Ha Ha - a Side Note - my thoughts are wandering. Who remembers Jumanji? Well, I think it's funny/interesting that at the beginning of the movie, when Alan and Sarah are kids and are playing the game by the fireplace, and the pieces jump onto their places on the game board, someone says "It must be magnets or something". Then, later, when Peter an Judy are playing and the pieces move on their own, Judy says "It must by microchips or something".
From magnets to microchips.
Funny how the standard, normal ideas of how things work changes over time!
When I was three years old, I remember my family's Polaroid camera, and wanting to watch the pictures come into color. Now, when I watch the three-year-old I nanny, and I take pictures, they want to see them on my camera, so I show them and they try to "swipe" through the pictures. Now, this is just a camera, not an "i-anything" so you have to push a button to see the next picture. No swiping.
But that's what these three-year-olds are used to. When I was three, there was NO SUCH THING as an Ipad or an Ipod or a Smartphone and so on. How a person's worldview can change with the changing times and technological advances and so on - what we experience when we're young sets us up for the rest of our lives!
So, that being the case, my thoughts, advice, are to keep things balanced. Don't let technology take over your life or your kids' lives. The natural world still goes on the way it always has. Take time to go outside and listen to the sound of water on the rocky beaches, feel the tree bark and look way up into their top branches and feel dizzy. Smell the warm pine needles on the sunny forest floor. Look for butterflies!
Okay, I'm off topic. I was talking about board games. Play board games as a family! Play Sorry, Monopoly, Life, Risk, even Candy Land! There are TONS of board games or card games for kids of all ages, and it's a good way to UNPLUG from time to time.
I had the chance a few months ago to take a Ferry Boat ride with the boys, and we brought a game with us! Yes boys, no computer games or Wii games or YouTube videos on the Ferry. :)
It was fun, and it's a good way to remind the boys how to be PATIENT with each other. Another story.
But we did play, and we had a good time talking and teasing and figuring out how to play a new game while we munched on some snacks and looked at the seagulls and the beautiful water out the window.
I encourage you all to take time for things like this, enjoy a slower moment in the pace of life, and build some memories. You won't be sorry you did!
