Friday, December 12, 2008

Technology & kids

My sister Alison sent me an email and asked me if I could pass along this information. So here is my sisters email to me, with just a few edits from me to talk about the giveaway.

Take it away, Alison!

A friend of mine, Meagan, created a website called Larger Families. She has 4 sons and is currently pregnant with a girl. I think she is all of 30. She is a professional writer for national family publications, she tries to be a "green" as possible and socially aware. I can't believe all this woman gets accomplished...and she is funny to boot.

On her blog she got to talking about technology and kids. Having a 4 year old it has always amazed me how at about the age of 2 Zora was interested in the computer and started teaching herself how to navigate child friendly websites. She figured out how to play the games on her own. Part of it by trial and error of course, and we were always there to help out, but all in all she did it on her own. The sites we found to be the safest and most educational are Sesame Street, PBS Kids, Discovery Kids, and Disney. *I am not a fan of branded characters but the sites are educational. Meagan recommends Leap Frog and has a great blog about it. She is also having a Giveaway. Click HERE to read the post and enter the giveaway.

Another thing that impressed me is how my daughter learned to use a laptop "mouse" pad. In many cases you have to move the cursor on the pad and click enter or use the arrow keys simultaneously. Sometimes I think the games are less important than her ability to figure out the technology itself. Language (and typing) has also become a big part of it. She will say things like, "Mom, this game uses Plug-ins," or "I have to wait for it to finish loading." It cracks me up! I barely know what plug-ins are! She learns what words are from the screen and the repetition. Of course there is nothing like pen to paper or reading books, but I know that Zora has learned a great deal from the games. For her age she is ahead of her class. She is doing basic math, reading, spelling correctly and phonetically. Her vocabulary is pretty advanced. I'm not saying any of this to brag, but to simply state that parents may want to explore the possibilities out there and see how their children's skills may improve. I was a slow reader and am still a horrible speller. I hope and pray she will surpass me in both of these!

A final note, I have no stake in any of the sites or products listed. Just a personal opinion.

Alison



Thanks Alison!

Have a fabulous day!
Kristin

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Alison, you flatterer! Thanks for commenting. And yeah, it cracks me up how fast (and early) my kids have learned how to use things like keyboard shortcuts (which I still don't know how to use), scrolling, etc. William can even find the websites he likes best in the browser now, and he doesn't even know how to read! He just types in the first few letters and then recognizes the URL when it pops up.

Great post and thanks for entering the contest!