TVO Parents

Worlds Without End

Wed, 18 Nov 09 20:42:17 GMT

Like a lot of people, I grew up in virtual worlds. At home I had a sandbox that could be transformed into whatever landscape I desired, from mountains to desert, as well as a tree house that could be a fort, castle or spaceship. In the schoolyard, jungle gyms became spaceships and piles of snow virtual Alps.

Today an entire industry has grown up around providing virtual worlds for kids, but now these worlds are online -- and big business. How big an industry is it? In 2007 Disney spent $350 million to buy Club Penguin, the most successful virtual world for children, and there are currently more than a hundred of these worlds either live or in development.

Virtual worlds might be better described as virtual playgrounds. Just like in an offline playground, children are as interested in each other as they are in the play structures and toys; like in a playground, too, conflicts can easily escalate. Most virtual worlds are moderated, which means that employees are monitoring what's happening, but this has a limited effect: kids are as adept at getting around virtual supervision as they are at escaping their caregivers' watchful eyes offline.

And make no mistake, there is bullying in these worlds: children exclude one another, insult one another, harass and steal from one another, in exactly the same way they do in a playground or schoolyard. They're subjected to relentless advertising as well, whether it's the pressure to pay for a "premium" subscription to get access to the full content, quizzes and contests tied into toys and junk food, or entire commercial environments like General Mills' Millsberry, where children essentially live inside an ad for products such as Lucky Charms and Trix.

Like many online products, virtual worlds are being targeted to younger and younger children all the time. Before your children visit or sign up for one, here are some things you can do:

Take a tour. Spend some time exploring the virtual world before your children do; this way you can start out as the expert when your child explores the site. If you're not satisfied this is a good place for your children, look for another site that offers a similar experience without the issues you find concerning.

Keep an eye on things. Just like in an offline playground, you need to monitor what's going on. This means keeping the computer your child uses in a public place and periodically checking out their activities.

Ask questions. Children generally can't tell the difference between programming and advertising, and virtual worlds take advantage of this. If a site is free, ask your children how they think the site's owner stays in business; ask them why an imaginary world would have ads or surveys for real products.

Be willing to say no. Children on virtual worlds are subject to constant "upselling." Decide before you allow your child to visit a virtual world how much you're willing to invest in it, and stick to your guns.

Child's Play

Mon, 02 Nov 09 19:43:35 GMT

Of all the toys in the house, the one my sixteen-month-old son Leo wants the most desperately to get his hands on is the computer. We have a little netbook that sits comfortably on the arm of the couch and Leo's attitude is that if Mum and Dad get to play with it, why shouldn't he?

Leo's not the only one to feel that way. Although for now his computer fun is limited to mashing the keyboard and closing his parents' windows, within a very short time (one study has found kids as young as two-and-a-half are online) marketers will be vying for his time and attention. He is, after all, that most valued commodity -- a consumer in the raw, whose habits and brand preferences remain unformed.

Few people are aware of just how aggressively children, even very young children, are marketed to online. Studies have consistently shown that more than ninety percent of children's Web sites include advertising of one kind or another. Children are, of course, particularly vulnerable to advertising, because they are not yet equipped to be sceptical, or even to tell fantasy from reality: they read a narrative featuring Toucan Sam no differently than one featuring Robin Hood. They do remember Toucan Sam, though, and advertisers spare no effort to make their mascots and logos memorable and appealing.

Online advertising to children takes maximum advantage of all of these factors. Advertisers create "branded environments" such as Barbie.com where children can engage in a variety of different activities -- games, chat, virtual shopping etc. -- in the constant presence of brand images; they offer "advergames" using branded characters as protagonists and brand images as background to keep players on the site and build brand loyalty; and they use TV commercials with giveaway offers or cliff-hanger endings to draw children to the site.

Right now I keep Leo away from the computer so he won't get fingerprints on the monitor, but the more I know about online advertising to kids the more I want to keep him off it for as long as possible. No matter what I do, though, he'll wind up using computers -- at school and at friends' houses, if not at home -- and in fact, I wouldn't want it any other way: he'll need to be computer-savvy from an early age to get by in school and in life. So what can I do? Well, I can make sure that I supervise him using the computer for a long time, and that I make sure he's getting that kind of supervision when he uses the computer other places; I can talk to him about the sites he visits and help him to learn that nothing's ever really free, even on the Internet; and I can use resources like the Media Awareness Network’s educational game Co-Co's Adversmarts to help him recognize and decode advertising when he sees it. Yes, Leo will soon be on his way to being a wise and perceptive Web surfer -- assuming our computer survives his toddlerhood.

Sharing Canada’s History with Our Children

Mon, 02 Nov 09 19:08:00 GMT

My family attends a Legion parade near my in-law's home in the summertime. It's a terrific endeavour with local pipe and drum corps, elected officials, clowns, go-karts, police cars, vintage cars, EMS vehicles and fire trucks - plenty for our 3 1/2 year old to behold. We watch attentively, applaud enthusiastically and bask in the community experience.

But the main attractions every year are the war veterans who ride in military jeeps usually appearing at the end of the parade. These now elderly men and women who served our country deserve our recognition. It's at this time, like when singing "O Canada", my heart swells with a patriotic connection with our country and history.

Our 3 1/2 year old has watched the parade with us every summer. Come to think of it, he motivated the three generations to support the parade which has become an annual tradition.

I was born in the Philippines and immigrated to Canada as a small boy. I am fortunate to have grown up in Canada. Looking around at the parade crowd, it’s safe to assume there were many people like me who don't have relatives who have served in World War I, World War II, or the Korean War. Perhaps they knew somebody who served in more recent missions. Nonetheless, we were all there, waving tiny Canadian flags, cheering and supporting those who served us.

Whether it's attending a Legion parade in July or even wearing a poppy in November, "remembrance" can happen year round. We talk about the importance of giving our children a sense of their own family history. It's also important for families to honour those who served our country, contributing to our collective sense of history.

The Family that IMs Together...

Fri, 16 Oct 09 18:01:13 GMT

Okay, so my family doesn’t exactly “instant message” each other – yet. Our kids are still young and who knows, when they’re teens we might be texting each other all the time. However, my family has been known to be simultaneously working on or playing with several different devices while all sitting in the same room. For example, my pre-school daughter might watch a video while our school-age son plays on the Wii and my husband scans his hand-held while I am on my laptop. Is this a modern-day family scenario or a disaster waiting to happen?

When I think back, it doesn’t seem all that different than it was 30 years ago – it’s just updated, that’s all. When I was young, my mom may have been chatting on the telephone, my dad in the basement watching TV, my brother up in his room playing with action figures and me writing in my diary in yet another room. Sure, we were all in the house but we weren’t necessarily interacting.

I admit, it does concern me when I look around the room and see us zoned out doing our own thing or when I research stories like the one I just wrote for TVOParents.com entitled Is Technology Dumbing Down Kids? I don’t want our kids growing up to be couch potatoes passively watching TV or mindlessly surfing the web for hours on end.

But, our family’s initial experience with technology has been positive. I think our kids have learned a lot – from singing the ABCs with online puppets to searching for kids’ tunes from the 1970s to looking up French-English translations. And, as I noted in an earlier blog post, my son’s reading has improved from being motivated to read instructions and comments on his gaming system apps. It’s not all fun and games of course but, when used effectively, technology has added a lot to our lives.

Tadpoles and Frogs

Wed, 14 Oct 09 16:55:44 GMT

My family spent several weeks in cottage country over the summer. This meant no television, no landlines and no internet. What we did have outweighed what we didn’t: daily swims, loon calls on the lake, night skies without light pollution, the woods and a shoreline to explore.

Life seemed to slow down, and we loved it!

While visiting with friends one afternoon, our 3 ½ year old son played on a sandy beach with the three older boys (5, 7 and 9). As the sun set, we gathered around the camp fire, roasted marshmallows and marveled at all the stars.

With a full moon overhead, the boys went off and collected tadpoles and frogs, plopping them into water-filled jars. And they watched. They could have been there for hours. Gobsmacked and struck by wonder.

No doubt that for the older boys, collecting tadpoles and frogs was old hat. For our son, it was new. It meant spending time with the small creatures around him, imagining how a tadpole would someday become a frog. It’s one thing to read about the moon, stars, tadpoles and frogs, but the natural sciences come alive when kids can look at the night sky and collect tadpoles and frogs.

Giving kids space to explore the world around them and discover things is powerful. It fosters a love of the outdoors and nature. This kind of hands on learning shows us that it’s good to get outside the classroom, slow down and not rely on the electronic gizmos and technologies around us to teach us about our world.

The Science Rebel

Mon, 05 Oct 09 16:13:10 GMT

I won’t beat around the bush – math and science are not my forte. Well, at least that’s what I was led to believe as a youngster. Back in my elementary school days, there was no such thing as the fun, hands-on science programs like Wings of Discovery or Scientists in School that school-children now have access to. Frankly, I found my lessons on science mostly dry and dull. I’d like to think that if I were encouraged more or that something specific in science grabbed me that I’d have found it more compelling.

Regardless of this scurrilous science past, I have children of my own now and I’d like to put a positive step forward when it comes to embracing all things science. Working on hundreds of science-related projects and articles in the past – including our current focus on science literacy at TVO this month – have allowed me better access to the wonderful world of science, math and technology. I now better understand how science affects our environment, our health, our politics, our minds, our food, and really – our whole lives. It makes me feel more confident sharing what I do know with my kids and, if I don’t know the answers, we can search for the information together.

While my husband is, fortunately, strong in both science and math, I’m aiming to not let him be the ‘alpha-parent’ when it comes to homework help in these topics. I may not be as quick to come up with immediate answers but I have my own creative means of finding possible answers. In fact, looking at the situation in a non-science-y way may actually help our children to understand different perspectives and formulate their own opinions and theories. So, let’s hear it for science rebels!

Fostering Scientific Curiosity

Wed, 30 Sep 09 19:00:38 GMT

The last time I was remotely a science geek, I was in high school. Now, it’s a couple of decades later and I want to foster an interest in science in my own young children. I’m a bit rusty, so where do I start?

Recently, I spoke with Greg Dick, the General Manager of Outreach at the Perimeter Institute and former science educator with almost two decades of experience. He suggests that a child’s innate curiosity is the first and most important ingredient when it comes to learning about science. “Fostering that curiosity is crucial, and also very easy to do, because a child’s day is filled with discovery moments,” says Dick.

The second important ingredient to foster your child’s interest in science is recognizing there are many layers of questions and answers in scientific understanding. For example, here’s a question your child may ask: Why is your car blue? Once parents get past the quip about having picked the colour, Dick says, "the answer resides squarely in science.” He explains further, “The answer, like science, has several levels that a parent could target – from a discussion about colours of the rainbow, to wavelengths of light, to bond lengths, to quantum energy levels.”

The questions and answers are limitless, and Dick suggests parents frame scientific discussions with their children by asking: “What we used to think, what we now understand, and what questions still exist?”

By celebrating my children’s natural curiosity and using a tone of on-going wonder, I think I’m ready to begin a lifelong conversation about all the potential scientific discoveries in the world around us.

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TVO is the presenting media sponsor for the Perimeter Institute’s Quantum to Cosmos Festival in Waterloo, Ontario, October 15-25, 2009.

Family Storytelling – the Beat Goes On

Fri, 18 Sep 09 14:48:14 GMT

One of my fondest childhood memories involves my father’s storytelling. While researching and writing an article on storytelling and oral tradition this week, memories of that childhood experience came flooding back.

Back in the 1970s, you could often find my brother and me rapt with attention as we listened to our father share elaborate stories. One series involved a real building with “golden windows” that we could see through our back door at dusk. There, a few kilometers away, sat a lonely office tower with tinted windows that glowed orange as the sun went down.

I remember my father’s enthusiasm and the reassurance I felt as my family connected and came together via storytelling. He often used silly voices or dramatic pauses and really had a gift for making a fictional story come alive. That ability to transport us to new worlds prompted my capacity to create stories at a moment’s notice. This has gone on to help me in my career and with my children.

I’ve not yet spun many elaborate tales for my two kids but my dad has shared some of his best creative works with them. It’s a great feeling to watch my kids absorb the same stories that piqued my interest as a young child. They sit transfixed as my dad shares details about Gerald the Giraffe and they often ask questions about Gerald and his posse. I wonder: Will my children have the same special memories of faraway lands and fascinating people when they grow up? Will they go on to share these stories with their own kids? Perhaps, instead, they will choose to create and write original tales. Let the creative journey begin!

10 Points!

Thu, 27 Aug 09 20:48:19 GMT

“Mom? Mom! What does this say?” If I don’t get into the family room fast enough, my son may start to panic. You see, he’s most likely in the middle of bowling, or windsurfing or playing Elebits (fairy creatures) on the Wii and though many of these video games are action-oriented and require little reading, there is always some form of written instruction or introduction within the game.

While some of my mom friends frown upon the idea of letting their kids play video games (Wii or otherwise), I see a lot of value in it. Besides the fact that our children (and us) often burn energy jumping, swinging, throwing or grooving and often have fun doing it as a family, I’ve noticed that engaging in video games on the Wii and online is helping our son improve his literacy and numeracy skills.

Being so invested in playing and winning these games has forced him to decode instructions on how to play, which controls to use, how many players to pick, etc. There is also the matter of points of course. How many points does he have versus other current or past players? The wider the point spread between him and others, the better – as far as he’s concerned.

Reading and comparing total scores, figuring out what needs to be done next in order to move the game forward, picking and choosing individual sports or activities from the on-screen manual are all rather intricate manoeuvres. So, I’m pleased to see that playing video games in our house is not just a matter of sitting aimlessly and passively in front of a screen – it’s got our kids up off the couch, moving, thinking, calculating and reading!

Do you let your children play video games? Do you think it’s a good thing? Let us know; we’d love to hear from you.

Is there time to cram?

Thu, 20 Aug 09 18:57:29 GMT

Okay, so there are about two weeks of summer left until school begins again. This year, I’m not joining the many parents counting down the days until the first bell rings. My kids have been in camp or daycare all summer so I’m actually welcoming a solid chunk of family time before September comes ‘round. That said, I do feel like I need to ramp up the learning and school prep in our household.

In September, our son will continue with French Immersion education and I know he’s feeling uneasy about learning a second language in addition to the other academic subjects and general school routine. I’m trying (in my very limited way) to speak French with him and get him to read at least a few sentences in his bedtime books each night.

The camp he has been attending also includes French in some of their programming, as well as academic-specific blocks each day where children work on math, language and geography. This summer’s learning opportunities should prove useful for both of our children but specifically for our school-aged son.

What else are we doing to help him prepare for school? We’ve organized playdates with school friends to help reconnect with classmates. We’ve also been making cards for family and friends at home. I find this activity helps with printing and spelling and offers both kids a chance to express their creative side by using stickers, drawings and celebratory artwork on the cards and envelopes.

What are you doing this summer to get your child ready for school? We’d love to hear your ideas and suggestions.