Gaming: The new Checkpoint for 
Lockdown Learning

[November 23rd 2020, LONDON, UK] – EXHAUSTED PARENTS: no need to feel stressed at the sight of your children on screens! Magdoos Media has just launched Checkpoint Kids, an interactive video games magazine  that offers teacher and parent home-learning packs, endorsed and promoted by the National Literacy Trust.

 
With fears over the education gap widening and a disruption in children’s education after the first lockdown, Checkpoint Kids is striving to blend children’s love of gaming with their need for quality education. Whether your child is mad about Fall Guys, Sonic, Fifa or LEGO Super Villains, Checkpoints Kids offers a way for children to learn and play via an interactive platform.


The magazine launched after multi award-winning journalist and father-of-two, Tamer Asfahani, saw distressed parents worrying about their children playing video games during the first lockdown. Rather than parents’ seeing gaming as the enemy, Checkpoint Kids makes it central to learning. Using themes from sport, to exploration, literacy and narrative, the magazine ties into the national curriculum to highlight learning opportunities within specific genres of gaming. Now promoted by National Literacy Trust, which states that Checkpoint Kids enables parents to support their child’s love of learning by inspiring them to get involved in the storytelling side of video games, the magazine hopes to reach more children over the upcoming months.

 
“We’re really excited to have the National Literacy Trust recognise the value of Checkpoint Kids,” says Tamer Asfahani, editor-in-chief and founder of Checkpoint Kids. “As parents we’re told to keep our children away from screens but at Checkpoint Kids we believe that computer gaming is a voyage of self-discovery. Players test themselves, challenge themselves and discover their limitations. Games, like good literature, allow the player to engage with other worlds, other ways of being, other philosophies: they engender understanding and empathy.

 
Games teach history, geography, maths, physics, sports, religion – the list is endless. But the virtual world through which learning can happen is both visually stunning and sonically enthralling.”

 
With over 20 years experience in broadcast, print and online media, Asfahani set out to create a magazine for kids focused on their love of gaming. The magazine is free and also provides an experience in the media industry for children to work as writers and content creators for the magazine. For the December issue, the children have been given the opportunity to interview developers for the videogame of Beyond Blue – a game inspired by the work of Blue Planet.

  
Checkpoint Kids is also supported by teachers and education professionals up and down the country.  Dan Wiltshire, Deputy Head and Head of Literacy at Brickhill Primary School said, “Checkpoint Kids offers such an exciting opportunity not only for children to engage with technology and gaming but also providing them with a platform to write and share their own content.”

 
Checkpoint Kids is available now via the app store, Google Play and pocketmags.com. 
 
For further information see: https://checkpointmagazine.com/checkpoint-kids or contact kids@checkpointmagazine.com / info@checkpointmagazine.com.
National Literacy Trust link: https://wordsforlife.org.uk/activities/write-all-about-video-games/ 

 
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ABOUT CHECKPOINT MAGAZINE
Checkpoint Magazine, a collection of multiplatform IP, ranging from the flagship intellectual magazine, podcasts, documentaries and videos to the kid-focused magazine, podcasts and opportunities for children; looks at the importance of gaming in today’s world, noting their impact on society, culture and politics. Checkpoint Magazine aims to tackle the larger issues around this entertainment medium and really assesses how games can be used for education and advancement and how they’ve become integral to our lives. Anchored in real world issues, Checkpoint has tackled issues like the importance of women in gaming, the changing face of gaming with regards to the new globalisation model, how developers have a responsibility to retell history, the way in which space simulators have helped space exploration; the list goes on. Checkpoint Magazine has proved it’s not scared of asking the hard questions. And pushing for answers.  
 
ABOUT MAGDOOS MEDIA
Magdoos Media has always prided itself on being on the forefront of broadcast and digital print technology. As one of the first companies to offer clients live streaming back in 2011, Magdoos Media has grown from strength to strength – combining traditional broadcasting with the latest in technology and innovation. The team is passionate about making projects and content the best they can be and Magdoos Media has an impressive portfolio of IP ranging from production house and live streaming facilities to IP in digital print. As qualified and trained journalists, camera operators, editors, producers and creatives, the team can offer a unique insight into any of the media platforms. Whether it’s publishing, online, broadcast or otherwise, Magdoos Media can help streamline and deliver on any media platform.