Changes

Don't mind me. Or rather the changes to the blog. I get bored easily and like change. The other day, in between sending and receiving emails organizing and coordinating hs activities for September I decided to start tinkering with the blog. I see so many pretty titles and just all around pretty blogs out there. I am pretty handy with the computer as long as it involves spreadsheets, word documents or googling, I am horrible with everything else. You can't even imagine what a nightmare it was for me to post Izzy's recital videos.

So bear with me. One of these days I will break down and have to sit Rob down to "help" me.

Gmailing....

Alex is back on the computer. He takes lengthy breaks from it. Months at a time, even. He's back now, gmailing everyone he knows.

Rob and I get such a kick out of it.

The best part is that he has to work on his spelling to write to people. Sometimes I'll sit upstairs with my computer while he is down here on the desk-top and we will send messages back and forth to each other.

This kid is getting pretty good at navigating around the computer. I imagine it will only be a matter of time before Rob introduces him to some early programming. Then I'll have two people in the family who will be able to help me when the funny error messages pop up on my screen. Ohhh...that could be great!

Raising kids in the age of Google

Last night Rob and I got our first kick on the pants for not realizing sooner how computer savvy Alex had gotten. When we first gave him a user account we didn`t think much of it. He was quite new to the whole thing and, frankly, showed much less interest in the computer at first than we expected him to. On his account I put up a bunch of shortcuts to kid friendly sites like StarFall (a reading site) and PBS Kids. We didn`t know that the site he would adore (and frequent) most would be a catalyst to bigger and better things not at all appropriate for a 5 year old boy.

He discovered mini Lego movies on the site which were actually shown by YouTube. Once there he could click onto other YouTube videos and keep moving from there. He also figured out how to use the google search engine, funny enough by going to find more Lego videos on YouTube, and when we checked his search history that is mainly what we found. Unfortunately he also opened a couple of other videos that were not for kids. The main computer is in the basement and that is where he spent most of his time online. The truth is he doesn`t even spend that much time on the computer yet but when he does he can sit there for hours.

So once I had been enlightened I spent several hours reconfiguring Alex`s user account. I gave him a child friendly home page - Kids.Yahoo.com (with Lego Star Wars Wallpaper, no less), a new email account (set up from my account) to send mail to close family and friends, bookmarked a bunch of appropriate sites, then blocked Google and replaced it with a kid friendly search engine. Sadly Google has no appropriate filters for young children. I also went through and started placing locks all over the place - starting with YouTube. He`ll have to wait until Rob and I can sit with him to watch those mini videos now.

I know this is just the first step. Rob and I are going to have to sit the boy down and have the first of many talks to him about computer safety and our expectations. I think this is even harder than the sex talk. Computers and the internet are a huge part of our lives. That`s how Rob makes his living. It is an invaluable resource and a great form of entertainment for all of us. The consensus in our home is that we would get rid of every other electronic machine in our house before we let go of the computer. I expect the kids will be similarly minded. The hardest part will be trying to stem the flow of negative information so easily available to this generation of kids. I mean we had to search high and low to find a picture of a nude person when we were kids. I can`t even let my mind go to what Alex and Izzy could find in a two second search.

I'm back!

I'd say I was just too busy which would almost be true but I haven't been able to post here for over a week. Some spam-blogger search engine flagged mine as trouble and I had to wait for the powers-that-be to fix it.

So now I am free to write again and darned if I can remember what I've done lately.

Poor, neglected computer...

It's been a heck of a week. Aunt Kelly graduated with her Master's Degree!!! Whoohoo! We are so proud of you, as always! :-)

Unfortunately, poor Rob was called back home early from the celebration to come tend to his children and very sick wife. I don't know what happened but it was the worst 12 hours of my life. Well, actually the week I had Norwalk was probably the worst being that Rob had just left me alone with a newborn and toddler, but I digress...

It started around 2 am and didn't stop until later that afternoon. Thankfully the kids are scarily independent. Alex helped with Izzy and they hung out on the floor in my room watching toons and playing games. What ever it was, food poisoning or some intestinal virus, it was relatively short lived and no one else got sick. I get a little germ crazy when anyone is sick. The sick person confines him or herself to one bathroom, there is a complete embargo on kisses and shared food/drink, everyone gets new toothbrushes and my appeals for hand-washing border on obsessive-compulsive.


Luckily this didn't impede Alex's trip to the symphony with Heather. While both kids couldn't go to the University Convocation, Izzy couldn't go the Symphony. Rather than find a sitter, I asked our dear friend to accompany Alex to the concert while Iz and I did some shopping. The concert was part of a series for children, this one called The Search for the Magic of Music. I am really excited to go next month to see Beethoven Lives Upstairs. We bought tickets for the whole series. It has renewed interest, for myself and a lot of my friends, in the symphony and I hope to make a night of it soon.

Life is getting back to normal. We will be leaving shortly for gym class and tonight Alex is officially inducted into Beavers. Pictures, of course, to follow.