What is it with boys?

I used to have a nice quiet, moderately gentle little boy. Now he is 9yo,
something has changed!

He is now doing French at school, and had to decorate a binder with pictures
of France. He drew the French flag, the Eiffel Tower - and then three
pictures of Frankish knights beating the other guys at the Battle of
Tours, sometime before Charlemagne.

His maths homework: given some sums, he had to come up with appropriate
word problems. One sum was 48/6 + 100. His problem - "48 soldiers
were divided into six groups on the battlefield. All the groups, except
one, were killed, then 100 reinforcements arrived. How many soldiers were
alive after the battle?"

Did I tell you about the little cakes he decorated: a crusader's shield -
with red icing for the blood.

Do all boys go through this stage?

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

In article ,
Penny Gaines wrote:

Do all boys go through this stage?

Not all, but many. I have a 10.5yo who at least so far has not gone
through that stage. I'm sure I'll have at least one who does though,
with three boys

Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)
--
Support a family business and learn about the technologies underlying
the Internet with the TCP/IP Guide! http://www.tcpipguide.com

In article ,
Penny Gaines wrote:

I used to have a nice quiet, moderately gentle little boy. Now he is 9yo,
something has changed!

He is now doing French at school, and had to decorate a binder with pictures
of France. He drew the French flag, the Eiffel Tower - and then three
pictures of Frankish knights beating the other guys at the Battle of
Tours, sometime before Charlemagne.

His maths homework: given some sums, he had to come up with appropriate
word problems. One sum was 48/6 + 100. His problem - "48 soldiers
were divided into six groups on the battlefield. All the groups, except
one, were killed, then 100 reinforcements arrived. How many soldiers were
alive after the battle?"

Did I tell you about the little cakes he decorated: a crusader's shield -
with red icing for the blood.

Do all boys go through this stage?

No. My son never did.

But one of my daughters did.

If they are at least getting the history and the math right, I wouldn't
worry about it.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

"Penny Gaines" wrote in message
...
I used to have a nice quiet, moderately gentle little boy. Now he is 9yo,
something has changed!

He is now doing French at school, and had to decorate a binder with
pictures
of France. He drew the French flag, the Eiffel Tower - and then three
pictures of Frankish knights beating the other guys at the Battle of
Tours, sometime before Charlemagne.

His maths homework: given some sums, he had to come up with appropriate
word problems. One sum was 48/6 + 100. His problem - "48 soldiers
were divided into six groups on the battlefield. All the groups, except
one, were killed, then 100 reinforcements arrived. How many soldiers were
alive after the battle?"

Did I tell you about the little cakes he decorated: a crusader's shield -
with red icing for the blood.

Do all boys go through this stage?



I don't know about *all* boys, but I can tell you that my brother and my son
both did/are. DS8 has been into knights, shining armor, Mongol hoards,
bows, arrows and especially triremes for at least six months. [I had to
look up triremes and I *thought* I was a history buff for ancient times.]
So, needless to say, a great deal of our homeschooling has focused on
ancient history, including battle tactics, how battles impacted ancient
times, and what the advent of certain battle weapons had, and what life was
like in those days. As long as they are learning the information and
applying it appropriately, I *think* it's ok. We'll know when our boys are
old and gray, right?

-Aula
--
see my creative works on ebay under http://snurl.com/369o
and on zazzle at http://snurl.com/38oh

I don't know about *all* boys, but I can tell you that my brother and my
son
both did/are. DS8 has been into knights, shining armor, Mongol hoards,
bows, arrows and especially triremes for at least six months. [snip] As
long as they are learning the information and
applying it appropriately, I *think* it's ok. We'll know when our boys
are
old and gray, right?

-Aula

Well, previous generations have already gone old and gray, so I think we
already do know. I suspect your brother turned out OK? I know a number of
men who were fascinated by war and weaponry as boys (as evidenced by photos
of them gleefully holding their new toy gun and/or by drawings they did as
kids) but who grew into kind, gentle adults -- even, in one case, a true
pacifist.

To Penny: Your son sounds pretty learned for his age to me!

just me wrote in :

"Penny Gaines" wrote in message
[snip]
Do all boys go through this stage?


I don't know about *all* boys, but I can tell you that my brother and my
son
both did/are. DS8 has been into knights, shining armor, Mongol hoards,
bows, arrows and especially triremes for at least six months. [I had to
look up triremes and I *thought* I was a history buff for ancient times.]
So, needless to say, a great deal of our homeschooling has focused on
ancient history, including battle tactics, how battles impacted ancient
times, and what the advent of certain battle weapons had, and what life
was
like in those days. As long as they are learning the information and
applying it appropriately, I *think* it's ok. We'll know when our boys
are old and gray, right?

Does he play Age of Empires, the computer game? that has triremes in it.
I know some DS gets information from them, and then we have to go back and
check it is correct. The other problem we have is that if it is the
English v anyone else in a campaign, it is always written from the anyone
else perspective. It isn't so bad when it is the English v the Scots -
we have Scottish roots - but I mind a bit more when it is from the
Roman/French etc viewpoint.

Last year, we had a village fair, and ds worked out how to win the
ball-in-a-bucket competition. You could choose your prize: so after
a few goes ds had about 4 really cheap bow and arrow sets. He loved them,
but now we are down to our last remaining bow, and one arrow.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

"Penny Gaines" wrote in message
...
Does he play Age of Empires, the computer game? that has triremes in it.
I know some DS gets information from them, and then we have to go back and
check it is correct. The other problem we have is that if it is the
English v anyone else in a campaign, it is always written from the anyone
else perspective. It isn't so bad when it is the English v the Scots -
we have Scottish roots - but I mind a bit more when it is from the
Roman/French etc viewpoint.


Argh! You figured him out! Ages of Empire has been some of the catalist on
this whole ancient weapons thing lately. We have been spending loads of
time researching with him to show him that certain things featured in Age of
Empires are not historically accurate. He's starting to believe us. But
the research has been fun and he's spent hours reading a series of Time Life
books I bought a couple years ago that go into real depth about what it was
like to live in various ages of the world. So I guess the influence of that
&*&*& computer game isn't all bad! ;-)

How old is your DS again? Our DS is 8 and it just seems to go with the age,
like the non-stop talking [how does he breath while talking that much
anyway?]. His friends are not particularly into this stuff, but boy is DS!



Last year, we had a village fair, and ds worked out how to win the
ball-in-a-bucket competition. You could choose your prize: so after
a few goes ds had about 4 really cheap bow and arrow sets. He loved them,
but now we are down to our last remaining bow, and one arrow.



Ds would be green with envy. He *so* wants a bow and arrow play set and we
are having troubles locating any set that isn't the really really cheapo
stuff that will break in under an hour. I keep trying to interest him in ye
olde stick and string bow but he ain't buying. Ah, life is so tough......

-Aula
--
see my creative works on ebay under http://snurl.com/369o
and on zazzle at http://snurl.com/38oh

just me wrote in :

"Penny Gaines" wrote in message
...
Does he play Age of Empires, the computer game? that has triremes in it.
I know some DS gets information from them, and then we have to go back
and
check it is correct. The other problem we have is that if it is the
English v anyone else in a campaign, it is always written from the anyone
else perspective. It isn't so bad when it is the English v the Scots -
we have Scottish roots - but I mind a bit more when it is from the
Roman/French etc viewpoint.

Argh! You figured him out! Ages of Empire has been some of the catalist
on
this whole ancient weapons thing lately. We have been spending loads of
time researching with him to show him that certain things featured in Age
of
Empires are not historically accurate. He's starting to believe us. But

What in particular was not accurate? We've mostly talked about the
campaigns and scenarios not being accurate, but haven't discussed
the weapons or types of unit. He does play some other games- Stronghold
and Medieaval Total War - which treat similarly named units differently,
so he is getting different views of them.

the research has been fun and he's spent hours reading a series of Time
Life books I bought a couple years ago that go into real depth about what
it was
like to live in various ages of the world. So I guess the influence of
that
&*&*& computer game isn't all bad! ;-)

I have a secret confession: I like Age of Empires too. Dh and I often play
together against the computer, with ds sometimes joining in.

How old is your DS again? Our DS is 8 and it just seems to go with the
age, like the non-stop talking [how does he breath while talking that much
anyway?]. His friends are not particularly into this stuff, but boy is
DS!

Ds is 9yo. I know at school there was a craze for drawing stick people
armies, but that seems to have faded. Ds has a printed homework planner,
and he often draws weapons on the picture of the bookworm who is it.
In a way, I'm glad he is into bows and arrows/swords rather then guns.

Last year, we had a village fair, and ds worked out how to win the
ball-in-a-bucket competition. You could choose your prize: so after
a few goes ds had about 4 really cheap bow and arrow sets. He loved
them, but now we are down to our last remaining bow, and one arrow.

Ds would be green with envy. He *so* wants a bow and arrow play set and
we are having troubles locating any set that isn't the really really
cheapo
stuff that will break in under an hour. I keep trying to interest him in
ye
olde stick and string bow but he ain't buying. Ah, life is so tough......

Well, these were really cheap: they've lasted because he started with a lot,
and is usually very careful with his things. He has never been the kind
of child who breaks his toys in normal use.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

In article , just me wrote:
Argh! You figured him out! Ages of Empire has been some of the catalist on
this whole ancient weapons thing lately. We have been spending loads of
time researching with him to show him that certain things featured in Age of
Empires are not historically accurate. He's starting to believe us. But
the research has been fun and he's spent hours reading a series of Time Life
books I bought a couple years ago that go into real depth about what it was
like to live in various ages of the world. So I guess the influence of that
&*&*& computer game isn't all bad! ;-)


The Pitsco catalog has a nice model trebuchet to build. It is a bit
difficult for a 7-year-old, but should be doable by a 10-year-old.
A 7-year-old has no trouble firing it, if an adult helps build it.
It fires bits of clay (about 2 gram balls) and should please the
kids enthusiatic about medieval weaponry without getting into
blood-and-guts play.


--
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
Affiliations for identification only.

"Penny Gaines" wrote in message
...
What in particular was not accurate?

The main inaccuracies result from the grouping of weapons and exclusion of
others in such a way that DS assumed that *all* cultures/societies from the
time periods or empires utilized as the backdrops of the scenarios were
required to use those same groupings of weapons even though they didn't have
them in reality. [example: elephant based weaponry in northern Europe].
We have not obtained similar games but might, based on your experience.

I have a secret confession: I like Age of Empires too. Dh and I often
play
together against the computer, with ds sometimes joining in.

We all enjoy the game, too. I just don't have time to play it and am
hopelessly less adept at it due to that.

-Aula
--
see my creative works on ebay under http://snurl.com/369o
and on zazzle at http://snurl.com/38oh