Every once in a while, LittleNortherner gets to use the "big computer" to play games. It's a total cop-out on the part of his parents, but when it comes time to cook dinner or complete an intricate task without being interrupted with a million questions, it's super-easy to switch on the PC, bring up pbskids.org, and get the job done.
Little Northerner loves to watch the shows on pbskids, and the games are a special treat to him. He found one the other day that had to do with building circuits to complete machines and then creating the right gizmos in the correct order. There's a screen-shot below, but some of the tasks that LittleNortherner had to do were:
-choose the correct machine to build the gizmos that he anticipated his customer would ask for,
-draw the lines to connect the entire circuit, from power source to switch to power meter to machine...observing correct polarity, no less!
-while operating the machine, he had to correctly choose the product to create in response to his customer's order, keep an eye on the power meter, and swap batteries (by picking the right time between product outputs and then de-energizing the circuit to swap batteries)
This looked like an interesting and complicated enough game that NorthernDaddy wanted to try a round, but he was too late. LittleNortherner had set up his game and was ready to go - the only thing he called Daddy out of the kitchen for was to ask what a 'cricket intruptor' was. After NorthernDaddy explained that a "circuit interruptor" was a fancy name for a switch, LittleNortherner was off and running.
He's good at this game...
NorthernDaddy came out of the kitchen to watch him play for a few minutes, and he was amazed. NorthernDaddy sometimes forgets that Little is six now....he remembers the time that Little was so small and helpless and had a hard time figuring out whether his toes were something to eat or not. Back when Little could be fooled by an adult "hiding" behind their own two hands. Okay, maybe Daddy realizes that LittleNortherner is growing older and getting smarter - the little guy is reading and helping with work around the house, but Daddy is still stopped-in-his-tracks-amazed when he sees Little doing so well at detailed games like this......
....Guess that's part of the whole "Grow up fast and move out of my house soon/don't ever get older and independent" conundrum that vexes all parents....
