A little confirmation that something is working here... and some thoughts on technology.

Just a small, special moment that I want to remember:  last night at bedtime, as we sat down for storytime and I started to read, Monkey took the book from my hands and took over.  He read The. Whole. Thing.  That's right, my boy read his little brother a bedtime story last night, while I just sat back and watched with a glowing heart.

This was especially exciting to me because lately, Monkey has been very reluctant to do any reading. I have backed off and waited for him to be ready, because my goal for my kids is that I want them to love reading as much as I do, and I don't want it to ever feel like a painful chore.  He was very excited about sounding out words and learning to read for a while, but then he suddenly began resisting.  Maybe I started putting too much pressure on him, or perhaps I was correcting him too quickly when he would made a mistake, instead of giving him time to figure it out on his own.  Occasionally over the past few weeks though, he has been jumping in and reading a few lines of whatever I'm reading aloud - and he is constantly surprising me by knowing many words (and some are big words!) that I didn't think he knew.

I think some combination of watching/listening as I read aloud, and also playing video games has sparked this seemingly spontaneous learning.  After much internal struggle in trying to decide how technology should be handled in our home, right now I do not put limits on screen time, but I DO limit what he *does* with his screen time.  Meaning, I monitor what tv shows and movies he watches and what kind of games he plays, but he is free to choose what to play or watch within the approved selections, and how long to do so.  Some days he spends a lot of time playing on the computer, and some days he doesn't.  But on those days that he does, I do not think it's wasted time.  This is just a format that "toys" have evolved into, IMO, and I think there is a great deal of learning happening during this kind of play.  He often chooses educational games - for example, those on www.pbskids.org and www.coolmath.org.  But even in games that are not specifically educational in purpose, there is still value.  Besides motivating learning to read in order to navigate menus and learn intructions for how to play a game, he is also learning basic logic - what steps need to be taken to solve a certain problem (i.e. get past a difficult level) and the satisfaction one gets for solving a tough problem on their own.  He learns how to deal with frustration when he doesn't succeed right away, and he definitely practices persistence and keeps trying over and over until he figures out the solution.

I am constantly reading conflicting articles about this subject, and you can find many on both sides of it.  So far, I have found the pro-technology side of the argument to be more compelling.  I think technology gives us amazing tools to make learning interactive and FUN, and I think people fear it unnecessarily.  Just because it's relatively "new" to the educational scene doesn't make it a bad thing.

Here's a list of links I've bookmarked over the past year or so, that I've found particularly thought-provoking:

No Thank You, We'll Stay Plugged

TED Talk - Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make A Better World

TED Talk - Gabe Zichermann:  How Games Make Kids Smarter

Limiting Video Games is Delusional

Video Games:  An Hour a Day is Key to Success at Life

Surprising Things Parents Should Know About Video Games

The Many Benefits for Children Playing Video Games

Value and Uses of TV for Unschoolers

Benefits of Video Games

A final thought, which came to me as I was thinking about this one day:  I wouldn't buy a kid a toy car and then say, "Ok, you can only play with this toy for one hour a day, and then I'm going to take it away."  That seems silly, right?  Well, I think the same thing applies to technology-based "toys" too.

I welcome any thoughts from anyone on both sides of this issue.  How do you handle technology use in your home?

Take-Apart Day - March 30, 2012

Still catching up!  Back in March, we participated in one of the most fun activities we've done yet.  For "Take-Apart Day" everyone brought in old/unused/broken appliances, gadgets, electronics, etc. to take apart.  We saw cameras, printers, phones, a blender, a sewing machine, and more.  We chose to take our old, obsolete computer, which has been sitting in our damp basement for quite a few years (since 2003 I think?).  I figured that since Monkey has such a deep love of computers, it wouldn't be a bad idea to let him see what makes them tick.  Also, the boy LOVES using tools - he got his own tool set for Christmas and was quite pleased to have a reason to use them.  (Disclaimer: I have a degree in computer networking & maintenance so I was able to describe to Monkey what each of the parts were, and safely guide him in his disassembly.  Please use caution and/or have a knowledgeable person around if you decide to do this at home!)

Photo credit:  Michelle B. (or whoever was using her camera!

 

Here you can see Little Bug delightedly banging on the outer case of the computer with a hammer.  He sure loves "helping"!  Photo credit:  Michelle B. (or whoever was using her camera!)

Monkey and his buddy, E., working together.

Photo credit:  Michelle B. (or whoever was using her camera!)

Great article

I've heard about Khan Academy all over the place, and am already planning to incorporate it into our homeschooling when the boys are older. I just had to share this excellent article from Wired magazine: How Khan Academy is Changing the Rules of Education. It's kind of long but totally worth the read. If you haven't heard of it, Khan Academy is a website full of free video lectures, many of which are about math, but there are other topics as well. It all began when Salman Khan started making videos to help tutor his young cousin who lived across the country, and over time it turned into the huge thing it is today. Even Bill Gates was using it for his own children! The article is about how a few school systems are now using his program and are being blown away by the results. Towards the end is an interesting bit about how Khan doesn't want to work too closely with them because "he doesn’t want the school system and its byzantine standards determining what he does with his site". He insists he isn't trying to be a reformer of the school system, he just wants to help kids learn. The following paragraph really stood out to me:

"Even if Khan is truly liberating students to advance at their own pace, it’s not clear that the schools will be able to cope. The very concept of grade levels implies groups of students moving along together at an even pace. So what happens when, using Khan Academy, you wind up with a kid in fifth grade who has mastered high school trigonometry and physics—but is still functioning like a regular 10-year-old when it comes to writing, history, and social studies? Khan’s programmer, Ben Kamens, has heard from teachers who’ve seen Khan Academy presentations and loved the idea but wondered whether they could modify it “to stop students from becoming this advanced.”"

That's right... I have to say that again. They wondered if it could be modified "to stop students from becoming this advanced." Students becoming too advanced? Oh the HORROR! Only public school administrators would see that as a problem.