We have grandkids varying in age from 3 to 13. We are lucky that all live nearby and we get together as a group quite often. I was a firstborn, but from observing our grandkids I have come to appreciate the frustration of being a younger child. If you are an older child, you are unaware of the options life presents. If you have older siblings, you watch the fun things your older brothers and sisters get to do and it must seem that life is unfair.
We have spent much of our personal lives promoting the educational potential of technology. Following through on our own values, we have given technology devices to our kids and we also invest in apps they can use. Mom and dad have to deal with screen time issues. Grandparents are like that. I am not certain when this investment starts. I let my wife make this decision. However, even without the gifts from grandma the kids find a way to get started. The touch interface just seems intuitive and we watch as our youngest scrolls through pictures, but also navigates to locate the videos she likes to watch and the games she likes to play.
Phones are a different deal. You can get into too much trouble with a phone. When to have a phone is definitely a mom and dad decision. When an older brother or sister has a phone, it can be tough on the younger ones. Some seem to be bothered more than others. Last year we let one of the more frustrated ones have an iPod. Many folks probably don’t even remember the iPod. It looks like a phone with apps, music, and a camera, but it isn’t a phone. Think a phone-sized iPad. This at least worked for family gatherings as it was possible to take photos just like the older ones.
Eventually, the opportunity to communicate must be the one thing you really want to do. It turns out that you can send messages on an iPad and the 7-year old who thinks she is 13 now has the opportunity to really participate in the online world. The problem is mom and dad have put extreme limits on the number of individuals she can contact. The immediate family is OK and so are grandparents. My wife and I have our phones at the ready, are retired, and bear some responsibility for the tech plague we have spread, so we end up being on the end of many of these conversations. We reasoned it could be a great way to develop reading skills. We now get messages early in the morning. I also now know when she gets home from school and when it is time for dinner.
The “this would be a great way to develop reading skills” isn’t going as well as we had hoped. Kids are impatient and smart enough to find ways around the obstacles they face. They know how to do speech to text so they don’t have to actually write. If they can’t understand something rather than attempting to sound out a novel word, they understand that messaging allows the person sending a sound clip so they just ask you to record the word they don’t recognize. Smart, but struggling a little more would probably be the ideal way to approach the task. When she asks you to read the last word (below), this is what she wants.
Our chats don’t have a lot of substance by my standards, but I have to keep telling myself that I have very little experience chatting with anyone so this may be the way all chats go. I am certain that the number of IM’s I have sent this year to a seven-year old will surpass the number I have sent all of my other contacts.
I have learned that emojis and creative spellings are cool. She signs off now by adding a lot of extra e’s to the end of bye. I think this is something she came up with herself.
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee