Sometimes, we play NickJr.com interactive games. I don't do it too much because it's a source of frustration for him. I have to operate the mouse for him because the abstraction of the cursor 'moving' in correspondence to the mouse's movements was just too hard for him. And he didn't get 'clicking' either. I would have to play the games for him, which wasn't much fun. He's been practicing with a Sesame Street game that has him move the mouse without clicking. We hadn't played in a while though.
Last night, we did Spin Art on NickJr.com. I taught him how to click on the colors and controls, but I still had to move the mouse for him. Dan did the same later that night during a game.
Tonight, I told Alex that he could watch videos on NickJr.com while I cooked dinner. We've done this before, because he would otherwise need me there to play the games. He insisted on playing games. I brought him to the game home page and let him move the mouse around. He wound up starting up a service we don't have. I had to reset it for him. I choose a game that might entertain him 'enough' for a few minutes.
Instead, he played it through. I had to check by coming out of the kitchen. I thought I'd heard indications that he was winning and restarting new games. I DID hear that. That's what he was doing - intentionally and deliberately.
He had focused on the task until he got it right. He finally called for my help when he opened up a game whose KEY movements he didn't understand. He needed to use the arrow keys to move the character and the Space bar to make it jump. When I came to help him, I realized that he'd figured out the jumping part all by himself. I told him that he had to come to dinner with the promise that I would play with him afterwards. Dan came home during dinner.
Dan played with him instead while I set up the scavenger hunt math game I'd printed out eariler. Alex opened up a game that involved creating his own robot to play with. Dan only explained the functions to him. ALEX was the one who built the robot. We printed out a picture of the robot and Alex was so excited that he ran to hang it on his easel. He did that without any help also.
Then he rocked the numeral and shape scavenger hunt. He loved it so much that he wanted to play again. I told him that I would play it with him tomorrow. After objections, he built another robot on the computer game.
I talked Dan into giving Alex a bath even though it was past the time he should have been in the bath. I felt that he really needed a warm bath to calm him down. This was far too much mental activity going all at once for him to be able to sleep easily.
Once in bed, he told Dan. "I'm the robot maker. I'm the President of robot making."
He should be proud of himself like that. I can't believe the number of brand new skills that all burst though in ONE day.
September 9, 2010
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