Rob's Space

I am often asked what I think about young kids and technology. While I have read both sides of the debate, it comes back to the old standard of everything in moderation. The latest popular WebKinz craze www.webkinz.com has been a great case study. There are those that are opposed to a social networking site for kids, and then there are those that are fully engaged and using it regularly. In our home, we are regular users. Not only do both of the girls have webkinz, but Lucy also has one as well. From there, the network include local friends, family in other towns and states, and now friends in Japan. There are obvious learning opportunities built into the site and I am still holding judgment to determine whether the academic portions of the site get avoided or utilized. Like any good tool, it sometimes get used as a toy first.

 

The new year is always a great time for new beginnings and resolutions. We kicked off the 2008 by spending time as a family in the Olympic Mountains. We are fortunate to have a small ski resort and sledding area 15 miles from our home so we spent two days playing in the snow. Winter conditions have been quite extreme on the mountain so it has been closed a great deal. Erin and I had planned on skiing today but the road was closed yet again. Maybe we can get up there tomorrow. As always, my new year's resolution is to work hard, play hard.

 

Had a very successful week at school and began the scholarship phase of www.dliteracy.org this week. Our plan is to offer 5 - $1000 scholarships this year to students who have maintained a digital portfolio throughout their high school career and meet established graduation requirements. With a little time, we plan to design the scholarship program so that all students that meet the requirements will receive a scholarship. We think we can get there in three years.

 

 

Their was a great deal to do during Christmas break and taking a day off for a ride in the snow was just one of the many adventures. My nephew Casey is always trying to drag me out for a ride, and time on the bike was long overdue. The only real problem is that urge to get a dual sport is sneaking up on me. I suppose it doesn't hurt to dream. http://www.buell.com/en_us/bikes/adventure/xb12x/features.asp

I thought I would post a couple of photos of the girls singing at their Sunshine Generation Performances. For those interested in photography, these photos came off of a website called SmugMug http://SARgear.smugmug.com/gallery/4017050/1/233783109. This is pretty cool site for those wishing to share photos. I also have to reference a video that I stuck on the reongo website http://www.reongo.com/video.html. If you havn't taken a look at the video it's worth your time. It will definately get you into the holdiay cheer.

 

   

Here's one for the holiday season.