March Blog carnival-Video Games

[Faith]

So the open ended topic is Video Games.

Here is an older post from Diana Jenner: http://hannahbearski.blogspot.com/2007/01/wow-education.html full of Diana's usual wit and wisdom.

Jennifer over at Peaceful, Joyful Abundance wrote: http://peacefuljoyfulabundance.blogspot.com/2009/02/video-games.html her experience with games and gaming. Her limits to being able to play herself and her thoughts about her children and the flow of daily life with computers and games.

Meredith at The Dismal Life; http://the-dismal-life.blogspot.com/2009/02/march-blog-carnival-video-games.html muses about multi-tasking while video gaming and how the brain prefers stimulation even in the peripheral. Also about paper sculptures, Ed, Edd and Eddie, programing software and soft furry animals. It ends with the world being saved.

Lisa at Perpetual Joy writes: http://perpetualjoy.blogspot.com/2009/02/joy-of-video-games.html about a Lego Star Wars passion, her gmaing experience and the ins and outs of gaming with a young child.

Laura, piscesgrrl wrote: http://piscesgrrrl.blogspot.com/2008/01/unschooling-q-how-did-we-ge... about her journey towards embracing screen time. Ever wondered where video games might lead your kids? It is quite insightful. with fun picture.

Kelli at Joy Full Life blog : http://ourjoyfullife.blogspot.com/2009/02/march-09-blog-carnival-on..., answers the questions using her experience with 2 teens and a third that is close. She has not always embraced video games but her oldest's love of gaming helped her see that video games don't rot your brain.

Faith at Bearthmama; write three posts that chronicles her thoughts about gaming and screen time. Dreary day talks about limiting screen time. http://faithvoid.blogspot.com/2007/01/dreary-day.html Then TV talks about her epiphany. http://faithvoid.blogspot.com/2008/10/tv.html Lastly GHWT is all about finding creative ways to support your child's interest. http://faithvoid.blogspot.com/2008/10/guitar-hero-world-tour.html writes about supporting your kids interests creatively. They find away to get a game they want with no money.


Rebecca writes: http://thystle.blogspot.com/2009/03/screen-time-vs-page-time.html and thoughtful piece on screen time and book time.


Have fun reading!

[Ren]

Wow. That would be so cool.
What I ususally do is come up with some kind of topic (heck, you could ask folks for topic ideas and store a lot of them for future use) and post it as it's own discussion here.

As people send links in, or post them, I store them in my email as a "draft" so I can just keep going back and adding stuff. I go read the individual blogs so I can come up with some kind of synopsis to post with it in the final version.

On the day of posting, I simply cut and paste the entire email with all of the blogposts listed.
There are probably better ways to do it, but that's what worked for me.:) Things are actually calming down a lot for me after the 23rd of this month.

I backed out of a business partnership, so while I still work full time it's not the insanity it was for a while. I would dearly love to hand this off to someone for a while though....thank you!!

There's still plenty of time to get one going for March.

[Meredith]

Is there a topic for March yet? Huh Huh? Mom? Are we there yet?

There's a question on the general discussion board about video games that I thought would make a good topic, if not this month, maybe another.

[Faith]

I am sold! I have spent the day thinking about a good idea. I was thinking a series of some of the harder things that people new to unschooling find to "let go" of mainstream ideas.

So the open ended topic is Video Games.

Ren usually adds a few thoughts to start us out. So...

How are video games a part of you and/or your kids lives? How do you support video gaming in your household? if you haven't always been supportive how did you "get there"?
Do you play video games as a family?
How do you deal with your mainstream friends ideas about video games?
What do you say to your kids when their friends aren't allowed to play V's because of restriction?
Thoughts on violence and VG, or learning through VGs.
How does VG system or console sharing work in your house, how has it evolved?
how much is "too much"?
Ok so there are some starts. I hope that works for eveyone :-) This is my first try with this.

So send the links to me on here or at littlemsvoid at gmail on or before 25th as I will be out of town starting 27th and I want to have this posted before then.

Have fun writing!

[Ren]

Faith, instead of leaving that as just a post, why don't you go ahead and cut and paste it into the above discussion. You can edit it anytime, since you started it. :)
That way, anyone coming along can just read the topic right at the beginning of the thread.

Thanks for doing this!!

[Faith]

awesome! Done :-)

[Jessica]

How are video games a part of you and/or your kids lives? How do you support video gaming in your household? if you haven't always been supportive how did you "get there"? Initially, I would have said that video games were not going to be part of our home and they are not now very much. The kids play with friends who have them or watch others play but have not asked for them in our house. We have small games on an IPOD that they like, but don't play much of. Usually, they will get into a particular game and do it until they get a high score or meet some goal then they don't bother with it much. My daughter likes programs that are not really games, such as the bubble wrap popping screen on the IPOD. It really sounds like the popping of bubble wrap and is about as cool as actually having the bubble wrap! My husband really encouraged me to not say no if the kids want to play them because he felt like they should be something that they can make the choice about doing. This way they know they can at any time and playing them doesn't become an issue because it is controlled. They have a pretty large variety of interests and games on the computer or IPOD represents a pretty small part of their world. I think kids are interested in ideas and real experiences with others. So the games are not going to consume them because they could never substitute for the real life experiences they have with friends, their bikes and the sunshine on their faces, swimming in the lake, grandparents visiting, snuggles on the couch, sledding in the snow, etc....

Do you play video games as a family? no, we play board games, card games, silly games, the games are more something they can do alone, however sometimes we will take turns playing the same game
How do you deal with your mainstream friends ideas about video games? what mainstream friends? the people we hang around are ok with games and are ok if we don't game, it isn't really an issue, I wonder if the kids will get into it more as they get older as a way to connect with friends, I think that would be normal since people like to connect over particular hobbies, interests and such. Mainstreamers I have met seem to like the games, esp. the Wii games since families can do it together.

What do you say to your kids when their friends aren't allowed to play V's because of restriction? hasn't happened
Thoughts on violence and VG, or learning through VGs. Not sure on this, my kids seem to understand the difference between what is part of a game versus how we treat one another. My daughter has learned much through some "learning" type sites that she uses as she chooses to - her letters/sounds/numbers/counting/songs she likes to sing.

How does VG system or console sharing work in your house, how has it evolved?
how much is "too much"? Too much is not something I worry about because they take a break when they need it. I remember how much I enjoy learning something new and give them the space and time to really enjoy it instead of saying "that's enough." It works so far and I trust it will keep on working.

[Faith]

Hi Jessica,
thanks for responding. Would you be able to cut and paste this into a blog? There are blogging space on here if you don't have one. And then I will post a link to that for the carnival. If you have never posted in a carnival before ask me any questions you might have. And I do appreciate you posting. I am so excited to read everyone's blog!

thanks
Faith

[Jessica]

Faith,
I have not posted in a carnival and thought it was to be done here, opps! I will try to get it into my blog and take it off of here. So, we are really supposed to post our reply to our own blog and then give you a link to the response? - Jess

[lisa]

Faith, just wondering if you got my message w/ my blog link?
Thanks!

[Faith]

I don;t see it. Where did you send it? Could you email me? thx

[Faith]

Yes but don't worry it about deleting it on here. Just put it on your blog and send me the link :-)

[Faith]

I am working on this. It is my first time and I didn't realize that it would take me a while to do. I will post the links very soon!