Coming Out of the Basement

Enrique mentioned, in his description of me, that’s he curiuos how I’ll indoctrinate my kids in to the geek world.

It’s pretty interesting now.  If anyone doesn’t know, my son Max is autistic (technically he’s on the autism spectrum with a diagnosis of PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified), but…).  So it modifies things a bit.  Ignoring the fact that my 16 year old sent me a text message today that read “Two by Two, Hands of Blue” for no discernable reason, has arguments at school about how many Death Stars there were (she was wrong, strangely),  plays MMOs, and mocks people for liking Star Trek, there are the little ones.

Both of my kids (aged 2 and 3) can use touch screen phones.  They can find the games they want, select them, play them, and then close out and pick new ones (Max is better at it than Kayleigh, but both are pretty good). 

I’m pretty sure they’re both getting Android tablets once they come out (I wasn’t allowed to buy them iPads or Touches).

Max has a complete understanding of both how to use a mouse and a touchpad.  He is currently playing Insaniquarium – an older PopCap game about feeding fish.  With the right set up, he can do pretty well.  He knows to buy more fish, he knows (mostly) to feed them, and he knows his goal is to get the egg for a new fish.  He also creates and deletes profiles (thanks Max).  And he can spell his name on the keyboard, although he is insistant that Max is spelled MNAX, not MAX. 

He can also navigate around the 360 Netflix and pick a show off the list, and play it, although he likes the shoulder buttons too much, so it’s hard to get just the one he wants.

Both kids play dragon and princess.  Max very much enjoys being dragon, and Kayleigh enjoys “Oh no!  Dragon’s chasing me!”  They have a ton of dragon toys, and seem to be quite fond of them.  Kayleigh desperately wants to be a mermaid right now.  She can also identify manatees by name. 

They’ve both seen (and requested to watch) the old Rankin-Bass Hobbit movie.  They also enjoy rolling big squishy dice.

So that’s a start.  ;)