Wednesday 14 September 2016

A Little Light Reading

It's been "revealed" the age at which parents stop reading to their children is:   11

I have one of them and I've stopped reading to him.  I love books, I love reading and getting lost in a story with characters I care about and want to join on whatever part of their journey.  But I don't want to do it reading out loud to someone who's not really that interested, wishing they were playing on their X-box or watching YouTube and keeps asking me inane questions to waste time.

By the time the 11 year old is going to bed it's 9pm. I'm tired and have usually lost patience and the will to live by then.  I've been up since 6am, made packed lunches, done one school run, commuted on trains to work and back and done an 8 hour stint in the office. Meals are made and questions are raised about the homework that should or shouldn't be done.  I've argued with both children about showers and hair washing and wrangled the 6 year old into bed bemoaning the fact the 11 year old has a later bedtime.  

I still read to the 6 year old.  She's too little for me to stop but I bet I wont be by the time she's 11. 

Do you still read to your 11 year old?  

Sunday 11 September 2016

All Aboard The Gaming Bus

I never in a million years expected to find myself at a gaming event, yet that is what happened this weekend.  The 11 year old and I went off to Alexandra Palace in North London and spent a whole day at Legends of Gaming 2016.

I'm not a gamer in any shape or form.  Apart from my recent interest in Pokemon Go. The 11 year old is. From the age of 5 he loved his DS, playing Mario Kart and mini games. He moved onto the Wii where Mr.M and the boy played Mario Kart tournaments, they ski-ed, played tennis, darts, danced and beat up Bowser.  Then 11 year old begged for an X-box.  That was the game changer for him and us. Gone were the family fun games and in came games where he wanted to be on a headset to his friends and shoot people.

So when I saw an advert for Legends Of Gaming, I thought to myself. Aha, I know a young man who might enjoy this event and promptly booked general day tickets for £15 each.

When we arrived the queue was huge although moving quite quickly. Luckily we spotted 11 year old's friend with his Dad and we nipped in with them.
Slightly soggy in the queue.


As soon as we got in, the boys wanted to be off and running everywhere, looking at everything. Within half an hour one of the 11 year old's favourite You Tubers, Ali-A. was taking part in a tournament. The boys took their place in front of the main stage whilst the Dad and I waited off to one side. 




The boys were off the scale excited. Ali-A was competing in a Minecraft tournament against Dan-TDM. Neither of them play Minecraft much anymore but to actually see their favourites in "real life" was the equivalent of me seeing Gary Barlow.

The event obviously had lots of stalls from many, many gaming companies, There were banks of screens all over the place for kids (and many adults) to try out new and old games. There was the gaming bus and the gaming van. (available for parties).
ALL ABOARD
By 3pm the Dad and I were shattered, in need of tea and a sit down. We managed to find a quiet corner, where we could re-charge our batteries. (not literally.)

The boys had walked, played, bought expensive Japanese & American candy and overall had a great day. By 4pm we managed to get them out the door.  They had a great time and really enjoyed it.

If you have a young gamer, I'd certainly recommend this event for 2017.