StarWarsWeekends.net

What is it for?

Why Star Wars Weekends?

It’s all about doing things together with your kids. In this case, my son. He’s growing up, a teenager now, and he is going to read this and be soooo embarrassed, but he is a real good kid and deserves to know that. One of our projects over the summer is to re-do our family website, including as complete of a family tree as he can find. Although that is a noble task, and will benefit not only him but my extended family, I also wanted something “fun” to do while still teaching him how to create web pages.

Star Wars has always been a part of our lives. He reads the books, studies the ships, plays the games, etc. So it was natural that he wanted to do a Star Wars site. As we looked around for a theme, I ran across the message boards and eventually to the Star Wars Weekends thread. One recurring thing I kept noticing was parents and children enjoying not only SWW together, but parents who spend time with their children doing other things. Whether it is playing video games together, going places, or exploring things that did not exist when we were kids (like Harry Potter), I saw parents involved in their kids lives.

That is such a powerful influence in who they will become. We (me and the wife) subscribe to the same philosophy. As a stay at home mom, she is deeply involved in our kids daily lives, in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, in Swim team, and in School. Work keeps me away during the day, but I actively participate in their stuff. Playing video games, tossing the ball around, watching movies, learning to speak their language, encouraging diverse activities, even playing tea party or doll house with the daughter when asked. We monitor their TV shows (no “junk” TV, to much of current tv is double meaning references, foul language, and snotty brats), and one of us is always there when they go on the internet. We look for good family movies to watch, such as Star Wars, and TV shows, such as Extreme Makeover home edition. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a prude, but I am a parent and do set limits for what I deem appropriate for their age.

I wanted to do something where those other parents like us could join in the fun of the website we would build, so Star Wars Weekends it would be. First, we needed a domain. I checked StarWarsWeekends and was stunned to see .net was still available, so I snapped it up. Was it luck that was still available, or was it fate?

Next we started a design. Since this is a teaching tool, the design and layout change often as I show new things to him. If I really wanted to, I could quickly build a massive site just by asking my programmers at work to help (they would love to work on the boss’ project), but that is not my goal. The site will probably not have extensive interactive games and full fledged message boards, other Star Wars sites already exist for that and I don’t have time to moderate an active content site like that. The goal is to continuously and progressively teach the foundations of good site construction, while having fun and getting other like minded parents and their children involved. To see the list of lessons learned click here (not ready yet) for the revisions log.

You are invited to participate in this site. We can not fill all the content such as history, trip reports, photos, etc without your help. To see what you can do, or offer some ideas, email the webmaster or use the feedback forms.

Thanks. Enjoy the site.

and