Recently I was sitting in my office typing something up in Microsoft Word and I clicked to print it. I asked my 8-year old, who standing nearby to grab the paper out of the printer and hand it to me. He picked up the document, gave it a quick glance, and said in a mildly judgmental tone, “Sooo, decided to go with Century Gothic, huh?”
Um, how do you even know what that is?? He knows because unlike me, who took her first keyboarding class as a Sophomore in high school, our kids start learning typing, word processing, and other computer skills starting in Kindergarten. My second grader this year was making PowerPoint presentations in class and learning how to type and edit papers. This blows my mind!
We definitely live in an age where kids are very familiar with technology. As a mother to 3 (almost 4!) boys, electronics are a huge part of our lives. And while my husband and I make sure to encourage a well-rounded, balanced life full of activities like sports and outside play, we also embrace technology and have found it to be a great way to keep our active kiddos engaged, entertained, and learning. I’m going to share a few of the ways we do this at our house. I’m featuring the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet, but these things all apply no matter what type of devices you may have in your home. (Check out yesterday’s post for more about the Surface Pro 3)
Safety First
One of the best things about kids having access to electronics is that the world is at their fingertips. One of the worst thing about kids having access to electronics, is that the world is at their fingertips! Parents, I urge you to make good use of parental controls on the electronics that your children use. One of my favorite things about the Surface Pro 3, is that just like my PC, and other Windows products, I can set up an account for each of my kids and have control over exactly what they have access to.
They can’t access the profile of anyone else, and theirs is set up just for them. On our tablet, my husband and I use it for work, so aside from safety, I don’t want my kids messing with my stuff! I’m happy to know that I can hand it off to my 8 year old and on his profile he has limited access to the things we allow. His favorite games are there, a few appropriate websites and apps, and we can set timers (my favorite!) With the timers, he can play for say, 30 minutes, and then it locks and tells him time is up. There’s an option there to ask your parent for more time, and I can easily give him 15 more minutes. I can also get detailed reporting of what my kids are spending their time on, and any websites they access, which really gives me peace of mind.
Art and Creativity
Want to know a secret? We don’t own paint. Never have. I see pictures on Facebook of my friends’ toddlers covered head to toe in water colors and finger paint with captions like, “having fun with art today!” and I can’t look. It’s not cute; it looks like a disaster. You know what’s not a disaster? This.
I’m not going to lie, I am just as obsessed with the app FreshPaint as my kids are. If you have a Microsoft device, try it out. Little fingers have just as much fun as big fingers.
My kids’ favorite thing to do is snap a photo of themselves with the built-in camera and then convert it to a drawing that they can then paint. It always starts off cute, and then they inevitably put monster eyes on someone or paint their face green.
There are so many fun art and design applications on tablets these days, and it’s a great way to get kids interested in being creative and using their imaginations. And let’s face it: it’s much, much cleaner.
Education
As a parent, my favorite aspect of my kids’ obsession with electronics is the ability I have to trick them into learning stuff. The simple fact is that games make things fun! During these summer months we have rules at our house that along with lazy summer days, we also do chores and we do school work. They don’t even know half the time when I’m making them do homework when it’s disguised as a fun math game, or story time. The summer is a great time to pick a random topic and spend some time learning more about it. My boys have a particular interest in space, planets, and stars, so we’ve had tons of fun laying out on the trampoline on warm summer nights studying constellations with SkyMap. Like I said, the world at your fingertips. Literally!
Crafting
My comments about painting may have made it sound like I’m anti-crafting, which is not true. I’m just all about selective crafting. I often get overzealous and hand my kids books and websites about science experiments and craft projects and tell them to pick something fun we can do together. Then I look at the supply list and realize I need 8 cans of liquid nitrogen, a Moroccan horse hoof, extra strength super glue and 4 acres of open space and I say, “Um….so is there anything in there that uses tape and a piece of paper? We can do that one.”
I created a brilliant solution (if I don’t say so myself) by collecting projects I already know are doable and organizing them all on a Pinterest board. That way, just like when I “let” my kids choose what they have for dinner (between two options I’ve already picked) they can browse through the fun activities at will and I look like super mom when they point to homemade rockets and I say, “Sure! Because I’m an awesome Mom and we do things like that!”
We have tons of fun ideas like this on Our Best Bites. Check out our tutorials for Ginormous bubbles, or Homemade Lava Lamps and have some fun with the kiddos.
Entertainment
I’m not all about homework and creativity. Sometimes it’s also okay to just relax and have fun! We keep our Microsoft Surface Pro 3 loaded with age-appropriate games and entertainment for our young boys as well. Sometimes after a long day of playing out in the sunshine, you just want to relax on the couch and look for Waldo.
Or build a blanket fort and watch a movie inside. The Surface Pro 3 has awesome Dolby® enhanced sound, and the kickstand and large screen means there’s no fighting about who gets to hold it or sit closest. There’s definitely something magical about watching a movie in a blanket fort.
We have an upcoming road trip, and we’ll definitely be loading a microSD card with our favorite movies in hopes of lulling them into a comatose sleep.
As you can see, technology can be a great part of balanced family life, helping everyone to stay organized, entertained, and engaged!
We’d love for your family to integrate a little more technology as well, so we’re thrilled to be giving away a $500 Best Buy Gift Card to a lucky reader! Use it toward a Surface Pro 3 or any other fun electronics or accessories that your family will enjoy, and have an extra fun summer!
Questions & Reviews
I would use it get the surface to supplement homeschooling, which I’m starting this fall with my 5 year old.
I would use it for everything! We don’t even have a computer in our house!!! I know, what year are we living in? 😉 I think it would be another way to let my three boys enjoy learning!
I would use the surface pro to take on long road trips that we take every few months!
That looks so fancy! I would save tons of paper not having to print all my recipes.
My husband is wanting to get into sound editing, and I think this would be perfect! When I wasn’t using it in the kitchen, of course… 🙂
I couldn’t find the terms and agreements to find out if this is open to Canadian residents, but here’s hoping. My husband has a technology crush on the Surface Pro 3. I’ve always been an Apple girl, but he may be swaying me with this one!
I love the feature to set profiles for each kid. I think it’d be great for school and screen time. Thanks!
I would use it help me stay more organized, use in the kitchen, and to help entertain my daughter, too.
Me me me me! I would use it to prepare for baby #1, due in Oct. Let the list making begin!
I’d use it to watch my favorite shows, videos and movies and stay organized ^_^
How fun! My almost 2 year old already knows how to use our phones. The trick for us is learning to balance screen time with the rest of life!
I’m one of those moms whose kids are covering in paint. And I do think it’s cute and fun. Our table might think otherwise, because there are some colors that just don’t wash off very easily.
That being said, electronic paint -so much easier to clean up after!
Thanks for the fun giveaway and thanks for the great ideas!
I don’t always “embrace” technology. But with kids in school I find I need to know something about it. My kids are learning fasting than I. It is crazy. There are so many cool things about tablets. They are a great supplement for learning.
I’m so boring. I would buy a new vacuum if I won.
My kids all have tablets that they saved for and bought themselves. this one would be for me!
I would used the Surface Pro 3 in the kitchen. I love trying new recipes but looking at them through my smart phone just doesn’t cut it! I am sure that my kids would love to play Minecraft on it as well!
I’ve also got 3 little boys who would find lots of things to do with this!
Definitely for searching for new recipes, that app with list making possibilies looks amazing! Thanks ladies!
I’m going back to school this fall, so this would be great for researching and writing papers, you know- super fun stuff:)
I would love a tablet in the kitchen that I could store and use all my favorite recipes on!!
In the Las Vegas heat, it isn’t very fun to be outside from about 11AM til the sun sets unless you are in the pool. Tech diversions are nice to do inside when it’s just too hot outside to do anything else on those afternoons. As far as the Surface, I like that it is primarily designed to be a tablet rather than being a laptop that transforms into a “tablet.”
There’s so many uses! I would probably watch movies while I did the dishes or folded laundry. The kids would love playing games I’m sure, but we might need two to keep the peace!
We would use i for college.
I would use the surface pro to organize my recipes 🙂
I would use it in my kitchen. I love the way you can look up recipes and use it while you cook! It could almost replace my cookbook shelf!
I would love to let my preschooler work with learning apps.
I can’t say for sure how I would use the Surface Pro, but I think I might start in the kitchen. I’ve long wanted to use a tablet in there, but the tablet we have seems so slow, and there isn’t a way to create separate profiles on it so that we are not all using the same account. (Not super keen on the kids seeing my private emails.) Once separate profiles are set up, seems like that would open the door to LOTS of new opportunities!
Wow! I don’t much about tablets. This one sounds GREAT and I think I would use it in all of the ways you described!
I would love to use this for cooking and for road trips with the kids!