Tuesday 15 November 2011

Spending time with older children-games

Whilst I'm not a great fan of computer games because they seem to take up sooo much time, it did seem reasonable that if I was hoping to spend time with Middle Son then computer games would have to be part of the equation.

Racing car games make me feel sick and crash so many times that if it was real, I would be uninsurable after one round. The time had come to try something different-Minecraft. I had heard plenty about this from my son so now my turn to sample it. It transpires that Middle Son is a bit of a pro and I really didn't know what I was doing. I managed to walk forwards, backwards and to each side but perhaps better, I have more idea about the servers and the aim of the game.

Playing Minecraft with Middle Son gave me much more idea about his current interests than the more traditional games. Probably something that I should repeat-occasionally.

On to more traditional games, I avoided Monopoly and Risk as they take hours and realistically I don't have that sort of time out of holiday seasons. Middle Son would be delighted to spend an evening on one of these games-probably a Christmas treat.

We actually played Scrabble. Yes, we enjoyed it but Middle Son felt that this was a bit like work as a couple of years ago, I did allow him an end of home education week treat of a game of Scrabble. The strange benefit is that Miss Belle was desperate to have a go so I've had to pull out the Junior Scrabble and have now played with her, a couple of times.

Verdict:


  • Good to get more insight into computer games and no, I'm not addicted
  • I need to try another board game with Middle Son which he doesn't link with education.
  • Junior Scrabble is a good way of getting a bit of extra reading/spelling practice without little people noticing.



6 comments:

  1. monopoly, card games, marble runs, lexicon.

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  2. Jenny, he loves Monopoly but I chickened out as it takes so long. Must get the marble run out again it has been hidden from smaller people! I've just looked up Lexicon-looks good and might solve a present problem.

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  3. John is unfortunately addicted to minecraft. I suppose it is harmless but I worry that it is also totally brainless.

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  4. Jonathan-I couldn't agree more. One of my secondary reasons for making more time with Middle Son is to try to broaden his interests. Having said that, I think that Minecraft does teach some trading skills-OK in moderation.

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  5. I'm trolling your blog - I guess you can tell. I like Junior monopoly as it's a lot shorter. Not sure of what age your son is but we also like Othello for a mind game.

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  6. I like the idea of a short version of Monopoly. Must look at Othello. Thank you for the idea.

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