Learning Technology

On Tuesday we had an unexpected "Family Day." The kids were supposed to go to camp and then fishing in the afternoon. Tim was going with Vanya because fishing is not my cup of tea! But, after the vicious storm we had Monday night (which Vanya slept through and Teagan did not, much to Tim's chagrin), the church, which hosts the day camp, was experiencing intermittent power issues, and the day was too yucky for fishing.

Instead, I took Vanya to school with me. I was supposed to be working with my team to get things ready for the first week of school, but if you've ever brought your child to work, you know how much work gets done. Add to the fact that Vanya had never seen such a cool place to work, and you have 3-1/2 hours of all play and no work!











If you know what a SMARTBoard is, then you know how he entertained himself almost the whole time. If you don't, let me try to explain: it's a technological smorgasboard. I don't think I spelled that right, but hopefully you get the idea. It's a white board, chalkboard, overhead projector, pen, marker, pencil, video screen, computer all wrapped up in one. You can write on it, type on it, draw on it, move things around on it, watch videos on it, show a Power Point presentation, etc. It really is one of the coolest things on this earth. Vanya caught on extremely quickly how to use it. He created 23 pages of fun things. I'll only post a few pictures -- not all 23.




















Today's highlight was when Tim came to school to pick up Vanya. He quietly came in the room while Vanya was still playing with the SMARTBoard. When I told Vanya to turn around, he saw Tim. He yelled out, "PAPA!!!!" and with arms out, ran to Tim. Luckily, I already had my camera out, so we captured a great moment!

Many of the staff members I work with got to meet him yesterday. I was a little worried about him meeting so many people at once, but he was a trooper. A little shy, but that seems to be his personality. And, if you had to meet a bunch of females all at once, you might be shy too! :-) I asked him later on the translation website if he liked Mama's schoolroom (Da!), if he would like to be a student in my class (Da!), and if he enjoyed meeting all my friends (Da!) A good morning all around!

After he went back home with Tim, they spent the afternoon playing together. When I got home, I guess I was still in "teacher mode." I had Vanya on my lap, and I showed him Starfall.com. For those of you who aren't familiar with this website, it's a great reading website for ages Kdg - 2nd grade. It's also free, so there's your commercial plug for the day! Anyway, I showed him how to operate the laptop- using the thumb pad instead of a mouse. Again, he caught on so quickly! We got through letters A-H, and he was very happily involved. He almost didn't want dinner! For dinner we had chicken, cheesy potatoes, zucchini, and roasted tomatoes. He loved it all!

For a special treat that night, we all sat down and watched the movie, "Lady and the Tramp." I never really paid attention before, but it was a good movie to choose: there was a lot of music and not as much dialogue. We think he got the gist of the plot and seemed amused in all the right places. I asked him ahead of time on the translation website if he was interested in a movie, and he got very excited. I further tempted him (not that he really needed more tempting!) with the idea of popcorn. This was met with an enthusiastic response. It was a challenge trying to eat popcorn on the couch without the dog trying for some too, but we managed, and she was able to clean up the crumbs a certain little 9-year old boy left for her.