Project 365: Day 27 - Lesser of Two Evils.....

It is amazing how quickly the addition to video games forms in a young child. Six months ago, my boys had no clue about them. Then in the blink of eye, they are masters at XBox, Playstation and Wii. Not to mention various handheld devices they have been able to play with from time to time, courtesy their cousins. And no, I don't have all three of those consoles. When you are a child who possesses two homes, you tend to have a larger variety of, well, everything. And then throw a third home into the mix via Mimi and PawPaw, and these kids have more coming from a broken home than most kids do in a fully united family unit. One of the perks, I guess.

So, the video game thing has really surprised me. I knew that kids became addicted easily, but this is quite ridiculous. Their dad and I work really hard on putting limits on game time. And being a single parent, it can be really easy to let "game time" occupy the kids while you get some much needed chores accomplished. I will not lie and say that I haven't ever done it. I try my hardest, though, not to. But when I do, and I'm not saying I do often, but when I do, then I try not to beat myself up about it. There are too many other things, much bigger things, that I could beat myself up about. And this is not one of them.

So now a new realm of gaming has made it's way into our lives. Albeit my fault, but still. I found this great website called "Jump Start" and if you're a parent, more than likely you've heard of it. I hate that I've introduced my kids to yet another electronic brainwashing device, but this one is educational! And therein lies my justification. If it's educational then it has to be ok, right?

This site is great, though. It's a 3D interactive preschool lesson with dragons, pirates and anything else that lures a child into wanting to learn. They love it and I love the actual lessons the game tricks the kids into learning. Win win!

So if I had to choose between Legos Star Wars (and they have this in the XBox, Playstation AND Wii versions-dear lord) and Jump Start on the computer, well then I would have to choose the lesser of the two anti-physical activity evils. I would have to go with the game with the ulterior motives, Jump Start. Working your brain burns calories, right? So they're not becoming total slobs yet......

27 of 365: Classtime! And they thought they were playing, ha!

Good Night All!