Kids and Technology

I read an article the other day talking about how kids today have too much too soon and are too plugged in. The article advocated simplifying your kids’ lives, ridding them of stuff and eliminating their screen time. I admit I’m a little biased. I work in social media. I will also admit that I’m a helicopter mom who feels more comfortable knowing where my kids are and knowing that they can get in touch with me if they need to.  But I also really believe that if parents limit the access their child has to the technology out there, they will be at a real disadvantage as they grow.

I know we all hear about the downside of kids using the Internet. The concerns range from less imaginative play and less outdoor time to the potential dangers that are inherent from going online. As a mom, I do want my children to be well rounded. However, I worry when I hear other parents say that they don’t let their kids watch TV, use the Internet and that they will not be allowed to get cell phone.

Let’s face it. We live in a digital age. I enjoyed playing computer games with my girls when they were little to help them learn their numbers and letters; I love that the Internet makes a wealth of information available at their fingertips and I sleep better at night knowing my older daughter has a cell phone. Here are some reasons why I love my digital kids:

Keeping in Touch

My girls use email to keep in touch with far away friends and family. They can email, chat, text and share pictures with their friends. They are improving their communication skills by writing to their friends in their emails and they use their imagination to create videos to share with each other. I do keep a close eye on their communication with their friends but I like the fact that my girls are finding new ways to stay in touch with their friends.

Knowledge is Power

Look it up is a familiar refrain at our house. When my girls ask a question that I can’t answer (which is a lot, unfortunately), I will tell them to look it up. By using the Internet to find out about their world and the people in it, I really think they are expanding their world view. My girls love look at pictures and videos of other cultures, they like finding out about new places and they love looking up recipes to try in our kitchen.  I also think that needing to look things up helps my girls to develop the ability to think critically as they learn how to navigate the search engines.

Safety Issues

As I said before, I’m a helicopter parent. I’m not proud of it and I am doing my best to overcome this affliction but the fact that my 12 year old has a cell phone certainly helps.  Because of her cell phone, I let her go to the mall, movies and walk to her friend’s house on her own. All I ask is that she texts when she gets there.  Her having a cell phone lets me breathe (a very slight) bit easier. But still.

We are living in a world where computers and technology are part of almost every job out there. It makes sense that kids today need to have the skills that will help them later on in life. I do limit my girls’ screen time and in our house there is a big difference between using the Internet for school research or for fun. But I do admit that I think it’s really important that they are learning how to access information they need and that they are learning how to communicate properly in this digital age. I also like the fact that I’m around to monitor their activities so they learn proper Internet safety. I won’t always be there so, in my opinion, the earlier they learn how to stay safe, they better.

What do you think about kids and technology?

Ali is a psychotherapist, blogger, social media enthusiast and chocoholic. She is also a Dance Mom to two awesome girls. She is the owner of Second Act Consignment Dancewear and creator  of Therapy Stew. She blogs at AliGoldfield.

Image Source: Morguefile

A few awesome iPhone apps for fun family pictures!

by Karen Lara mentioned a while back that her DSLR camera is broken (and I am really sad about that for her!) but all is not lost. As she mentioned, her iPhone has a pretty awesome camera - and it's true; she and I have the same phone. But, in addition to the great camera, there are some pretty awesome apps that can enhance your pictures and make fun collages right on your phone. Easy peasy! (Though I use an iPhone, some of these may also be available on other phones also.)

I have recently aquired a number of said apps that go far beyond the filters of Instagram. (Not that Instagram isn't a great app, but its uses are definitely limited.) Some are free. Some are paid. All of them combined will not cost you as much as a new point and shoot, let alone a new DSLR.

Before we start, though, a quick phoneography pro tip for you: Take your shots and save them to your photo library unfiltered and uncropped first. Use either the native camera app or something like Camera+ (which I honestly haven't gotten into like some, but I hear people rave about it) that allows you to go unfiltered. That will give you lots of opportunities to play with your pictures and you'll have one image that isn't going to be dated by a filter too.

I think most people know about Instagram, but just in case you don't yet, it's like a mini social network. You can connect with Facebook friends and  share photos to Twitter and Facebook. Followers can like or comment on your photos and you on theirs. It's great for quick sharing.

If you want more pizazz in your photos, here are a few other apps I'd suggest:

Snapseed - I've heard it called the Photoshop of the iPhone. It's pretty good. Nice filters and control with how intense you make them, as well as a few basic editing options. You can give your photos a nice little touch up on the fly without downloading to your photo editing software on your computer.

100 Cameras - This one was built by Trey Ratcliff, a photographer I've followed for a while now. It's my fun app to play with. There are so many filters and they're quite unique to anything else you'll find in other apps and it gives you full control over the intensity. You can even apply some funky textures to photos. It's not always ideal for photos of people, but you can have a lot of fun with objects and landscape photos.

Once you've edited and applied any filters your photo(s), you may want to have more fun with it! There are some great apps to create collages and add text to your photos right on your phone.

Diptic - This is a basic collage app with all square/rectangular layouts. You can manipulate the layouts to an extent and you can reposition pictures so that it the portion of the image showing is what you want.

Over - Have you ever wanted to add some text to a photo rather than just providing context in a status update with it? Over is fun for adding in text. There are a multitude of fun and funky fonts to choose from, as well as lots of colours and control over size. You can adjust the tint of the photo so your text pops more or to achieve a certain effect, but it's best to pull in the photo as you want it. Over is not an editing tool.

FuzelPro - This is my current favorite collage/text overlay tool. The collage layouts are super funky. You get a lot more than Diptic provides, but it can be a bigger time suck to use, so it really depends on what you want to do. FuzelPro also provides some frames and some text options (not as many as Over, though). It's like a combination of the two tools in one!

All of these apps will allow you to share to various social networks once you've finished editing.

Do you use your smartphone to take photos as you go through each day? What are some of your favourite apps?

Happy phoneography!

*****

Karen Wilson is a wife to Matt and mom to Brandon (4), who blogs about her life at Karen’s Chronicles. She can be found at Wellman Wilson, helping businesses use social media more effectively. Karen is also committed to doing her part to keep the coffee industry alive, because who needs sleep?

E-books are not just for adults

by Karen I can't remember quite how I found them, but about a year and a half ago I ran across some iPod/iPad apps that are nothing short of brilliant. While I'm okay with Brandon playing games sometimes, I don't want these tools to become primarily a mode of entertainment. So, it made my day to see Sandra Boynton books listed in the iTunes App store. The first one I bought was Moo, Baa, La La La!

The book was so cute and interactive that I bought two other Boynton books practically right away. It was a no-brainer. The apps are less expensive than buying the books at Chapters.

The Going to Bed Book is the cutest of the three Boynton books, in my humble opinion. My favourite part is when the bathroom steams up as the animals are running water to get ready for bed. Brandon wipes the "steam" off the iPad. It's brilliant, I tell you!

Last Christmas, I stumbled upon Harold and the Purple Crayon. I had to add it to our e-book collection for Brandon. The app really brings the drawing part of the book alive.

Another favourite is the Monster at the end of this Book. That brick wall that Grover builds to keep you from turning the page? Brandon gets to knock it down with his finger. How fun is that!? Grover tells the story himself, getting more and more agitated with every turn of the page. It pulls you right in.

By far, Brandon's favourite of all (for now), is The Very Cranky Bear. He was introduced to it at daycare recently and this book has single-handedly changed his whole outlook on going to daycare. It's adorable. If you haven't read it to your child, you should. The app is not quite as interactive as some of the others, but adding any more would likely distract from the story which is too fun to miss. Brandon walks around the house roaring all the time now. :)

I think it's fantastic that book publishers are creating e-books for children like this. It gets them even more engaged with the story and it hasn't taken away from Brandon's enjoyment of a good, old-fashioned bound book either.

Have you ever bought e-books for your children? Does it enhance their reading experience like you expected?

*****

Karen Wilson is a wife to Matt and mom to Brandon (4), who blogs about her life at Karen’s Chronicles. She can be found at Wellman Wilson, helping business use social media more effectively. Lately, she's also busy planning a little conference.

More video fun with Devin Super Tramp

by Karen By now, it's no secret that Lara and I are pretty enthusiastic about technology and we share the love with our kids. A couple of weeks ago, Lara showed me these videos that had recently been kid-approved by her children. They are fun to watch with catchy music and your kids will be in awe at what those crazy adults are doing!

With the nice weather we've been having recently, don't these inspire you to get outside and have an adventure!?

Have you discovered any fun videos recently you'd like to share? Tell us in the comments!

Keeping the kids entertained on the long drives

by Eric Once the twins were old enough for front-facing car seats, we put them on the back bench seat of the van and removed one of the middle seats, for easier access to all three kids. When the time came for long road trips to cottages to begin, we realized we needed to distract them from the driving tedium.

CDs were becoming an issue - arguments arose over which CD to play, and then screeches of disagreement over which songs were not the right songs followed. We needed a DVD player.

The problem with our new back seat arrangement was that if a screen was hanging on the driver's side seat, Quinn and Juliette could see, but Kiernan would be constantly craning his neck. If the player was on the passenger-side seat, Quinn and Kiernan are good to go, but Juliette's view would be blocked. Sucks, really, for anyone but Quinn. The third option of hanging anything between the seats would prove disastrous with the trio of climbing monkeys we regularly courier around.

Enter the Philips dual portable LCD DVD player. With one 9" screen on the back of each of the front seats, all kids have a view (Quinn doubly so - that kid just can't lose). The straps are adjustable and sturdy, and  the cables connecting the two monitors, as well as the car adapter, are long enough to snake out of the way of grabbing hands. The player is top-loading into one of the screens, and the buttons are easily accessable from the passenger seat - the only wish we would have would be for a remote to be able to hit Play when there's no one  but the driver there to respond to the angry wails of "It's stuck on the menuuuuu!!".

Of course, had we endured our children's groaning for one more year, we could have bought the new Dual DVD system which can play two separate DVDs at a time, or with a flick of a switch share a single view. I'm pretty sure Quinn would go into ferret-shock with that kind of heaven, so perhaps it's for the best.

Eric is dad to 5.5 year old Kiernan and old and 2.833334 year old twins Quinn and Juliette.