Amy

I want to thank everyone for helping understand unschooling; just
reading the posts helps!

It has been a difficult journey for *me* toward unschooling and I
can't help it, as yet, but question myself constantly (I am working on
this ). I know, yuk. But my problem.

Right now I am struggling with my 14 yo and playing World of Warcraft
for the amount of time each day that he does... I do not object to
him playing and have read about all the benefits. I do keep hoping the
interest in online video games will wain, and he will become curious
about other things, which I will facilitate, but it has not happened
yet.

I try to be patient, but it is a real struggle for me.

Amy

marji

At 12:09 1/27/2008, Amy wrote:
>Right now I am struggling with my 14 yo and playing World of Warcraft
>for the amount of time each day that he does... I do not object to
>him playing and have read about all the benefits. I do keep hoping the
>interest in online video games will wain, and he will become curious
>about other things, which I will facilitate, but it has not happened
>yet.

I hear what a struggle this has been for you, and I really admire you
for looking for answers.

I don't know how transparent you are about your struggle (i.e., are
you vocal about your desire for his WoW interest to wane?), but I
think the saying "what you resist persists" could apply here.

Since you can't change anyone else but yourself, how about seeing
what happens if you fully supported his WoW interest? What if you
were to sit with him while he's playing and really try to understand
what he's doing and what all the things mean on the site? How about
creating a WoW character yourself and playing with him coaching
you? Or even getting your own account and playing with him? Not so
much to intrude on his space, but to embrace it with him.

At the very least, since you are willing to facilitate his curiosity
in other areas, can you sort of suspend disbelief a little and
pretend that WoW is one of these other areas and facilitate it the
way you might facilitate a passion for architecture or knitting or
animal care or any other thing?

I hope that helps!

~Marji









~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.joyfullyparenting.com
Live Fully ~ Live JoyFully!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[email protected]

In a message dated 1/27/2008 9:09:46 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
avd@... writes:

Right now I am struggling with my 14 yo and playing World of Warcraft
for the amount of time each day that he does... I do not object to
him playing and have read about all the benefits. I do keep hoping the
interest in online video games will wain, and he will become curious
about other things, which I will facilitate, but it has not happened
yet.

I try to be patient, but it is a real struggle for me.

Amy


______________

Amy, my daughter is 15 and just left school in October. *I* struggle with
her doing "nothing" all day. Not even computer games, lol! Well, she IS doing
Myspace a great deal and listening to music more, which I'm glad of.

Remembering the process takes time is hard for me - especially with her
father and other side of the family getting antsy and wanting her to show her
work (and there is none). It's hard to wait out deschooling - especially when
*I* am so excited about her future now, lol, and I want her to be too. But in
time, the deschooling works - all that have done it, say it's so, and I figure
THEY know, lol. Plus, my son, who is now 18, left school 18 or so months ago
- and within 13 months (as long as he was schooled, mind you), he stopped
gelling out and really began enjoying learning for the sake of learning again.
He now spends hours at a time learning guitar and learning about Buddhism. He
took the time needed to discover his interests and now he's developing them
on his own. Grace, my daughter, will get there too...but it IS hard to "wait"
for that.

Karen



**************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape.
http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489


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Nikki

Ok here is a little info about Wow.
Me, my husband, and all 4 of my kids play.
My kids are almost 20 (homeschooled since 3rd grade), almost 15 and he was always homeschooled, and an 11 and 10 year old. We ALL play. My kids learned so much typing and grammar from this game its not funny.

What benefits have you found.

Also, my 11 year old son loves warcraft 2 and making maps. There is alot of skill that goes into map making too

----- Original Message -----
From: Amy
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 12:09 PM
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] unschooling a teen


I want to thank everyone for helping understand unschooling; just
reading the posts helps!

It has been a difficult journey for *me* toward unschooling and I
can't help it, as yet, but question myself constantly (I am working on
this ). I know, yuk. But my problem.

Right now I am struggling with my 14 yo and playing World of Warcraft
for the amount of time each day that he does... I do not object to
him playing and have read about all the benefits. I do keep hoping the
interest in online video games will wain, and he will become curious
about other things, which I will facilitate, but it has not happened
yet.

I try to be patient, but it is a real struggle for me.

Amy






------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 1/27/2008 12:10:24 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
avd@... writes:

Right now I am struggling with my 14 yo and playing World of Warcraft
for the amount of time each day that he does... I do not object to
him playing and have read about all the benefits. I do keep hoping the
interest in online video games will wain, and he will become curious
about other things, which I will facilitate, but it has not happened
yet.



____

Logan, my 14 (almost 15) year old son has recently discovered World of
Warcraft. As with other interests over the past few years, he has immersed
himself in it. I guess my questions to you would be...

Why do you wish his interest in online video games will wain? What would
be something you consider more valuable for him? What if he was playing
basketball for hours every day? Reading for hours everyday?
Playing the guitar? Why would any of those things be more important that
what he considers important to him right now?

Logan is playing WOW right now most of his waking hours and I've started
just going in and being in the room with him as he plays. He seems to really
enjoy me being there and explains all that is going on.

Last night, he came into the kitchen when I was cooking and said,,,"I need
a hug". He felt this need to connect with me and we sat on the kitchen
counter and talked about WOW for awhile. I truly am interested in learning more
about it and he asked if I would like to create a character. So I did. We
went into his room and he helped me with learning how to create the character
and start a quest. It was extremely challenging for me just to make my
character walk in a straight line! <g> I really did enjoy it in spite of my
frustration and plan on playing more today.

I know from seeing him over the years develop interests and immerse himself
in them that it will wane a bit when the weather gets warmer and there will
be something new. It may well be another video game but whatever it is will
be valuable to him for whatever amount of time he is involved with it. I'm
the very same way! If I'm doing a house project, that's all I do until I
finish it. Last fall, I got involved in doing Zumba which is a Latin exercise
program and I spent months going to classes, get certified to teach it, finding
music for it and thinking about it most of my waking hours. It would have
been quite disheartening if someone in my family
had wished that my interest would wain and I would find something else to
do. They were just as supportive of me as I try to be of their interests.

Rather than waiting for some other interest to develop, try and find out
more about WOW. Play yourself or at least learn enough about it to share the
excitement.

Last night, in Logan's room, I picked up the box that the WOW game had come
in and was reminded that it was made by Blizzard. An unschooling teen we
know immersed himself in video games and now has a job working for them. How
cool is that?

Gail





**************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape.
http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

<<Amy, my daughter is 15 and just left school in October. *I* struggle with
her doing "nothing" all day. Not even computer games, lol! Well, she IS doing
Myspace a great deal and listening to music more, which I'm glad of. >>

Karen,

My dd is also 15, but she has been deschooling now for 19 months. At first, she spent so much time in front of the computer, and I thought it was all on myspace, but I found out she was surfing other sites as well. She read all about animal rights groups and global warming, and got into creating a very eclectic collection of music downloaded from limewire, and now burns CD's for people based on what they would love to hear. She has devoted so much time to myspace, instant messaging and text messaging on her phone that for awhile I thought maybe she was spending too much time on a social life, but now I realize that her social intelligence is a great strength and I would not interfere with it for anything. Social networking via the internet is a modern marvel, really, and myspace is a great place to learn about other parts of the country and lifestyles, as well as web page building and design.

I found that goal setting was a good way to encourage a varied lifestyle. When her schooled friends trotted off to high school in september I asked her if there was anything she wanted to accomplish this year. She stated that she wanted to get in shape, so i got her a gym membership at the local gym, which is within walking distance. We also go jogging together in the local regional park.. She picked up "Catcher in the Rye" a week or so ago, and is nearly finished with it. So...hang in there, doing "nothing" is very valuable. After doing nothing going on two years, i don't see my dd as "behind" her schooled peers at all. Quite the contrary, in fact.
Can you afford to send your dd to NBTSC this summer?

Kathryn



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Ren Allen

~~>Right now I am struggling with my 14 yo and playing World of Warcraft
>for the amount of time each day that he does.~~

I can't tell you that it will wain...because my 18 year old plays a
LOT of hours still. In fact, he's dating a girl that plays AND her
parents play. He actually quit a very good guild he was in (best on
the Rexxar server at that time) in order to create an Alliance
character (should I hide his "for the horde" shirt now?) so he could
join a guild with Moira and her folks.

I can't even tell you all the things my kids have learned from video
games. It takes hours and hours and days and weeks in order to get
good at some of them. They are their own society and in order to
become a useful member of any society it takes a lot of time and
behaving appropriately for that society. Very complex and interesting
stuff.

Trevor (18) is planning to move out this summer. I have a feeling the
WoW time will not wain much at all....he'll just have different people
to share it with. :)

I really WISH I could play sometimes. I just have way to many
priorities and other interests so I won't give it the time it takes.
But it's such a cool game. Play it if you doubt me (I did...it was
quite amusing. Still have a lvl. 4 character sitting there just in
case I decide to spend the time);)

Ren
learninginfreedom.com

diana jenner

Here's a huge benefit to playing Wow ~ Kirby
Dodd<http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2008/01/end-of-kirbys-perfect-visit.html>has
relocated to TX to work for Blizzard :) (that post also happens to be
an
amazing tale of an grownup unschooler, as well)
There are bits of stories of benefits (mostly to relationship!) all over:
http://sandradodd.com/game/reading
http://sandradodd.com/videogames
http://sandradodd.com/gameplay


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Amy
> To: [email protected]<unschoolingbasics%40yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 12:09 PM
> Subject: [unschoolingbasics] unschooling a teen
>
> I want to thank everyone for helping understand unschooling; just
> reading the posts helps!
>
> It has been a difficult journey for *me* toward unschooling and I
> can't help it, as yet, but question myself constantly (I am working on
> this ). I know, yuk. But my problem.
>
> Right now I am struggling with my 14 yo and playing World of Warcraft
> for the amount of time each day that he does... I do not object to
> him playing and have read about all the benefits. I do keep hoping the
> interest in online video games will wain, and he will become curious
> about other things, which I will facilitate, but it has not happened
> yet.
>
> I try to be patient, but it is a real struggle for me.
>
>
>
>


--
~diana :)
xoxoxoxo
hannahbearski.blogspot.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Michelle Thedaker

That's great! I knew Kirby had a full-time gaming industry job in TX from
reading Sandra's site, but I didn't know it was with Blizzard. :-) My hubby
also works for Blizzard (in California), and it's an awesome company. WoW
is also a major activity in our house, with my hubby and I spending a TON of
time there. I have about 10 characters, lol! Drew (8.5yo) has recently
started to play with us also (he's usually on Disney's Toon Town though!).



Video games have taught my kids *so* much, I love 'em! And the boys do
plenty of other things as well, often connected to the games (pretend play,
stories, lego creations, etc.). It's all good!



Shell (in CA, can't believe there's another Shell here, lol)

Mama to Drew, 8.5 and Josh, 4.5



_____

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of diana jenner
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 3:54 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [unschoolingbasics] unschooling a teen



Here's a huge benefit to playing Wow ~ Kirby
Dodd<http://sandradodd.
<http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2008/01/end-of-kirbys-perfect-visit.html>
blogspot.com/2008/01/end-of-kirbys-perfect-visit.html>has
relocated to TX to work for Blizzard :) (that post also happens to be
an
amazing tale of an grownup unschooler, as well)
There are bits of stories of benefits (mostly to relationship!) all over:
http://sandradodd. <http://sandradodd.com/game/reading> com/game/reading
http://sandradodd. <http://sandradodd.com/videogames> com/videogames
http://sandradodd. <http://sandradodd.com/gameplay> com/gameplay

_



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Pamela Sorooshian

I really want to emphasize this idea from Marji of suspending
disbelief and pretending that your child's interest is as wonderful
and valid as anything you could possible have wished for. Banish
doubts by replacing each and every skeptical thought with one that
focuses on supporting his interest.The process of the parent doing
this will really change the dynamics, often unspoken and unrecognized
dynamics, between parents and kids AND, the big bonus is that the
parents will, in fact, start to see the kid's interest more clearly,
without the underlying he's-never-going-to-amount-to-anything-if-all-
he-ever-does-is-play-videogames anxiety. You'll have to focus on the
specifics of what makes this such a wonderful activity and, lo and
behold, it WILL begin to very clearly be a wonderful activity - you
won't have to pretend after a while. The parent needs to be at least
immersed enough in the activity to be able to thoroughly support it -
expand on it, connect the rest of the world to it, enhance it. You
ought to be able to buy your kid a WOW t-shirt because you get the
joke and know he'll think it is really funny and cool.

And, I teach economics and one of my students wrote a paper on the
economics that WOW involves - it was his semester term paper and it
was very detailed and interesting. So - in-depth knowledge of WOW paid
off for him - he got an "A" in a college economics course.

Also, always keep in mind the wider perspective - your child is
learning that he should trust his own inclinations, that his interests
matter, that he should pursue what he loves with zest and passion.
And, he's learning that you are there to support him, not to thwart
him, and that will be an incredibly important element of your
relationship as he gets older! You'll be glad you developed it now.

-pam


On Jan 27, 2008, at 9:27 AM, marji wrote:

> At the very least, since you are willing to facilitate his curiosity
> in other areas, can you sort of suspend disbelief a little and
> pretend that WoW is one of these other areas and facilitate it the
> way you might facilitate a passion for architecture or knitting or
> animal care or any other thing?



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