Children love to decide what happens in “choose your own adventure” books.
Some TV shows will be adding this element to children’s programming. Allowing children to create the narrative for familiar and beloved characters is a sure way to keep kids engaged in the story.
Posted in tech
Children of early tech adopters are discovering that very personal stories about them have been available online for years.
Because some parents post information online even before a child is born, that person’s internet identity has been shaped completely without permission. Sharenting, or when a parent uploads information about a child, is triggering serious conversations.
How much veto power should a child have?
Should a parent have free rein to publicly share their child’s image?
Who determines where and how to draw the lines around a child’s digital presence?
These questions are merely at the tip of the iceberg.
Posted in tech
A local school district is working through the process of choosing new textbooks, but I’m not convinced they are making a good choice.
Regardless of what text is selected, researchers tell us that kids who have grown up on YouTube appear to learn some subjects more easily from videos and visuals than print-predominant resources.
As an author, I love books. Books are my life. I cherish them, but I think we need to look carefully at what appears to be a shifting preference for receiving information.
Parents looking for good models of healthy phone use for their kids need only look as far as NBA teams.
Some teams require players to mentally declutter by putting away phones when eating together as a group. Appreciative parents welcome support for helping their kids manage phone use time from any source!
This was the first holiday season in which a wave of parents invested time in programming kid routines into voice assistants.
From a child development perspective, Alexa can become a helpful add-on for busy parents, especially when offering personal messages during the bedtime space. Potential problems come when tech becomes a substitute for parental involvement.
Not even Alexa can kiss a child goodnight.
Posted in tech
Do you want your child to say “Thank you” to his voice assistant?
While some parents like to hear kids respond politely to their artificially intelligent tech toys, other parents think it’s a slippery slope toward a universe of non-human celebrities.
Scary thinking.
Posted in tech
Moms who are gamers is a new initiative on the diversity front.
Networks that encourage women in the gaming industry to share their experiences are helping to even the playing field among parents.
Girls and boys who grow up as gamers might not understand that a concerted effort has been needed to insure gender diversity for their moms.
Posted in children's play, moms, tech
