Little Big Planet
2011
Austin has been playing Little Big Planet for about three years now. It is a beautifully designed game with enchanting music where your character is a little poppet who solves puzzles in order to beat The Negativatron. There is a story to it, but Austin is much more interested in creating his own levels and characters.
Recently he came to me and said he wanted to buy a costume one of the characters wears in the game. So, we hopped on the Internet and started searching for how to do that. The search soon became frustrating because we couldn't find how to get the costume. I emailed some gamer friends and they were at a loss as well. Come to find out, there was no way to get the costume Austin wanted. I figured this out by asking him (after about an hour of searching) if he saw somewhere that you could buy or unlock the costume or if he was just really hoping you could. He said he was just really hoping you could.
Our search didn't end there because that's not how we roll around here. We kept searching trying to find a way. We were connecting and working together and it was too much fun to stop. We found out you can't make modifications on Play Station games unless you write code. Neither of us write code. Next, we started a whole new search! We know TONS of people who write code. Now the search turned to dad to find someone who writes code, specifically an artist who could give us some tips.
In the meantime we found a program named Scratch where he can get a feel for how code works. Although Scratch was fun, it wasn't doing it for him so our friend Phil suggested Stencylworks. Still fun, but still wasn't what he was looking for. He wanted to make modifications to character costumes. Through searching around and playing he was able to find a paint program in a game called Minecraft he also plays and that was exactly what he was looking for; to be able to make costume modifications to characters in his game. Ah, all was right with the world again.
This kind of stuff happens ALL the time in our house and I love it!
I could have, and at one point in time I probably would have said, "Sorry kiddo. I don't know how to do that. You're on your own. Now leave me alone so I can do the dishes.", but things are different around here. They're better.
Unschooling for me is very much being with my kiddo, knowing him, helping, facilitating, working with and understanding him. It is not leaving him to figure things out on his own, unless that's what he is asking for. Which, sometimes it is. We are a team and we work together. I look for the sparks, I see his interests and we go from there.
Austin has been playing Little Big Planet for about three years now. It is a beautifully designed game with enchanting music where your character is a little poppet who solves puzzles in order to beat The Negativatron. There is a story to it, but Austin is much more interested in creating his own levels and characters.
Recently he came to me and said he wanted to buy a costume one of the characters wears in the game. So, we hopped on the Internet and started searching for how to do that. The search soon became frustrating because we couldn't find how to get the costume. I emailed some gamer friends and they were at a loss as well. Come to find out, there was no way to get the costume Austin wanted. I figured this out by asking him (after about an hour of searching) if he saw somewhere that you could buy or unlock the costume or if he was just really hoping you could. He said he was just really hoping you could.
Our search didn't end there because that's not how we roll around here. We kept searching trying to find a way. We were connecting and working together and it was too much fun to stop. We found out you can't make modifications on Play Station games unless you write code. Neither of us write code. Next, we started a whole new search! We know TONS of people who write code. Now the search turned to dad to find someone who writes code, specifically an artist who could give us some tips.
In the meantime we found a program named Scratch where he can get a feel for how code works. Although Scratch was fun, it wasn't doing it for him so our friend Phil suggested Stencylworks. Still fun, but still wasn't what he was looking for. He wanted to make modifications to character costumes. Through searching around and playing he was able to find a paint program in a game called Minecraft he also plays and that was exactly what he was looking for; to be able to make costume modifications to characters in his game. Ah, all was right with the world again.
This kind of stuff happens ALL the time in our house and I love it!
I could have, and at one point in time I probably would have said, "Sorry kiddo. I don't know how to do that. You're on your own. Now leave me alone so I can do the dishes.", but things are different around here. They're better.
Unschooling for me is very much being with my kiddo, knowing him, helping, facilitating, working with and understanding him. It is not leaving him to figure things out on his own, unless that's what he is asking for. Which, sometimes it is. We are a team and we work together. I look for the sparks, I see his interests and we go from there.
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