Movie Therapy-- "The Imitation Game"

Objective: 

Teach our son, TsukiMoon, about feelings and motivations of others.

Theory:  

Watching movies that have complex character development will build TsukiMoon's understanding of people.  Also watching closeups of faces that are 12-15 feet tall helps TsukiMoon see and internalize emotions of others.

On the ground:

Finding the right movies that are character driven, are fast pace, but aren't heavy on violence or sex is a trick.  TsukiMoon is 9 years old, most of the movies in this specific area are not appropriate, not fast enough paced, or not an interesting subject to him. 

Our first choice to try out this theory was "The Imitation Game" this holiday.  It was a perfect movie for TsukiMoon   It was about WW2, TsukiMoon's favorite subject.  It was fast paced but character driven, full of emotional turmoil and nuance.  Plus telling an early story of the person who created the Turning Machine didn't hurt either.

"The Imitation Game" is true story is about British Intelligence breaking the Nazi enigma machine which would decode all of the Nazi troop movements.  The theory of Alan Turning was that it took a machine to unlock the secrets of another machine.  Going against all his colleagues and his seniors, frustrating them greatly, he pursued something that he believed in.  It turned out that his answer was correct.  

The way that the actor, Benedict Cumberbatch, played Alan Turning as a person on the spectrum.  Wether this was true I don't know but it was good for TsukiMoon to watch a person communicate badly with others and watch the reactions of others to his seemly illogical reactions (relative to "normal" people).

TsukiMoon enjoyed the movie.  We talked as a family how Turning could have communicated better, what clues he missed in the people he worked with.  It is important for TsukiMoon to learn problem solving by seeing solutions that work and those that don't.  A good first start.

Movie Therapy-- "October Sky"

Objective: 

Teach our son, TsukiMoon, about feelings and motivations of others.

Theory:  

Watching movies that have complex character development will build TsukiMoon's understanding of people and their emotions.

On the ground:

Unlike television, movies usually have a solution, which is an important part of the process to help Boo learn.  TsukiMoon needs to see that there are solutions to the challenges that people face.  

The choice to watch "October Sky" came out of TsukiMoon's interest in rockets.  As mentioned in other parts of this blog, TsukiMoon's dad took him to a rocket day at a local airfield.  We had done this earlier in TsukiMoon's life, when he was about 5 but not since.  On happenstance when I was off at a knitting convention, Mr. TsukiMoon was reminded of Rocket Day at a near by airfield.  They went to the house and got the rocket that was used when TsukiMoon was 5 and brought it to the launch pads set up on the tarmac.  

This one small activity to fill time that day, turned into the latest obsession.  We have watched "The Right Stuff" and "From the Earth to the Moon," to give a history lesson to the use of rockets.  Then we remembered "October Sky."  

It is tough to find a movie that doesn't have a whole lot of unsuitable language for a 9 year old.  We don't mind swearing and regularly talk to TsukiMoon about the use of swear words, stating it is inappropriate to use them at his age.  As a rule follower, we had easy buy in (for now).  The challenge with any media is does the content more then what the child knows or, really, what I am willing to explain."October Sky" was a good choice.

TsukiMoon was enraptured with the story.  It was helpful to watch a set of boys work through the challenges of rocketry.  They had to work with people in the West Virginia mining town to get the parts they needed (read this as: teaching how to "communicate with others"), changed the design, then test, test, test their modified concept.  

Does this help TsukiMoon immediately?  Maybe, probably not.  At the least it feeds his interest at the time.  At the most it gives him one more piece of understanding of how people overcome challenges.  It teaches that the tests we face as humans don't have to stop us, we persevere.   

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common then unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.  Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.  The slogan, "Press On!" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."  --Calvin Coolidge

Napkin Notes-- Kepler 3/2

Our son, TsukiMoon's interest continues in rockets.  Searching YouTube he found a app/game which allows you to design your own rockets, called Kerbal Space Progarm (KSP).   https://kerbalspaceprogram.com

It's pretty complicated  program which in a weekend taught TsukiMoon about different ways rockets can be constructed with multi-stage assents which can be configured in a multiple ways.  One multi-stage structure was new to my husband and me, asparagus staging.

Also it taught TsukiMoon about types of orbits; geosynchronous, retrograde and prograde and possible ways to get a rocket into them.  This weekend we watched the Tom Hanks mini-series production, "From The Earth to The Moon."  Mr. TsukiMoon  my husband, TsukiMoon's dad, educated TsukiMoon about how transfer orbits worked when moving from an course around the Earth to an ellipse around the Moon. 

I thought it would be fun to teach TsukiMoon who came up with the model for transfer orbit.  

Napkin Notes-- Lunch Lady 3/3

There has been some discussion between our son, TsukiMoon and us, his parents.  It's an age old discussion between parents and children about "Eat your vegetables!"  In our case TsukiMoon doesn't eat anything that grows from the ground unless you can say Heinz ketchup springs from the earth at company's HQ in Pittsburgh.

Always looking a way to get TsukiMoon to eat more fruit and veggies, here is yet another.  He likes the graphic novel series called "Lunch Lady," by Jarrett J. Krosoczka.

Napkin Notes-- "No Bella" 2/26

Here is our son, TsukiMoon's responce to Bella's Napkin Note yesterday.  There's gratitude for you. ;-)

Napkin Notes-- X-1 2/24

Our son's attention has switched to rockets after a recent opportunity to launch rockets at the local airfield.  Like with most of his interests he has an intense focus and eagerly takes in as much information about the topic as he can.  For this reason we let him watch "The Right Stuff."  

"The Right Stuff," wouldn't be the right choice for all families because of the bad language, but our son, TsukiMoon  will say, "They shouldn't use that language."  It opens up a conversation about appropriate ways to express frustration.  We use movies to teach; values, problem solving, and to expose Boo to new ideas and ways of living.  

"The Right Stuff," taught how some people have "ice-water" in their vains, like the Chuck Yeager character.  It also showed the importance of being gracious and how to be a team-builder.  It also told the story about of John Glenn's support of his wife, Annie Glenn who had a stutter.  

We take time out of the movie to discuss the parts of the movie to teach values we support.  We will also stop the movie to explain the emotions of the actors and how TsukiMoon can recognise the emotions by looking at the faces of the actors.

TsukiMoon really took to the story of Chuck Yeager, played by Sam Shepard and now considers him the best of America's test pilots.  The Chuck Yeager story, as illustraited in the movie, hints that Chuck Yeager might have liked to be an astronaut even though he castigated the Mercury 7 as "monkeys."  In the story it suggests that Chuck Yeager wasn't given a chance at the astronaut program because he hadn't gone to college.  We discussed about how there are people who are excellent at what they do, who haven't gone to college, which might preclude them from all the opportunities they might like.

This explains today's Bell X-1, which was flown by Chuck Yeager and was the first manned airplane to exceed the speed of sound.  The X-1 was an experimental rocket plane-- hence the "Rocket Man!"

Napkin Notes--Bella's Great Day 2/25

We have a sweet dog which we got from the pound.  She let me know that she too would like to send a Napkin Note to our son, TsukiMoon.  Here is what she wanted to say.