Christian: "I know what I want to do when I grow up, either design legos or design video games."

Me: "It might not be what you think. Just because you like playing video games, doesn't mean you would like designing them."

Christian: "Oh mom, I already have ideas......"

Me:

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Mom to Christian (13), Saphira (10), Xavier (5), and Adrian (2).

It wouldn't surprise me!

It's funny because we were just playing "Life" yesterday and he chose the college route and when he picked up the career card, it was "Video game designer"! He was all excited. Then I said, "Um, did you notice that that card is from the college career cards? Meaning you need to attend college?" He goes "What? For how long? Nevermind, it's not worth it!" I've never seen a kid so dead set against college from such an early age, he's been saying this for years. I guess if he wants the job bad enough.....I could easily see him doing something "techy" "designy" "computery", etc.

Also, he has been on a huge lego kick for the past couple weeks. He found out I had mentioned it to my mom and was wondering if it was a side effect of his ADD medication, because he has been shut up in his room doing nothing but legos every single day and I have to force him to come out just to eat lunch! He's never been this way before. He said he just has all kinds of new ideas. Anyways, he told me today "If this is a side effect of my medication, DON'T stop it!"

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Mom to Christian (13), Saphira (10), Xavier (5), and Adrian (2).

Haha! Nope, don't stop it.

My ds is like this with building anything. Legos are his favorite though. When was in the hospital, bored, the thing he wanted was legos!
(He's 21.)
He's fixed his truck himself by looking online to figure out what was wrong and what was needed. Just recently, he's applied for a job that wires computer 'brains' and I pray he gets it. He LOVES this kind of stuff.
The harder the Lego instructions and the more pieces the better.

I agree, don't STOP it, BUT..... make sure he learns that those "intense play times" are privileges for those that have their "to-do" list done.

This is *funny* and interesting. In just a few years he'll be old enough to look for a job. I'd encourage him to think of jobs he thinks he might enjoy. Even if it's "volunteer" work I'd count it as school if it's something he may be interested in as a career. My dd volunteered at the veterinary one semester and she realized she did NOT want to be one. Working in different surroundings - medical emergency, library, clerical, Post Office (they need janitors and you get to see the behind the scenes of the workings and feel the atmosphere). These are things that can mold a person's thinking, create a network, earn you some skills, .... could even lead to an apprenticeship.

If that's what he's interested in, it might get him motivated academically! : ) As he grows up, he might settle on something like web design instead of computer games, but using that interest to help him could be a great thing : )


If you haven't already done these lessons, check them out
https://www.khanacademy.org/hourofcode

Here are a few other sites I haven't used yet - they're in my archives for when dd is older, but you might want to check them out (I don't know if it's all free or not . . .)

http://www.homeschoolprogramming.com/wo ... f55805d796

http://www.e-learningforkids.org/computer-skills/ (this one's mainly keyboarding)

http://brainpowerboy.com/homeschool-uni ... -coding-4/

http://www.codecademy.com/

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http://stuffedveggies.blogspot.com/

Thank you for these resources! We have used Kahn Academy a little for math, but I haven't explored all the other options yet. These look great!

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Mom to Christian (13), Saphira (10), Xavier (5), and Adrian (2).

I guess kids could be obsessed with worse things than legos. My biggest problem is just making sure he does his chores and eats. He loses all sense of time. I will have to set a timer or something so he remembers that there is a world outside legos. I feel a little bad for Saphira because she has lost her playmate and keeps telling him, "You never want to play with me anymore!"

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Mom to Christian (13), Saphira (10), Xavier (5), and Adrian (2).

That sounds like a great opportunity for your son! It seems like computer and tech stuff is the way to go these days, things are continually moving that direction. Ds also likes to do those snap circuit kits and does them all by himself, but he doesn't do that near as often as the legos. I got him one of those 3-in-1 lego sets that has instructions for building 3 different things and he likes to create and re-create them all. Lately, he's just been making up things with inspiration from shows he watches and stuff. He gets legos every Birthday and Christmas. I wanted to get him into a robotics program and hopefully we can do that someday, but they're expensive.

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Mom to Christian (13), Saphira (10), Xavier (5), and Adrian (2).