Digitizing Your Kid
Should babies play with tablets? When is the right time for my child’s first smartphone or Instagram account? These are some of the hotly debated questions in parenting circles, blogs, and educational forums. Although there are many opinions, simple answers and blanket solutions are hard to come by. The influence of technology on our lives has become complex and profound. One of the biggest challenges facing today’s parents is figuring out how to deal with their children’s usage of technology and the Internet.
Our children are already impacted by social networks and smartphones. How can technology have a positive influence and help them grow into a hyper-networked future? How can I even begin to imagine what social media will look like when my two-year-old is a teenager? I still remember a time without the internet, writing my first email at the age of 16, getting a smartphone and starting to use Facebook in my twenties. Now I’m fully networked and rely heavily on my phone and computer. Technology is a part of daily life for parents and children alike, which is a blessing and a curse. It isn’t only the older generation complaining that technology has changed our world for better and for worse. Despite constantly having their smartphones, more and more young people are complaining about being addicted to their phones and social media. Many people are struggling to find a balance.
There must be a balance!
When children first start using technology, parents are challenged with the task of limiting this usage to a healthy amount. My role as a mother is to assist, invent, and play, to allow and let go, to explain and educate. Although this balanced approach is the only one that makes sense to me, implementing it is a tough task. Researching and providing the right content is time consuming. Finding and administering the best rules is exhausting and annoying. It is important to monitor and plan screen consumption, especially with the younger kids. Nevertheless, most parents provide their children with the distraction of a tablet in order to gain time for themselves every now and then. It’s not that easy to raise a child in the digital age, especially now that technology seems to be progressing faster than research about parenting and plain common sense!
To hopefully make your journey a little easier, I’ve put together a few ideas and products that can help you and your little ones get the most out of the technology in your life. (after all, we’re all about sharing here at Grover, whether that’s sharing technology or ideas!)
Interaction and Creativity
Experts agree that watching TV and videos for hours on end is rather harmful for children, but when it comes to apps and computers, interactive screen experiences can have a positive impact. Rather than watching passively, content that invites the little ones to become active and creative can enhance their development and communication skills. Photo, video, and sound editors, painting and graphic tools, and online musical instruments are all great examples of simple programs that enable children to create independently and at their own pace. Furthermore, these programs expose them to the basics of software and user experience which will help them in their future digital careers. When children use apps and gadgets to be creative, these become tools for self expression. Whether video or sound recordings, digital collages or blogs, children gain something out of their first experiences using technology. Through this, our children are encouraged to explore their talents and interests.
Programming
Programming is exciting, trains critical thinking skills, and can most likely secure your child’s future in a well-paid job. Every little “digital native” should try out programming. There is a whole series of fantastic mini-computers, robots, kits and courses that introduce children to the basics of programming in a playful and intuitive way. You will find a list of these at the end of this post.
Relax
As great as technology is, many of the nicest things in life can not be replaced or imitated by it. Maybe it’s just us, the last generation who can remember what it’s like never being online, wanting to shut down the ability to enjoy a nasty, analog, standard definition of the world. It’s our duty as parents to pass down knowledge to our children, the knowledge of our experiences on this Earth. Because even though Facebook is normal for them, they shouldn’t forget how to read real emotions, and that you can “like” something without sharing it. It’s also wonderful to play for hours with sticks and stones. Think back to the memories that can only be saved in our minds, rather than on Facebook: the feeling of sunburn and scratched up knees, loud parties in the evening, passing love notes in class, being dragged along on a boring Sunday walk.
So while we won’t forget about teaching kids the joys of the analog world, you can prepare them for their digital future.
Grover’s List for Digitizing Kids
Products:
Anki Cozmo — A sweet little Robot with simple programming
Onile Osmo Genius Kit — A great educational game and kit for the iPad that combines an analog and digital learning experience
Cubetto — An award-winning Montessori toy to learn the basics of programming
Awesome shield — Various programming kits for kids
Tech will save us Kits — Great programming kits and interactive creative toys
Kano Kits — Various programming kits for kids
Sam Labs curious cars Kit — A programming kit for building your own smart car robot
Programs:
Alice — A world where children can create their own VR stories
LOOPIMAL — A friendly and simple music app for looping and sampling melodies
Courses:
EduHeroes Coding Course End of May — (Berlin)
Future Legends — Programming Courses for Mothers and Daughters (Berlin)
www.start2code.de — (Munich)
DaVinci Labs — (Berlin)
