Wired Kids
As I sit and type here in my laptop, I noticed my 2 year old is as busy watching a video on my iPhone lulling her to nap. I guess just like my husband and I, all 3 kids are quite adept when it comes to technology. But whose kids aren’t so technologically or virtually inclined now-a-days anyway? Are other families really that different from us? I mean our society is so infused with technology and I can’t imagine that this isn’t simply the case.
My kids took on the laptop mouse / mouse touch pad faster and better than they did with potty training. My 9 yr.old son uses Office documents with ease and saves his work on a memory stick for school, and my 6 year old can manage to install a cd game by following prompts. They also happen to know how valuable it is for us to have wifi when we were traveling recently.
Ok, maybe because in my kids’ elementary school, blackboards are a thing of the past. 3 years ago the whole entire school installed a Promethean board. An interactive computerized touch screen board. Yes, as big as a blackboard. And a truly powerful machine that can be used for browsing the web and used for lessons. Instead of a chalk, now comes a pen sized stylus.
Every school year, their heavy loads of books and homework are turning into digital versions. This excites me more than I explain. If you can imagine, I end up carrying their heavy loads when picking them up from school. But besides that, all the info that I need to help my child are now at my fingertips. School grades can be viewed and seen as fast as the teachers can grade them, homework and notes can be downloaded and stored, and teachers can be contacted at any convenient time.
I once got in a conversation with Mom friends about the concerns of having our children exposed with too much technology. Other than our children’s handwriting are suffering, and missing the smell of books, I don’t see what’s wrong with it. Do you?
MJ Tam has a personal blog called SugarMyBowl.com and is the Founding Editor of Chicagonista.com, movers, shakers, and babymakers and MomViews.net - The site for smart parents.
Do you Twitter? Follow mjtam here.
.gif)
