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I am the mother of 2 daughters, ages 7 and 9. I consider my husband and I to be pretty conservative when it comes to what my children watch on television (rarely watch) and movies. I cannot help but feel a little in over my head when it comes to these online games that many of their classmates are playing, so I insist on sitting with them when they ask to play. Truthfully, with a younger toddler in the house, I rarely have the time, but I try to allow them some time on the computer despite my feelings as I realize that this generation is inundated with computers in so many ways. This evening, my older daughter asked if she could play something called ''Penguin Club'' or something similar. While the players never put in their names or any identifying info., once they got into this ''generically'' interactive site, I was floored by the savvy of so many of these kids (or posing to be?) on the site. Thinking I was being a bit overprotective sitting in on this ''kids'' site, it only took a moment for me to see that one cute,tiny penguin was following my daughter's penguin around, asking her to ''adopt'' him/her. My daughter said, ''Oh, how cute!'' and instantly typed in ''Sure!'' The penguin instantly called her ''Mommy'', then asked her to meet him/her in a pizza place on the site. She went, and suddenly, then penguin began referring to her as ''Daddy''. As my daughter typed, ''I'm not your daddy, I'm your mommy'', I pointed out to her that even though she might be being careful not to tell any ''personal'' info., she had just told that penguin that she was a girl. She didn't get it, but as we spoke, she understood.
My question ... are there any sites that anyone can recommend that appear to the kids to be ''interactive'', but are not truly so? While I understand the importance of being with my children when they are online and our computer is in our kitchen where I usuall am, it seems, I also have a toddler. Logistically, I cannot always be there every second with them, but am very watchful overall. I do not want to make my daughters so fearful of using computers that they do not want to learn the positive aspects of the internet. Mama Penguin
My 7.5 year old son has started to have computer time at home. He's not had any until this year and only gets an hour a week. So far this time has been spent playing Age of the Empires which was introduced by my partner. Both father and son enjoy this game, but the shooting at other empires makes me uncomfortable even though there's more to the game. Everyone has agreed to let me introduce some other games so long as they are engaging. Can some folks please recommend some non violent, interesting, fun, engaging computer games? I checked the web site and there are just a few old entries on computer game systems. Thanks. minimal media mama
Common Sense Media is the leading non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving the media lives of children and families. As you know, media and entertainment profoundly impacts the social, emotional, and physical development of our children. Common Sense provides trustworthy information and tools so families can have a choice and voice about the media they consume. Their website is a one-stop resource for expert ratings, reviews, and recommended lists on thousands of TV shows, video games, movies, websites, music and books. All of the content is based on child development criteria. In the reviews you'll find straightforward, factual information, and then you can decide for YOUR family, and YOUR child what is right for you. Oftentimes the review has questions about the content of a show, movie etc., so you can dialogue with your kids about what they see, view, hear and play. One of their motto's is ''we can't cover their eyes but we can teach them to see''. I really like that because no matter what the rules might be in our own house, the reality is kids are bombarded by media constantly--there is no escaping it--so let's help develop our kids to be critical thinkers of the media and raise them to be ''media savvy''!
They also provide an interactive forum where adults and kids can offer their own views and reviews. In addition, you can sign up to receive their weekly on-line newsletter, which comes every Friday with the most recent media releases as well as news and research updates. The site also has parenting tips and tools about managing a healthy media diet, media violence and kids, selling to kids, and more-- it's terrific.
As you can tell, I'm a total fan of Common Sense, and as a parent with 2 young children I've found their website and newsletter a wealth of information and a terrific resource. Hope this is useful. Take care, Dana
Cool Software recommendations: We'd be grateful for any recommendations for Windows-compatible software for a 4-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister. They've enjoyed the Jump Start series, the Fisher-Price Castle (actually a little too challenging) and a few Dr. Suesses. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks Deborah
We have the Jump Start Series, but the sound is a little wierd on Windows NT, which is what the faster machine we have runs, but I expect most people don't run into that (very few games run on NT, actually) Ben thinks the Jump Start Series are less fun than work, but YMMV. Myriam
Our 6-year old son's passion for video games runs deep, and his interest in most all other activities has diminished. He used to look forward to play dates, going to the park, etc. Now, when given a choice, he prefers to go to his 10-y/o cousin's house and play video games. He has rec'd an older, obsolete game console (not kept at our home), and an older Game Boy handheld as hand-me-downs. He also likes playing video games on the computer.
Anything short of a newer game console from Santa this Xmas will be a huge disappointment to him. While we don't want to completely deprive him of playing video games, we also don't want him to grow up into some slacker who spends all his waking moments engaged in this activity at the expense of relationships, school, physical fitness, etc.
Any advice on how to effectively develop his interest in other activities and maintain a balance between those activities and his desire to play video games. Thank you for any input
My son was quite obsessed for a while about 3 years ago. I just severely limited all of his screen time. I leveled with him about my reasons without being angry at him. I told him that it is my duty to raise him as a well-rounded kid and that playing video games all the time is bad for him, just like eating cake and cookies for every meal might taste good but in reality would be very bad for him. He moaned and groaned at first, but it worked. As he played less, he though about it less, and eventually got to the point where he only plays a couple of times a week.
You should enroll him in some activities, be it sports, drama, art. Just choose something that a friend is doing, to get him going. Even short-term city-rec type programs will get him out and his mind off the games.
The main thing is that you are firm and resolved. Once my kids figured out that nothing will change my mind on these kinds of issues, they stopped fighting me on them. Or, they learned to come up with really good compromises, which is a good skill Fight the Good Fight!
Can anyone recommend a computer game/softward that is fun and entertaining for a 12 year-old girl? Thanks!
My kids still talk about "Word Rescue", a shareware game we had on an old 286 that died years ago. It's still available on the internet, at http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/directd/pc/dos/edutainment/1rescue.html and other places.
Bear Bytes in the student union building has (or did a year ago) sharware games for $5 apiece - all sorts of things and cheap enough so you don't have to pick a winner everytime. I think most of them are vintage enough to run on a 286.
Howdy-- My six year old son wants either a nintendo or a sony play station for Christmas. Does anyone have any preferences between the two, or any recommendations for more thoughtful games for either? Michael
Bottom line, Nintendo has fewer, but much better games, but is more expensive at about $70 per game. Diddi-Kong Racing is a great game, which even I have played and enjoyed, though with much less skill than my son:-)
Play Station has many more games at about $20 each. But my son says he really looked around, at FunCo Land and asked his friends, and could only find one game he really wanted.
He just bought (reserved a month ahead), the new Zelda 64 game. For this he has a T-shirt and will get a limited edition gold cartridge when the game comes out. The whole family played Zelda (8bit) years ago when it came out. The new one looks better of course. I assume the game and the "world" will change also. Evan has downloaded four sample movies from the internet.
Whatever you get, enjoy! --and be prepared to set time limits:-) If the game is on the TV in the den, you can get your kids to stop playing by watching YOUR favorite shows. --Bob
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