Apr 13 2008
“Mom, Pokemon IS Educational!”
These are the words muttered to me by MonkeyBoy recently when I informed him that he needs to do something educational for awhile. You see, he received Pokemon Colosseum for Gamecube for Christmas and is completely addicted to it. On one hand, I want to let him play because the poor kid has pretty much been left out of playing the Gamecube for the last three years. On the other hand, I'm not big on kids spending a lot of time playing video games and his constant want to play Pokemon is starting to grate on my nerves.
MonkeyBoy knows exactly what the attacks are for each Pokemon. He can actually read words for the attacks like "metal claw" and "mud shot" so he feels that playing Pokemon IS educational. After all, Jumpstart World and Pajama Sam are games and Mommy says THEY are educational. I think the rotten child has me there.
So I've been trying to figure out how to let him play the game he loves so much (when he earns game time) and not obsess over it when I'm trying to get him to learn other things. Good luck I know. *smile* I thought if I bugged him constantly while he played that he would get tired of it and not want to play. Instead the kid become a living Pokedex and starts telling me everything imaginable about more Pokemon than I ever knew existed! Yeah, that one backfired on me bigtime!
Anyone have any other suggestions? I'm more than happy to listen.
I don’t have any helpful suggestions - because we’re caught up in Pokemania at our house too! My son got his first Pokemon cartridge and was handed down an old Game Boy Advance a few months ago, and he too is an instant expert on attacks, and evolutions, and battles, and trainers, and badges, and… gah! BUT… he does read a lot for this obsession, both the text in the game and books, guidebooks and on the pokedex… and I figure everyone has some obsession in life, and it’s OKAY that he’s immersed in this right now and it won’t last forever.
Hey, it won’t last forever, WILL IT? I don’t think I can take too many more months of, “Hey Mom! What’s your favorite flying-type pokemon? Do you know what the hardest battle you’ll have in Cerulean City is? What level does Abra evolve at?”