No Video Games Allowed! - Page 2

On March 17 2015 02:31 QuanticHawk wrote:


my rule of thumb will basically be I don't particular care as long as you have other interests outside of video games/tv/internet.

my personal experience and what ive seen a lot elsewhere is that if you try to force something kids end up totally hating it more often than not and resent you

Parenting choices are scary

On March 17 2015 02:27 resfirestar wrote:
Oh hey, another Waldorf kid! I was actually homeschooled using a lot of Waldorf curriculum and philosophy since my area had no Waldorf schools (and my parents probably couldn't afford such a thing if there was). Gradually, we moved away from Waldorf curriculum and used Singapore math and science, National Geographic history and reading tons of books on my own in lieu of a formal English education. Still, I was banned from video games and non-PBS television until I was 12 or 13.

The whole Waldorf drawing thing, looking back, must have actually harmed my artistic skills. The only people I know who are worse at sketching things are some physics professors. My 12th grade English teacher at the public high school always marked me down on illustrating things (yeah it was weird) because my drawings looked a lot like this masterpiece OP linked even though I still haven't touched watercolor since 4th grade or something.

I got into video games when my parents started letting me go online for 1-3 hours per day, and while I spent it working on Wikipedia, people on IRC would talk about games so I tried some out when mom wasn't looking. The most memorable were SCBW and Star Wars Battlefront, which explains my continuing fascination with both series.

Overall I think the only advantage I might have from spending K-8 at home would be that I'm less burned out on education than some of my peers at college. My social skills and knowledge of culture are pretty limited though, and among the fellow non-burnouts it's all about how good your high school was this early in the program.

So yeah, thanks for sharing! Mom always talked about the idea of sending me to Waldorf school like it was the greatest thing ever, I always wondered what it was really like.

On March 17 2015 02:02 lisward wrote:
Hi Avilo's Mod

I had a bat shit crazy mom. I was only worth the grades I got in school, and even then that wasn't much, considering my mother's vanity. I got 3rd in the whole cohort once for mathematics, 96/100. She smiled. She called her friends to boast. The smugness dripped away and she furrowed her brows and she frowned. John scored 98 and it was 'easy'.

I loved video games, so my dad and my uncle would gift me the latest Nintendo handheld console each Christmas. I'd often get to play it for a week before it got locked up. If there were holidays, I got to play it for a week too, but after around a year they'd disappear. I learned later on in adulthood that she was giving them away.

I was into Yu-gi-oh once and my dad bought me this whole set of stuff from eBay. A world champions deck he said. There was a competitor pass and poster too. I never had friends to play it with, so I'd spend whatever free time I had (not much), admiring the cards. Sometimes to get away from my mom, I'd pretend to have constipation. I'd lock myself in the bathroom with my purple coloured deck box containing my Yu-gi-oh cards in their official, transparent, Yu-Gi-Oh branded sleeves, and I'd just go through them one by one, admiring the art. Sometimes Id takes the card out and enjoy the crisp smell.

One day my mom got cross with me and she threatened to burn the cards and one day I never saw them again.

Still, I persisted. I'd peep at my mom as she used the computer and I'd memorize the password. She was a parrot lover so it was natural the password be africangrey. The species of our first pet parrot, Bongo. On occasion, she'd leave the house, be it to look at parrakeets, have brunch with the parents support group, or gallivant. When she did so, she'd leave me with a stack of revision papers. I'd do the first 5 pages and I'd go up to my room and I'd open the blinds ever so slightly and I'd turn on the computer and play Warcraft 3. I learned to keep the lights off as a precaution, as there was no reason for my mother to see the window of the second storey illuminated as she parked her car across the street.

I'd do this every time, and every time I'd get the shit beaten out of me.

I regret nothing.

On March 17 2015 05:04 codonbyte wrote:

Oh god, yeah, my mom instantly got sucked in big time. Luckily the Waldorf school I attended wasn't too cultish (I've read some accounts online of some Waldorf schools being straight-up cults), but yeah, my mom was always going on about how awesome everything they did was. Well, not everything. See, most Waldorf schools are tight-knit communities, and many parents are constantly volunteering to help out with something. Now my mom was a university professor (as was my dad), and so of course having a full-time job made her pressed for time. But she used to get mad because they had this expectation that she'd be able to constantly volunteer. She was always getting asked to help bake things (she hates baking), and she would often complain that they didn't respect the fact that she had a job "as good as any man's job".

Looking back, it seems as if Waldorf schools may be a few decades behind the rest of society when it comes to Women's rights. I remember one incident in 5th grade where my teacher forced this girl to wave her hands over her head to demonstrate that her shirt would lift up when she waved her hands over her head (wasn't showing her belly when her hands were in the normal-position), and then he balled her out for having her shirt too short (only "too short" if she waves her hands over her head!). At the time I just thought it was funny that she got in trouble, but looking back I'm like "holy shit, my teacher slut-shamed an 11yo girl". I've lost a lot of respect for him just based on that one incident.

That's interesting that you say the Waldorf art style hurt your artistic abilities. I've never been much of an artist, but some of my classmates were quite into it and they seem to have learned well with it. But yeah, if I try and sketch something it looks every bit as bad as this beeswax block crayon scribbling.

High fives to you for managing to get your video-game fix inspite of the oppressive regime!

On March 17 2015 04:53 codonbyte wrote:

That used to be what I thought I'd do when I had kids, but then I got into SC2 and realized that many video games are every bit as enriching as basically any other activity. If I have kids and they want to play video games till bed time (after they've done their homework, no exceptions on that one; I failed out of college due to procrastination), but yeah if they want to play video games till bed time I honestly won't care. I mean video games are a social activity (for me watching livestreams is about the most social interraction I ever get), and they're a mental workout. So I honestly don't see the problem with playing them non-stop.

On March 17 2015 06:05 NovemberstOrm wrote:
So what games have you played to this point?
Did you end up playing classic series like zelda etc?