Dan’s life is I.T. It’s what brings home the bacon and makes his brain tick to a contented tune. When a new gadget comes out on the market I know it is only a matter of time before one crosses the threshold of our home. My first reaction is usually, ‘Not another gadget’ and I tend to steer clear for a few weeks.
Meanwhile, my daughters are fighting over the latest ‘toy’. They are born in an age where they are practically teething over a mobile phone and using a mouse before they can scribble with a crayon.
After a few weeks I start to feel out of the loop and reluctantly mutter, ‘Come on then, show me what’s so fab.’
Well what is so fab in our house is… the iPad. It’s rich currency for good behaviour and shared around with careful observation.
Games can be downloaded for free or next to nothing. Books that ‘read aloud’ and classics are also available at the touch of a button – again many for free or at a fraction of the cost of a traditional book.
I never thought e-books would really supersede traditional books, but I can now see them having the potentional to be the way of the future. To have thousands of books stored in one portable, reader friendly device is a dream come true for literature lovers.
As a parent the iPad is the best educational ‘baby-sitter’ one could hope for when stuck waiting for a bus or a meal. Read aloud books are perfect for wriggly little ones.
At bed-time there is no need for a harsh light over a book, as the iPad brightness setting can be dimmed and gives enough light to read alone by. This week Charlotte & I have read Roald Dahl’s ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ and Dan is working his way through ‘War of the Worlds’ with Charlotte. Sophie has loved the interactive illustrations in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Toy Story’, as well as downloading read aloud books, that highlight the words as they are read.
Of course we shan’t be ditching the good ‘ole paper books in a hurry and there is something powerful about walking through a library stacked to the ceiling with words and thoughts. Visiting a second hand book shop holds another kind of magic, as the eye is drawn by some invisible force field to particular titles. When fingers touch the pages they dance across paper that has been held by another. There’s an added dimension to a book that’s been passed from one to another. A story behind a story.
Related posts
August 22, 2016 Adventures in Pokemon Hunting (with my children)
March 15, 2013 Things I’m Loving – Technology & Nature
May 10, 2011 Heaven is for Real
February 19, 2011 Under the Ocean: Lyrical Sunday (Week 8)
May 5, 2006 We have a new house!!
March 12, 2011 An old couple find a great retirement home…
oh lucky you – we’ve been into our local Apple store several times and stroked them. My husband suggested we buy one but we don’t actually need one – we need a decent laptop first. The only thing that put me off was I could see my reflection quite clearly in it and how do you prop them up? And the fact the carrying case was extra. I thought they could have provided a protective screen or something. After that rant, there are loads of things I like about them – how they look, the feel, the sweeping your hand across, the scrolling. My son is hooked! Once Apple have got you, they’ve got you.
You’re right that they’re never going to replace the affection I have for second hand bookshops and even new bookshops but I still like them.
Hi Alison, I don’t think the reflection is bad at all when it’s turned on and if you want to prop it up Dan recommends a cheap plate stand! He has a slideshow of photos running on it when he’s not using it. Apple sure have us hooked! 🙂 Sarah x
How exciting that you already have an iPad. I didn’t think they were available in NZ yet?
Hi Juli, That’s right, they are not available in NZ yet – Dan got someone who was travelling via the States to NZ to get him one. He didn’t tell me he was getting one – it just ‘appeared’ on the coffee table one evening and I said, ‘What’s that?!’ – the children thought it was a giant iPhone – not far off 😉 Sarah x
Sarah … I found reading this so interesting. We are not IT savvy at all in our house, Jimmy has still not watched TV, but has the occasional DVD, and has just started being interested in audio books. Sometimes I wonder what it will be like for Jimmy when he starts school and discovers the IT world. I figure he will pick it up quickly!! He has come home for childcare asking about Ben 10 and other weird and wonderful characters! I am sure kids will be reading from computers by our age. I hope books stay around though – for all the lovely reasons you list.
Hi Katy, there’s nothing to be gained from all the whizz, bang technology really – children are much better off playing, creating and getting their hands dirty in the early years I reckon. There’s plenty of time for computers and children pick everything up so fast anyway. Though I reckon by the time they are at intermediate and college they will all be learning on laptops/e-books. Technology is developing at such an astonishing rate and becoming increasingly intuitive for the user.
I have to say that if I lived alone I would have a $50 TV, basic stereo and a mobile just for emergencies. It’s only because I’m married to an I.T. devotee that I can’t avoid it. I was perfectly content with my regular mobile and then he surprised me with an iPhone at Christmas – I have to say, now, that I’m totally hooked (though I never thought I would be!). I like to think I could live without it… but it is kind of addictive!
I am forever saying, ‘Let’s put away the gadgets and open up the chest of board games’. Thankfully, I’m managing to keep a balance on it all – for now…! Sarah x
I have also recently been thinking about the future of e-books; when I first heard of them a few years back I was wondering how I’d feel about the loss of being able to physically turn a page, the smell of a paperback etc., but I’m coming round to the thought of them…and I wonder how long it’ll be before I’m tempted with a purchase…
Hi Eirlys,
I reckon wait a year and see what they come up with then! Like all these things, this is only the beginning. It’s going to be hard to keep up soon. Technology is moving at such an astonishing pace – I just wish someone would get round to inventing a genuinely useful, and cheap, robot that could do all the housework for me 😉 x
Only thinking about one but there’s much muttering in our house over reports that the battery doesn’t last that long. What’s your experience? It’s only something to think about for the future for me, I chose my mobile phone becuase it had clear numbers on the keypad and it only cost £5.40, it doesn’t even take photos and I rarely use it anyway.
Hi Ruta, Dan reckons the battery is pretty good – lasts for a good 10 hours – so he just leaves it charged in whenever he’s not using it and at night.
Thanks for the info. By the time I get round to buying one they’ll probably have the flexible screens that you unroll in general production. Things move on so quickly, check out a youtube video ‘SiftHappens’ for some facts and figures on how fast technology is progressing. BTW I like your new weather widget so much that I had Linas put one on my blog.
Hi Ruta, it is incredible how fast it’s moving – quite astonishing and frightening in a way – but for those that love it, and those growing up with it, very exciting. Glad you found a weather widget for your blog – the ‘ole Geographer in me can’t help but love a weather widget 🙂 x
wow, it’s beautiful! I was looking at one on bidrivals last night, took my eye off it for a sec and it sold, for $16!!
Hi Hay, $16! I can’t believe it! Someone got very lucky; and someone else is crazy to let one go at that price!
Hi to you and your lovely family, I came across your blog after reading the dawes family blog for the last year, and I have been reading yours now for the past few months.
I just wanted to say I LOVE it. We are a family of three from Shropshire in the UK. We moved here just over two years ago.
Your blog is special and so is your family.
Keep blogging!!!!!!!
Rachael and family. x
Hi Rachael and thank you so very much for your heartwarming comment. I hope you and your family are settling into life in NZ okay. It took me a very long time to get over pangs of home-sickness and a couple of times came close to shifting back – even got the movers in to give me a quote on shipping costs. Of course the thought of moving back is always present and I will forever miss my family, but for now we are very happy here and our children are settled. Perhaps when they are older, at Uni or backpacking, hubbie and I will return and enjoy Europe in our senior years 🙂 x Thanks for visiting, Sarah x
I know Martin is itching to get one – he loves his ipod – but we’re determined to wait a while and see how things pan out. We’ve got more than enough technology right now. I think I’d enjoy the iPad more as I find the iPod a bit too fiddly. It’s great that the kids have something really fun to do with it – better than being beached at a computer desk. Its hard to imagine how their lives will be in the future with all the changes in technology.