i remember having a really hard time relating to kids my age when i was a kid. honestly i think i spent most of my pre-rpg time (before the age of 9) in my room by myself playing with legos.
at that time i prefered to listen to adults talk about adult conversations. I remember very clearly being about 8 and being at a church potluck with my dad and listening, fascinated, to a group of adults talking about the punk movement in london (it was 1982). they werent real knowledgable or anything. but they listened to each other, they talked about teenagers in general, and they had concern. that was important to me at the time, these people cared about what they were talking about.
it took me a long time and a lot of pain before i developed "social skills". largely because i had such little generalized social interaction as a kid. but i dont think there was anything that anyone could have done about it at the time. and i dont regret it at all. it made me who i am today, and im happy with that.
so far in this thread i've seen people mention exposing the kid to arts and humanities, sports, and playing with other kids of the same age... I think those are all good suggestions. (although my dad tried to get me to play sports as a kid and i enjoyed playing them with him, but i still sucked at them and i was still the last kid to get choosen when captains choose teams). but i'd like to suggest political conversations, current events, and chess and good things for smart 9 year olds.
i'd also like to stress that growing up as a kid, there was no good information about sex and sexuality. most of what i learned until I was about 16 was from fantasy novels like piers anthony. and thats just not good information. i believed stuff like that girls usually made the first move, boys liked sex more than girls, good girls weren't interested in sex etc...
i dont understand why we think we should hide sex from children, and i think smart kids are particularly ready to learn about sex.
As obvious from the person above who just complained "if you download it twice, HE wants $2 for it", the publisher becomes the person to blame when things get messed up, not the author... The publisher is a buffer zone...
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i remember having a really hard time relating to kids my age when i was a kid. honestly i think i spent most of my pre-rpg time (before the age of 9) in my room by myself playing with legos. at that time i prefered to listen to adults talk about adult conversations. I remember very clearly being about 8 and being at a church potluck with my dad and listening, fascinated, to a group of adults talking about the punk movement in london (it was 1982). they werent real knowledgable or anything. but they listened to each other, they talked about teenagers in general, and they had concern. that was important to me at the time, these people cared about what they were talking about. it took me a long time and a lot of pain before i developed "social skills". largely because i had such little generalized social interaction as a kid. but i dont think there was anything that anyone could have done about it at the time. and i dont regret it at all. it made me who i am today, and im happy with that. so far in this thread i've seen people mention exposing the kid to arts and humanities, sports, and playing with other kids of the same age... I think those are all good suggestions. (although my dad tried to get me to play sports as a kid and i enjoyed playing them with him, but i still sucked at them and i was still the last kid to get choosen when captains choose teams). but i'd like to suggest political conversations, current events, and chess and good things for smart 9 year olds. i'd also like to stress that growing up as a kid, there was no good information about sex and sexuality. most of what i learned until I was about 16 was from fantasy novels like piers anthony. and thats just not good information. i believed stuff like that girls usually made the first move, boys liked sex more than girls, good girls weren't interested in sex etc... i dont understand why we think we should hide sex from children, and i think smart kids are particularly ready to learn about sex.
As obvious from the person above who just complained "if you download it twice, HE wants $2 for it", the publisher becomes the person to blame when things get messed up, not the author... The publisher is a buffer zone...