It's funny how I'll come across an article that is so in tune with whatever might be happening in my life right now. Just last night, I moved the girl' computer into the living room. I know... when my sister told me that my nephew Bowen had his own computer, when he was still a little baby, I thought it was crazy :-p But, then you find your views on a lot of things change once you actually become a parent :-)
Anyway, we always seem to have a ton of computers in the house, of various ages and conditions :-p And the girls have had their own computer in their room for awhile now... ever since they won their first little Baby Computer game system in that Baby Photo contest on MommyAuctions :-) And then my Mom gave them a whole new, more advanced one, for Christmas. So, they like to go in there a lot and play with it. But, I wanted to move it out here for a few reasons....
For one, with it being back in their room, it's harder to keep an eye on what they're doing/how long they're doing it. They're pretty good with no supervision... they know how to work everything (they're full-fledged computer geeks :-p), they take plenty of breaks and play with plenty of other things besides the computer... but, I just liked the idea of having it out here better. It's actually back-to-back with my computer here... and they even seem to like it out here, better. Plus, it'll be easier to hook up to the internet. Right now they've just been playing the computer game that my Mom bought them on that computer, but they constantly want to get on my computer, because they also love the games atFisherPrice.com and PBS.com... so, I want them to be able to do that on their own computer from now on, instead of hogging mine all the time :-p
Plus, I want to let my stepson, Ryan, get on at least here and there since he has done a pretty good job at bringing up his grades (although I still can't get him to get a job!)... but, even though he is getting ready to turn 18, I also feel better knowing that he'll be surfing out here, instead of his room... even if I'm not looking over his shoulder every minute, he'll at least know that I could at anytime :-p
So, today I was doing my usual surfing and, came across this article. It's a pretty cool article... I agree with pretty much everything in there. I'm not super-strict with how long they spend on the computer, because they spend plenty of time off of it, all on their own. Although, I am still looking forward to them starting preschool.... or even just warmer weather so I can get them outside more often. We probably do watch too much TV/spend too much time on the computer, but when it's freezing outside and we have no car (we only have one vehicle and Dave takes that to work), you do what you can to keep from going crazy :-p Although, even though both the computer and TV are on, neither one of them is paying attention to either of those things.... Josie is drawing on her DoodlePro and Anna is apparently having some kind of race with her dolls (she keeps running back and forth with them :-p)...
Maybe now I can go turn the cartoons off and put something a little more grown-up on (although I think I have to move their computer a bit... now it's blocking my view of the TV :-p)
P.S. I almost forgot... I have a cuteness report to add to this :-p Right after Dave walked out the door this morning, Anna was on the computer and she was yelling, what I thought was, "Are you OK? Are you OK?" And it looked like she might be looking in Josie's direction, since Josie had come around to my side of the desk... but, when I went over there, I realized Anna was pressing the letter K on her baby keyboard, trying to get it to come up on the screen, but it wasn't working because she was in the draw program and apparently you can't type in there. So, I finally realized she was yelling at the keyboard: "Are you a K? Are you a K?" :-p