There and Back Again

Minecraft on Xbox 360. My son is on the left and I am on the right. I am looking at his pet Iron Golem (he told me his name, but I cannot remember it now) As mentioned , my son watches many Minecraft videos on YouTube. During this December holidays, we have given him more time to play games on the iPad and Xbox. He is going to start Primary One in one week's time so we have been closing one eye to his game playing time (though I do drag him to the bookshop, to swimming and test his spelling once in a while). Nowadays, my son wants me to join him in his Minecraft games- both on the iPad and the Xbox. I have to admit that he is better at this game than him. He creates really amazing worlds in his games. I am really humbled when I see his creations.  He has named himself '8469 tryert'. His first online screen name / user name. I am looking at a trap he build. Unsuspecting villagers will walk and fall into the lava pit. He's a devious boy. He h

My son has always been an avid Youtube viewer. I know some people frown on kids using any handheld devices. I addressed this in a previous blog . But of course, you cannot allow uncontrolled access on media like YouTube - there are simply too many adults who swear freely on their videos. When users criticise them on their use of profanities, they point out that Youtube is only available for 13+ users - as if it is okay for a 13 year old to use the 'f' word. As a parent, we need to try to fight back against these people and only allow safe videos for our children. Let's see what sort of things parents can do to help make YouTube safe for our children. Create a family account Create a Google family account so that you can control the account and us it to login YouTube. Once you have done that, you can create playlists, monitor the videos they watch and control who communicates with them. Only allow them to create their own accounts when they are older, preferably when t

We were in Taiwan for a holiday during the third week of December. It was something we planned for quite some time. We thought of Japan and South Korea but eventually decided on Taiwan because my son is afraid of the volcanoes in Japan. Needless to say, we did not say anything about the fact that there are volcanoes in Taiwan too. He can be a very frustrating person to travel with. Once he has settled down in a hotel room, it is really difficult to extract him from the hotel bed and go sight seeing again. This usually happens at night and in the morning when we want leave the hotel room to have a meal. We usually try to persuade and reason with him, though it escalates to a stern tone and threats on some days.  But despite all the complaining, he does perk up when we reach each location. When we were in Sun Moon Lake. We wanted to visit the Formosa Aborigine Cultural Village (九镞文化村), but he kept complaining that there was nothing for him to do and that it was going to be very b

This month, my son finally completed his kindergarten education. Not that it is a big deal - after all, who really wants to know what kindergarten you studied when you were a little tot? But for a kid, it is a big deal. It is basically all they know! Lucas in his graduation gown Anyway, you can guess that kindergarten is almost over when there is a graduation ceremony. In kindergarten, when you complete it, you get to wear a graduation gown  and a mortarboard (actually, it is properly known as academic dress). When you finish primary and secondary school, you do not get anything! Even though you have achieved more! I hope I will get to see him in a graduation gown again. Maybe a few times. Maybe with a lot of colours and a Tudor bonnet instead of a mortarboard. My wishful thinking. The final day of his school was last Friday. We are going on a holiday to Taiwan and after that, he is not going back to kindergarten. We hope to let him have a good two weeks of 'rest'. He