Will they ever get off the gamebox?

The most common fear in parents when dealing with autonomy of the video gaming.

We've all heard about de-schooling, whereby parents are encouraged to allow the child re-discover themselves. No schedule, no lessons, no expectations. Just pure freedom to let themselves go and re-discover thier own intrinsic motivation, without us diverting them off thier natural course.

Well, my story today is about me and my kid's journey of video gaming, so far.

Today, I had the opportunity to say, Yes, they do get off thier butt and ask to do something new. They can and is capable of wanting new things(and not necessary just new video games) and new experiences. They are capable of getting fed-up playing infront of the tv and yearn for a change of scenery.

Gecko Jnr shown me this. On and off in the past 2 years, he will have a glut of video gaming which will last anything between 3 weeks to 3, 4 months or even more.

But then, there will come a day that he's satiated and decided the video games is boring (HORROR!!! I never thought I will ever hear that word- video games, boring!!?? LOL!). This is the time, he'll ask for new experiences.

Last year, he asked for sailing classes and an electric drum. Unfortunately, he is under age, no sailing school will take him in, and as for the drum, we just didn't have the budget.

This year, he asked for fencing classes, which he will be starting this week, and an electric keyboard, which we can afford.

Yesterday, we spent hours infront of his pc, playing his old Tanko construction game, demolishing, building and moving all those diggers, cement tanks and platform trucks around his little Tanko city.

Now, if you make an effort to disregard everything, and just focus on your child even for just 1/2 an hour, you'll realised lessons can be derived from such simple, unscheduled and un-coordinated situation.

Yesterday, Jnr not only paid alot of careful attention planning his city (could be age-related), but he was also very interested in naming all his buildings, in very creative ways. He was doing what is known as "divergent spellings", as described here in Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling#Divergent_spelling

There was Cipperz Fish Monger. I said to him "Chip-pers?" He said, "No mum, it's not spelt CH, it's spelt "Ci", so it's pronounced "Kippers". Good point LOL!

Then there was Padd Lokk, well, I'll let you figure it out what do this shop sells.

We also had the opportunity to discuss and understand the concept of singular and plural as in where the apostrohe stands, before or after the "s", means different quantity.

Then we went out for the afternoon, catching up with friends. We had a great time.

Came home after dinner, Jnr went straight back onto his pc. He started another game called Star Wars Pit Droid Puzzles. It is a game of planning and sorting, ensuring all the tiny multicoloured pit droids (they looked like colourful worker ants)
ends up in the right spot. Kinda like The Lemmings.

Jnr was soon busy clicking away, placing directional signs, syphoning the Pit droids to thier individual colour post, adding in self-spraying paint stations to change the colours of the Pit droids to match the station they are heading to. And so much more.

It was really interesting to observe how his brain works, planning, assessing and implementing his solutions, as his little fingers were tapping away on the keyboard and clicking away at the mouse.

His divergent spelling continues on thru this game. As he progress thru the night, he was saving and labelling his many creations with very creative names, and spellingz.

So, will they ever unstuck themselves from the gamebox?

My answer is, yes they will. If you just be patient, and still continue to offer an array of choices, like foods, drinks, parks, window shopping at the local toy shop or go check out some new games? For you'll never know when will be that day when your offer will seem much more enticing than that boring old game that they have been sitting in front of, for weeks.

A trip to the local pizza place to pick up a pizza for lunch (i know there is such thing as delivery service, but the objective here is to entice them to go stretch thier legs abit and take a break.) A short trip to the local shops to buy a loaf of bread, with a reward of a lolly or ice cream, for everyone needs little incentives to entice them to do something, sometimes.

I am convinced Jnr's interest in fencing classes is from him playing Pirates of the Carribean for weeks. Therefore I can't complain about video gaming for it has helped spawned many new interests, discussions and not forgetting the numerous opportunity and platforms to explain "lessons" to my kid.

Our free online learning resources...

If you're stuck for ideas as to what to do, here's a list of the websites, that we dip in and out, approved by Junior as in "it is exciting and fun enough", worthy enough of his attention.

Some of it is really for my reference.

Maths
-----

http://www.math.com/school/subject1/lessons/S1U1L2GL.html#

http://www.visualmathlearning.com/index.html

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/math.html#geometrygames

http://home-ed.info/Resources/maths_resources.html

Science
-------

http://www.sciencewithme.com/index.php

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/digger/index.shtml

French
------

http://french.about.com/od/kidsmusic/French_Music_for_Kids.htm


History
-------

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/

History Timeline, mostly for grown-up reference.
http://www.historyexplorer.net/?World_History_Timeline


General topics
--------------
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/games/questionaut/


Yesteday, we did this -
http://www.kidsknowit.com/interactive-educational-movies/free-online-
movies.php?movie=Pirates

It is an animated story about history of pirates, and there's a questionair at the end of it.

And if you still have no clue where to start, and would prefer a curriculum guideline of some sort, here's a good link.

Curriculum with it's objective and purpose explained.

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes3/?view=get

Home Ed. Stories UK

I seems to be having a problem with my blog. Alot of it's facilities dissappeared hence i'm unable to link my blog to Clara's Home Ed stories uk. No wonder alot of my stuff is missing from the page LOL!! Ohh..speak kitchen gadgets to me anytime, but put me infront of a techie issue, i can fee....eeel my migraine coming on LOL!!


So for now, until i figured it out, here's the link
http://homeeducationstoriesuk.blogspot.com

History lesson: The Mummy, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Movie

To my opinion, the scenes were not as good as Indiana Jones. But nevertheless, it is still a great show to catch. This show basically showcased alot of the ancient chinese inventions - crossbows and many more. It covered alot of the Jnr's history understanding. The Terracotta warriors' formation got him excited enough to suggest that we should to see the real thing in China, someday.

Homeschooling - How, Which and What

Links to help you to explore and choose your first step into the wonderful world of homeschooling. Bear in mind most homeschoolers always end up on a different path, compare to when they first start. That's the beauty of homeschooling- the opportunity of choices and the freedom to change according to our ever changing needs. Because of this flexibility, whichever one you've decided on, can never be wrong.

Pick the curriculum or philosophy you feel most comfortable with. It may never exactly be the "best one", but nevertheless it will serve well as a comforting "stepping stone" into the new world of your homeschooling.

Links that I feel helped me alot, and still do for I still dip in and out of them now and again for some new ideas.

http://www.vahomeschoolers.org/guide/styles.asp



http://www.eho.org/



http://www.smartkidathome.com/Story/Eclectic.html



http://members.aceweb.com/paden/links/styles_methods.htm

Project Grand Theft Auto - Am I doing the rght thing???!!

Yesterday I nearly changed my mind about allowing Gecko Jnr to have his GTA game. The night before, he playfully 'play pretend' to stab me with his plastic knife!!!! And of course during the course of the day, on 2 occassions, he said 2 swear words- F*** and Ass****! Needless to say I couldn't sleep the night, worrying and wondering and confused, thinking if I really know what I am doing as a positive, mindful, TCS unschooling mum! Anyhow, I've keep poor tired hubby up till 2pm, talking incessantly, comparing the pros and cons, manically surfing the web for more research articles on violent video games and it's effect on children. Needless to say, i still can't get my answers as the balance is still equal with 2 prominent school of thoughts -

Some think it's bad influence:-
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/video.games.html
http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/walsh.html

Some said there's no concrete evidence linking violence to violent games exposure:- http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Most-kids-unaffected-by-violent-games/2007/04/01/1175366055463.html.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4594376.stm

And some articles suggest evidences pointing out that since the introduction of violent video games, the level of violent crimes has drop:-
http://www.avinashv.net/2007/06/23/violence-in-video-games/

Anyhow, eventually hubby managed to convinced me to go to bed, by supplying me with an excellent solution- approach it like a science experiment. A controlled environment whereby son's only to play for a hour a day, and only when chaperone either by mummy or daddy, he can do and say whatever he wants during the game, which is within the tv room. Whatever he wants to do or say, it can be acted out within the tv room, but never, ever outside that room. There will be certain swear words that he's not allowed to say, and of course because we parents are there next to him, this means we can point out the meaning of this bad words, and it's negative social context.

This game comes with a NO Tolerance condition, that is, if he's caught imitating or copying any action or sentences from the game, OUTSIDE the tv room, it'll be a Time Out for the game, which will be banished to the top of the cupboard. He's allowed 20 time outs, of which each will last for 1 week. But the 20th one will be for a year!

I went to bed happy with this solution, but of course when morning comes, I chicken out. Gecko Jnr was up bright and early and bouncing because today was the day he gets to spend his "hard saved" pocket money to buy his "long awaited" ultimate game -Grand Theft Auto! And he's very specific about which one he desire - the Sand Andrea one! He was talking about it non stop and I had to try to break it to him gently that I've changed my mind about allowing this game. At first, he was still bouncing away on his bed, not realising what I was saying. And then, his face turned stunned and he re-iterated what I was saying, in dis-belief. Big tears started to roll! His cries was so devastating that even I started crying, seeing how heart-broken he was. I was totally not expecting this. I was expecting tantrum and some tears, but most definetely not big heart-wrenching sobs, the kind you expect when a pet dies or when a love affair ends.

Anyhow, eventually he calmed down enough to ask for my explaining why i changed my mind. I explained about my worries about him imitating the game, about how we have to constantly remind him to stop copying the game and how we believe this parenting action is not good because it's only natural for a 7 years old to be imitating what they see, because that's how they learn. So i explained how our actions as wise adults, constantly and automatically reprimanding him to stop copying the game, can make him feel like he's a bad boy, which is not something I want, because we know he's not bad but a good and kind and gentle boy. And I explain our concerns about his ability in defferentiating between fantasy and reality.

Now, I have to admit that Gecko Jnr can be quite mature for his age, and is capable of understanding alot of things most of the times. He said he truly understood what we're saying, but then that we're not being fair because it's what we're thinking, and not what he's thinking (his way of saying our decision was biased), and he's offered some opinion on his thoughts and his needs for GTA. So he's managed to convinced me that I should maybe, at least, give him a chance to prove himself.

And we did. Eventually my decision is based on our knowledge of our son's intrisic learning spirit, of how he'll drown himself in his current obsession and eventually detox it out of his system. And also i believe in that Forbidden Fruit teory, of how if we ban this game, we are actually elevating it to that Forbidden Fruit Status. This decision is also made based on the fact i know my son's fascination with this game is primarily due to the various cars he can drive around freely, without any hindrance. The violent bit is really secondary, as he informed me that "it's just a waste of time because you don't get alot of money for that. You'll have to crash cars or do stunts to get alot of money". This is in-line with his current understanding of the power of money, that you can buy lots of things if you have money.

So again, my decision is based on my confidence that my son sees this game as purely just another shooting, crashing, money collecting game, no more violent than his Star Wars Lego or Simpsons game. The only difference is that in GTA, the places and characters is more realistic and graphic, and that the game is so much more complex, with more roads and place to explore. A setting to learn bad social behaviour? Well, for me, most definetely a setting to teach my kid everything that's bad, wrong and evil!

So we ventured out to town to buy his GTA game.