Succeeding in the first trial is fun,
failing and quiting is bad,
but failing and then succeeding after several trials is the most fun.
The more you can give your kids the positive experience of "I did it!", after the feeling "I can never do it...", only because he kept on trying and got better and better until he really did it, the more confident he or she will become for future problems. The kids will learn that even if it seems impossible in the beginning, if they just try and retry they will be able to get what they want.
Games are a great place to fail
Each new game is like a new world that you have to explore to learn its rules and items. You have to walk around the place, look at things that look out of place or strange and check them. Only if you try many things and search many locations, you will be able to solve the games and advance through them and avoid getting stuck too long.
Check
tip #1 about the importance of working together. In this case your role is to encourage your kids to keep on exploring and not run forward all the time or quit. When they get stuck somewhere in the game, it will be a great opportunity to teach them how be more thorough in their search, to move slowly around the place, check every item until the solution pops up. You can direct them in their search if you happened to know where to look, either from the guide that you read (see
tip #2) , or from your own ideas.
Try not to tell them the solution, and let them find the solution by themselves. This is a delicate situation that you’ll have to learn your kids feeling, and make sure that they are walking on a thin line between making things too easy or too difficult. If they find it too easily, they will lose interest very fast, but if they find it too hard, they will not enjoy it. If they are looking for a solution too long, and you come up with the solution, it might frustrate them even more.
Example of "Walls"
There are many types of games that each one has different frustrating moments. I will focus here on the ones that are more relevant for younger kids.
Beating the Boss - many action/platform games are built from levels that each one is ended with a more powerful enemy to defeat - a boss. After beating all the other weaker enemies on the level, usually with one or two strikes, meeting the boss is very intimidating. He is bigger, scarier and even if you hit him many times, he doesn't seem to fall.
The good news are that every boss has some weak points. Hitting these weak points will lower his defense and make him fall faster. The exploration you need to guide is either by trying different tricks or from finding the solution in a game guide. The first one is more difficult as kids tend to repeat what they already know and trying new things, especially in a systematic way, is not natural for them. This is the opportunity for you to teach them these methods, but remember that is very difficult especially in the first few games.
Finding the key - the second most common problem is opening a door or some other locks with a key that should be found. When you get to the lock and you don't have the key you need to go back and start looking for it. This is not easy for the kids who want to run forward.
