Category: NHL

Aloha Friday: Movies, Kids, and Cursing

Aloha Friday, Movies, NHL

During Thanksgiving, sometime between the end of the meal and the beginning of dessert, everyone split up to do different things.  I sat down and searched for something interesting on TV.  That’s when I spotted it.  Ghostbusters.  Sure, it was on a non-premium cable channel and, thus, censored, but still – It’s Ghostbusters!

As I settled in, NHL and JSL began to inquire to see what I was watching.  At first, they were upset that I wasn’t watching one of *their* programs.  How dare dad not keep the TV glued to Nick Jr even when they weren’t in the room.  But then B told them of Stay Puft.  After that, they kept bugging me as to when the giant marshmallow man would appear.  When he finally did show, they cheered at his appearance and over his destruction and spillage on top of Walter Peck.

In short, my kids were instant Ghostbusters fans.  I had a quandary, though.  Dare I show the full, uncensored Ghostbusters to NHL?  JSL might be too young, but NHL might love it.  On the other hand, I worried.  Not about the violence, but about the cursing.

NHL has heard cursing before.  I’m sure he’s heard it in his school and he’s heard a word or three pop out of B’s mouth.  (I’m a bit of a freak in that I never curse… Well, except for that one time I tried to get a reaction out of my friend by saying the C word which caused him to almost drive off the road.  Reaction achieved!)  But would NHL’s watching of movies with curses cause his language to reach for the potty?  Is he, at 8, too young for movies with salty language?

My Aloha Friday question for today is: How old do you think a child should be before they watch a movie that contains cursing?

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

P.P.S. For a bit of fun, try my other Twitter Application, Rout. It’s a +F in Fun!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #116

Violent Shows versus Baby Shows

Friendship, NHL, Television

The other day, NHL confided something to me.  He said that some kids were making fun of him because he was watching “baby shows” and not shows that those kids liked.  I asked him what made those other kids’ shows non-baby shows. He said that their programs were violent and since he didn’t watch violent shows, he watched baby shows.  I calmly told him that the kids that told him this were wrong on many levels.

First of all, I let him know that he *does* watch some shows that are young for his age.  Notably, Oomi Zoomi, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and other Nick Jr and Disney Junior programs.  When programs are trying to teach simple patterns, colors, letters and numbers, it isn’t age-appropriate for an 8-year-old.  However, there’s a catch.  I reminded NHL that he has a younger brother.  He can’t just watch 8-year-old appropriate shows all the time.  Sometimes, he’ll need to watch 4-year-old appropriate shows.  This means that sometimes he’ll need to watch shows that are too young for him and sometimes it will mean that his brother will watch shows that are too old for him.

Next, I told NHL that he does actually watch shows with violence.  He’s a fan of Avengers, Batman: The Animated Series and has recently discovered Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.  These shows aren’t exactly violence-free.  In fact, in many ways, they are more violent than the benchmark show his school friends watch (Power Rangers).

Still, even considering these, I told NHL that he shouldn’t equate violence with age appropriateness.  He likes science shows like Mythbusters (which, though containing some violence in the form of explosions, also has a lot of science), The Looney Tunes Show (which resembles a sitcom with Bugs and company) and Family Game Night (a game show).

In addition, I pointed out to NHL that he isn’t defined by TV.  He has other interests.  He likes video games, music (including some very grown-up selections like Train, Lady Gaga, and Black Eyed Peas), reading, and playing on the computer.

In the end, I let NHL know that he couldn’t let his classmates define whether or not he was “acting like a baby” by a few of his actions.  If they were going to be so narrow minded as to not want to be his friend because he doesn’t like the exact same TV shows that they do, then it is their loss.  However, you can’t let yourself be defined what someone says is a negative aspect of your interests.

Parental Visit Highlights

B, Family, JSL, NHL, Wii

My parents came for a visit this weekend.  Unfortunately, given economic circumstances (on both ends) and the distance between us, we don’t get to see each other as often as I’d like.  The boys kept getting more and more excited as “Bubbe-and-Grandpa day” drew nearer.  Finally, the day arrived and the boys couldn’t have been happier.  Here are a few highlights from their visit (in no particular order):

Wii Bowling

While enjoying some downtime at our house, we started up the Nintendo Wii.  My mother, who I never think of as a gamer, opted to play a game of Wii Bowling with the boys and me.  The end score was quite impressive.  (As usual, click on the photo to enlarge.)

P1060326

“Snoopy” was my mother.  That 121 score?  That was JSL!  He was rocking the virtual bowling alley with two strikes and three spares.  He even beat his older brother (who came in with a not-too-shabby 113).

Beating Up My Dad

Ok, this sounds bad, but it really isn’t.  After Wii Bowling was done, we loaded Wii Boxing and I handed the Wiimote to my dad.  Then, he and I duked it out.  I won, but he got some good punches in.  I don’t think he expected a simple video game to give his arms such a workout.

Toy Story Mania

After coming back from lunch (and some shopping), we went back to my house.  Killing time before I had to start dinner, I put Toy Story Mania into the Wii.  This time, NHL, my father and I played.  We all had fun playing the various Toy Story-based carnival games.  For the record, I won easily.  Got nearly my father’s and NHL’s score combined.  Part of that was probably because, due to a quirk in the game, I got to play solo in a lot of games.  This gave me exclusive access to the point generating activities instead of sharing them with another player.

Knitting Bonding

My mother mentioned that she wanted to learn how to knit a scarf.  I pointed out that B has knitted a few.  At the time, she was in the middle of two scarf-knitting projects.  While the boys, my dad and I occupied ourselves with other activities, my wife and mother bonded over knit-pearl.

“Cooking” Dinner

I wanted to show my parents my cooking skills.  I didn’t actually wind up getting the chance to do this.  Instead, we went to BJ’s and bought frozen/refrigerated dishes to heat up and serve.  Still, eating dinner at home with my parents versus in a restaurant was a nice experience.

Cake Wrecks

I showed my parents the Cake Wrecks book and they kept laughing.  When I left it on the table to check on dinner, I saw them flipping through the pages laughing at all of the mangled cakes.  I need to remember to e-mail them the URL for the Cake Wrecks blog.

Cupcakes

We stopped by the new Fluffalicious store and got some delicious cupcakes for dessert.  It was quite the yummy stop to make (and one I think we’ll be making quite a few more times in the near future).

The whole weekend was so much fun that I (*gasp*) forgot to take photos!  We got photos of cupcakes and the like, but realized that we didn’t get a picture of my parents with the boys.  Luckily, just before my parents left to go home, we were able to snag this photo of us.  (B’s manning the camera – and trying to avoid cars in the parking lot it was taken in.)

P1060364

I miss my parents already and hope we get to see them again sometime soon.

What Supermassive Black Holes Have To Do With Thanksgiving

NHL, Science

This past weekend, there was a parent-student program at NHL’s Hebrew school.  We first spoke about the challenges and best techniques to teach our kids to be thankful.  Most kids today are lucky enough that their main problems involve what toys they get for birthdays/holidays or whether or not they have the latest versions of the most popular electronic gadgets.  Travel to a different country, however, and a kid might be worrying more about whether his latest meal will be today or tomorrow or whether his parents will be able to pay the doctors to treat his sick baby brother.  Compared to those concerns, getting the latest iPhone seems pretty petty.

Sadly, the culture we live in is defined by consume-consume-consume.  I wish I could say my boys are immune to it, but they aren’t.  They have plenty of toys (some days it seems like too many toys – especially when they don’t clean up) and yet they constantly want more.  We can’t exit any store without JSL asking for a new toy for him to open right now.  The fact we never give in to these new toy cries doesn’t seem to deter JSL.

One parent mentioned having toys “disappear” only to reappear months later.  We’ve used this cycle in and out strategy before.  Perhaps we should employ it a bit more.

Later on, NHL and his class came into the room.  We got to decorate a sheet and write in what NHL was thankful for.  This is what NHL wrote down for what he was thankful for.

1113111132_Crop

Did you catch that one right before the end?  “Supermassive Black Holes.”  In case you’re wondering, NHL got that from this page

IMGP3177

Of this book:

This book lists scientifically accurate information about the objects in our universe.  From the planets to black holes, from the Hubble Space telescope to space-time.  Of course, the facts are simplified for kids and the illustrations are made to be fun to look at.  Still, NHL has taken to this book and the page on supermassive black holes in particular.

It’s quite fun to watch him weave science and math into what seems to be otherwise unrelated projects.  He’s really got the mind of a junior scientist and I’m going to love teaching him more and more about the world (and universe) around us.

Wii Bowling Revenge

Games, JSL, NHL, Video Games, Wii

On Saturday, while B was at a family function, NHL and JSL asked if they could play Nintendo Wii with me.  I agreed and tried to think of a game that would be good for JSL to play.  He doesn’t quite get the game controls all the time and this can frustrate him.  That’s when I remembered Wii Bowling.

When we got our Nintendo Wii, back in 2007, Wii Sports was the first game we played.  It was, after all, included with the console.  I’ve loved bowling since I was a kid so I took to the bowling game right away.  NHL, then 4 years old, had some initial difficulty with the controls but soon learned.  Pretty soon, he was bowling scores that he couldn’t get in a real bowling ally with bumpers on!

Fast forward to Saturday.  I located the Wii Sports disc and loaded up Wii Bowling.  I explained to JSL how to bowl and off we went.  JSL, understandably, had a lot of trouble.  He got frustrated quite a few times, but kept at it.  In the end, he bowled a 72.  NHL, meanwhile, stunned me.  While I bowled a respectable 113, NHL crushed me by bowling a 156!

IMGP3153

That’s ok, though.  The next day, we had a rematch.  JSL didn’t fare as well, dropping to a 58.  NHL also dropped to a 95.  I, however, increased my score to a 173.

 IMGP3173

I don’t think I need to worry about being beaten by NHL just yet, but he’s improving rapidly.  By this time next year, he might just be beating me regularly.  And, if he is any guide, I don’t have many more years of being able to beat JSL.  Five years from now, I might be posting about how we dusted off the old Nintendo Wii and both of my boys beat me at Wii Bowling.

1 … 11 12 13 14 15 … 39