Birth of a Blogger

My kids are awesome. Now I know that every mom out there is thinking, “Well sure you think your kid is awesome, I think mine is too.” But I’m here to tell you that none of you have kids nearly as awesome as mine.

When I picked my kids up today from the bus I told them about the great conversation I had with a friend today about all the cool things kids are into these days. My friend and I were talking about 21st Century skills, but I figured at 6 and 8 my kids would be nanosecond bored by that one. Cool sums it up quite nicely for them.

My son agreed that kids can do cool stuff and told me (again) how cool it would be if he had a DS. He’s been begging for one for as long as I can remember, but I’m not particularly keen on a DS because I don’t see the educational value. I told him he should do some research to find some information that would prove to me a DS has some merit. If he could find some solid data on the value of a DS, I’d seriously consider buying him one.

As soon as we walked in the door he Googled “Why should I buy a DS”. (I know it’s not a verb, but it works, right?). He found some pretty awesome info, I have to admit. Did you know you can link your DS to a Wii? We don’t have a Wii either, but if these two machines can actually talk to one another, then I’m already on the yes side for both. I’m a nerd for sure and anytime two machines will talk to one another I’m already lovin’ them both.

Because it’s cool, that’s why!

I told him he should write down all the reasons he should have a DS. Then it hit me like a hot cup of coffee hits my brain in the morning - ShiZAM! 21st century kids don't jot down their thoughts in a journal - THEY BLOG!

I suggested he start blogging about why I won’t let him buy a DS. I told him he might get other people commenting on his blog posts. He asked what I was talking about, and the more excited I got about him blogging, the more creeped out he got. I'm sure his creeped-out-ed-ness had nothing at all to do with the jig I did as I jabbered on about how much he was going to love it.

He wasn't sold at first. When I added he might learn a few more reasons through visitor’s comments about the positives of a DS, he started to consider the benefits of blogging.

So we signed him up for a kidblog account http://kidblog.org/home.php. I searched a bit for free, kid friendly blogs and this one seemed like a good place to start. This is a blog site for teachers and their students, but we set one up for the family. My son started to blog about his DS situation, but then erased it.

With my jig coming to an abrupt and rather ungraceful end, and no small amount fear that he had decided blogging was too much work, I casually asked my little man why he had deleted his post. To my absolute exaltation he replies, “I want to blog about SLIME!”

Wahoo!!! A Blogger is born!

He feverishly set to work setting up his first post and I whirled around the kitchen with his 6 year old sister. I told him I would post his URL on Facebook so my people would find out about it and start commenting on his post.

His first post consisted of only 17 words, but he’s already hooked.

He racked up a whopping 6 comments within mere minutes of my Facebook shoutout about his blog. It is now three hours later and he’s already written one reply and checked his blog three times to see how many people have commented.

When I told him a few minutes ago he had a seventh post he was over the moon!

I have only been blogging for a few months myself, but seeing his enthusiasm got me fired right back up again!

So you see, my kid really IS the most awesome of them all! How old were YOU when YOU started blogging? I was 40. My son was only 3 months past his 8th birthday!!

Check him out at http://kidblog.org/deveaufamily

Noses and Mice

Today’s students have a road ahead of them that most of us never dreamed of. When we were in school, our teachers and parents had a pretty good idea about the kinds of jobs available to kids. Today it is a much different story. Who knows what jobs lay ahead for students? Who knows what great and wonderful bits of technology will be invented in the next 3 years? Or the next 5 years or beyond!

Technology continues to advance at crazy rates that extend far beyond that which our schools can keep abreast. A student entering university today is likely training for a job that may be obsolete by the time they graduate four or five years later. This presents certain obstacles for university professors, but consider the impact of this new reality on grade school teachers.

Among all the other responsibilities heaped on the shoulders of our K-12 teachers, we add the task of ensuring our students are job-ready for positions that don’t yet even exist. Whatever a child is taught technology-wise in grade 4, for example, will be completely outdated before that child reaches high school. Combine this truth with students’ limited access to the necessary tools, how can we possibly expect schools to deliver on society’s expectations that schools pump-out digitally rich graduates?

All of this disturbs me and I think about the access my own children have to computers in school. I have always worked hard to give my kids the tools they need to succeed in life.

I Have Taught My Kids

• Not to pick their noses (or each others),
• To chew with their mouths closed,
• To always share their chocolate with ME and not their dad,
• To be kind to others, and
• When they were four I taught them to read and how to use a mouse

All of these are valuable life skills, but I have also been cramming them full of digital lessons almost as fast as they cram down Halloween candy before they get caught! They have been working on the stealth lessons all on their own!

They have been getting lessons in Microsoft Excel, Word and Power Point for the past year; my kids are 6 and 8. I want them to have an understanding of the tools that are available today in hopes they will be better prepared for tomorrow. But that’s just me. I am a self-professed nerd and love to share that “nerdity” with my kids. I figure a good place to start is showing them the cool things they can do with the software they have access to at school.

I realize not everyone has the tech skills I have, so I wanted to get a look into what kids are doing in school regarding technology. I surveyed students from two schools within my school district. Each school is in a different town, but they are governed by the same school district. Please have a listen to my findings and feel free to comment on my podcast too.

Please click on the green play button to hear my podcast.

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