I've been thinking about balance today. It seems that all of life is a balancing act. Particularly, today, I have been thinking about how to teach my 5 year old to have balance in her life.
Then I started wondering if all 5 year olds are obsessive over their interest-of-the-moment.
I guess my problem is that my 5 year old is obsessed with something I am not really interested in. Minecraft. A computer game. There is nothing inherently bad about it. Every conversation that she is engaged in begins and ends with Minecraft. She wants to give me lessons and talk to me about it all the time.
On the flip side it is an extremely valuable bargaining tool. I can get her to do practically anything if the privilege of playing Minecraft is threatened.
Then I tried to put her same obsession into other things, and they would still be obsessions that I would need to teach her to balance with other interests. If she was reading and thinking about a book series as much as she thinks about Minecraft I would still need to make her go outside and play etc. But I wouldn't feel the need to limit her access to books the way I feel I need to limit her access to a screen. Or if she played dress up or house or played with friends as much as she thinks and plays Minecraft I would still need to balance those interests with other activities.
I'm struggling with this a bit. Does anyone want to weigh in?
2 comments:
as a teacher, my mind instantly jumped to using Minecraft as a teaching tool. Have her describe step by step how to do something (requires a kid to figure out how to give someone directions). teach adjectives by having her describe the game. Have her write/narrate, then illustrate a story relating to the game. I don't know anything about the game, but there are probably ways to incorporate math into it as well. If a kid has an obsession about something, I say use it as much as possible to spark an interest in learning.
I now know more about trains than I ever thought possible. G gauge, HO scale, couplers, diesel, steam, you name it, I now know it, all thanks to a cute little boy with yellow hair and a major obsession. Comes with the territory I think. I just jumped in with both feet and loved it with him even though it totally bores me to tears. Hopefully, he will never catch on to that ;)
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