Our Kids and Their Media - Jake

Jake:

I think all our regular readers know that Jake has become a football obsessed crazy person. He loves it. Pro Football, College, High School, cartoon football, you name it. He is officially better than me at Madden now and knows all of the plays and formations by heart. He memorizes the rosters and recognizes the players in the real games from his video teams. I refused to let him get into fantasy football this year, but only by promising we'd join a league together next season (I wanted him to root for the team and the game, before he learned to root for stats). He starts flag league this year and can't wait. He plays with his friends in the yard and struts like an NFL receiver when he makes a catch (I'm really hoping that his 1st coach screams at him for it or one of the other players pops him one, because I can't seem to get him to stop - and NO, I'M NOT COACHING).

Theory of a Deadman - Okay, maybe not my best parenting move, but I don't feel that a little loud, sexist rock music filled with bad language and drug/drinking references ever hurt anyone....what? Hey, I like it, he rides around with me in the car, sorry, he's gonna hear it. I have explained what it's about and what the language means, that's it's said for effect etc. Truthfully, I'm a little proud...

We just finished this Mike Lupica book which Jake just loved. It's really the first good sized chapter book he's ever sat thru. 30 something chapters and 250 ish pages are a major accomplishment for us and I'm really proud of the way he stayed into it and followed along. Now the kid in the story is a huge Patriots fan, the QB for his youth football team and get's to meet Tom Brady, so it's not like we were reading Tolstoy, but still you've got to start somewhere. The best thing is Lupica has about 100 other kids books that all revolve around sports, so I don't have to read SpongeBob anymore at bedtime (at least for Jake, Tanner is still a SB devotee).