I’ve always been a mom that didn’t think electronics, video games and phones were good for kids. This is why Suzzane didn’t have a cell phone until she was 12 and we only had one phone in our home and no, video games so we could spend time as a family.
Then I had Charlie and were we lived there were no, kids for Charlie to play with and David enjoyed playing video games. I gave in and we brought David’s video games home from his mom. Before I knew it Charlie and David were playing the games together.
Then we moved into a new apartment complex and the video games is all Charlie had to do unless David was off and could take us to the Park. Finally we moved into our Mobile Home and Charlie made a lot of friends and he spent just as much time on the games as he did outside.
When we begin homeschooling the video games is one of the ways we did schooling and thanks to the video games it’s how Charlie make extra money now and he has a whole family online that would do anything for Charlie at anytime and I thank the Lord for that..
This morning started out like most mornings in our house except David was off and we were waiting for the time to take Charlie to work. The house was still waking up, coffee was going, and he was sitting in his usual spot playing his video games for a little while before leaving. It’s one of those normal routines you almost don’t think twice about anymore, but every now and then I catch myself just watching and remembering how long this has been part of his life.
When Charlie was younger and we were homeschooling, video games weren’t just something he did in between lessons or after schoolwork. Sometimes they were part of how he learned to focus in the first place. I know that probably sounds different to some people, but for him it worked in a way that traditional methods didn’t always reach. Instead of forcing everything into one structure, we learned to work with how he naturally paid attention and stayed engaged. Which is what his counselor had us do.
I remember sitting in the same room while he played and listening to him talk through what he was doing. He would explain strategies, what he was trying to accomplish, and how one decision changed everything that came next. At the time, I didn’t fully realize how much thinking and learning was happening in those moments. I just knew he was locked in, focused, and actually understanding things in a way that stuck.
Over time, I started to see that what looked like “just gaming” was really problem-solving, patience, and persistence. If something didn’t work, he didn’t stop. He would try again, adjust, look things up, and figure out a different way forward. That mindset didn’t stay inside the game either. It started showing up in real life when things got hard or confusing.
Homeschooling gave me a front row seat to how he learns, and it taught me something too. It taught me not to dismiss something just because it didn’t look like traditional learning. Charlie wasn’t sitting there checking boxes the way a classroom might, but he was learning how to think, how to plan, and how to keep going when things didn’t go right the first time.
Looking back now, I can see how much of that foundation was being built during those years, even when I didn’t have the full picture yet. Here is the fun part about Charlie’s gaming not only was he learning and not realizing it I was to as we built cars and wrestlers. As well as watching shows about the games and discussing what we saw.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
