24hrmom

<< But she needs help. She needs tips, ideas, and anecdotes. You can either
have your name included or not, as you prefer. She'd love stories and ideas
from kids and teens, as well. If we can come up with at least 100 useable
tips and stories within the next month, she'll come to the conference.

Kathryn>>

I know this is a bit late but, one tip is to not limit their time following
their interests (or even express disdain at their interests). My 11yo son
really enjoys his video games, and computer games to a lesser extent. I
don't limit his time and it is amazing how much he is learning and where
this interest has taken him. From the obvious reading component (the game
itself, game guides, magazines etc), to the math and logic skills often
involved in the game itself, regular discussions on plot and character
development (if I'm not there he'll run to find me to tell me things that
have happened and connections he's made), learning from the game content
itself (tons of mythology in many of the games my son enjoys), it just goes
on and on. I can add more to the list if you need.

One cool story is from the SC conference. When Jim Weiss was telling his
first story, the one about one of the labours of Hercules Joseph told me
what his favourite of the 12 labours was (as well as some of the others) - I
didn't know he knew anything about them! He continued to tell me the
differences between the things Jim mentioned in his stories and what he had
learned from his games (I find the game developers take a lot of effort to
make game content true and to make all sorts of connections / interplay) and
what he has read following up on his interest in mythology (directly
developed from the games). It was cool that Jim even mentioned how there
were many different versions of the stories and how he did a lot of research
to come up with his version.

And related, we were camping a couple weeks ago with my kids and nieces and
I brought along a book "The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter" that I had just
bought. I thought an opportunity may come up and I knew they all liked
Harry Potter. After dinner one night I brought it out and started reading
excerpts (the books is set up as questions and answers). Well, the
mythology Joseph knew and told us all related to what we were reading was
phenomenal!! He would often finish the sentence I was reading. And he
would connect it back to some of the games he enjoys playing. And he would
connect the games to each other. Even though the games themselves weren't
related, they were all drawing on the same mythological stories as their
basis, or maybe just for naming their characters and moves etc. He was so
excited and kept explaining stuff to everyone (you have to understand that
he is typically a boy of FEW words). We were all so enjoying ourselves I
brought the book in the tent with us and we continued until everyone else
had fallen asleep.

Oh, oh!! One more along these lines. After we had been unschooling for a
few months (he would have been 10) and he had been playing video games full
tilt (no homework and school to get in his way LOL!), I was lying in bed
with him one night as he was going to sleep and out-of-the-blue he said "I
have always thought of myself as a video game guy. But I only seem to like
one kind of video game, those based back in time with swords and spells and
battles. Maybe I'm a guy who likes those old times and I am just using
video games to learn about it!" I said "yeah, maybe you're right", and then
laid back and marveled at his insight until I finally fell asleep.

They will earn so much if you allow them the freedom to pursue their
interests, even if you don't think they are worthwhile, they are worthwhile
to the person pursuing them!

Pam L.