What do your middle school boys do at home, other than screen time and homework?

[Anonymous]

Have you looked into TIC camp for your son? It's a computer camp that gets the kids working at pretty high levels on things like games and robotics, as well as some general programming skills. They also have a sports component but the kids are not all jocks and there are activities for all skill levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is 12 and has started hacking into web game sites. In one sense I appreciate it because he's dowloaded and is teaching himself visual basic. But we're waiting for the FBI to knock. He's already gotten into 2 sites. I've suggested writing apps for money and he likes that idea but it may be beyond his skill level. Yes, he does day camps to keep otherwise occupied. Does anybody else have this problem?

We got him a guitar and it's a great diversion.

That's an interesting question. My son is only 8, but he's been looking for "hack codes" for his computer games and wii games. I didn't think there was anything wrong or illegal about it -- they sell the "Hack code" books at the bookstore, even.

[Anonymous]

9:19, thanks for the suggestion about computer camps. I agree, this needs to be channeled in positive directions.

Yes, we're familiar with the hack codes that you can download, too. I tend to agree with you - if this was illegal, somebody, like YouTube which has them, would have shut it down. Or the site being hacked would have sued the folks who post this free hack-ware. But do we know for sure this is OK? Maybe I'll start a new thread on this topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you looked into TIC camp for your son? It's a computer camp that gets the kids working at pretty high levels on things like games and robotics, as well as some general programming skills. They also have a sports component but the kids are not all jocks and there are activities for all skill levels.

OP here, I'm kind of laughing reading this because my son was actually at TIC last session when I wrote the post. We loved TIC, but he's gone on to a different camp for this session. We don't have trouble figuring out things to do outside of the house, it's afternoons/evernings when camp's over and mom's not available to drive/accompany him to the pool/ice skating rink/movies etc . . . that he gets bored.

However, we have a happy ending. He got bored with the limited TV we have so he's been playing a lot of the game Empire Builders (a board game where you build train tracks and carry stuff around the country), spending hours pouring over his Yugioh cards, and reading the Charlie Bone series of books.