Technology Surrounds Me

My daughter Hanna, who is not even two years old, has been already introduce to the world of technology. She likes to sit in front of the computer, she moves the mouse around and has learn the cause-effect property that the mouse has. She has already discover that she can look at pictures, see images of her favorite TV characters, and listen to music.
Speaking about her TV shows, Diego is her favorite. He is an animal rescuer who has a GPS to locate the animals that need his help! He also has a video camera watch! A what?! I didn't even know there is such a thing!
Hanna is being exposed to all this techonology that is part of our world. My husband and I think that when she is a teenager there will be GPS to insert under her skin to track her (boyfriends look out!).

I got together with my friend and her family two weeks ago. Her oldest son Jimmy, who is 7 years old, had this "tool" in his hand for about three hours straight. I called it a tool, later on my husband told it was a "Game Boy Advance." The kid played his video games while the rest of the family had lunch, desert and played around with a ball.
I understand his video game kept him entertained and I'm sure it's good for his mental concentration and hand eye coordination, but I do question to what extent technology can be negative.

Remember one of the most popular toys sold out last Christmas was the Nintendo Wii. I couldn't really understand it's function until I got to try it. When we visited our friends for a barbecue my husband actually spend the afternoon playing golf, tennis, boxing, and racing. There is no way he would have had the physical strength to play all those sports the same day (he of course does not agree!).
Did he have fun? YES, but again raises the question, " Are the video games taking the place of real life enternainment?"
My believe as a parent of a future digital native is to welcome all the tools and the advantages that techonology can bring, but always be aware of the content of those video games and maintain control over rules and the times they can be played. You can never underestimate the power of family dinners, real sports, socializing face to face, and the important personal connections that are made in no other way.
Check out these sites:
Parental control and video games: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/613259/parental_control_and_video_games_knowing.html

Tools that will help you to keep track of time: http://www.familysafemedia.com/tv_time_management_tools_-_par.html

I am a big fan of the "Super Nanny." If you don't know what I am talking about, the Super Nanny is a show where families in the United States are having trouble with their kids behavior and ask for help from the Super Nanny becuase they don't know what else to do. One of the common issues that the nanny sees is that members of the family, parents and siblings, do not have any communication or very little communication becuase technology has taken it away. To many TVs are scattered around the house, no schedules have been set for the kids to watch TV or play their computers and video games, and, therefore, communication has been lacking among the members of the family so when they do have to actually communicate they don't know how. Super Nanny provides reasonable, firm, direct advice and strategies and, in the end, facilitates communication within the family.
Check out this site to learn from the Super Nanny:
http://abc.go.com/primetime/supernanny/index?pn=about

What a Mess!

My heart was beating quickly, my stove has all four burners going, the dinner table is set, all the gear for bathtime, storytime and bedtime is ready. It was 6:45, time for my class, and daughter and daddy were and their own! Their tummies were empty, the bathtub was never touched, and the books remained in the same pile. The crying for "Mommy, mommy, mommy!" (daughter, not Daddy!) and Daddy with persistent, quietly uttered swear words, songs, dollies, cookies, Diego and Dora, and even a favorite blanket could not prevent the baby from wanting her mommy!
Meanwhile mommy was having another mess online. After typing as quickly as I could to keep up with the chatting, my group told me that I wasn’t in their list to work with them. I was mistakenly located in the wrong group. I could not join the chat within my own group because I wasn’t in their list, and could not just jump in and start chatting in a group that was having a conversation already for 45 minutes. I called my teacher right away after class was over to clarify for me what group I belonged to so I could be part of the chat from the beginning of the class.
With the mess of having the noise of my daughter crying and the technology problems against me I felt that this course was not going to give the same type of satisfaction that the last ones had. I felt that technology is not always good especially when things can not be immediately fixed.

Support Groups

There have been different kinds of groups that I’ve been part of in my life depending on the phase I'm in. I am going to briefly recall some of them:
My childhood group: playing in the park, riding bikes, celebrating birthdays with games and piñatas, tea parties for the dolls.
My neighborhood group: lots of parties and laughs, concerts together, sports, sharing tears from having the same adolescent problems.
My college group: Extended hours of studying, sharing big ambitions, not being certain of where we were going to stand in our careers in the future.
My Ed 5921 graduate group: The group that held me up during the fall 2007 semester, shared lots of frustration, stress and satisfaction.
My motherhood group: When Hanna was 4 months old I started to join “The Little Gym” and I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting a group of moms. Even today I still bring Hanna to the Little Gym and have become good friends with two other moms that have daughters the same age as Hanna. Now Hanna is having her first interactive play group, where the kids are finally old enough to learn the social rules we all (or most of us anyway) live by. I hope she will learn to share, to talk, to play, and generally enjoy socializing with new friends.
This group has been the most supportive group for me as a new mom. I have been able to share my concerns about my daughter, to learn new ways of how to teach my daughter things, to go out and have a break from the house chores, and most importantly to feel that I was not the only one feeling so emotional, overwhelmed and concerned about my role as a first time mom.
Visit the links to find information about parenting groups that I've enjoyed reading.

Coming Back

Fall 2007 was the semester that seemed like it was never was going to end. The unlimited number of assignments, the big group projects, and the new type of instruction used along with the WebCity kept the course going 24/7. When the semester ended the feeling of being overwhelmed transformed into satisfaction. I learned so much about the content of the course, ‘the methods of instruction,’ but what I learned the most was the importance of building a strong work group. The environment of the class was truly collaborative and supportive of one another. When the semester ended one of my classmates, Danny, said, “I feel that the family is breaking up.” We were a family sharing the same type of emotions and ambitions. We were all carrying loads of stress! We help one another to make the load lighter!

Now I am back in totally different circumstances. First, I do not know any members of this new group and second, I would never even see them in person because the course I am taking is on online course, which brings me to a more frighting state of mind. Is it possible to build the relationships we need to work as a group when using the frequently impersonal resource of the internet?
It is going to be interesting how it goes. Are we going to be able to build a family like my last one? Am I going to able to handle an online course?
I will let you know what’s happening by making use of my blog!