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ladysweettart's avatar
ladysweettart
6 years ago

Childhood Mental Skill

I just wondered what the fastest way to increase the mental skill in children is? I'm doing a baby challenge save, and one of the rules I've made for myself is that all the children have to fulfill their childhood aspirations (as well as get an "A") before I can age them up to teen.

I know the chess table, science table (or whatever it's called), and arithmetic attack game all work to increase their skill, but I ask because it seems like it always takes me longer to build that skill in my children than the motor skill or creativity skill (I don't ever choose the social butterfly aspiration - I saw that you have to have them make like three new friends and building friendship in Sims 4 is way too time-consuming and tedious, especially among children). Like literally I can have two children working on skills, one on mental and one on motor or creativity, and the child working on the mental skill doesn't level up as fast as the sibling working on motor or creativity. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, or if mental is just designed to take longer.

Also I do know extra credit increases mental skill, but to me it doesn't seem to increase it as much as the other activities so for the amount of time it takes, it doesn't seem worth it to me to do it that way. I will say that up till now, I had been having the kids working on mental use the chess table or the science table, and didn't really put them on Arithmetic Attack (I sort of forgot about it), so maybe that was why? I've noticed toward the end of the motor skill, having them play Keyboard Commander seems to level them up the fastest, so I'm wondering if Arithmetic Attack is also faster for Mental than the other two?
Any advice or help would be appreciated. Thanks!
tips
  • xmerer's avatar
    xmerer
    6 years ago
    I'd say the chess table is actually the fastest, because you can have someone who's at level 10 in logic tutor them as they play.

    Having a child who got the top-notch toddler trait also helps, but that's its own set of headaches. ^_^;;

    If you have Get Together, start a kids club and add the child to it. You can buy perks to increase the speed at which club members gain certain skills during meetings, and all the child skills are options. Other club perks can set moods for the club. Being focused will increase the mental skill gains.

    If one of the child's parents has completed the Big Happy Family aspiration, that reward trait (Matriarch/Patriarch) gives a big boost to any skills the child gains while the parent is helping them or just close by. I usually cheat the final tier of that aspiration, just because it's so darn useful. But if played normally, the children have already moved out of the house and started raising kids of their own by the time the last tier is done.

    Edit: On the kids' social aspiration, joining a club with people they didn't know before will count as "meeting" new people for the first tier. They can also fulfill it by "meeting new friends" while they're at school. There's also the Incredibly Friendly trait for 2000 satisfaction points that makes them insta-friends when they give a friendly introduction. That's mostly what I've used to finish that aspiration quickly. Their BFF usually ends up being a parent, since they tend to have the highest friendship bar with them.

    Hope this helps!
  • JaggidEdje's avatar
    JaggidEdje
    6 years ago
    I might be wrong, but I think having the child in the Very Focused mood also helps the speed of the mental skill increase.

    I have an area of the household setup to radiate a very strong focused aura and always have the kids do homework and work on mental skills there....homework is done almost instantly, and mental has been very quick to raise compared to motor for the 4 kids raised there.

    I set the area up mostly just using the lovely prints gotten from using the telescope, and a handful of the career rewards from tech guru. Remember you can shrink wall art down with [, so you can decorate a pretty small area with a lot of the prints that way. I have them all hanging in various sizes so that it's aesthetic as well as functionally providing me the very focused mood for any sims that go there.
  • EmmaVane's avatar
    EmmaVane
    Seasoned Veteran
    6 years ago
    Cards also raises mental skill in kids, and Don't Wake the Llama builds Motor.
  • invisiblgirl's avatar
    invisiblgirl
    6 years ago
    I haven't experimented with Arithmetic Attack, but I've noticed that you can get some nice bumps having your kid talk about mental-skill related things (the choices in the social menu with a brain icon). The same goes for asking for typing tips to bump motor or talking about imaginary friends for creative skill. It's also the easiest way to max out the social skill for kids - have them talk about school or make pop culture references.
  • Perthelia's avatar
    Perthelia
    Seasoned Novice
    6 years ago
    Using the telescope also raises the skill, as does playing video games (I think - that COULD be motor, but video gaming is one of the adult skills they can raise if they max mental, so I think that's what it raises.)
  • JaggidEdje's avatar
    JaggidEdje
    6 years ago
    @Simpatsyann there are video games for both motor and mental, which one is raised depends on which games are played (Keyboard commander is the one to raise motor when playing on a computer. Unsure what if any raises it on a console or the gaming mat).
  • MVWdeZT's avatar
    MVWdeZT
    Rising Hotshot
    6 years ago
    Discussing fractions (once they get to level 5) gives a big boost to mental skill, but there's a cooldown time each time you do that. I often have mine make health potions on the science table while waiting -- useful for when they get older.
  • ladysweettart's avatar
    ladysweettart
    6 years ago
    Thanks, all helpful tips...though I don't have Parenthood so I can't utilize the doctor kit.

    I do use the focusing environment for kids and homework, every day they come home, watch a little TV on the plasma television in the dining room until their fun goes up, and then do their homework at the dining room table. But for some reason I never thought about doing that for the mental skill! (Probably because I don't manipulate the mood environment for my kids working on the motor or creativity skills either)
  • Perthelia's avatar
    Perthelia
    Seasoned Novice
    6 years ago
    "Stormkeep;c-16873242" wrote:
    @Simpatsyann there are video games for both motor and mental, which one is raised depends on which games are played (Keyboard commander is the one to raise motor when playing on a computer. Unsure what if any raises it on a console or the gaming mat).


    I’m referring specifically to games on the console.

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