Colleen

I'm looking for ideas that will help me to support my 13yo son's interest in computer and
video games. We built a PC earlier this year and we're setting up a claymation studio so he
can make claymation movies at home but I feel like outside those two areas my support of his
interest is too passive. There must be more that I can offer--more than just being interested
and occasionally playing with him, I mean. At the HSC conference last year he discovered the
Scratch video game making program and he was into that for a while but he's gotten kind of
bored with it. Anyone have any ideas for expanding on this interest of his?
Thanks,
Colleen

catmlkmom

Hello, I'm in college full time studying computers, so I completely
understand your son's interest in computers. My first reaction when
I read your post was "get him a couple of introductory programming
books and let him have at it" I know that when I was a kid and
really into computers, I would have loved it if someone had casually
left a few programming books on a table for me to find, especially if
the books included lessons that eventually led to the writing of a
simple computer game that I could actually play once I finished the
book. There's all kinds of great books available for that, and not
all just the boring textbook variety. If he's truly serious about
computers and gaming, I bet he'd be totally interested in learning to
write the programs for the games...................

Cat


--- In [email protected], "Colleen" <cpaeff@...>
wrote:
>
> I'm looking for ideas that will help me to support my 13yo son's
interest in computer and
> video games. We built a PC earlier this year and we're setting up a
claymation studio so he
> can make claymation movies at home but I feel like outside those
two areas my support of his
> interest is too passive. There must be more that I can offer--more
than just being interested
> and occasionally playing with him, I mean. At the HSC conference
last year he discovered the
> Scratch video game making program and he was into that for a while
but he's gotten kind of
> bored with it. Anyone have any ideas for expanding on this interest
of his?
> Thanks,
> Colleen
>

Tom Hall

Hi Colleen,

On the Scratch Forums, they offer these programs as a "next step" from
Scratch. Depending on what your son is interested in:

Green foot is a free 2D game creator. It uses Java, and (unlike Scratch)
you can see and interact with the programming language directly.

http://www.greenfoot.org/

Alice is a free 3D programming environment that uses 3D drag and drop
graphics, but you can see the code underneath it too.

http://www.alice.org/

Hope that helps,
Tom


Colleen wrote:
>
>
> I'm looking for ideas that will help me to support my 13yo son's
> interest in computer and
> video games. We built a PC earlier this year and we're setting up a
> claymation studio so he
> can make claymation movies at home but I feel like outside those two
> areas my support of his
> interest is too passive. There must be more that I can offer--more than
> just being interested
> and occasionally playing with him, I mean. At the HSC conference last
> year he discovered the
> Scratch video game making program and he was into that for a while but
> he's gotten kind of
> bored with it. Anyone have any ideas for expanding on this interest of his?
> Thanks,
> Colleen
>
>

Meredith

--- In [email protected], "Colleen" <cpaeff@...>
wrote:
>>Anyone have any ideas for expanding on this interest of his?

Just to clarify - does he seem to want more from you? Or is the
feeling that you aren't doing "enough" coming from you? My kids both
enjoy computer and video games, but while Ray has dabbled in
programming a little on his own, he's not terribly interested in
doing more than that. Mo's interested in the idea of programming, but
is easily frustrated by the process - so we're looking for games that
do the sorts of things she wants to do, like design her own
characters.

>There must be more that I can offer--more than just being interested
> and occasionally playing with him

I can't really tell one way or the other from your post, but it could
be that your son is perfectly happy playing games, that he's getting
what he needs from "just playing."

---Meredith (Mo 7, Ray 15)

Colleen

Hi Meredith.

He's been saying he's "bored and bored of being bored." So I'm looking
for ways to expand on the things he likes most. So I guess it's coming
from both of us. I don't mind if he's not interested in expanding his
interest but I do feel like it's my responsibility to put the
opportunities in front of him. Would you say that's the right thing to
do? This is only our second year of unschooling so I'm still learning...

Colleen


--- In [email protected], "Meredith" <meredith@...> wrote:
>
> --- In [email protected], "Colleen" <cpaeff@>
> wrote:
> >>Anyone have any ideas for expanding on this interest of his?
>
> Just to clarify - does he seem to want more from you? Or is the
> feeling that you aren't doing "enough" coming from you? My kids both
> enjoy computer and video games, but while Ray has dabbled in
> programming a little on his own, he's not terribly interested in
> doing more than that. Mo's interested in the idea of programming, but
> is easily frustrated by the process - so we're looking for games that
> do the sorts of things she wants to do, like design her own
> characters.
>
> >There must be more that I can offer--more than just being interested
> > and occasionally playing with him
>
> I can't really tell one way or the other from your post, but it could
> be that your son is perfectly happy playing games, that he's getting
> what he needs from "just playing."
>
> ---Meredith (Mo 7, Ray 15)
>

Colleen

Hi Cat.
Thanks for the idea. Do you have any book suggestions? So far all the
programming books I've seen look overwhelmingly complicated!
Colleen

--- In [email protected], "catmlkmom" <catmlkmom@...>
wrote:
>
> Hello, I'm in college full time studying computers, so I completely
> understand your son's interest in computers. My first reaction when
> I read your post was "get him a couple of introductory programming
> books and let him have at it" I know that when I was a kid and
> really into computers, I would have loved it if someone had casually
> left a few programming books on a table for me to find, especially if
> the books included lessons that eventually led to the writing of a
> simple computer game that I could actually play once I finished the
> book. There's all kinds of great books available for that, and not
> all just the boring textbook variety. If he's truly serious about
> computers and gaming, I bet he'd be totally interested in learning to
> write the programs for the games...................
>
> Cat
>
>
> --- In [email protected], "Colleen" <cpaeff@>
> wrote:
> >
> > I'm looking for ideas that will help me to support my 13yo son's
> interest in computer and
> > video games. We built a PC earlier this year and we're setting up a
> claymation studio so he
> > can make claymation movies at home but I feel like outside those
> two areas my support of his
> > interest is too passive. There must be more that I can offer--more
> than just being interested
> > and occasionally playing with him, I mean. At the HSC conference
> last year he discovered the
> > Scratch video game making program and he was into that for a while
> but he's gotten kind of
> > bored with it. Anyone have any ideas for expanding on this interest
> of his?
> > Thanks,
> > Colleen
> >
>

Jeanette

Or is he more interested in the artistic side of things? My dh got a degree in computer animation and it totally bored him because there wasn't enough character development and design.

Jeanette Wilson

On Nov 25, 2008, at 7:10 PM, "Colleen" <cpaeff@...> wrote:

Hi Cat.
Thanks for the idea. Do you have any book suggestions? So far all the
programming books I've seen look overwhelmingly complicated!
Colleen

--- In [email protected], "catmlkmom" <catmlkmom@...>
wrote:
>
> Hello, I'm in college full time studying computers, so I completely
> understand your son's interest in computers. My first reaction when
> I read your post was "get him a couple of introductory programming
> books and let him have at it" I know that when I was a kid and
> really into computers, I would have loved it if someone had casually
> left a few programming books on a table for me to find, especially if
> the books included lessons that eventually led to the writing of a
> simple computer game that I could actually play once I finished the
> book. There's all kinds of great books available for that, and not
> all just the boring textbook variety. If he's truly serious about
> computers and gaming, I bet he'd be totally interested in learning to
> write the programs for the games...................
>
> Cat
>
>
> --- In [email protected], "Colleen" <cpaeff@>
> wrote:
> >
> > I'm looking for ideas that will help me to support my 13yo son's
> interest in computer and
> > video games. We built a PC earlier this year and we're setting up a
> claymation studio so he
> > can make claymation movies at home but I feel like outside those
> two areas my support of his
> > interest is too passive. There must be more that I can offer--more
> than just being interested
> > and occasionally playing with him, I mean. At the HSC conference
> last year he discovered the
> > Scratch video game making program and he was into that for a while
> but he's gotten kind of
> > bored with it. Anyone have any ideas for expanding on this interest
> of his?
> > Thanks,
> > Colleen
> >
>







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

Tom Hall

Expanding on this idea, there are a number of games now that are very
interactive, where players make their own characters and even their own
worlds.

Little Big Planet for Playstation 3 is awesome in this regard - you
build your own levels in the game and can share and play them online.
It's worth getting a PS3 for this game alone!

Spore is really great too (PC based)- you create your own species and
evolve them from single celled organisms to space faring civilizations!


Meredith wrote:
>
>
> --- In [email protected]
> <mailto:unschoolingbasics%40yahoogroups.com>, "Colleen" <cpaeff@...>
> wrote:
> >>Anyone have any ideas for expanding on this interest of his?
>
> Just to clarify - does he seem to want more from you? Or is the
> feeling that you aren't doing "enough" coming from you? My kids both
> enjoy computer and video games, but while Ray has dabbled in
> programming a little on his own, he's not terribly interested in
> doing more than that. Mo's interested in the idea of programming, but
> is easily frustrated by the process - so we're looking for games that
> do the sorts of things she wants to do, like design her own
> characters.
>
> >There must be more that I can offer--more than just being interested
> > and occasionally playing with him
>
> I can't really tell one way or the other from your post, but it could
> be that your son is perfectly happy playing games, that he's getting
> what he needs from "just playing."
>
> ---Meredith (Mo 7, Ray 15)
>
>

diana jenner

On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 5:11 AM, Tom Hall <TOM.HALL@...> wrote:

> Spore is really great too (PC based)- you create your own species and
> evolve them from single celled organisms to space faring civilizations!
>
Hayden's got Spore on his cell phone! :)

~diana :)
xoxoxoxo
hannahbearski.blogspot.com
hannahsashes.blogspot.com
dianas365.blogspot.com


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

Meredith

--- In [email protected], "Colleen" <cpaeff@...>
wrote:
> He's been saying he's "bored and bored of being bored." So I'm
looking
> for ways to expand on the things he likes most.

That makes sense. Its certainly a place to start.

It might also be worth strewing some completely new ideas in his
path - he may be looking for a whole new direction rather than an
exapansion of what he's done before. Maybe have a brainstorming
session with him and come up with a bunch of things he might like to
try or experience - even if its just a one-time sort of thing, like a
Monty Python movie marathon, going to see a concert, driving around
just to look at xmas lights, going ice fishing.... Or you could think
along lines like having a "family games night" or starting guitar
lessons. I'm just throwing out ideas at random, here, since I don't
know y'all at all.

> I do feel like it's my responsibility to put the
> opportunities in front of him. Would you say that's the right thing
to
> do?

Yes! It can be hard to tell from a post why a parent is looking
to "expand" something a kid is doing, though. Its so normal for
parents to just throw things at kids if it doesn't seem (to the
parents) like anything is going on - especially teens since they can
go through a period of some pretty intense internal re-organization
and need a lot of time inside their own minds as a result. That can
look like daydreaming, but it can also look like revisiting old,
simpler activities - playing the same video games over and over or re-
reading books from when they were younger, for example.

It can also be expressed as boredom, which is something to watch for.
Its possible your ds could be feeling bored for developmental
reasons. Which certainly doesn't mean to disregard the feeling!
Rather to be concious that boredom can be internally derived - a kind
of general feeling of being down, or dissatisified, or unsettled that
isn't necessarily related to what's going on in the environment. Even
unschooled teens can be moody. So in addition to tossing ideas his
way, be sure to toss a little extra affection out there, too. That's
Always helpful.

---Meredith (Mo 7, Ray 15)