This is the only day (unless we are at Grandma's house) that my kids get to play things like Lego Star Wars
or Lego Indiana Jones on the lego site
or visit their pets in Webkinz world.
It is also the only day I allow spiderman to come out of hiding as well. 
They are each given one hour on Saturday to play whatever game or games they want. Which means they spend a lot of time thinking about, watching and playing games on Saturday. They even try to convince us to take them to Fry's so they can play Mario Brothers on the Wii. They still dream on getting a Wii but each Saturday I am reminded exactly why we don't have one and why we will probably never get one.
They do get some time on the computer on other days but they have to finish all their school work, clean their rooms and finish any other chores I give them before getting to play. Often it never happens because they get lost in playing with actual toys. Legos, playmobil or some combination of things usually ends up scattered about their rooms so computer games are forgotten. But when they do earn computer time during the week they usually only have a choice of more education games. Henry loves Alice Green Fingers where he gets to plant and harvest a little farm and then sell the produce.
Ian has had Sophie teaching him Zoo Tycoon which has been Sophie's favorite game for years.
She knows everything there is to know about that game. They also occationally play Venture Africa where they get to create an african habitat and see how all the animals interact.
This one is actually really hard. I haven't been able to get very far through the tutorial rounds.
Every once in awhile we even have Zuma tournaments.
I know this isn't educational at all but it is fun and it is something we do all together.
So Saturday is game day. They don't have to earn their hour like they do on other days, and they get to choose any game they want. My kids aren't deprived because we don't have a Wii. They get to play games it is just not available everyday and at anytime.
Ian is bugging me to let him have his hour. Evidently I have had my computer time for the day and it is time to turn it over to the kids for the rest of the day.
They do get some time on the computer on other days but they have to finish all their school work, clean their rooms and finish any other chores I give them before getting to play. Often it never happens because they get lost in playing with actual toys. Legos, playmobil or some combination of things usually ends up scattered about their rooms so computer games are forgotten. But when they do earn computer time during the week they usually only have a choice of more education games. Henry loves Alice Green Fingers where he gets to plant and harvest a little farm and then sell the produce.
Ian has had Sophie teaching him Zoo Tycoon which has been Sophie's favorite game for years.
She knows everything there is to know about that game. They also occationally play Venture Africa where they get to create an african habitat and see how all the animals interact.
This one is actually really hard. I haven't been able to get very far through the tutorial rounds.Every once in awhile we even have Zuma tournaments.
I know this isn't educational at all but it is fun and it is something we do all together.So Saturday is game day. They don't have to earn their hour like they do on other days, and they get to choose any game they want. My kids aren't deprived because we don't have a Wii. They get to play games it is just not available everyday and at anytime.
Ian is bugging me to let him have his hour. Evidently I have had my computer time for the day and it is time to turn it over to the kids for the rest of the day.
2 comments:
How did you ever capture those screen shots of the children's games?
I think that computer and video games are a great idea. Sunshine plays them on PBSKids or Sproutonline or Nickjr. We also play the zoo tycoon as a family. I think it teaches a lot about problem solving.
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