Thursday, June 27, 2013

FML - My plans for my son's sci-fi development

So yesterday I mused on whether or not I am a nerd. Whether I'm a nerd or not, I love sci-fi and I want to make sure to pass that on to my son. So, this is my action plan for my son's sci-fi development. If you have any additional suggestions that I am missing, let me know in the comments!
  • Start him out on sci-fi with cartoons. Star Wars: Clone Wars, X-Men, & Spider-Man cartoons to start. With those latter two, I'll go with the DVDs of the awesome 90s cartoons I grew up with myself.
  • Dress him in sci-fi stuff as often as possible. As I mentioned yesterday, I have an adorable Star Wars hoodie for him, but he also has stuff for Spider-Man, Star Trek, the Avengers, Superman, Batman, & many more that I dress him in whenever possible. (And when he's not wearing these he's usually clad in Maize & Blue to build up his Michigan love).
  • When he gets older, start him on the Star Wars films. The proper viewing order is Episodes 4, 5, 2, 3, 6. Episode 1 is dead to me and I want to avoid Jar-Jar in his life for as long as possible. When he's older he can go back and view that one later. For more on why this is the proper viewing order - go here and read this outstanding article I came across.  As to the new ones they are planning on making, obviously those would be added to the viewing order for where they fall in to the universe's timeline.
  • Start him on sci-fi television when he's young with the more kid friendly Star Trek: TNG when he is about 10, maybe a little younger.  After TNG I'll have him watch Star Trek DS9 and the JJ Abrams Trek films.  I'll introduce the more serialized Lost and Babylon 5 when he is a little older.  
  • He'll start on comic book movies once he is old enough (10 maybe?), especially the Marvel films of the past couple of years, and the Chris Nolan Batman movies. 
  • I'll have him read the works of JRR Tolkein as soon as he is old enough to understand them, as well as watch the Peter Jackson films once he is old enough to not be disturbed by the violence in the films.
  • Game of Thrones can wait until he is deeper into his teenage years, due to the sex and nudity on the show and in the books.
  • He'll be exposed to board games at family game nights, and once he is old enough to understand some of the more complex games we can move into strategy and fantasy games. I have never played D&D but I would be okay with him doing this in his early teens (and if he took to this I'd love to play it with him). I'd love to play Magic the Gathering with him as well, I started that game myself when I was about 12.
Ok so that's my plan.  Fellow sci-fi loving parents, if you have any other suggestions, please let me know!

2 comments:

  1. Good plan, Mike! But no mention of TMNT?!

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    1. Good point, forgot that one as one of the cartoons to start him on. Gotta dig up the one from the 90s that we grew up on!

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