The End of Summer

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 | Editorial

I saw an article this morning called 21 Things for Kids to do Before the Summer Ends and thought the list they presented had a few good ideas, but one gross omission.

Most of my picks from the list don’t show up until the double digits. In particular I liked (or have done when I was younger and summer still meant something);

#2 Direct a stop action movie starring Legos or action figures (or clay).

#10 Choose a series of movies (Back to the Future) and hold an all-day movie festival, watching them all.

#12 Write your own book and publish it.

#13 Pick a new (nonFPS video) game to learn and play it every day until you’ve mastered it.

#15 Go to a river or lake and have a rock skipping contest.

#16 Learn how to fold a new paper airplane. See what type flies farthest.

#18 Create your own board game.

However I can’t help but notice that write your own video game isn’t even mentioned! I suppose you could shoehorn it into #14 Spend a week or more honing an important skill, but come on. Ice candles? How did ice candles make the cut and writing your own video game not? I’ve correct this by adding it to the comments on the site.

Haven’t I shown how easy it is to write video games? I’ve shown you how to get set up, inspired you with numerous examples, shown that they don’t have to be flashy to be fun, and provided learning resources. Come on, kids. Summer’s not over. Let’s write some video games!