Video Gaming

We've been struggling with the video game question lately. And by "we" I mean me, of course.

Noah's use of games has always been what I would call educational, and what the media would call edutainment. That is to say, he's always played games that were learning disguised as a game or were games requiring a lot of thought.

But Aengus has really gotten into gaming lately, and not at all the same kind as Noah. Aengus prefers those first-person shooting and destruction games. It totally fits with his personality: the Transformer smashing up cars on the screen might as well be him. And though I see a little "educational value" in such games, I really have a hard time being OK with the hours a day he spends playing them.

There is an excellent post here (http://zajosa.blogspot.com/2008/04/problem-when-parents-think-childs.html), written by an unschooled teen. In it, Zach expresses the difficulty his relationship with his mother faced when she not only limited the amount of time he could spend on his favorite hobby, but also did not share in the excitement of his interest. He also vocalizes (rather succinctly) exactly how I feel about video games: namely, that they are misunderstood and undervalued by older generations.

Just when I felt at peace with a parenting issue, Aengus came along and shook up my views. Something tells me this won't be the last time he does that. ;o)

Growing Up in the 'Hood

I referred to Aengus as a "big boy" today.

He said, "I'm not a big boy."

"Sure, you are. You're not a man, but you're not a little kid, either."

"Noah's a man," came his reply.

sniff. "Yeah, I guess he is." sniff.

"Well, almost," he said. "He can't drive yet, or drink beer."
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I started a new blog, over at Xanga. That will be my learning log of sorts, appropriate for my extended (and long distance) family to view. As opposed to this blog, where I occasioanlly insult them. ;o)

Our, uh, Typical Day

We had another amazing day on Wednesday, full of LOTS of "learning activities." Aengus and I repacked our mummy-in-progress, played outside a lot, made a model of the Nile River, and discussed Egypt, climate, and archaeology. Noah and I watched Episode 2 of John Adams, with quite a bit of discussion.

Noah's quote of the day (after a nice, long talk about empathy, government, and recycling): "You know, Mom, it's kinda cool talking about this stuff with you." {awww!}

My response: "Yeah, that's one of my favorite things about you being a teenager; you talk to me like I'm a person, not a mom."

And Aengus's quote of the day? "You know that place where you get to pick what you learn about?"

"Umm, college?"

"Yeah, college. Can you learn about juggling there?"
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A more typical day for us, though, does not include so many recognizably-educational activities. What follows is not a particular day's schedule but is a general accounting of how most days (that don't have outside activities scheduled) seem to run in the 'Hood.

5:45am - I'm up, I'm up, I'm UP. Coffee. Feed cats. Let dogs out. Shower. Coffee. Dress. Straighten up. Coffee. Email. Webkinz. Coffee. Oh yeah, the dogs -- let dogs back in. Feed dogs.

7:00 - Aengus stumps downstairs, turns on the Playstation, and requests cereal.

7:10 - Daycare kids arrive (two of them: a 19-month-old that I keep all day and his 7-year-old brother that I see onto and off of the bus).

Aengus and the older daycare kid play Battlefront for a little bit, then we all march outside to wait for the bus.

The dogs enjoy their morning constitution and a bit of wrestling. Oh, to be a dog.

7:37 - After the bus gets Chris, we head back inside for the toddler's breakfast and more coffee (for me, that is).

Aengus usually returns to his game or switches on cartoons.

I continue working on the computer, checking blogs and email, updating the NLSV calendar, seeing if there's any new Harry Potter news, yada yada yada.

Jason goes to bed.

8:30 - After a bit of play and a fresh diapie, Kane goes down for his nap. I play Cash Cow like any good mother would (to earn Kinz cash, of course!). I make Aengus and I each an egg sandwich and have some more coffee. I do the dishes and see to any other chores.

The rest of the morning is spent on the computer or with a book or magazine. Aengus enjoys way too much TV and/or PS2. At some point I make him get dressed (out of yesterday's clothes, because of course he wore them to bed last night) and wash up for the day. He snacks independently all morning, then starts asking for lunch aroun 11am.

Noon - I make lunch for Aengus. We play a game together, usually something like chess or Dragonology or Tickle Monster (this one's too noisy for times when Noah and Jason are asleep, though). Some days we do something edutypical like a Story of the World activity or something from Top Secret Adventures. Usually, though, we turn on the Discovery Channel and see what Adam and Jamie are up to or, if we're lucky, whether the Cash Cab contestants go for the Video Bonus.

Some time after noon (it varies greatly from day to day), Noah graces us with his groggy presence. He pours himself some coffee and commandeers the computer. Somehow, he perks up after just ONE cup of coffee. For the next 2 hours, he'll play on Runescape, check his email, and look up music videos. At some point he'll run upstairs to get one of his guitars; I'm researching whether there is a correlation between the guitar he chooses and the mood he's in. I'll get back to you on that.

Aengus spends the early afternoon playing by himself, either outside (you'd be amazed how many duct-taped sticks we have in our yard) or up in his room (making "magazines," writing in his journal in his own made-up language, playing with his stuffed animals, counting his money, duct-taping his plastic swords, organizing his YuGiOh cards, etc.)

Kane takes another nap in the afternoon, while I putter around the house.

3:30pm - Aengus (or sometimes Noah) goes outside to wait for the school bus. Now we've got Chris and another daycare kid, a socially-challenged 6-year-old boy. Chris and Aengus play outside, usually riding scooters up and down the driveway. Travis tries racing them on our little toddler bike, gets frustrated that they won't let him win, then comes inside to play with the Thomas the Tank Engine trains with me and Kane.

Jason wakes up, makes a pot of coffee, and smokes a cigarette.

Noah finally showers, then starts hassling me about when the next time is that we'll be going into town. That's where the guitar shop is, you see.

I hop online throughout the day as I'm able to. I research homeschooling stuff, take care of NLSV business, check email and lists, look up cool sites, etc. Sometimes I have time for more Webkinz. ;o) I return phone calls, pay bills, whatevah.

4:30 - Daycare kids get picked up. Thank. God. They're all nice kids, but they're not mine, and I've spent the afternoon watching the clock. I start wondering if I have anything thawed out that I can make for dinner. If Jason has to work, it's time to go.

5:00 - I finally decide on something quick and easy and vow to really cook something tomorrow.

Aengus starts up with his "play with me" mantra, and I send him off to clean up a bit. So of course he goes back to the TV.

Noah is playing his guitar and looking new tabs up on the web. I throw a few suggestions his way. "What about the Clash? Misfits? Ramones?" He gets a few chores done, then returns to the computer.

Jason showers and watches Discovery Channel with Aengus. We all eat dinner in front of the TV, usually finding some really cool new shows. I start to harp on Noah about doing something academic.

6:00 - I do chores, Jason does chores, Aengus watches TV or plays Legos, and Noah reads or "does schoolwork." Around here, that means a lesson from HippoCampus or some kind of math worksheet. It's supposed to also mean writing in his journal, doing some grammar worksheets, and/or reading something historical.

7:00 - Stick a fork in me. Whether the house is cleaned up or not (usually not), I plop down for some Hollywood news and Friends. Sometimes we all watch a history show or a movie together. And sometimes, if it's still light out, Jason takes the boys outside to do yard work or fly remote control planes.

8:00 - Time for Aengus to get ready for bed, though the actual bedtime is flexible. Sometimes it's as late as 9pm, depending on the TV schedule. But since he still gets up at the same time every day, I try to stick close to this bedtime. Once he starts sleeping in as needed, he'll have the same schedule as Noah, I'm sure.

Jason switches from the Discovery or History Channel to DIY, Military, or Science Channel.

Noah is on the computer with his guitar in hand (almost always an electric one by now).

I'm folding laundry or paging through a magazine while watching TV. American Idol, Daily Show and Colbert Report, History Channel, a movie, Lost, Girls Next Door... you name it. Background noise that keeps my brain busy.

10:00 - Bedtime for me. Noah stays up half the night; Jason's up all night. Noah does the dishes, cleans up his stuff, and is in bed anywhere between 1 and3:30am.
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Most of our days spent at home are like that. But most of our days aren't spent at home. We have Homeschool P.E., our fUNschool co-op, play dates, guitar lessons, fencing, and Science Club. On those days, far less of our time is eaten up by electronics.

But I have to say that I'm OK with some of our days being just like the above; it is amazing what's on TV these days. We learn so much from TV that I consider the time spent in front of the screen to be "school time." My only reservation is the lack of physical activity, which I really do try to include in our lives each day.

So.... What's your "typical day" like?

What a Day!

Amazing how we have leaps in interest and understanding. We do very little structured "schoolwork" around here, except for the occasional Hippo Campus lesson and sometimes a writing exercise or two. We're mostly unschoolers, though, and our days are consumed by TV (Nick, HBO, and Discovery and History Channels ROCK!), the internet (mostly Runescape and Webkinz), and music (all of us listening and Noah playing).

As an experiment, I purchased the CAT test for Noah. He's been test-averse in the past, so giving it to him was simply to see how he'd handle it. No pressure, no expectations.

Well. We've had the test for weeks now. He did the first section (20 questions, 10 minutes) and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was. We managed to knock out two more sections within two weeks. (Yes, I know most people do the whole thing in a day or two. Have I mentioned before how very relaxed we are around here?)

Along came Easter and a visit to family in PA, followed by a visit from my mom (that's a whole 'nother post), a big field trip, and some sleepovers. Needless to say, we're not quite back into the let's-do-a-little-more-structured-work-and-see-where-it-gets-us mode. We're still in the who-the-hell-cares-whether-we-adhere-to-their-timeline-and-who-says-we're-not-learning-anyway mode. Frankly, I could stay there all the time, but Noah did say he wanted a bit more structure. Maybe it's about time to at least finish the test, I figured.

As Noah and I sat down to review fractions and do another section of the CAT, I was distracted by a little book I had ordered about a month ago. It's a pocket-sized copy of the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. It's put out by a fundamentalist group, so it has some rather religious quotes by some of the Founding Fathers. But it has the exact text of the original documents, including the Amendments.

WELL.

I asked Noah if he'd ever read the Constitution or Declaration. He hadn't, of course. I noted to him that were he in school, he'd have to memorize the Preamble of the Constitution and possibly the entire Declaration.

"Good thing I'm not in school," came his witty reply.

So I read him the Preamble and paraphrased the remainder of the Constitution. Funny, the Preamble seemed much, much longer when *I* was in school -- and trying to memorize it.

Anyhoo, I then started reading the Amendments. We spent -- no lie -- HOURS discussing them. Jason (yeah, he was actually there, for once) and I would explain an Amendment or give Noah the historical background or reason for it, and we had a lively little talk about each. It was fantastic!

Then I read the complete Declaration of Independence to him. Now, do you remember what all the grievances against King George were? I urge each and every one of you to go back and read the Declaration in its entirety. Then come back here and riddle me this: Could each of these grievances not be also said by the Iraqis regarding King George Dubya? It was an eye-opening experience reading the Declaration. It was wonderful to hear Noah interject, "But wait, isn't that what we're doing to Iraq?"

He thinks I was joking, but I think our next exercise in writing is going to be a paper or blog that compares, line by line, 18th-century Britain's actions in the Colonies with 21st-century America's actions in the Middle East.

After this wonderful discussion, we turned to HBO On Demand to watch the first episode of John Adams. (Pause for review: Though well done and fascinating, I wish it were more than a miniseries. I'd like to see each of these men's points of view, not just Mr. Adams's. Personally, I think it should be a full-on series about the founding of our country and the formation of our government. Westward Expansion included.) Noah thought it was good, though I had to explain a few things along the way (they hint at additional actions taking place elsewhere in the country that the general public should already know. Noah needed a running commentary). Today, episode two, in which the Declaration is signed.

That was enough for one day, I figured, so we skipped both fractions and the CAT. My head hurt, and Noah HAD to get his guitar on.

Later, when I was about to close my eyes for the night, a show I had discussed with a friend came on HBO. It's called Autism: The Musical, and I highly recommend it.

Now, I'll never know what it's like to have a child with Autism. I know a few "Auties," so I catch glimpses. But I had no idea just how challenging it must be. But those kids were absolutely beautiful and amazing. I wish the world would look at them and see the person inside, because they are most *definitely* in there. My favorite comment was from the mother of Lexi, who said that her daughter "is different, not wrong."

Indeed.

All in all, it was quite a day. Noah got about a semester's worth of civics, in a non-threatening, relevant, interesting, and respectful way. It was exactly the kind of homeschool I want for my kids. (We'll ignore the fact that he's been working on the same book since October and is only halfway finished.)

Off to check the progress of the chicken Aengus and I are trying to mummify...