Not mine....the three boys. I bought Matt an Xbox 360. He loves to play Halo 3 with his brother Jake (they have a weekly Thursday appointment for this). Gavin and Garek are also allowed to play daddy's XBox. Thanks to Uncle Jake they have a favorite-
Star Wars Legos, the Complete Saga. (Or as Gavin refers to it...
The Complete Saga.) As someone who grew up seeing the original Star Wars movies, it is pretty hilarious to see lego versions of all the characters. Garek actually loves to kill of C3-PO, because he makes a funny scream. As far as games go, the violence involves blowing apart legos (no blood with legos) and using "the force" to build things. So the boys LOVE playing... and Gavin in particular LOVES talking about it. For instance, in the middle of violin lesson (mind you, his violin is on his shoulder), he will say to Paula (lesson teacher) "Have you seen the rolling guys on Complete Saga?" Now Paula had her own little boys, so she is aware of thought changes, but I think it happens about once per lesson.
It throws us all for a loop when he randomly adds in a Complete Saga Comment to a conversation. This may make you think he plays all the time...this is not the case. There are rules for Xbox: 1. Daddy must be home and turn on the xbox for you (after all it is daddy's gaming system) 2. You must earn your minutes of playing by practicing the violin (Gavin) or earning stickers for good behavior at preschool (Garek). We have started adding a third rule...if we hear about Complete Saga at dinner, there will be no xbox for 2 days. I wonder how many days we will go without Xbox before we stop hearing about it? For those of you out there who are thinking, well at least he talks during dinner... Really we are just trying to help him expand his conversational abilities (while saving what is left of our sanity).
Garek is teaching Sarah Kraatz (a family friend) how to play!!
5 comments:
We have a Playstation addiction at my house. That's a good idea about the rules. I should think of some for my house. LOL.
In my defense, I am not addicted to playing video games (Gigi said the "three" boys), and always try to demonstrate responsible gaming behavior (and encourage anyone out their with kids to do the same). As a parent (and an Instructional Technologist), I believe you should know what your kids are playing, and even take the time to sit down and play with them so you understand what it is they are doing. Take the time to configure your system(s) to utilize parental controls with ratings and time limits, so they have to play by your rules, even if you aren't there.
As corny as it may sound, the concept of the Xbox being Daddy's Xbox has always given us the upper hand when it comes to how and when they get to play. Instead of you having to be the bad guy and take away something that is their's, you instead grant them the ability to use something that is yours and is special in their eyes (use a carrot, not a stick). So as the kids get older don't give them the system for Christmas/birthday, give it to yourself (or enlist a spouse to play along) and grant access as appropriate.
Most important, be ready to say "no" in the event that everything starts revolving around playing video games, and follow up on it.
. . . Kids are in bed now and Gigi isn't around so I have to go see if Jake is on. . . (J/K)
Wow Gigi... you blog more than the rest of us. This is awesome!!! We've sucked you in and you can never escape....
Wow...thanks Matt :)
We have playstation here for Daddy...but it actually doesn't get played too much....and Anthony just plays the Vsmile learning system for about 30 min a day....works for us....
And Gigi, I posted a comment on "Bonehead" explaining why I haven't been making comments (cuz I'm a bonehead!)
By the way, I do not think Matt minds being the parent who sits down and plays video games with his sons ;)
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