The Faraway Series helps kids practice and improve the following skills:

Planning

Developing a systematic approach for setting and achieving goals.

Playing these games will work two planning skills: short-term planning and problem solving. Short-term planning is used for every puzzle. The player has to plan out several steps in advance, but only the steps needed for one puzzle at a time. This means that they aren't ever planning more than five or ten minutes worth of game play at a time. Problem solving is used every step of every puzzle in every level. Each puzzle is a problem the player has to solve, or they can't move on to the next problem. If they don't solve all the problems in that level, they won't unlock the next level. Even finding all three notes in a level requires the player to exercise their problem solving skills. If the player isn't planning, they won't be successful at this game.

Working Memory

Recalling and retaining information in our minds while working.

These games also do an excellent job of stretching a player's working memory. A lot of puzzles include clues from all over a level. The player has to find the clues, hold them in their minds until they have found them all, and then go back to the puzzle and follow the implied directions of the puzzle's answer. If they can't do all of these things, sometimes holding something in their mind for several minutes, then they won't be able to solve the puzzle. The player also has to be building a visual map--or memory--of the level. If they don't know where all the rooms and clues and pieces of the puzzles are located, if they do forget what they were doing, they won't be able to refresh their memory. In other words, if the player doesn't use their memory to build a map and remember clues, they won't be able to solve puzzles and advance to new levels.