Geek Camp

[captain_slinky]

We have my youngest niece, Hannah, coming to stay with us from Friday till Friday (7 days). She's like... what, maybe 8 or 9 years old? No matter. The big problem is that she feels like an outcast. With my OTHER two nieces (one of which is her older sister) I have created a Geek Bond over Comic Books, Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Oh, an Gilmore Girls. But poor Hannah... she just doesn't have that "Spark" for Geekdom!

Only interest in Comic Books is when she forces herself to try and read an Archie Digest that's been left behind by her sister. She doesn't read for enjoyment, she reads because she's looking for The Secret in there.

No interest in Sci-Fi, it's al too scary for her.

No interest in Fantasy, only goes to the Harry Potter movies because her Sister goes and she can't let her sister get away with doing something that she doesn't get to do.

But she SO VERY DESPERATELY wants to e a geek! She wants that special bond! She wants to have secret conversations with me and her aunt that her sister won't have any clue about!

And so this week we'll be doing an intensive 5-day "Geek Camp", designed to find exactly what genre of geekdom Hannah belongs in.

Camp starts on Sunday with An Introduction to Collectible Miniature & Trading Card Games. Hopefully i can find my Magic: The Gathering "Portal" edition boxed set that can help her master the basics of a mathematically-based card game, as well as play a few rounds of Marvel Legends and, depending on how confortable she is with either of those gaming systems, Mage Knight, Hero Clix and/or standard Magic: The Gathering.

Monday will be Female Empowerment Through Swords & Sorcery. A viewing of select episodes from "Xena: Warrior Princess" followed by and Arts & Crafts period where we make paper-bag armor and cardboard weapons.

Tuesday will be Role Playing 101. I'll take her through Dungeons & Dragons Character Creation during the day (including writing-up a back story), and a small-scale Dungeon Crawl that night once khristle gets home.

Wednesday is TV Potpourri. A mix of Classic TV to try and find some angle she might be interested in. Justice League, Super Friends, Star Trek, Star Trek: Next Generation and anything else I can think of to inspire the girl will be ready and available.

Thursday will be a recap of everything we've done.

Friday is Graduation.

Any input? Ideas? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Comments

[khristle.livejournal.com]

x-post to geek parents.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Good idea!

[dotgirl.livejournal.com]

Guh. Stupid LJ ate my comment.

Anyway! What about helping her geek out in a different way?

There's Anime - just not Sailor Moon.

Or 80's cartoons (Transformers, Thundercats)

Or 80's memorabilia! My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears!

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Stupid LJ isn't sending me notification when I get a reply! GRRRR!!! At least they have the login-page notification so i could see you had replied!

What Anime should I start her on? I have ZERO Anime knowledge :(

80's cartoons ae out; we tried that one earlier in the year. She's a very difficult child you know!

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Of course, now that I have cursed at LJ for not giving me notification, I got notification in my inbox :/

She used to be in to My Litle Pony a bit, but it was only because Aunt Crystal was in to it and she wanted to have attention paid to her.

It's like, remember Brit on her MOST needy-pay-attention-to-me days of adolescence? Crank that dial up to 11 and you've got Hannah. I'm thinking that giving her a kick-ass D&D character AFTER she's watched some Xena AND made her own armor an weapons? That might be just the fantasy/attention she needs!

[teegin.livejournal.com]

Start by finding out what she thinks is cool and then find the closest scf-fi type thing to it. Then expand that little mind.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Horses and Nickelodeon Tween-coms (the pap that they market towards kids age 10-to-14). Hannah Montana, Josh & Drake, So Raven... all the shows you instantly flip past because they are all crap.

What Sci-Fi do you prescribe to THAT?!?!?

[d-a-r-a.livejournal.com]

Firefly - they've got horses.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Yeah...and REAVERS.

Don't think I could do that to a little girl :(

[d-a-r-a.livejournal.com]

Someone told me you never actually see them in the series...and they may be right. They're aluded to and talked about but as close as you come to seeing one is the guy who survives the attack on the one space ship and is rescued by Serenity who starts cutting on himself. Plus - even the allusions are only in a handful of eps. If you want I will pick out a couple non-reaver with horses eps when I get home - I have the series on DVD.

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

Warning: This post contains material that is in contrary to your opinion. If you do not want to have your position challenged, please ignore this post.

*****


I prescribe an open mind. You have an idea of what she likes, but you write it all off as crap. They aren't crap. They are written for girls her age, not men your age. That there are so many of them and they have lasted so many years shows that there is something of quality in them even if you are too old and crotchety and male to see it.

She doesn't like the things you like, but you seem to be trying to drown her in it so she'll feel welcome in your group. Be careful that you don't overdo it and make her hate anything geeky. Watch for that signal from her that enough is enough already. Be sure to ask her, "Would you like to make D&D characters for all day today or would you like to do something else?" A good host caters to the needs of his guest.

If she wants to feel welcomed and part of the group, maybe it isn't just her that needs to change. If you are going to put hooks in her eyelids and cram 7 days worth of geekdom into her brain (don't forget the chair restraints) maybe you should take a day and allow her to try to convert you to the things SHE likes to do.

By all means expose her to the things you enjoy if she is open to it. But sending a young girl into a 7 day intensive Geek Camp is not always the best way.

"This one time...at Geek Camp...I wanted to rip my own eyes out. But my indoctrinator...er, I mean counselor, wouldn't let me unless I recited the opening of Star Trek first. Next summer mommy has promised I can go to Therapy Camp. Maybe they can make the nightmares stop."

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

I had started to write a scathing reply to this, but thought better of it. You're welcome to your opinions and thank you for sharing, but your viewpoint on the mater is completely off. The rest of the group is not asking her to join us; she is coming to us asking to join. She has sen the world of Gekdom an has asked me (the biggest nerd he knows) to try and help her find her place in all of it.

Oh, and the Nickelodeon programming isn't crap to *me*, it's crap to teegin. I personally LOVE those shows and talk with Hanah aou them all the time! She likes that I'm the only adult who "Gets it".

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. :-) I've just seen so many people try to force people into their lifestyle when they see they want to belong to anything. It raises my little red flags. Clearly you are on top of this. Have a great week with her. May the Force be with you both. Tee Hee.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

It's all good... your heart is always in the right place :)

This is our intense six-day course in trying to find SOMETHING that she can proudly say "THAT! That's my Geekosity, right there!"

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

I see my misunderstanding in this post. I thought "all the shows you instantly flip past" was a general you (meaning everyone) not a you meaning Teegin specifically.

My post wouldn't have been so...um... directed, had I realized that. My apologies.

[cutenessfact0r.livejournal.com]

how bout musicals
theatre geeks are our own special breed
and dont forget shakespeare

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Hey there! Haven't seen you on LJ in forever!

I was considering the Musical Theater thing... she LOVES Highschool musical (which i STILL have not seen)! But I don't know if she loves it fo the music, or for the drama?

[cutenessfact0r.livejournal.com]

yea havent posted in a while, sorry for that, i was just thinkin, i have harry potter tcg if you wanna play that with her
and games
re musicals my daughter loves sound of music and anime, altho scifi for sci fi's sake freaks her out ;)

[bjorker.livejournal.com]

Reading your other reply comments, your niece sounds a lot like mine. she's a total girly-girl and LOVES Hannah Montana and the Cheetah Girls and whatever else is out there like that. However she also loves gross stuff. She surprises me sometimes with that. So it's not very "geek" I suppose, but maybe you can bond over farting and fear factor-type stuff? Would she be into that, ya think? Or just finding a common ground somewhere that she can get into with you. Then maybe it would be more special than bonding in the same way to you as your other nieces.

Anyhoo, just a thought. I have the same trouble with my niece, in a way, because I hate girly crap. So far the best thing I've found are video games. We had a blast playing Mario Kart. In fact she's coming over to stay the night on Saturday, so I'm going to have to break out my trusty N64! Yay!

[bjorker.livejournal.com]

Oh, and when is she coming, and where from? My niece is exactly the same age... turning 9 at the end of August. They sound like they'd get along well.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

We go to pick her up on Friday, she's coming from far-off and exotic KENT.

I's gots famlee in KENT.

[pullipsushi.livejournal.com]

She sounds like me when I was little, now I speak girl geek. ^^ When I was that age I wasn't interested in 'kicking butt rpg's' and still am more of the geek who likes rpging social situations. It sounds like her interests are more social than butt kicking, comics, or super heros, and she just might not speak that kind of geek.


I'd suggest:

Doing a sci-fi tween age high school rpg, like hannah montana in space, totally spies or something with a gradual geek twist. It mixes her interests with geek, but will still give her something she understands to fall back on. Give her a love interest story line involving the cute boy in school (or pull from any number of 80's movies) end it with giving her the happy ending. If she finds character sheets intimidating, dumb them down or find an easy system. There's a Sailor Moon one out there that only uses 2d6s.

Give her Queens Own by Mercedes Lackey to read...main character is a 14 year old girl and it's got horses. Or do an RPG of it, what little girl doesn't want to get chosen by a magical white horse? It's what really pulled me into geekdom.


Anime you could watch with her: Fruits Basket or Cardcaptor Sakura are both aimed at her age/gender.

[nani-ka.livejournal.com]

I second (third?) the anime angle. And just about anything that's been run on Adult Swim/Cartoon Network is probably safe for a just-beginning geek. Ruroni Kenshin, Yuyu Hakusho (heavy on the fighting though), Inuyasha, hell, anything by Whatzername who came up with Inuyasha. baeleth would probably know more "kid-safe" anime than any of us.

Also agreeing with the Mercedes Lackey, and also with Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsong/Dragonsinger/Dragondrums books. And all the "teen" books Robert Heinlein wrote in the 50's - which are still somewhat relevant. Those are what well & truly hooked me on Sci-Fi/Fantasy once upon a time... But then I also didn't have a tv growing up so text-based geekery has always been my favored mode of transport.

[baeleth.livejournal.com]

hrm...

8 or 9...

Well, aside from the obvious stuff like Pokemon (I've got like 4 of the movies, if you wanna borrow 'em), there's the Studio Ghibli stuff, but most of that's been aired by Disney Channel anyway, so it may not really be an intro for her. Also, while Miyazaki rawks, his movies are a bit... slow. I do have Castle in the Sky & Spirited Away if you'd like to borrow. There are a couple of scenes in Spirited Away that may be a bit scary, but my kids are 7 & 4 and they've had no issues.

I like Hamtaro, but it'd prolly be old news to her by now. If she's even heard of it.

Avatar isn't considered to be Anime by everyone & some consider it to be "fake anime" but I just consider it to be freaking awesome. It's also an anime(like) show that I can (and do) watch with my kids. Again, I've got all that they've released on DVD so far if you'd like to borrow.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'll try to come up with some more.

Regarding D&D, There's an adventure that I found a while back on WOTC's site that is geared toward first or second level characters. I've run it twice & had a blast each time. If you're goin' for D&D, you may wanna check it out. It's called "The Burning Plague" and can be found HERE.

It is 3rd edition but I don't think they really changed anything of note between 3.0 & 3.5 that would warrant any changes, so if you're gonna be playing 3.5 it should be fine. And fun. ^_^

[baeleth.livejournal.com]

I knew there was another anime, but couldn't remember the name. My wife found "Petite Princess Yucie" a while back. It's cute, entertaining & perfect for young girls... and my wife. ^_^

[glyndagoodwytch.livejournal.com]

I got my little sisters Hooked on Dr. Who...The twelve year old loves Rose Tyler and the Six year old loves K-9

I suggest you rent Labyrinth, the Dark Crystal, the Last Unicorn, Return to Oz, there was a whole rennisance of fantasy in the eighties.

Also, don't forget Spider-man and his amazing friends. I think your little Neice would dig Firestar.

X-men:Evolution is another good ice breaker for early Marvel Comic-geekdom

...Older episodes of Wonder Woman, you know during the seventies with Wonder-girl as the guest star...just thinkin'

[amberlorien.livejournal.com]

You have great ideas and a lot of good suggestions from your friends already. Here are some franchises that I like:
Kim Possible, Totally Spies, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Teen Titans, of course anything in the JLA/JLU, and WITCH one of my favs. Some of those you can find in the Nickelodean Action Pack comics.

Things I'm not familiar with but look like possibilities of activities are heroclix, Mutants & Masterminds, Power Rangers which I can't stand but there are like 8 versions of this show on, Bella Sera - new girl focused horse/unicorn cards with internet community, NeoPets.

There are the different elements as far as activities of geekdom like the games I mentioned and you have on your list already but also things like drawing, writing, making costumes, and even acting. Acting may not be something we think of because not many fans go beyond the RPG but if it weren't for people like Tobey MacGuire, Masi Oka and Hayden Pannettiere, this generation might not give a hoot about superpowers.

[lynna12000.livejournal.com]

if your niece enjoys the Pirates movies, she may enjoy the 'Pirates' RPG cardgame. its the one where you buy the ships in little card packs & put them together. it's pretty fun.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

OOH! Excellent idea! Really ANY of the WizKids Collectable Punch-Oouts might be a good idea! I think they put out one about Rocketmen a year ago?