small, furry, loud, dangerous

Quote
John Willoughby
The odd thing is that I don't drink beer, and her Mom doesn't drink more than two or three bottles a month. I think she gets her attitude from Bender on Futurama.

I bow to your parenting skills! My kid still prefers Barbie movies.

My kids are enormous reservoirs of Futurama quotations, most of which make no sense if you don't follow the series, but they slip them into very funny contexts if you know the show. Oh, and they went through the Barbie movies, too, so there's that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2012 11:54AM by John Willoughby.

Have I already asked this? Dunno.

MIndstorms 2.0 for my 7 year old's birthday? I looked at a demo of the "language" at the lego site. Seems like it's graphical and easy to follow.

He loves games. He can read (too) well. He certainly wants it. But will it have lasting power for him? Is it too much?

Yes, of course he has done things to his iPad I can't fathom…



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2012 03:13PM by bahamut.

I wish you luck. We bought it for our kids and they failed to engage in the programming. They liked the idea, we bought, and they did nothing past the first day or so of trying. Oh well.

Well that wouldn't be too surprising. Anybody have any luck with it?

I bought some for myself about 10 years ago. At the time, it wasn't Mac-compatible. There were two levels of programming, the kind that came with the set and then a more sophisticated one for folks who were into robotics and serious lab-type experiments and sensors. I liked it, but I was more into trying to get a functional transmission working than the programming (maybe because I'm a programmer, it was the mechanical aspect that interested me). I sold it when I moved, but I kind of wish I still had it. I can't get my kids into legos at all; I don't think they'd go for Mindstorms. They're more into virtual legos, e.g. Minecraft.

lol - minecraft played here by kids hours a day.

I enjoyed Mindstorms and used to volunteer at some local elementary schools helping kids with it. Some of this was also in coordination with FIRST Robotics, an excellent youth program that sponsors competitions. They have a great way of designing and running the competitions that keeps the kids engaged.

Do they call that way of keeping them engaged "BORG"?

Wife: "You didn't ask me if you could have that!"
Child: "I didn't ask you if I couldn't have it, either, so I don't see how this is my fault."

My youngest has been on Concerta for a few months. It didn't really make any difference academically, and made her very anxious at night, so we're taking her off it.

She got an iPod touch for Christmas, which she is NOT allowed to take to bed. Last night she got scared in her room, despite having another iPod reading an audio book to her, all her lights on, and the dog sleeping on her bed. She, being a high-tech child, resorted to sending me text messages and e-mails from the iPod touch she had smuggled up to watch videos. "Daddy, I'm scared." "Daddy." "Daddy, I'm scared and lonely." "Daddy!" Over 70 texts and e-mails. Unfortunately for her, I turn my phone's sound off at night so that it doesn't beep every time e-mail comes in so, in the end, she had to resort to old-fashioned measures, running down the dark hall and sleeping with us.

Sometimes the old ways are the best ways.

Older daughter (to younger): "Hey look, that cloud looks like two animals having sex."
Younger daughter: "Clouds always look like two animals having sex."


They're going to have a lot of fun with Rorschach tests when they're older.

I'm thinking the same about Concerta and myself. The anxiety is bad. Well better than Vyvanse, which just plain made me nuts.

I'm thinking of giving a hand-me-down IPhone 4 or 4s for one of my kids.

How do we make this affordable? Is there any way?

Things I'd like.

Location Services always on (for me to find em).
A minimal data plan (don't want to add a crazy new drain my finances).

Thoughts?

Quote
bahamut
Location Services always on (for me to find em).
Thoughts?

As long as you know the AppleID used to make purchases you can pin point the location of any device attached to that account with Find My iPhone, right? It's free, try it on yourself to see if it suits you.

I know about Find my iPhone. That's precisely what I wanted. It doesn't seem to be working for me though.

I want to set my daughter up with a pay-as-you-go account, perhaps from PTEL.

She would have no data use except for wifi.

She would have the ability to make and receive phone calls and texts.

I would have the ability to find her using Find my iPhone.

I turned off cellular data and wifi on my iPhone. I went to icloud.com/find and it couldn't see the iPhone.

Any other solutions?

I would contact PTEL. They might have a practical solution?
Perhaps a very very small data capability, just for FMiP? Or, the ability to flip on data just for FMiP if/when you 'LYiP'?
Or suggest that as an enhancement request to PTEL?
Or, suggest they offer it like (old?) caller ID where you could pay $1 to do one FMiP search?
Surely something would be a win-win above?

Find my iPhone requires data.

and again if PTEL or anyone could offer one-shot/time data for a fee just to find my iPhone,.... as we used to say HFHCIB?

A pity you can't microchip kids like pets. That would be most useful.

Uh, yes you can.