I made a rather brave and daring move in the effort to provide my kids the best education possible. I offered them money to play video games.

Sound crazy?

It did to my kids, but they still jumped at the chance. But here's the reason behind my madness. I promised them each $100 if they could get to the Master level in the freeware game 5star Gomoku (http://www.atomax.com/gomoku.stm). I've managed to set them each up with their own computer by finding good deals online, so the game was loaded on each computer, and they've been spending their free time working at it, but it's not been easy.

Gomoku, if you're not familiar with it is the original version of the game that became popular a while back called Pente. The rules are only slightly different, and the thing about computer gomoku, especially this version, is that it's programmed with quite a bit of strategy and skill. This particular version has five levels, with varying degrees of skill required. I found a version decades ago on the old Apple computers at college, that had only one level, and played it until I had figured out it's basic strategy enough to win more times than I lost. I've found that the strategy of the newer versions is much more complicated.

Now, I know you're still wondering why this game would be worthy of being considered homeschooling. The reason is that it teaches the basics of logic and critical thinking. On the first level (as well as the game I played back in college) before you can win you have to learn and implement three basic rules:

1. Prioritize your opportunities -- there are a lot of possible moves, and each one must be analyzed in light of it's overall importance to the end goal of the game

2. Think ahead -- each possible move has to be prioritized in terms of it's potential in light of possible move by the opponent.

3. Optimize your actions -- once the opportunities are assessed and the possibilities calculated, attention must be paid to moves that provide the optimum benefit toward reaching the goal.

That's just level one (of five) and that's while playing a video game! How much would you pay for your kids to internalize those principles?

What prompted me to offer them money to learn the game is my own experience. I'd been playing it some, in the evenings, while the family watched television. I wanted to see if I could understand more of the strategies that was built into the game. Of the five levels, I've only reached the third, and get beat about half the time. But an amazing thing happened. As I observed the news, and other events, I saw people, smart, successful people, using the tactics I was learning in that game. These were tactics that had never been explained to me, but I was seeing them acted out in politics, business even in military strategy. The leap from raw concept to actual application amazed me. AND I WAS ONLY ON THE THIRD LEVEL!! Then I realized I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to equip my children with the ability to understand an implement these concepts. What makes the game such a functional method of teaching is that there's not some boring teacher, dryly explaining the strategies, but an interactive competition, that requires you to discover the secrets yourself, and then apply them.

It may be a while before my kids can get to the Master or fifth level of the game, and I'm not sure where I'm going to find the money to pay them when they do, but I know it will be money well spent.