Video Games. You could say I am not a big fan. I think they are fun for a little bit, but they take time away from other things and it is hard to find a stopping place. I knew my kids would like them, but I really try to get them excited about other things too. I have come to realize that I cannot expect them to not play any video games and live on a ranch with me in a small town playing outdoors and doing arts and crafts. This is the generation of techies and gamers. They will make friends and build relationships through and because of games. It is part of their culture now.
So I let them play. Sometimes for hours even because they want to and I want to do other things. Most of the time they have to earn their time with chores or reading. (the reading is new and it is 2 for 1. 1 minute reading earns two minutes play time. Jeff spent most of the day reading one book and then playing for a few minutes and then reading another book to play more. I finally said no more and they played outside with friends, in the backyard with water, and finally got so bored they raced baby doll strollers through the house (they laughed and screamed the whole time they did this). I think summer boredom is great.
A couple days ago I was putting Grant down for a nap. When I came out they had rigged up their own ball ramp tube and were rolling golf balls down and loving it. This is one of my all time favorite things, inventing cool contraptions. So a little bit of me is rubbing off on them after all. I am very glad for that.
1 comment:
It's good you've accepted they will play video games. Last year we had a training on rigor and relevance in the classroom. One of the things shared that I had an a-ha moment about was when they said "Children are the natives of the technological world, we are the immigrants." So true, they HAVE to be good at technology to survive in our culture, in so many different aspects. Video games, unfortunately, is one of those. When Mark was doing scope for a while at work, do you know what the controller was? An xbox, controller. Not. Kidding.
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