his own money from his allowance.  Then along comes his father, who had played the Pokemon card game with his younger brother years ago, and teaches our son how to play the actual card game.  This is where I began to have a change of heart about Pokemon.

As my husband taught our son the game, he encouraged him to add up his own "hit points", or damage, (done by 10s), and to use adding up and subtraction to determine how many more "hit points" his Pokemon could take before being "phased" (knocked out of the game).  Huh.  Pokemon requires the players to use math?  As they were playing, we also encouraged our son to read his Pokemon cards to find out what moves his current character could do, or what abilities they had, etc.  He also wanted to sound out the various names of the different characters (and let me tell you, quite a few are a mouthful!).  Hmmm...reading too?

As he learned more about the Pokemon, he wanted to get books and more cards (enter Christmas, Easter and birthday presents, all other times, he buys them himself - hmm...more math! Saving and spending!) and even started writing his own Pokemon stories and making his own Pokemon cards (complete with made up names, abilities, hit points and character drawings).  Writing!

Like he has done with his dinosaur facts, he has, seemingly without much effort, memorized facts, moves, character descriptions and types.  Ask him any question and he will either have an answer or will find one.  He is excited about meeting with other friends of his who are either already into Pokemon or just learning (and he will "train" them in Pokemon battle techniques) to trade cards, or just talk shop.  Memory and socialization!

Yes, there is also a tv show.  Again, when we found out they showed reruns on Boomerang and new episodes on Cartoon Network, I was ecstatic (#sarcasm).  However, it is one of the most positive cartoon shows I have ever seen.  They promote teamwork, positive attitude, hard work, dedication, persistence, perseverance and kindness toward others.  Yes, it can be pretty predictable, but I'd rather he watch this cartoon than some of the other, um, junk (for lack of a nicer word) they put out there for kids.  While we no longer have cable tv, he can still get his Pokemon cartoon fix through Netflix or Pokemon.com.  It's a great reward for a job well done at school, or for just a break from our crazy, busy lives.

To recap, Pokemon has encouraged the following positive qualities, characteristics, values, skills:

Math, reading, writing, socialization, teamwork, positivity, perseverance, dedication, and kindness, just to name a few.  Someone tell me what's wrong with any of those things?

While I LOVE the dinosaurs (he's still very much into them and continues to read and learn about them - yea!), I'm glad he's also enjoying Pokemon, for all the reasons listed above.  So, if you're on the fence about your kiddo getting into Pokemon, I understand, I was there once.  All it took to convert me was finding the educational value out of the fun he was having.