iPad Adventure

Just wanted to give a big shout out to LD Products and all of our friends and family who helped us win the boys an iPad!! We are super excited! As soon as it is released, the boys will have their very own 64GB iPad 3 while Jon and I have yet to get smart phones... can someone please tell me what is wrong with this picture?!

We are super excited yet also very conflicted about this "new addition" to our family. Technology and what to do with it always leaves me with an uneasy feeling. On one hand, we really try to limit the amount of screen time the boys get. On the other hand, we are raising them in a rapidly advancing technological world and as much as we don't like it, we know that they have to be prepared to live and succeed here.


It frightens me that both of the boys know how to navigate my mom's iTouch like pros, while I can barely turn the damn thing on. Before the age of two, they were caught trying to order their own apps on grandma's iTouch and accessing my aunt's bank accounts through her iPhone... both of which they would have succeded in had they not been password protected. Or maybe they would have been successful had the passwords been something toddler friendly like "diaper" or "milk" :) Who knows?!

I have to admit that my mom is great at finding educational apps (free ones at that!) that the boys love. Matthew's favorite is a United States map app... where there is a blank outline of the entire country and it gives you one state at a time to drag into its correct location. It doesn't tell you the name of the state, just shows you the shape, and the little bugger can put the whole map together in a matter of minutes. Caleb loves matching games and spelling games. They both have memories that would put an elephant to shame and they are already learning to sound out and read simple words with the help of a few cleaver apps (and two parents who spend hours a day reading to them). Obviously these are great learning tools, but the thought of how such technology will transform the boys' education really does frighten me.

Will they get to experience the joys of sitting at the dining room table for an hour each evening after dinner while they trace their letters and practice their cursive handwriting? Will they feel the crisp pages of a book between their fingers as they dog-ear the top corner when its time to stop reading and go to bed? Will they burn through 12 highlighters a semester in college as they sit in a empty coffee shot at 3:00am feverishly marking up their neuroanatomy textbooks? Will they even have textbooks in college? Will they actually go to college? A physical place where they are surrounded by beautiful old brick buildings with ivy creeping up the walls and by other like-minded peers who take pleasure in reading classic novels? Will the ever spend an afternoon in the coffee shop with their favorite professor chatting about his latest research? Will the ever even meet their professors? Or will they sit there in their pajamas in front of a computer screen "interacting" with their professors and peers in online forums and chat rooms?

I guess only time will tell, though I have a sinking feeling I know the answers already and it makes me a little sad inside. But despite my old-fashioned dreams for them and thanks to LD Products, the boys are about to start a new learning adventure with their new iPad3!!! I'm excited to use it to work on their Spanish because, let's face it, I could have paid a little bit more attention to Senora Tarnovsky in high school. Ok, a LOT more attention! And I can't wait to help the boys learn more fun facts baout their favorite presidents. But I think we might go a bit easy on the reading apps out of genuine fear that they will be hacking into our passwords and ordering God knows what in no time at all :)