How To Balance Life And Technology For Kids?

brs165 writes "Being a newly minted geek father as of 4 months ago, I've thought about problems I've never had reason to consider before. One issue which I'd like to hear from the ./ crowd is introducing technology to their children. What got me thinking about this was a blog post about 'Nature-Deficit Disorder', and I think it brings up some good points. I grew up playing in the local woods and creek with minimal tech until our first computer when I was 13. I hear stories from coworkers how some of their kids/grandkids hating going outside because it is boring and they'd rather stay indoors. Should I avoid introducing them to technology until absolutely neccessary, or is it a matter of achieving a balance?"

Comments

First off...

[Pete LaGrange]

Try to understand that you're not going to have nearly the amount of input you seem to think you will. Your kids are going to be introduced to a whole host of things without your consent/knowledge.

Once you wrap your mind around that, you can start to prepare yourself to teach them to deal with those things on a rational level.

You're thinking ahead, at least, and that's the first step to success. Good luck, you'll need it.

Pete (father of 8)

Re:Your influence is the number one thing

[squarefish]

I wouldn't be so sure of this. a good friend of mine has a 6 year old and he's glad that his son shows no interest in computers or video games yet- he's surprised there hasn't been any peer presure from his son's friends. the father is programmer and developer for the main gaming platforms and has all the developer kits in his office. the room is always locked and the son has a play area in the room while his father is working and needs to watch him, but otherwise doesn't participate or pay attention to what his father is doing, which can be particularly useful when he's working on a violent game like area 51. the father is very happy that his son just wants to run around outside and play with real toys for now.

Reality beats simulation

[EmbeddedJanitor]

The worst part of using technology is that it is primarily entertainment based. Even Discovery channel etc now competes for viewer time by upping the dramatic component of their shows. Reality, fact etc all get shoved aside to get viewer time.

Which kid learns more about nature? The one who goes down to the stream, falls in and gets wet and finds a few frogs hiding under some branches, or, the kid that plays magic schoolbus field trip game?

Apart from exposure to nature, there are many other things that create a real framework for kids. Yesterday we (myself, wife + kids) planted 60 trees in a grid. We used pythagoras to set things up square. We did multiplication/division etc to calculate how many rows and trees per row etc. We talked about nutrients etc as we added compost that the kids had helped to make some months ago. We talked about harvesting, pruning etc. On top of this, the kids got some exercise!