A thoroughly well rounded weekend: soccer, computer games & miniatures

I had my role playing game Friday night, as my beginning to the weekend. It went well, actually played instead of sat around chatting for once. Not that I mind the social interaction, but I prefer to play the game when that is what I was there for. But this is not about me, it's about the kids, specifically James. Some times I worry that he is getting too wrapped up in his computer games, too focused. So I try to find chances to break him out of that, and I think this last weekend was pretty successful.

Saturday was a relaxed day at home in the morning, and I kind of monopolized the computer, which is my right as the dad. So James was forced to do other things, and he spent most of his time watching cartoons and playing with his Lego's. Then it was off to soccer. James enjoys soccer, but I think it is as much because he enjoys being with other kids, not as much because he loves the sport itself per se. I don't see him just going out and dribbling the ball, or practicing kicking it into the net, or setting up pick up games with his friends. And that's okay, he's good, but that's as much because he is smart and has been playing a long time. So he knows where he is supposed to be and will go there.

The rest of the day, after returning from shopping, James got to pretty much do computer games and other games to his heart's content. Sunday was a different story, Sunday I pulled out and set up the Heroscape set one of my friends gave me.

Heroscape is a kind of miniature table top war gaming entry drug. The figures are decent quality, pre-painted. The basic game play is quite easy to understand and pick up, we even taught Daniel the basics so he could join in. But it has an advanced level of play that I look forward to teaching James, and the collector kind of interest, so someone can really go hog wild if they want. Here are a couple of pictures:

This is a basic game board set up. The board is a kind of free form hex set that can be modified and moved around to create all kinds of combinations. And you can create levels and a 3-D type of feel to the terrain by stacking the terrain. So it's pretty cool for those effects.

Here are James and Daniel playing. As I said the basic game play is simple enough for Daniel to play with a little help. And the joy he got when his dice rolls succeeded were worth more for me than the downside of his tearing up when one of his guys got killed. James took the basics really quick, and seemed to really enjoy it. So I can see us playing again, him possibly playing with Daniel, and maybe even teaching his friends when they come over.

In the midst of all this I also have become a little concerned that James is not reading as much, or at least up to his level. So I sat down with him and talked about it. Then told him to have at the library in his room, pick a book and read it. And I implemented a mandatory 30 minute reading time prior to bed every night as a new general rule. I gave him one of my Shadowrun books as a test, but while he seems interested I don' think he's quite there yet. That, plus he is more interested in the non-fiction books right now.

Overall a pretty successful weekend as far as enhancing the all around development of James. And he did tell me yesterday on the way to school that he was ready to go back to the summer hours: TV & computer get shut off at 10:00AM, and cannot be turned back on until 6:00PM. So that's a bonus there.