Technology and Early Adopters

To truly understand how much life has been changed by technology, consider this: my 17 month old grandson Nathaniel understands how to use an iPhone. He knows how to select apps, scroll through photos, and start videos. 

His small motor coordination isn't always quite able to do precisely what he wants, but he definitely knows how to do what he wants. At 17 months.  

This is frightening and inspiring at the same time!  I've been a computer user for more than 30 years, and I always knew that small humans were little sponges in terms of knowledge acquisition.  While there have been jokes around for years about the need for older people to seek assistance from teenagers when needing to program a video recorder (which no one even uses anymore), this latest realization just amazes me.

I recorded a video of Nathaniel playing hide and seek the other day, and he loves to watch stuff like this (starring him) over and over.   He wanted to see my iPhone and watch himself laughing and giggling in the 30 second clip.   And when the clip ended, he didn't hesitate to reach out and poke the tiny play icon to run it again.  Sometimes he hit the icon, sometimes he missed, but he sure knew how to get the video to play.

He seems to represent early adopters, or perhaps, more accurately, early adapters.

Placating Poppop

So I had sole custody of my #2 grandson for a few hours this afternoon and fortunately, he agreed to actually sleep through his nap time for part of the custodial period.  After the nap, we had a snack, told a few jokes, and turned him loose in the toy strewn family room for a while. 

During his subsequent ransacking of the family room, I offered to read Nathaniel a book.  I attempted to entice him with one of his least favorite books, "Jumbo."   It's not one of my favorites either, but it was just a prop, and I kept asking hm if he'd like me to read him a book.

"Do you want me to read you a story?   How about we read a book?   Don't you want me to read you a book?  C'mon, Nathaniel, let's read a book."

This went on for several minutes until he went over to one of the bins in the family room, rummaged around in it for a moment or two, and fished out a book.  He turned around and began to walk across the room toward me with a big grin on his face.  

Nathaniel handed me the book, turned around, and walked away to resume ransacking.  His message was clear and didn't involve speaking or sign-language: "Here you go Poppop.  Here's a book.   Knock yourself out." 

He apparently had more important things to do.  I will recognize that smile the next time I see it plastered across his face.
 

Bragging On My Grandson

So it's time to brag on my grandson.   He's in kindergarten and we're all interested in how he's adapting and learning new things.   One of the adaptations is he, like all the other kids, have been taking standardized tests throughout the year to gauge his progress.  Some of these tests adjust to how well the student is doing; if the kid is doing well, the questions get harder.  My daughter discovered he was taking some of these tests this week and has more next week, so she asked him how it was going.   After previous tests, he told her he was concerned because he was pretty sure he'd gotten some of the answers wrong.  His mother assured him that it was OK if he didn't know all the answers and just did his best on the test.   He did very well, but she figures, quite correctly, that at age 6 he doesn't need details about the results.  

Anyway, this time he told her that some of the reading test was hard and he again wasn't sure he got them all right.   In fact, he said, he had to alphabetize some words and he was pretty sure one of them was wrong, because all the words started with S.   As my daughter was contemplating how to respond about more complex alphabetizing, my grandson continued on with something like "I wasn't sure what to do, so I just guessed and went with the second letters..."

As his mother has pointed out on numerous occasions, her eldest son is a problem solver!  And that's another reason, since he's been in kindergarten, that I miss hanging out with him.  It's fascinating watching a young mind develop and grow!

And while I'm reflecting on schools and students, congratulations to Teacher of the Year Rebecca Mieliwocki, who was honored in Washington, D.C. today.   Her work is our future.

Growing Up

So my grandson Josh started kindergarten last week.   My wife and I have been "baby-sitting" him two days a week since he was a few months old; the other 3 days he attended preschool near his parents' work.  I put "baby-sitting" in quotes because I truly question how much monitoring I've done in the past 5 1/2 years.  More likely, I was learning from him as he discovered the world and observed the strange ways lots of things work.  The transition to kindergarten has been surprisingly hard; for me, not Joshua.

I have lost my favorite playmate and I never saw it coming.   He and I have seen  17 movies in the past year, and perhaps as many as 30 in the past 2 1/2 years.  We both love popcorn and lemonade and movies.  Other activities have included biweekly library visits (where we played chess or checkers on giant boards), building stuff with Legos, miniature golf, attending kid plays, and climbing trees.  Now I'm faced with baby-sitting Joshua's brother twice a week and he's actually a baby (4 months old or thereabouts).  I'm starting all over again.

Anyway, the point of this post is to speculate how Joshua will deal with school demands.  We've speculated that he will do fine, but I've wondered if he will break his teacher by Columbus Day; he can be a very strong-willed fellow.   

I think we got a hint last Friday.  He came home from 3 half-days of school (full days began today) and asked his mother "Mom, will school get harder?"  Before she could respond, Joshua followed up with "'Cause so far it's been arts and crafts..."  That preschool is a tough act to follow.

And I'm going to miss my playmate. 

From The Mouths of

So my grandson came over this morning a little later than normal.   Usually, he comes over before I'm even out of bed and my wife takes care of breakfast.   Today, it was just us two guys.

So, Josh tells me all about the fantastic "double chocolate" doughnut his parents had gotten him this morning when they were dropping off Dad at work.  His mom had one also.

Anyway, I'm getting my breakfast ready and chatting with Josh, and I'm almost ready to sit down with my bowl of cereal.  Josh is watching everything and finally says, "So Pop-pop, that doughnut was just to hold me over."

I looked at him and didn't immediately understand what he was saying.   So, I say "OK."  Joshua, who long ago realized his grandfather was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, repeats: "Pop-pop, the doughnut was just to hold me over."  My son also used the explanatory technique of repeating the exact same words when I didn't understand his question or explanation.  It generally didn't help.

Anyway, I finally realize what's going on.   "Josh, you mean you didn't have breakfast at home?"  His face noticeably relaxed and he nodded.   Suffice it to say, I asked what he'd like, we got his breakfast prepared (he chose rice krispies, with milk) and all was well. 

It's a very good thing Josh and I are so simpatico.   Neither of us stands on any formalities and we just like hanging out together.   I could easily have him remain 5 1/2 for a long, long time.

Remind me to tell you about the quest for free air to inflate my Mustang tires (that was after breakfast).   He shared some choice words of wisdom for me that I should probably heed.  But not today.