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Kathryn
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| Posted: May 04 2015 at 12:18pm | IP Logged
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How do your children fare with it? There is certainly a whole wide world out there of information and sites and apps that can help. Our library also has a huge selection of educational videos. The problem? Almost every.time I allow my children to use this format I find it gets misused. My teen boy usu ends up on youtube or Minecraft and I originally thought it was just him. But now that I've allowed my younger girls on it, I've even found my 4 and 7 year old switching over to just pure games for entertainment. For the first time last week, I allowed my 4 year old to go on starfall and we were together practicing her abc's and then I think I went to the next room for something and I came back and she's on the game part of the site. They almost all act like anything "educational" is a complete bore. The dvd's are a wealth of information as well as some of the sites but sometimes that's my only "break" and I don't like having to force them to watch it by sitting over their shoulders. Thoughts? The computer does have time out locks and many, many blocks but even with this, it seems like it requires such a significant amount of supervision. ?
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: May 04 2015 at 3:51pm | IP Logged
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Imagine it's the equivalent of letting them play in the yard. Do they stay in the yard at first? Do you have to watch them? Do you have to have consequences for leaving the yard? Do they learn to stay in the yard? Do you still have the occasional escape? Consequences again but they get better at following the rule and not leaving the yard and you can trust them and not watch them?
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Martha
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| Posted: May 05 2015 at 7:58am | IP Logged
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I know I'm the odd duck about this usually...
Mine do not use tech at home other than the TV or DSi on the weekends. No computers, no iPads, no cellphones. Nada before age 16 or 17. At that point, we are very strict about smart phone use and limited computer use. Usually for typing in final drafts of papers or research and managing college or trade class communication online, such as turning in college assignments via blackboard or whatever.
I don't have any blocks on our computers. They are all kept in public viewing spaces downstairs.
We love tech. We have computers, ipads, iPhones, kindle, big screen tv... Dh and I met in computer programming classes. But we view it as something that can impede development and cause strife when given too young. But I am very old school wrt to development and education in general. We don't allow calculators until towards the end of algebra 1 and I insist on work be written by hand in cursive until middle of high school and even then, only final drafts are typed in computer to be printed.
YMMV, but I'm very happy with this decision we made. Especially during the teen years. It has removed many concerns and problems from the teen years for my kids that we were blessed to not have to worry about growing up. I'm glad they haven't had to worry about it too.
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Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: May 05 2015 at 9:36am | IP Logged
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We use tech for school, but only for school, really. I have not had much of a problem with them meandering because I stay away from resources that enable that.
So, for instance, my son's Visual Latin lessons are icons on the desktop as is his Typing Instructor. Learnables German is a CD-Rom. I have blog pages for them (with links to the specific pages in the bookmark bar at the top of the browser) with links to audio books and chapters at librivox, especially for my dyslexic son who follows along with the audio in his book. It also has the link to Xtramath. But xtramath does not have any entertainment options like starfall does. No one wants to "play" longer than required, and if they did, I'd be thrilled.
I admit, though, that a couple of years ago when I was using the preschool lessons from Easy-peasy Homeschool, they would link to YouTube videos, and then my older kids would join the preschooler and continue clicking on more of the same. This is a big reason I don't use resources of this nature. I will sometimes show them things on YouTube, and my husband likes some video podcasts on carpentry that he watches with the boys, but they are *never* allowed on youtube alone, so it does not really occur to them to go there without permission. They don't have any games they play on the computer either. Tuesday nights they get to watch their shows because my husband isn't home until late, but no one would really think of turning the television on without permission.
Mine use my ipad and cellphone primarily for access to audio books. I do have a couple of games on there that they play as a treat on rare occasions, and I have to admit that they have learned a ton from these specific games, but they are educational ones like NatureTap and Stack the States. I'm very picky about the games I'll download, and my kids think the educational stuff IS the treat, and I don't think that anyone gets to play a game more than once a week, though I do enjoy mixing things up and randomly saying, "yes," when someone asks me if they can play a game on my ipad.  
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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KellyB
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| Posted: May 07 2015 at 8:14pm | IP Logged
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We are "odd ducks" as well. We don't have a TV in our living space, and we don't have any video games. My boys, 7 and 10, are allowed to watch DVDs on occasion, perhaps two-three a month, depending. They watch them on a travel-sized DVD player or my laptop. I tend to let them watch more than usual when they are ill. We also have relatives who relish letting my deprived kids watch TV, lol! My husband occasionally shows them videos on the computer, but they don't play games on there. I'm sure they will use the computer down the road when they are doing long papers.
Even with this non-techy life, they still know how to "swipe" on screens and they know about video games and other things from friends. I can see them having a simple cell phone when they are spending time away from us when they are older. We have thousands of books at home and that's what they default to when they have down time.
This is a very difficult situation to navigate. We all need grace from each other for doing the best we can!
Blessings!
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4Real Forums : Philosophy of Education
Topic: Using technology in the home
