I think I first heard about the benefits of letting your kids teach you stuff from one of my most favorite resources of all time, BraveWriter.com. Kids love it if we enter in to their activities and interests, and we get to have the experience of being the student for a change! What’s more, when your kids articulate the instructions required to play a game or create something, they are using those organizational skills that are so important in public speaking, writing, and more!
I have let them teach me things before, but today we decided to make it official with Teach Me Tuesdays! We are going to try out having a special opportunity for the kids to teach me something they would like me to know. So first off I was invited to learn to play their new favorite video game, Destiny.
Now, I’m not a gamer, failed miserably when they tried to teach me Mario Cart last year (it’s true! LOL), but I’m crazy about my boys, and you should have seen their faces light up when I agreed to learn their game. As my 16 year old son said, “Mom, if you can learn to play Destiny, you will be, like 10 times cooler than you already are!!
And honestly, who doesn’t want to be *ten times cooler* in the eyes of their teenagers?!
COUNT ME IN, YO!
All day they looked forward to it. I was peppered with questions like, “Mom, do you want to be a warlock, a titan, or a hunter?” “Do you want to be a human, or a blue person, or a robot-looking person?” They were each trying to give me tips and warnings and encouragement so I could be the best 43-year old lady Destiny warrior in town. 😉
I picked a human female titan for my character. The boys were so sweet, teaching me how to use the controls, making sure I had a comfy chair, and listening to my explanation of difficulties in maneuvers. When they caught on that I was instinctively feeling like the right knob should be moving me, instead of the left, they had a fix: They switched me to “southpaw” mode and then things felt much more intuitive for me. They encouraged me with instructions and assistance when I needed it. “Take aim!” “Take cover!” “Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” “Melee him! Melee that guy!” (that means to punch him! I was good at that.) They hooted and cheered when I finally got the hang of it and started shooting and running and meleeing with some semblance of skill. When I leveled up to Level 2 they all clapped and cheered for me, and I admit I was pretty excited about it too. 🙂
It was fun! And I was amazed once again at the amount of skill, detail, and dexterity that goes into playing a game like this. I will definitely play Destiny with them again, and I know they will love it that now they can talk to me about their game and I will know something about what they are excited about.
What will you let your kiddos teach you this week?