Geeky Parent Guide (159)
The Geeky Parent Guide is a semi-monthly editorial series by Fanbase Press Contributor (and father of two) Travis Lakata that will help parents and other caregivers to safely and positively navigate various avenues of pop culture with their children.
“It is the differences that has made us strong.”
– Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Up the Long Ladder”)
As everyone is dealing with the stresses involved with staying at home currently, we’re hoping to provide reading resources to help those parenting in a pandemic. Today, we will focus on a couple of free resources, as well as other options that are available through subscription. Through all of these resources, we hope that these different opportunities provide parents a significant opportunity to keep your kiddos engaged in a fictional world.
In challenging times when everyone is trying to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we want to provide fun options for parents to be active with their kids at home. Staying home and not having a normal routine can be quite disruptive, but our kids really enjoy having that balance of learning and being part of interactive experiences, such as aquariums, science centers, theme parks, museums, and what we’ll be focusing on today – wildlife!
Constantine celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, and despite its early and overall critical response (which isn’t great*), I’m here to share why this R-rated film is a win.
After just watching the first two episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season 7 back to back, there’s only one conclusion I can come to: It is the epitome of great storytelling. The creative team throughout the series has again done an amazing job of choreographing sequences with characters you want to hold onto dearly.
With a seventh season of The Clone Wars set to hit Disney+ on February 21, it’s a perfect time to look back at Season 6. Unfortunately for any and all fans of Ahsoka Tano, parents and kids alike, she does not have a role in this season. It’s important to reference this absence, not only because Ahsoka is a wonderful character, but the creative team behind The Clone Wars does a great job at using other characters to fill that void.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard. My favorite character. I have so much fondness for a fictional character that I wrote a geeky love letter to Sir Patrick Stewart a few years ago. Captain Picard was more than a wonderful role model. He was an outlet, an escape of the emptiness I felt as a young boy and teenager. There was meaning behind his words. He had a duty to uphold. Yes, there was the Starfleet’s Prime Directive, but, in the end, his ultimate duty came to serving and protecting those he commanded on the Starship Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), and doing the right thing.
As we start 2020, another year and a new decade, the Geeky Parent Guide wants to dive into an important discussion that needs to continue gaining ground. We want to enhance all women in the entertainment industry. As a parent with a daughter and a son, it’s important for both of them to realize that all women are equally capable as men in every aspect of the world. It’s especially important that our daughter is given the opportunity to love football, as much as it’s important for our son to love the color pink or purple. So, when it comes to one of the best connections in the world – the art of storytelling – it’s important to see women in the entertainment industry - making decisions behind the scenes and being cast in leading roles.
This past month has been great for parents to point their kids toward NASA missions with a topic they can relate to at home: wind. Various NASA missions released findings in December 2019 that involved some innovative thinking and interesting discoveries. Let’s explore the winds of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter which provides a great way to talk to your kids about science, since they understand the notion of wind every time they walk outside.
The Geeky Parent Guide is in its third year, and 2019 was a year of focus on specific geeky qualities: trying to find positive messages for young kids and sharing enjoyable activities for parents. This year has included a variety of content. Like other years, we’ve discussed NASA research and missions, Star Wars, San Diego Comic-Con, and Free Comic Book Day to name a few.
