Are laptops for school children a good idea?

I’m sitting here with my daughter’s school laptop in bed (feeling crapola with a cold) as I write this so I’m aware that I’m being a bit hypocritical…

Here’s the thing. My daughter has gone to a new school this year. A school that insists that every child should use a laptop from Grade 5. Their argument is that we live in an age where computers and digital devices are a part of our lives and that we should make use of every tool we can to educate our children. And yes, I get that.

But since we’ve had this third computer in the house we barely see our 11 year old. It’s Youtube 24/7 - or until Groover goes mental because we’ve been shaped again. She doesn’t seem to read books anymore - it’s chapter after chapter of fan fiction.

We insist that she uses the computer in public and we’ve learned that you take the laptop away from her at bedtime - what I’m not seeing is a whole lot of homework done on the computer and given that, I wonder why the school doesn’t store the wretched things in the classroom. Do they really need to take them home?

The only good thing is that at least she’s not fighting with my son now over the second computer.

So here I am enjoying her MacBook interface on our wireless system (which doesn’t seem to work for my work laptop) and whinging.

Partly it’s the lazy parent in me that finds it hard to cope - I get tired of continually taking it away from her and telling her off for exceeding our bandwidth quota again.

And part of it is my old fashioned sense of media. I want my child to enjoy books as books! Not fan fiction. Although, having said that if she was writing her own stories… well now, that would be different. And maybe endless reading of it will lead to writing her own…

In the meantime my darling Dipp has earned a merit award at school. So maybe the laptop isn’t the monster I make it out to be.

Oh, you ask, why do I have precious time on the new toy? Ah, she’s out on her brother’s bike getting some fresh air.

I asked her first!

Some parenting tips please! How do you manage computer time in your home?

photo credit: Apollo-Jack

Why I’ve cancelled my facebook account

Well… deactivated it… it’s VERY difficult to pull out of it completely… I just got sick of all the poking, vampire biting… yes even hugs…

In fact, no words today… I’m going to let BBC3 do the work for me:

Thanks to Nigel and Steven Humour for the link. :)

Seagulls steal chips… from a shop

I seem to be collecting youtube videos on seagulls.

First there was my little video of the seagulls looking at themselves in a shiny sculpture… and now there’s this one (discovered on Steven Humour) of seagulls stealing chips.

They are cheeky little buggers aren’t they. I can remember Groover’s angst as he left the bakery at Rottnest Island (mmmmm) with a pie and before he had taken one bite having it snatched from his grip by a marauding seagull.

We rescued a seagull once.

We were staying on Rottnest… we went every year for a week’s holiday growing up… and it was raining. A seagull chick had fallen from it’s nest and was being pecked and attacked by some adults. Mum rescued it and put it in the oven… to keep it warm! The door was open. She wrapped it up and fed it milk I think… or something.

We brought it home with us on the ferry in an icecream container cradled in tissues and when we got home Mum made it a little home out of a cardboard box. She cut slats in one site - like a jail - and the little seagull grew.

It was pretty intelligent actually. And toilet trained. Well, sort of. It used to squirt its business through the slats onto the kitchen dining floor. Luckily we had tiles. You had to watch where you stepped coming home.

Eventually it grew too big for the cardboard box and Dad built it an aviary along the backfence. For some reason he’d built the side wall with foot wide partitions extending out which worked really well with some chicken wire.

We called our seagull - Rasputin.

He was a fine guard-dog er… seagull. Every time anyone walked past he’d do that seagull screech. Could wake the dead.

We’d let him out to practice flying and one day took him down to the beach and set him free among his seagully friends. Maybe he came back and visited us. It’s a bit hard to tell.

They all look the same to me.

How the other half lives

I went to Sydney in January and a group of us ended up in a pub one night where I was told the graffiti in the men’s loos was amazing.

So I sent one of our party… a bloke… into the conveniences with my camera to show me.

He did.

And then I wondered how it compared with the ladies… as you do. So I abandoned my sav blanc, and took my video to the loo.

Have you ever wondered how the other half lives?

I think the girls win…

How to Riffle Shuffle

Babtamore (Trish) asks “What is rifle shuffle?” Well I don’t like to take a shot-gun approach to my answers (hehe) so I’ve made you all a little video on how to riffle shuffle.

In fact this is a riffle shuffle with a Cascade Bridge Flourish. Sounds fancy eh?

Here’s some more tutorials…

And yes… that’s Groover at the end. :)

Interview with The Food Pornographer

Please go to Aussie Bloggers and check out my interview with The Food Pornographer.

tfp was charming, fun and open to interview and I’m sure you will love getting to know her as I did.

If you like, download an mp3 of our interview, which is only slightly edited. :)

Or check out the youtube video below to see how the tfp photographs the food in front of her.

You can also go to her site to see the photos of the food we ate. Yum!

A genuine question to Christians

This video is the second most watched comedy clip from Rowan Atkinson on Youtube.

And I’m wondering - if you’re Christian - is it offensive?

My opinion - and I wouldn’t call myself religious - that it isn’t. But then again, would I say the same about a similar sketch based on the Koran? I’m not sure.

Please let me know what you think in comments.

Seagulls steal sculpture show

As opposed to stealing your meat pie just as you walk out of the bakery… but that’s another story…

One of my favourite events is the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition at Cottesloe. The interaction with the landscape, the weather, the sculpture and the viewing public is just something special.

This year was no exception… and clearly the seagulls were impressed too.

Awwww.

An awkward conversation

Watching this gem from Servant of Chaos:

Me: Laughing at video

Dipp: Can I see mum?

Me: Um yes.

Dipp after watching final ad: I don’t get it. What is that?

Me: It’s a vibrator.

Dipp: A what?

Me: It’s used by women to feel good.

Dipp: ???

Me: Er… um… it’s a sex toy.

Dipp: …

Me to myself: Hmmm that went well…?

Freeze! You’re on candid camera.

This is a brilliant improv: 207 actors froze in place - on cue - for 5 minutes - in Grand Central Station - perhaps the busiest train station on the planet.

It looks amazing. I wish I had been part of it. Although I’m not sure I could have held still for a full 5 minutes…

More…

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