You mentioned lego's. If your kids are really into them you might check into http://www.usfirst.org/whatsgoingon.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Lego League is pretty hot around here; there's even a few teams in Kentucky. Lego's, they not just for kids anymore.
Children and Video Games
Re: Children and Video Games
I got kicked out of a lego league for making enormous lego phalluses. Oh well.
I had this really smurf awesome quote by RFK, but because we are only allowed 255 characters, I can't put it up here, so I am writing this in protest of a stupid smurf limitation.
Re: Children and Video Games
Rem! Boobies man boobies.Remodius wrote:I got kicked out of a lego league for making enormous lego phalluses. Oh well.
Re: Children and Video Games
Lego boobies look square and blocky, with strange bumps and growths all over them.
I had this really smurf awesome quote by RFK, but because we are only allowed 255 characters, I can't put it up here, so I am writing this in protest of a stupid smurf limitation.
Re: Children and Video Games
This has been something my wife and I have talked about quite a bit. I'm most certainly a video game addict. I used to be much worse, but I kicked them completely for a while, and when I came back to gaming I was able to restrain myself better.
This has had both a positive and negative impact on my life. The negatives of too many video games are obvious, at least with the technology of my generation growing up (I had an Atari at 5, and am 31 now) : I was somewhat antisocial and socially awkward. I spent more time with video games growing up than playing outside with friends (though I DID play outside with friends, but more often inside on the Nintendo).
The positives, however, were there as well. I fully blame video games for my interest in computers and engineering. I wanted to know how games were made. I wanted to make my own games. Also, Nintendo games of that era were much more about analyzing boss patterns and figuring out the trick to beating bosses. They usually didn't have nice painfully obvious glowy bits to shoot back then. That interest in problem solving and video games set me down a path that would eventually get me a degree in computer science. I don't make games (yet), but I do have a programming job that pays well, which I directly attribute to my interest in video games.
I have a 14 month old daughter now, and this is something we talk about a fair amount. I think I'm probably a little ADHD, though never diagnosed as such. I believe this is likely a result of too much video games and TV as a kid. As such our goal for our kid is no TV or video games until she's at least 2, and even when she does start no more than 1 hour per day of "screen time", be it computers, video games, whatever. We know we can't control this all the time, such as when our parents are watching her, and we're not going to ask them to limit TV time while she's there (they're doing us a favor after all), but while at home we're trying to limit it as much as possible. We don't play video games or watch TV at all until after she's in bed.
I admit this is more my wife's plan than mine, and I've joked "oh sure, we'll see how THAT goes" since I'm sure it will become more difficult as time goes on. This is coming from the parents who said "if she wakes up in the middle of the night, and there's no real reason for it she'll just have to settle herself back to sleep". Sounds good on paper, but at 3 AM when all you want is sleep you suddenly find your spouse has brought her into our bed. Go go willpower!
I think there are definitely some positive effects to video games, but there are also many negatives. Maybe something like leapfrog we would be willing to let her play longer, but even so I think it should be limited. I think the way you go about limiting it may be important as well. Instead of asking your child to stop playing because they've been on it for what you think is too long, offer up some alternative or provide some other activity so they choose to do something else. That way they don't see games as a bad thing and you don't discourage their playing of them (we want those good effects after all), but they do other activities and get in the habit of balancing video games and other activities.
This has had both a positive and negative impact on my life. The negatives of too many video games are obvious, at least with the technology of my generation growing up (I had an Atari at 5, and am 31 now) : I was somewhat antisocial and socially awkward. I spent more time with video games growing up than playing outside with friends (though I DID play outside with friends, but more often inside on the Nintendo).
The positives, however, were there as well. I fully blame video games for my interest in computers and engineering. I wanted to know how games were made. I wanted to make my own games. Also, Nintendo games of that era were much more about analyzing boss patterns and figuring out the trick to beating bosses. They usually didn't have nice painfully obvious glowy bits to shoot back then. That interest in problem solving and video games set me down a path that would eventually get me a degree in computer science. I don't make games (yet), but I do have a programming job that pays well, which I directly attribute to my interest in video games.
I have a 14 month old daughter now, and this is something we talk about a fair amount. I think I'm probably a little ADHD, though never diagnosed as such. I believe this is likely a result of too much video games and TV as a kid. As such our goal for our kid is no TV or video games until she's at least 2, and even when she does start no more than 1 hour per day of "screen time", be it computers, video games, whatever. We know we can't control this all the time, such as when our parents are watching her, and we're not going to ask them to limit TV time while she's there (they're doing us a favor after all), but while at home we're trying to limit it as much as possible. We don't play video games or watch TV at all until after she's in bed.
I admit this is more my wife's plan than mine, and I've joked "oh sure, we'll see how THAT goes" since I'm sure it will become more difficult as time goes on. This is coming from the parents who said "if she wakes up in the middle of the night, and there's no real reason for it she'll just have to settle herself back to sleep". Sounds good on paper, but at 3 AM when all you want is sleep you suddenly find your spouse has brought her into our bed. Go go willpower!
I think there are definitely some positive effects to video games, but there are also many negatives. Maybe something like leapfrog we would be willing to let her play longer, but even so I think it should be limited. I think the way you go about limiting it may be important as well. Instead of asking your child to stop playing because they've been on it for what you think is too long, offer up some alternative or provide some other activity so they choose to do something else. That way they don't see games as a bad thing and you don't discourage their playing of them (we want those good effects after all), but they do other activities and get in the habit of balancing video games and other activities.
Re: Children and Video Games
And here we have what I think of as a chicken and egg scenario. Were you ADHD BECAUSE of the video games? or were you drawn to the video games because you were already ADHD and it gave your mind the outlet that it craved?Merlaina wrote: I think I'm probably a little ADHD, though never diagnosed as such. I believe this is likely a result of too much video games and TV as a kid.
Siggy by Eireann
Re: Children and Video Games
I agree, and it's not exactly something you can easily test. It's just my personal belief, but not one that I hold terribly strongly to. If there were strong evidence to show the opposite I'd likely be swayed.najiwench wrote:And here we have what I think of as a chicken and egg scenario. Were you ADHD BECAUSE of the video games? or were you drawn to the video games because you were already ADHD and it gave your mind the outlet that it craved?Merlaina wrote: I think I'm probably a little ADHD, though never diagnosed as such. I believe this is likely a result of too much video games and TV as a kid.
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