Music - Listening and Playing

I am a good bit older than my son so our musical tastes span several generations. I love hearing some of the newer music that he and his friends like... or at least what a 8 year old listens to, but I also try and expose him to older stuff that his mother and I like.

What does he like?  In addition to game music sound tracks, which he loves, he likes 21 Pilots, Panic at the Disco and even Billie Eilish.  When we use to ride around in cars I would listen to the Grateful Dead channel and SiriusXM's Lithium channel for all of your 90's favorites.

While we like listening to music, I also try and get him creating as well.  We have "played" Garageband for years, where he has an iPhone or an iPad and I have one and we play loops or beats together.  That's a lot of fun and pretty easy to do.

He started cello lessons when he was very young and eventually begged to stop. I didn't want him to hate music so I agreed with the idea that he will have to start lessons at school in the 3rd grade and that I might be able to help him with the guitar or get piano lessons.  He wants to play drums, which is also fine but we don't have the ability to do that right now... maybe someday.

I have been playing more guitar and bass with the work at home situation and I recently learned about a new brand of instruments called Harley Benton and I bought a bass and a guitar as a present to myself for my upcoming birthday.  I am SUPER EXCITED. I am tracking to shipping and hope they will be here soon.

Third Eye and Dragon Masters

We read a lot of books and now more than ever I find it comforting to read with my son.  He is reading books that I use to read to him when he was littler like the Dragon Masters series by Tracy West.  He also enjoyed the Unicorn Society but blazed through them pretty quickly.

At some point I will write about our off and on again experience with Harry Potter.

One of the best things that we do is read at night.  His mother said that I needed to let that go that he was too old for me to read to him at night.  That's when I pulled out the Common Sense media link"10 Reasons you should read aloud to Big Kids too." Since Common Sense is like a bible to her we didn't have any more issues readying at night.

Or we haven't had any issues but now we are reading some books that I read as a child and if we were over heard talking about astral travel and reincarnation I might need another Common Sense link! Our current books are by the famous walk-in, T. Lobsang Rompa.

I like these because they are an off-the-beaten path coming-of-age story that opens the world up to other cultures and religions in a way few books do.  We are reading The Third Eye right now and will move on to my favorite, Cave of the Ancients and then The Doctor from Lahasa.

Games I play with my son

Switch Chip

My son is going to be 9 this summer and with all of the shelter at home and a general love for computer games we have been spending a lot of time in world!

We started playing Minecraft years ago but now he likes Roblox more.  I would love to find some other games that are more about music and would like to play more on the Oculus Quest that I bought BP (Before the Pandemic.)

We are a Playstation family and event though the PS5 is coming out soon, Arthur got a PS4 Pro from his grandmother for Christmas.  He also got a Nintendo Switch, which I questioned but he seems to like it.

His primary game device is a iPad Pro 12" that I gave him when I got a new smaller one this year.   We mainly play Roblox now. I don't like it as much as Minecraft because the graphics seem less refined and the games are very repetitive but he likes the variety and its easier to play with his friends.