Winning At The Computer Game

I have decided I want to start writing in cursive. I haven’t used it since High School. I was terrible at it then and apparently I still am. Instead of blogging on the computer this morning I wrote in a notebook, in cursive. The first paragraph was painful but it got easier after that even though the writing didn’t get any neater. I’m going to buy a practice book and see if that helps.

Winner is getting so grown up! I need to start treating him more like a grownup but then half the time he still acts like such a little kid. I just remembered yesterday why Winner and I didn’t used to have the computer problems that we have now. In our old house the computer was down stairs, out of sight, out of mind. Now that it’s in our central living space it’s all he can think about. I keep talking with him about managing his time on it. But it doesn’t sink in. I have let him decide how much time he should play on it every day but he has no desire to stick to it. He sneaks more time whenever he can. I talked to the Mothers in my Home school group about it. One of them said she gives her kids 30 minutes a day and that’s it. It’s important to her, she said. Her kids know the rule and they don’t bug her about it. I thought, that must be it, I’m not consistent enough about this issue. One day I’ll let him play all day and another day I won’t let him play at all. I tell him to decide for himself and then I decide for him.

I was pondering this yesterday when a thought came into my head. “Don’t give him more responsibility than he can handle.” Don’t you just love it when the Spirit speaks directly to your brain, giving you the answers you need to life’s problems? Winner is just not ready to manage his own time on the computer and I’m not willing to baby sit him by making time limits, setting the timer and making sure he gets off of it. My only option now is to take it away completely. Don’t nag me. I feel good about this decision for now. Unschooling is not all about letting kids do whatever they want whenever they want to do it. It’s about letting them learn at their own pace. Apparently we were getting ahead of ourselves with the computer so now we’re backing off. I told Winner we will re-evaluate the situation when he is nine. I reminded him of what I did for Persistence when she couldn’t keep her room clean. I took away all her toys and she hardly misses them. She and I are so much happier now that we don’t have to fight about her room. I know Winner and I will be happier to stop fighting over computer games. Maybe he will finally learn to use the computer for other things and ultimately enjoy it even more.