Deirdre Aycock

> My question is my sons. they want to play
> viedo games all day long and not do anything else. >

>>>>>>>>>>>>
There are other people on this list that could tell you the same thing I
want to, but they will say it nicer and more coherently. But this statement
made me want to share. :-) You could be describing my two kids, ages 10
and 12. Instead of seeing this behavior as being a negative thing, I look
at it this way: They are doing their work, their way. How much of your day
is spent doing what someone else tells you to do? I don't spend one minute
of my day that way! My husband and kids can ask me to do something, but I
certainly don't feel like I have to! I get to decide how I will spend my
day--how long I will hang out with the kids, how hard I will work and at
what, how long I sit around and read after lunch, whether I want to take a
shower or not! Why should your kids do anything other than what they want?
Are they not allowed to be just as free as adults?

Your sons had no control over their lives when they went to school, and now
they are doing what they want to do. They may be just lowering their
stress levels by playing video games, which is also a good thing! Beats
drugs, alcohol, and hitting each other.

And if you will slow up and spend some time with your sons, you will
probably find out they are learning the entire time they are at it! Their
gaming is also probably part of their social lives, too.

See if you find anything interesting here: http://sandradodd.com/games/page

And good luck unschooling.

Deirdre in Alabama

nancy sebastian

Thankyou Deirdre, i really appreciate what you wrote.
i guess what i really need to do is stop and smell the
coffee. i never really thought about it the way you
all have suggested.. from now on i will pay more
attention to what they are doing and saying than what
i want them to do. Question. what about math or
english. He hates reading. what do you suggest on
that. he wants to make video games later in life and
that requires alot of math. any suggestions. im really
new at this. and i really am going to work on this.
thankyou all again nancy
--- Deirdre Aycock <aycock@...> wrote:


God Bless You
Nancy

Joyce Fetteroll

On Mar 9, 2005, at 11:25 PM, nancy sebastian wrote:

> He hates reading. what do you suggest on
> that.

Read to him. (If he wants you to.)

Books on tape.

Movie versions of books.

Books about his interests. If he doesn't want them read to him, leave
them out so he can browse. Don't worry if he just looks at the
pictures.

Gaming guides to his favorite games. Point him to
http://www.gamefaqs.com

Instead of reading, have your goal be a positive experience with print.

> he wants to make video games later in life and
> that requires alot of math.

If a child were interested in building would you worry that he didn't
know how to use a power saw? Would you find someone to give him power
saw lessons so that in the future when he was old enough and interested
enough he'd be able to use one?

A better way is to let him build. Let him play. Let him explore what
there is. As his interest builds find more outlets. (And when he starts
eyeing the power saw, you help him use it safely. ;-)

The really lousy thing about school math is that it gives us the idea
that "real" math can only be found in textbooks and only be learned by
dull repetition of things we barely understand until we get a glimmer
of what it all means.

Real math gets learned as kids learn English: as a side effect of using
it to get what they want. They use their imperfect understanding and
the feedback helps them to figure out how to use it better. When kids
are using math for real they have a vested interest in the answer.
While a kid in school might see 34-17 and write 51 as the answer and
not care about the answer (it ends up in the trash either way), a child
in a store with $34 wanting to know how much they'll have after
spending $17 will know that $51 isn't right and will care that it isn't
right and they'll figure out why (or ask for help). At any rate they
care about how well they get the tool to work and will mess around with
it until they understand how to make it work. Just as a kid with a
hammer who is interested in building will eventually figure out how to
make a hammer drive nails in straight without previously having had
hammering lessons.

Joyce

Pam Sorooshian

On Mar 10, 2005, at 9:01 AM, Joyce Fetteroll wrote:

>> he wants to make video games later in life and
>> that requires alot of math.

I just yesterday talked to someone who has made a living making video
games and she said that the most important thing a kid could be doing
would be making up complex games - board games, card games, dice games
- making up all the rules, etc.

-pam

julie w

Joyce Fetteroll wrote:

>
>
> Gaming guides to his favorite games. Point him to
> http://www.gamefaqs.com
>
> Instead of reading, have your goal be a positive experience with print.

If reading is still a problem you can also get a "screen reader". The
ATT reading bar with the upgraded voices is very good BUT only works
with IE and costs money. If you use Firefox as your web browser then
there is a free add-on (foxy-voice) you can download that will read what
is on the screen. It will use the nicer ATT voices or the ones already
on windows. The ATT one works better (it just reads the screen,
foxyvoice only reads what you highlight...neither will read Flash) BUT
we are very mad at IE right now (bad spyware issues and a browser hijack
that took me about 20 hours to clear out) so ds is using Firefox as his
browser for now.
He mostly uses it to read though cheats and game FAQs. Wish we could
figure out a way to get the computer to read all the info in World of
Warcraft. I know ds is not experiencing the game as well as he could
because he can't read fast enough to follow the on-screen conversations
with other players..

Julie




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