硅谷回音

You might want to spend time with him on other activities that divide his attention.  It won't be effective if you just tell him not to play computer games.

We have a 3rd grader who hasn't played much computer games at home; we don't have wii, xbox, nintendo or computer games.

One time when he was at first or second grade, he brought home a stack of paper drawings. After spending some time playing with him, I realized that these drawings were game designs he learned from watching other kids play at after-school:  I was told to trace some path, or find some treasures on each piece of paper in order to advance to the next 'level'; there were also traps to set you back to an earlier 'level'. It was quite fascinating. But paper games it remained.

There are things beside computer games which could occupy a child just as much.

Recently my son is hooked on listening to audio recordings of his favorite Oz series of books.  He has read almost all books of this series before, but he has got into another 'cycle' of attachment to this series again.  He would listen to chapter after chapter of these recordings before starting on piano or homework.  Fortunately, there are only so many audio Oz books online; I am sure he will move on to something else soon.

老大经常被他同学的父母当作“模范”学生来教育。一天，一个妈妈给她儿子讲：你要跟Peter学。Peter肯定是从来不玩电脑游戏的。

这个孩子立刻叫起来：mom！Peter很会玩电脑游戏的。从来不玩电脑游戏的是我！

这个从来不玩电脑游戏的孩子SAT从没到补习班补习过，一共在家自己做了两套题，一次就考了2350.

现在孩子玩电脑就像以前我们跳橡皮筋，玩沙包。最主要的还是要有节，有度。

老二在学校很popular, 玩了一手好game经常有朋友打电话给他请教怎么玩，因此我被评为nicest mom， 因为给他玩游戏的时间最多。他同学中也有很极端的， 父母平时不让玩game的。

为了让老二少玩game, 我也让他上许多课外活动，他喜欢打球，可是不喜欢reading，所以billytang建议的方法对他没用。也很有意思， 我家老大也玩， 但是不addicted， 没有玩的时侯他enjoy reading.

朋友的女儿十二年级， 她告诉我说，computer game害了不少她们班的同学， 申请大学都太晚了。我担心这种事会发生在老二这样的人身上。

可是我肯定还是做我的＂nicest mom＂。希望老二大一点了会明白，把主次分好。

blueray, I have a daughter who doesn't play much game.  I don't find a problem to block some websites.  By the way, I use Vista.  What's yours?  For the time allocation, I give her two time slots: 2-3pm and 5-6pm.  She finishes school around 2pm, so by the time she gets home, it's around 2:30, she uses the remaining half hour to check email.  Then she does homework, snack, play etc.  She uses the second slot to play or do homework on the computer and right afterward it's supper time!.  Sometimes she can't finish homework within an hour, for example, doing research,  I'll give extra hour (7-8pm because 8pm is piano time!) .  But remember to remove the extra hour afterwards for she can be sneaky and use it next time if you forget.  For the little one is still young so he forgets about computer a lot of time.   I give 4 hours on weekend mornings starting at 8am so she is more motivated to get up early(still around 9am).  It's a lot of pain for sure.  For other parents, if you have better use of the admin function to control your kids access to computer, please share them here.  Appreciated.

Thanks everyone for your response.

静净，we are using windows 7.  Your input is very useful.

Hotchili, sorry about the misspelling of your name last time, 现在我中文水平和英文都很糟糕，以后posting得先spelling check.

Games as art paper 太高深，恐怕很多小孩都读不懂，跟别说写了，but thanks for sharing.