Frustration at Child's Obsession with PC Games

by Beverley Paine, Nov 2013

My advice... log the number of minutes and hours the child spends on the computer or device. If you can spare the time (and I believe it is important to create space in your life to do this because of your confusion over this issue) it would be helpful to log the actual activity/game too. This could be fairly easy if you can encourage your child to do the recording. Tell him it is for your peace of mind, it's a science experiment of sorts, a research project that will settle your confusion about the issue forever. (Turn it into a project for your end of year review recording!)

What is the point of logging the activity?

Memory isn't as good as we think it is. We build perceptions based on dodgy memory. We're always saying things like 'always' or 'never' - we generalise and exaggerate to justify our positions and to emphasise our point of views. What looks like something happening ALL the time really only happens SOME of the time. Logging activities or actions gives us the facts. And it is from these facts that we can draw conclusions and feel confident about making decisions.

From your log you will see exactly how much time is spent doing this activity, as well as how much time is spent playing games that you value as being educational, and those that you value as being entertainment. And those that you don't value at all.

Using the log, you could, with your son, talk about which aspects of the state/national curriculum any or all of the games or computer activity meet - that could be part of the research or project. You could do this without the log record but it wouldn't be as powerful an exercise.

Unschoolers seem to dislike keeping any kind of records but it is actually a fantastic tool to test and advance ideas - a necessary part of the scientific method. It is a useful way to aid our mental processes. When we write things down we remember them accurately. We don't make those sweeping generalisations or assumptions that muddy our thinking when trying to make decisions. We work from the raw data on the page and draw conclusions that are rational rather than emotive.