About half-way through last year, a year in which I dedicated quite a bit of time to playing Pokemon Go, I decided that it would make a great topic about which to blog.
So here goes…
This year’s Tuesday Slices of Life will be dedicated to describing the year I played Pokemon Go with my two sons, Liam and Kieran.
The first thing I thought I would write about is why I started playing Pokemon Go in the first place.
I knew that my sons played. My younger son often lamented that I wouldn’t drive him around to play more. That he had daily challenges and there were events he wanted to complete. Huh?
I really had no interest in playing and, in general, am bad at playing video games.
One night, however, we were sitting at my daughter’s basketball game. Kieran kept commenting about how there were many Pokestops (a way to play the game) at our location, but he couldn’t “play” any, because he didn’t have a device with a data plan.
Next thing I knew, I was saying, maybe I could play to get him “things.” I could spin Pokestops (I will explain this later, lol) when we only had access to our data and he did not, and then give him anything that he wanted (I will also explain this later).
He was so excited about this idea.
As soon as we got home (to WiFi), he changed one of his accounts (shh, having more than one account is frowned upon and considered cheating) and named it: MotherPi1. Yes, this is my Pokemon Go name, as Liam is SuperPi2 and Kieran is/used to be UltraPi3. These were video game names they gave themselves back when they started playing Mario Bros. games in elementary school.
I was “in.” I am MotherPi1!
And that’s really how it started. I really thought it would be a way to connect with my soon-to-be teenage son. I thought maybe it would be neat to learn about something that only they knew about and be welcomed into their world, maybe for the last time before they grew up.
And now I have a year’s worth of blogging topics so there is now a renewed reason to write.
Thanks for the opportunity.
aileenhower's Blog 
I look forward to reading your posts this year. Like you, “I really had no interest in playing and, in general, am bad at playing video games.” Reading about your video game adventure might help me understand my students’ fascination.
Sounds int, Aileen. I don’t know a thing about this subject so I look forward to learning from your posts.
I had to click on your slice because my son is also into Pokemon Go! Pokemon anything really 🙂 I recently joined Roblox to better understand my son’s love of playing these games. He’s not a pre-teen yet, but he is turning ten this year and, like you, I am looking for ways to keep my connection with him as he nears those teen years! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading!