"But Mom, it's just a game." Meet Jasper! A young boy who is totally absorbed with playing video games... "With my game controller in my hands, I'm the boss of my whole world! I can be who I want and do as I please. I can get the highest score. I get all the chances that I need. If I make a mistake it's ok. Everyone thinks I'm 'it on a stick!' And the bad stuff all goes away." Video game addiction is on the rise, but it can be prevented. This creative story book teaches both kids and adults how to switch out their game controller for a "life controller." Video gaming is becoming a part of our culture, and we must be strategic in creating a healthy gaming balance.

In place of a 3rd printing of his original book, Youth, Sports, & Self-Esteem: A Guide for Parents, Dr. Darrell Burnett, a published authority on parenting, decided to revise his popular book, adding some sportsmanship checklists, and changing the title to It's Just a Game! to reflect the importance of keeping youth sports in the proper perspective. While discussing the psychology of youth sports, Dr. Burnett not only points out how sports can strengthen a child's self-esteem, he offers specific practical positive parenting guidelines to help make it happen. Topics include: •The four cornerstones of self-esteem •12 guidelines for promoting children's self-esteem through youth sports •Case examples, photos, cartoons, references •Skill, behavior, and sportsmanship checklists •A Parent Attitude & Behavior Checklist for youth sports •A list of 86 Ways To Say "Very Good!" The book's theme is straightforward: kids have enough pressure in life, and youth sports should not add to it. Youth sports can and should promote self-esteem, offering every youngster an opportunity to enjoy the simple fun of participating in sports, while learning skills, feeling good, and building positive childhood memories. Dr. Burnett's book gives parents a blueprint for building those memories.

A group biography of seven enduring and beloved games, and the story of why—and how—we play them. Checkers, backgammon, chess, and Go. Poker, Scrabble, and bridge. These seven games, ancient and modern, fascinate millions of people worldwide. In Seven Games, Oliver Roeder charts their origins and historical importance, the delightful arcana of their rules, and the ways their design makes them pleasurable. Roeder introduces thrilling competitors, such as evangelical minister Marion Tinsley, who across forty years lost only three games of checkers; Shusai, the Master, the last Go champion of imperial Japan, defending tradition against “modern rationalism”; and an IBM engineer who created a backgammon program so capable at self-learning that NASA used it on the space shuttle. He delves into the history and lore of each game: backgammon boards in ancient Egypt, the Indian origins of chess, how certain shells from a particular beach in Japan make the finest white Go stones. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. He introduces an early philosopher of games, the aptly named Bernard Suits, and visits an Oxford cosmologist who has perfected a computer that can effectively play bridge, a game as complicated as human language itself. Throughout, Roeder tells the compelling story of how humans, pursuing scientific glory and competitive advantage, have invented AI programs better than any human player, and what that means for the games—and for us. Funny, fascinating, and profound, Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history, and how play makes us human.

A soccer team learns that sports should be played not only to win, but to have fun.

America's national pastime has been marked from its inception by bitter struggles between owners and players over profit, power, and prestige. In this book, the first installment of a highly readable, comprehensive labor history of baseball, Robert Burk d

Meet the people that kindle the flame of baseball as Americas pastime in Its Just a Game.