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.

8 Things About Me Meme

Stephanie at Happy and Free tagged me for this meme.

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the
game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.
At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their
names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them
know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Here goes:

1. I love doing family history work, because I view it as a giant logic puzzle about my family. I do several volunteer things with it, including Find A Grave photos, The Obituary Daily Times indexing for the local paper, Family Search Indexing, and The US Census Transcription Project.

2. I have run 2 half marathons, but haven't done a full marathon yet (my goal). I keep getting injuries in my knees/ankles/feet. Le Sigh

3. I was in the newspaper on Wednesday for a cooking article: Salt Lake Tribune

4. I'm growing my hair out, wearing it curly and happily learning to style and care for it, thanks to all I've learned at The Long Hair Community

5. I love to play The Sims 2, and other simulation games.

6. I had to look up the word meme to really know what it meant. (My guesses were pretty accurate.)

7. I played the Tenor Saxophone in high school and also play the piano. My three favorite genres of music are classical, jazz & country.

8. I am crocheting my first afghan!

Okay, I tag Jessica, Kimber, Widdison, Brandvolds, Linda, The Rob, Hope. That's all I've got. We'll see if they do it!