Henry Plays Video Games
Henry has become a great video game player! I got Lego Star Wars for him, and he’s been playing it a lot. It’s a fun game that we can play together cooperatively, or he can play it by himself. At first he just ran around and hit stuff with his light saber, but now he really understands all the problem solving and puzzles. In the game, you can select several different characters, all with different skills. Some have light sabers, some shoot, some can jump high, some can fly, you need to use a certain one to open certain doors, etc. He gets all of it. He’ll switch over to Jar Jar to jump on a high ledge, and then he’ll see an R2-D2 switch and switch to R2-D2 for that. Right now he’s pushing boxes into the places they belong. I never taught him to do that; he just figured it out by watching me. I just taught him a button combination that requires three different button presses and pretty precise timing, and he got it on his first try! This morning he got up pretty early so I dozed on the couch while he played, and he completed three levels of it all by himself. It’s so amazing watching him not only learn the mechanics of it (how to move the guy on the screen, what certain buttons do), but to see him thinking about how to solve these puzzles.
Wow – he just successfully navigated a really tricky platform and bridge section! He tried once and fell off at the very end. He asked me to do it for him and I told him to try one more time and I’d help him if he couldn’t get it. He tried it again and made it all the way!