Sandra Dodd

Dena wrote:


I want to ask the list, but can't remember how to post. I hope you can help me.

I had a small vessel stroke on the left side of my brain in the thalamus gland 19 days ago on March 20. It affected my right side. I am getting better a little every day and we expect a full recovery. I just turned 48 yesterday.

We are unschooling our youngest, he is 7.5. Our other children are grown (25, 24, 21) and are in other places except our daughter who is moving out again on May 1. Levi went to Nursery School at the church I worked in when he was 4-5. That was half days 3 days a week... Otherwise he's always been with family, mostly me and his dad.

Prior to the stroke we were definitely going through a cocooning stage. Staying home, having lots of pajama days, watching cartoon, building legos and power rangers, reading books, video games, cuddling.

We also had some time when he had the crud and so did I, so there was recovery from that in the couple weeks before my stroke.

We are home alone together again now. I am walking without the walker, except for steps, although slow and awkward. I am working to write my name, print (I love to write by hand so it's important to me) typing is slow and I make lots of corrections (pardon if I miss some).
Daddy is exhausted right now between running our company alone, doing much to care for us, and the house. Bless him he's practically asleep as soon as he sits down at night.

He is ready for the pace to pick up some. He is also transitioning from younger play to wanting more interesting things to do.

I wonder if y'all can offer some suggestions for us? My sensory perception was affected so I have to go slow and deliberate, no multi-tasking or lots of stimulation at once yet.

I can't go outside without another grown person yet, and driving is not an option. There is not a budget for a helper or anything right now.
He would enjoy playing online perhaps, but I want him to play in a safe children's environment. I don't know how to do that.

I know this is a temporary situation, but I want to help us get through as peacefully as possible.

Thank you.

Sherry Franklin

Hi Dena,

Has your son been introduced to Minecraft yet?  If not, I would highly recommend a membership.  That might be a nice way to introduce him to some online games.  

Sherry


Megan Valnes

Hi Dena,

I'm so sorry to hear you had a stroke. I will pray for your full recovery.

Does your son play Minecraft? Minecraft is a wonderful computer/tablet/consul game that many kids enjoy and your son would be able to play online with lots of other kids. There are also a myriad of other online games that your son could play with kids his age. I suggest joining the Yahoo group of unschooling gamers. Here is the link: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/unschooling_gamers/info

I also suggest getting (if you don't already have it) Skype on your computer and letting your son Skype with other kids he connects with online. My kids like to skype and play together online at the same time with their friends. Also, if you have a gaming consul that has online capabilities, like a Play Station or Xbox, you can get your son playing games with other kids on that medium.

Hope this helps.
Megan

Sandra Dodd

I edited the last two posts that went through here for having the entire original post appended. Please try to trim posts. Thanks.

Suggestions to find things to do online are good.
Watching movies together is another idea.
http://sandradodd.com/movies has ideas for following trails. It's a bit outdated, but that shouldn't be a problem—modern resources and newer lists just make everything bigger and better (and easier)!

Sandra

Robyn Coburn

Don't be afraid to ask your local homeschooling community for help. Most people consider it a gift to be allowed to help. 

Is there a meal train going? That might relieve your dh of some stress. People will do a shop or a load of laundry for you. 

If he needs some help in the business, an unschooled teen might be glad of an internship opportunity for their resume. 

Best wishes for a full and gentle recovery. 

Robyn L. Coburn

Dena Morrison

Levi does play minecraft on the kindle. And he's watched some Stampy Longnose videos on YouTube over the last year or so.
I seem to have trouble visually with minecraft while he's building its very dizzying, but I love to see Levi's creations when they are built. And we often talk about what he is doing and he asks for ideas of what to build next.
Minecraft seems not to be big interest right now, but he adores Pokemon, Digimon, Chima, Power Rangers.
He has access and unrestricted access to all that's available on Netflix. He has Pokemon cards, a pokedex book and we have the newest one bookmarked for him on the computer. Another bookmark for Digimom, and he plays games on Cartoon Network.
I can do some simple, verbal pokemon battles, but am not able to combine moves, plan stategy or remember all my available moves. He craves what he calls the "Move around"  version of this type of playing. Acting out these games and battles. I wasnt good at this before, but willing. Just not up to it yet.
We dont really belong to a homeschool network. Members of three meetups, though for financial and transport reasons haven't participated much.
Do you think it would be odd or impolite to turn to them now?
I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.
I will join the unschooling gamers group- I had forgotten them.
Talking about this is giving me strength and encouragement.
Thank you
Dena

On Apr 9, 2015 1:21 PM, "Robyn Coburn dezignarob@... [AlwaysLearning]" <[email protected]> wrote:
 

Don't be afraid to ask your local homeschooling community for help. Most people consider it a gift to be allowed to help. 

Is there a meal train going? That might relieve your dh of some stress. People will do a shop or a load of laundry for you. 

If he needs some help in the business, an unschooled teen might be glad of an internship opportunity for their resume. 

Best wishes for a full and gentle recovery. 

Robyn L. Coburn

Sarah Thompson

I have a child who loves to be on youtube or gaming, but when he wants to play with me physically he wants serious action. I, also, dealt with some serious health issues that affected my energy and respiration. I second trying to find a local coop or something where he can connect with other people to wrassle with. Also, you said help is out of the budget, but is that really, totally, true? Could you find a homeschooled teen to come over for a few hours a week to mix things up with him? Maybe a Minecraft AND active play mentor? I couldn't have done it without my live social network.

Sarah

Lisa Celedon

<<
Levi does play minecraft on the kindle. And he's watched some Stampy
Longnose videos on YouTube over the last year or so.>>

If you can, buying the full PC version of Minecraft could make it far more interesting for him. The tablet version is very limited, and I remember when we started playing on PC after playing on a kindle, it was almost like a whole new game!
I know there used to be an option to play a demo version on mojang.com for free. That might be a way of seeing if having a fuller version makes it more appealing for him now, before spending the money on an account.
My son comes and goes from Minecraft, with weeks or months or days that he plays a lot, and then weeks or months or days where he doesn't play it much at all.

I was looking at mojang.com and see they just released a new update for the pocket edition.

I checked for the free demo and it looks like it is still there. You have to create a Mojang account (which is free). There is an in-game time limit to the demo (100 minutes or 5 in-game days).

The full version and the demo can be found here: https://minecraft.net

Lisa C

Megan Valnes

A major difference between the pocket edition and PC Version of Minecraft is live play with other kids. You can't play with other kids on the tablet (unless they're on the same wifi network as you), but online you can play on multiple servers with lots of kids. Including an unschooling server. 


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Sarah Thompson

Does he read? If he gets a pc account he can join servers and find kids to play with.

Sarah

Clare Kirkpatrick

"Does he read? If he gets a pc account he can join servers and find kids to play with."

No need to be able to read either, when you have Skype :)

PC minecraft is so, so much more than pocket mc. It's building with friends, surviving with friends, playing mini games with friends. It's hugely social. My daughter has lots of friends all over the world that she meets up with to play in various different ways. They're currently working together to build a server of their own with its own mini games. She's doing programming and team leading and planning and so much more than you would imagine if you only had pocket mc as your reference point. 

Clare



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emmamarieforde@...

My daughter 8 years is also interested Minecraft, Pokemon, Digimon and Chima. If your son is able to access the PC version of Minecraft there are a number of mods available that your son may add to his interest and enjoyment of playing. The Pixelmon mod adds 3d Pokemon into your Minecraft world so you can find, catch, collect and battle pokemon. There is also a Digimon mod that allows you to find, level up and tame Digimon.

We have set up an Unschoolers Minecraft Club for parents and children who are interested in Minecraft or would like to ask questions or seek out other children who would like to play:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/928445003833540/


We also have a homeschooling server for children who play the Pocket Edition of Minecraft on tablets/iPads and mobile devices. The server is for children who would like to play alongside or build together with other children in a safe environment. I will link to the associated FaceBook Groups below.


https://www.facebook.com/groups/homeschoolmcpe/


claudia wilson

You mentioned that your child likes Pokémon. My 3 boys love the Pokémon games on the Nintendo DS. If you don't have a DS you can find used ones at Game Stop or maybe online. 

Claudia

On Apr 15, 2015 2:28 PM, "emmamarieforde@... [AlwaysLearning]" <[email protected]> wrote:
 

My daughter 8 years is also interested Minecraft, Pokemon, Digimon and Chima. If your son is able to access the PC version of Minecraft there are a number of mods available that your son may add to his interest and enjoyment of playing. The Pixelmon mod adds 3d Pokemon into your Minecraft world so you can find, catch, collect and battle pokemon. There is also a Digimon mod that allows you to find, level up and tame Digimon.


We have set up an Unschoolers Minecraft Club for parents and children who are interested in Minecraft or would like to ask questions or seek out other children who would like to play:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/928445003833540/


We also have a homeschooling server for children who play the Pocket Edition of Minecraft on tablets/iPads and mobile devices. The server is for children who would like to play alongside or build together with other children in a safe environment. I will link to the associated FaceBook Groups below.


https://www.facebook.com/groups/homeschoolmcpe/