I've found that my older boys grew out of video games--it was mainly a middle school obsession. Once they were able to drive and go places to meet friends, they did a wider variety of activities. Video games lost their appeal. My 19yo, now in college, rarely plays them any more. My 24yo does off and on, but he is too busy going to pharmacy school and taking care of his wife and daughter to have much time for it. My ds17 is still at home and plays them more than they did, but he stays at home more than they did at his age. So, I think the key is, like you suggest, to get them into other types of activities, if video games are a concern.

Baseball, if he keeps it up and moves to a travel team, will end up being very time consumming and good for fitness and social interaction.

Scouts is great if you find the right troop.

Sounds like he has plenty going on and you may just need to watch and see what peaks his interests more and more as time goes on.

Don't have him in too much. He will become a little interested in this and that and kind of good and this that and the other...but never have time to really develop any of it or to learn to entertain himself. Trust me, BTDT!

Anne

As a mom to 4 boys (will be 5 boys in the next few weeks), my husband and I have decided that our sons should be working on becoming godly men. As they get older, we encourage them to spend their free time developing good character traits that will benefit them as adults. We give them plenty of time for relaxing and play, but when it comes to hobbies (in other words, activities that they'll spend a lot of time on for the next several years or more, not things they'll outgrow, like playing with Legos), we want them to be hobbies that be a blessing to them and the people around them as they become men. Something like woodworking or photography would fall into this category, while collecting things or playing some game that even older people play would not.

A great way to get them on this road is to provide them with materials which encourage them to develop godly character traits in many areas, while trying out new things and learning new skills in the process. We like Plants Grown Up from Doorposts and Contenders of the Faith. Both encourage boys to develop skills in a wide variety of areas, with Contenders being more focused on activities (cooking, gardening, etc.) and Plants Grown Up being more focused on character areas (giving, forgiveness, etc.). Both encourage lots of scripture memory and have such an assortment of suggestions that any boy is bound to find his passions while working through the chapters.

What about raising a service dog for the blind or hearing impaired? Its a worthwhile commitment and can be repeated year to year if its rewarding.--

Puffpony wrote: "...raising a service dog for the blind "?

GREAT idea! We foster dogs. It is a great service, but the kids really need to just feed and walk them and play iwth them some. They have done it long enough that basic training (sit, come when called, house traning) does not take too much times and some dogs come with those skills. But service dogs? That would be a whole different ball game!!

Also like the focus on raising Godly men rather then just boys who learn to DO a lot of STUFF (a problem we tend to do).

To OP...this thread is helpful to me too, with two teen boys at home, one who likes video cames far too much!

Anne

Along the same lines of service animals, animal shelters are desperate for volunteers to walk the dogs or play with the cats. Some of those poor animals only get out once a week if they're lucky. They also have a hard time finding people to walk the big dogs. They would probably be thrilled to have a strong teen boy around to do that.

My oldest is into RC airplanes. We found a local club through the AMA website. DH called the club and they went to a meeting. The club consists of a bunch of 50-60 year old boys who love to fly their planes. They admitted that they were not sure about having a kid in their club, but it has worked out well. They taught him a lot about flying gas and electric planes.

Many clubs actively seek kids/teens to hand the sport off to. If you go to the AMA website you may find a local club and see if you can just go and watch them fly.

What is fun now to watch is ds building his own electric planes using dollar tree foam boards as it can be an expensive hobby.