iPotty

[PennLady]

iKid you not.

http://www.amazon.com/CTA-Digital-iPotty-Activity-Seat/dp/B00B3G8UGQ/ref=tsm_1_fb_s_****_mjl1ml

iDon't know what to think about this. So iWon't.

 

[lovecraft68]

Disturbing.

They're hooking kids this young on computers now.

But worse is my feeling is this is geared towards lazy parents who will now sit the kid on this thing and leave them there for who knows how long.

 

[PennLady]

Well, truth is, I don't think it's any worse than having a potty seat out in front of a TV, which is what I did sometimes when getting PennGirl trained. If a kid won't sit down long enough, but the iPad holds their attention, then it can be a useful tool.

It just seems so odd.

 

[lovecraft68]

Well, truth is, I don't think it's any worse than having a potty seat out in front of a TV, which is what I did sometimes when getting PennGirl trained. If a kid won't sit down long enough, but the iPad holds their attention, then it can be a useful tool.

It just seems so odd.

We didn't do the TV thing. Potty time was "business time" not fun time. But everyone is different and as long as it works its fine.

I just think its literally a tool to have kids dependent upon from technology from as early an age as possible. Give the kid a book to flip through.

Last week I went into a Dunkin Donuts. It was almost midnight and the place was dead so the kid working their was fooling with his I-pad on the counter. (I'm sure that's what the manager would have wanted him to do while they were slow)

I bought a coffee and a couple of pounds of coffee it came to $19.25. I didn't want change and figured I would give the kid a $1 tip so I give him $20.25.

He asks why I'm giving him the extra quarter and I said so I can get an even dollar back.

He looks confused then....

Picks up the I-pad and brings the calculator up on it.

Shame is I am sure he's a fairly bright kid, but they are no longer taught how to think. The answers are right their through search engines and they have no idea how to get to the answers.

So now we can start that at 18 months

 

[PennLady]

I don't know that I'd worry quite so much. PennBoy loves his computer -- he's been making spread sheets since he was six or so -- but at the moment he prefers paper books. And when we PT'd PennGirl, sometimes she sat with the TV, sometimes she sat in the upstairs bathroom with a book.

And there were plenty of people who were bad at math before iPads, et al, came along. I mean, come on, cash registers did the math long before we had computers.

And at midnight, when it's slow, I can't think the manager cares all that much so long as the guy isn't sleeping.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

We didn't do the TV thing. Potty time was "business time" not fun time. But everyone is different and as long as it works its fine.

I just think its literally a tool to have kids dependent upon from technology from as early an age as possible. Give the kid a book to flip through.

Last week I went into a Dunkin Donuts. It was almost midnight and the place was dead so the kid working their was fooling with his I-pad on the counter. (I'm sure that's what the manager would have wanted him to do while they were slow)

I bought a coffee and a couple of pounds of coffee it came to $19.25. I didn't want change and figured I would give the kid a $1 tip so I give him $20.25.

He asks why I'm giving him the extra quarter and I said so I can get an even dollar back.

He looks confused then....

Picks up the I-pad and brings the calculator up on it.

Shame is I am sure he's a fairly bright kid, but they are no longer taught how to think. The answers are right their through search engines and they have no idea how to get to the answers.

So now we can start that at 18 months

I read an opinion almost identical to yours, recently. I think it was JFK who said it, but what they said was THE ELITES CONSPIRE TO DESTROY THE MIDDLE CLASS, WITH INFERIOR SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS. Chelsea Clinton bought a ten million dollar apartment this week.

 

[Handley_Page]

I bought a coffee and a couple of pounds of coffee it came to $19.25. I didn't want change and figured I would give the kid a $1 tip so I give him $20.25.

He asks why I'm giving him the extra quarter and I said so I can get an even dollar back.

He looks confused then....

Picks up the I-pad and brings the calculator up on it.

I often do the same at local shops but I have learned to ask them if they want some change. I got slowed right down while some young eejit called and asked her manager what to do. The queue many of whom, like me are of an advanced age, tut tutted and started discussing the tribulations of the modern education system we "enjoy".

 

[MatthewVett]

We didn't do the TV thing. Potty time was "business time" not fun time. But everyone is different and as long as it works its fine.

I just think its literally a tool to have kids dependent upon from technology from as early an age as possible. Give the kid a book to flip through.

Do you think books aren't technology? When they first became common, the older generation deplored how they destroyed the memorization skills of the younger generation. Every advance has the older generation complaining. One of the kings of Sparta even took their complaining as a sign that everything was fine, since that's the way it had always been.

I think people should know how to do mental math, but honestly, does anyone learn something that has no benefit to them? I don't complain about vaccines encouraging lazy immune systems.

 

[lovecraft68]

I don't know that I'd worry quite so much. PennBoy loves his computer -- he's been making spread sheets since he was six or so -- but at the moment he prefers paper books. And when we PT'd PennGirl, sometimes she sat with the TV, sometimes she sat in the upstairs bathroom with a book.

And there were plenty of people who were bad at math before iPads, et al, came along. I mean, come on, cash registers did the math long before we had computers.

And at midnight, when it's slow, I can't think the manager cares all that much so long as the guy isn't sleeping.

That's great about the books, but understand the pennlings are going to read because Mama Penn reads and leads by example.

But there are plenty of parents who don;t read books and sadly are addicted to the net themselves and are leading by that example.

as for math here's the thing now. back when we were kids(I don;t think you're that much younger than me I'm sure we're within ten years) if you recall we learned how to do math with scrap paper and memorizing.

Once we hit highschool we were allowed calculators because it was assumed we knew the basics and could "get there" on our own and we could.

These day the "getting there" is skipped its "here is the answer" remember book reports? The Saturdays at the library? Borrowing books making copies etc...

Three words for what they call research now.

"Copy and paste" unless of course the parents are pushing them otherwise.

As to fooling with the I-pad, the place was closing in ten minutes and it was still a mess. I would have preferred him to be cleaning the way I did when I managed one back in the day, but maybe I'm just one of those work-a-holic types.

 

[lovecraft68]

Do you think books aren't technology? When they first became common, the older generation deplored how they destroyed the memorization skills of the younger generation. Every advance has the older generation complaining. One of the kings of Sparta even took their complaining as a sign that everything was fine, since that's the way it had always been.

I think people should know how to do mental math, but honestly, does anyone learn something that has no benefit to them? I don't complain about vaccines encouraging lazy immune systems.

We were taught to memorize from the books. We were also told to read the books then discuss them and write reports on them.

see my above post for copy and paste.

and yes we all learn things we will never use. I doubt anyone is going to ask me to solve an algebraic equation in work so I guess my A's there were wasted.

But here is to me a scary example. When I had the comic store the comics were $2.99 (tax included of course)

So when my daughter or the kid that worked for us would ring them up they would enter every single one of them.

I would count the stack and give them the number. One Saturday when some of the yu-ghi-oh kids were hanging around one had money for his brithday and bought 11 books.

I said $32.89

They're like "wow, how'd you do that?"

I told them 11 x 3 is 33 minus 1 cent for each book so $32.89

They looked at me like I had just pulled a rabbit out from up my sleeve.

 

[NaokoSmith]

On the reading thing, research shows that just having books in the house is the most encouraging thing for kids.

Reading with your kids will lead to them doing much better at school in many other areas than reading.

On the i- thing, I posted this tangentially relevant 30 second video in humour (humor, sorry) earlier:

Ipad vs. paper

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I grow pretty nearly all my fruits and veggies. They cost less at the store but mine are better quality, without the poisons, plus I now possess the skills to do it. If I knew of a good fishing hole I'd take up fishing.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My parents never read shit but I read everything. My house is filled with books, has always been filled with books, and none of my kids read. And all of their kids are voracious readers.

I'm convinced that most perfessers are inept parasites with minds filled with poop.

 

[Neonurotic]

Apparently, this iPotty is a writer's tool as one reviewer said they edited their NaNoWriMo novel while on the little pot.

 

[3113]

It's not the tech, it's the teaching system

Shame is I am sure he's a fairly bright kid, but they are no longer taught how to think. The answers are right their through search engines and they have no idea how to get to the answers.

So now we can start that at 18 months

Dude, while technology is certainly in part to blame, let's not heap it all on the computers. The educational system is where we're falling down.

Read this, then tell me that the computers are to blame for that kid not being able to think: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ad-enough-veteran-teacher-tells-school-board/

Ever since "no child left behind" (read: how do we funnel tax money into private hands? Standardized tests so test makers make all kinds of profits....) was implemented, teachers must teach kids how to pass standardized tests so that schools can get money. Seriously, that's all kids have been learning to do for ten years now. Test after test after test not to see if they can think, but if they know memorized info --and the school funds keep getting cut and cut and cut, and good teachers keep getting blamed and blamed for kids not being able to think, and so they leave teaching letting only the most unqualified into teach remain.

So, yes, the tech makes the kids lazy, but it doesn't have to do that to them any more than pocket calculators (which came out in the 70's and YOU must have had as a kid) made us unable to think. Kids have to be taught to think and they're not being taught that. So what else can they do but rely on the tech?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

No pol I know of sends their kids to public schools. Few if any send their kids to state colleges.