It was frustrating Memorial day this year as I was sitting out on the deck and watching my nephew play for his ten minute play time in the sand box.. Sadly for whatever the reason he has the attention span of a gnat.. I was sitting there thinking I should get a ball and we could play catch.. So I did but instead of playing catch with him I ended up kicking the ball a couple times and he was so disinterested that I was ... Sort of shocked although not really.. He has to be in the mood to play ball of any kind.. And so we get back to the deck and I'm sitting there thinking of the many games that we played when I was his age.. We don't with him.. And why?? I have no idea.. By the time I was in first grade I was playing Monopoly, I didn't understand the game much but I played it.. We played Sorry by then easily and with this little guy there is no game he can play.. He simply doesn't care to play.. I think there are just too many distractions and too much gadget use.. Computer games were introduced into our playing back when the old radio shack game system with that ball that bleeped and blooped back and forth off the walls and paddles.. We played it on an old black and whit tv but it was no substitute for a good old fashioned board game.. In fact through the atari game console it was nice to play but we still played board games.. The dice games, card games and even the trivia games.. Then came the dvd games.. Those games that were on dvd and you played that way.. Games like the price is right and clue were so cool to play.. Those aren't played anymore and really were just a one and done game anyway.. I now play the Monopoly on the computer as well as Risk and of course Scrabble.. Scrabble was a game I got hooked on back when it was a board game. The days I would spend playing mom on the front porch and I would win and she would win and all the time we were just enjoying playing a game where the words would be interesting.. Later on it would be competition as my brothers daughters would try to beat me thinking they were beating some mater of the game where the truth is I could only win if the letters came at the right time.. But since playing on the computer I learned that it isn't just the letters that win the game but the board.. I learned quite quickly that the strategy isn't just playing for the highest score one way but also to link as many words as possible.. To challenge myself to play better I started to play timer games.. I play a ten minute game 45 seconds per turn which might sound like a small amount of time but once you get used to it you can check two or three sites for a word.. Most of the time I see where the word will go and not try for the highest score by way of checking it but play the word and know that that is what will give the highest score.. I just know.. And then moving up to the next level of hardness.. Then the next. A few weeks ago I broke my high score record for the first time in a year.. Was over 400 but then fell to just under at 397 because I was stuck with the V... Four point docking..
Mom is watching the little guy for the past couple of days, actually the weekend and then again today and there is a "new" channel on the cable tv called Sprout and they watch it and it is like watching public television and there was a website to enhance the viewing experience.. Mom wanted me to look it up for her and so I did, on her computer.. She looked at it and decided, with Ian there, to try to get it.. They are on line lesson stuff or something like that.. She checks and they have a month of free lessons but there's a catch.. you have to purchase a years worth to get that month free.. It isn't too expensive but it is offered as a discount if you pay all at once.. 12 months for the price of 8.. Wow what a deal.. And after she got it all activated she tries it out on the lil guy.. There were hitches and troubles from the git go.. Ian really doesn't want it, he said he did, but as with all things it just isn't what he wants.. Maybe it reminds him of school, and truth is I wouldn't have wanted anything that reminds me of school when I got out.. Bother me again in October.. And so that was the excuse I used when I told mom it might not have been a good idea.. She will try a few more times to have him do it today and tomorrow but I doubt that he will do anything with it.. Supposedly we can cancel in the first month, hopefully we can.. I think mom just wants to leave a mark on the little guy in some way.. I think she thinks his parents don't care about certain educational things.. But I am sure they do care they just seem to not show it.. She wants him to be a nice young man and he either will or he won't, it's truly a crapshoot to be honest..
Badge Henry
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