Trainboy and Lego Starwars

Trainboy has been really figuring out how to play Lego Starwars lately. It has been fascinating to watch him learn and problem solve and play and enjoy it. When we first got the system, this game was beyond his capability and he mostly took his character off cliffs a bunch. Then he learned how to make R2D2 fly and how to open locks with him and he was always R2D2. Soon he learned how to use the force as the Emperor and put everyone in choke holds. Driving vehicles became fun and he would find them and drive them around all over. Eventually gathering the currency pieces and buying characters was popular. The traditional goals of the game have not been his goals until recently. He is very skilled at the game now and will tell me who to turn my character into and what to do to help his character. He knows where to go for all the kit pieces, to find extra coins, to find missing characters...he is mastering the game and it has been fascinating to watch. While Dinoguy and he used to be quite conflicted in playing together because they had very different goals in mind, they are playing together quite well now and the only arguments are when one boy opens a door or builds an object in game that the other wanted to do.

Concept-wise, Trainboy recognizes many words as a result of the game and his mathematical quantity skills are getting a workout. "I wanted to do free play, not story!" "How much more do I need to buy Boba Fett? Do I have enough yet?" "Mom help me turn bounty hunter rockets on!" It's been fascinating to watch him on it. And even as it is one of his main interests right now, it has not become all he does. He paints, builds with legos, plays outside, et cetera. And even with just one TV in the house, we haven't had sharing problems between TV watching and video game playing. It's all worked out quite nicely actually.