GregHowley.com

Lia is officially a year old now, and I've been thinking recently about when to introduce her to certain things. Granted, most of what I'm thinking of is still many years out, but since there are a few readers of my site who have kids a few years older, I figured I'd spew some thoughts on the subject.

Granted, I'm going to make sure Lia learns everything she needs in school, and I'll likely also get her some piano lessons and make sure she can do a decent swingout, but even these artsy elements are still technically traditional education. What about the geekification?

I know that in our family she'll be exposed to a good amount of SciFi without any real effort. But when she hits a certain age, I'd like to (for example) make an intentional effort and start going through all the Farscape episodes with her - it could be a fun weekly thing. And once she's old enough to understand and appreciate what's going on, I'll sit her down in front of the original Star Wars trilogy and make sure she understands the dramatic surprise when Luke finds out about his father.

I'm also trying to instill in her early a love of books. I don't remember exactly how old I was when I first picked up The Chronicles of Narnia, but I think that's the first fantasy fiction series I ever read. It predates even my read of The Elfstones of Shannara in 8th grade, which I've often thought of as my introduction to fantasy fiction. The problem with books right now is that she's still at the stage where she'll inadvertently tear pages out of anything but board books, and she generally doesn't want to sit still for even the 2-minute reading of a baby book unless it's got cardboard flaps she can lift up to see something shiny behind it. Still, I keep trying. When she's old enough, I'll introduce her to some Piers Anthony books.

At some point when she's older, I should see if she's interested in comics. I'll have to consult some of my comic-reading friends when that time comes to see what might be appropriate for a young girl, while avoiding inane stories about horsies and preferably keeping some sort of sci fi edge.

I suppose we'll eventually introduce her to board games with something simple like Chutes and Ladders or maybe Trouble. I can't expect her to start with Settlers of Catan, Carcasonne, or any of the really good board games. But I look forward to the day when Linda and I can play these with Lia.

Lastly, video games. She'll probably get started with something akin to a Leapfrog educational thingy, but I imagine she'll watch her parents playing MarioKart and want in on the action before long. I've long had fantasies of pulling out my old Commodore and hooking it back up - I sure hope it still works. I'd love to show her Mail Order Monsters, Forbidden Forest, Archon, and so many other goodies from my own childhood.

I do know that the majority of these concerns are at least a half-decade premature; she'll be working hard to learn how to talk and perfect those walking skills for some time to come. But thinking about Frank's daughter Cori and his baby Camryn, about Brandon and Linda's kids Ben and Abby, and about Kris's young apprentice Kyle, I got to wondering how they might be sharing their geekness with the younglings.