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a March 28th, 2014

  1. Bluey Gets a Gameboy

    March 28, 2014 by admin

    We are huge fans of the unplugged universe.  We love going outdoors, creating art projects, playing board-games, and jigsaw puzzling.  And then there are the endless options of building with legos, tinkertoys, kinex, blocks, playmobile, etc.IMG_1641

    So we have been careful all along to limit the exposure our kids have to TV, computers and video games.  We don’t want our kids to get sucked into a premade world and forget that they can create their own experiences.  We don’t want our kids exposed to images and sounds more shocking and intense than appropriate for their age.  We don’t want them to forget how awesome it is to run around outdoors and see the natural world up close.

    But at the same time, we understand the usefulness of knowing how the plugged-in world works.  We don’t want to raise kids who can’t surf the net, or who can’t deconstruct the real purpose of advertising that flies at them.  We need to teach our kids how to use the wired world as a tool for information, communication, and for fun.

    So we are finally allowing Bluey to explore some electronics and gaming.

    His starting place?  Bluey has inherited his sisters’ old Leapfrog (which he calls his Gameboy), and a small handful of non-violent and/or educational games.

    This system allows him a chance to learn that there should be limits to how much time you spend on video games.  Since the games remember where you are, you don’t need to ‘finish this level’ or whatever.  When time is up, it’s up.  Your game will be there when you get back.

    So far, although Bluey is excited by his video games, they remain a tiny segment of his daily life.  They haven’t taken the place of reading, and creating, and running around outdoors.

    We’ve taken a big step, but we think it’s in the right direction.