My 4yr old just informed me 'Notch' has bought a new house..

DarenD

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At first I didn't have a clue who the hell she was talking about. I just thought it was another one of her school friends with a daft name. She then followed it up by explaining who 'Notch' is and showed me the Youtube video of his house.

1. My daughter plays toooo much of that daft game.
2. Holey Jesus have you seen the house he bought for 70 million just for selling said daft game to Bill Gates.
 
Personally I don't think it's a good idea to let a 4 year old have unsupervised access to the internet.
 
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Personally I don't think it's a good idea to let a 4 year old have unsupervised access to the internet.

She has supervised access to a restricted Youtube account and a 360 with parental lock so I'm pretty sure I'm covered unless they have outlawed 'shopkins' recently
 
She has supervised access to a restricted Youtube account and a 360 with parental lock so I'm pretty sure I'm covered unless they have outlawed 'shopkins' recently

Great that it got her talking about current affairs. Wish my 14yr old would!
 
Great that it got her talking about current affairs. Wish my 14yr old would!

I have a 13yr, 7yr and the 4yr is the most tech savvy of the 3. I allow the kids freedom to use technology because its going to benefit them in the long run. Starting them early helps them understand the safety required when using such things IMO.
 
I firmly believe in letting kids explore our world as gain as much experience of it as they can. Far better to discuss anything they don't understand within the home environment. Same as their first experience with alcohol. Far better to be within a safe distance and discretely monitored. My daughter has a muslim friend who is very tightly controlled. She sneaks out at night to go out with friends. If only the parents knew the impact of their controlling behaviour was having the opposite effect.
I digress. But I don't think a 4yr old is much interested in adult material even if they did stumble upon it.
 
We started the 4yr old on a Leap pad at 3, then she moved onto a Hudl at 4, she is 5 in Feb and can confidently use mouse, trackpad or 360 controller. We recently returned from parents evening where her teacher was astounded at her technical ability.

Totally agree on the controlling behaviour. Children should be nurtured and allowed to flourish in their own way. My son has no interest in education so I think his best bet is learning a trade, no point me beating my chest and forcing him to do chemistry because its wasting my time and his. My 7yr old is very outgoing with sports and horse riding but lacks patience. Children aren't made from the same mould so therefore can't be controlled in the same way.
 
She has supervised access to a restricted Youtube account and a 360 with parental lock so I'm pretty sure I'm covered unless they have outlawed 'shopkins' recently
Maybe I was reading too much into your four year old mentioning someone you'd never heard of and proceeding to show you a youtube video of his house.
 
Maybe I was reading too much into your four year old mentioning someone you'd never heard of and proceeding to show you a youtube video of his house.

Stampy Longnose, a prolific Minecraft YouTube and games reviewer that my boys watch incessantly on YT befriended my boy on Xbox Live. Now why a, I suspect to be early 30s man, wants a 9 year old boy to be fiends online is beyond me. I'm not the only one, other friends have mentioned their kids having the same.
I've moderated my boys account and blocked him.
While we cannot protect kids from the Internet entirely, I think it's important to educate them about the nastiness that could be out there.

I feel that we need to bring back the "Charlie says..." Videos that we grew up with.
 
Although
I feel that we need to bring back the "Charlie says..." Videos that we grew up with.

Although, saying that, I idolised Jimmy Saville and sent him Fix It letters constantly and look how that turned out! o_O
 
I feel that we need to bring back the "Charlie says..." Videos that we grew up with.
I think there is such a thing as 'too early an age' to introduce your kids to the internet and associated gadgets. I think some parents overestimate the benefits of teaching their kids to use phones, tablets and surf the net. Just because a skill will be useful in later life doesn't mean you have to teach it to a 4 year old.
 
I think there is such a thing as 'too early an age' to introduce your kids to the internet and associated gadgets. I think some parents overestimate the benefits of teaching their kids to use phones, tablets and surf the net. Just because a skill will be useful in later life doesn't mean you have to teach it to a 4 year old.

I often pondered that I would have to pass on 30 odd years worth of tech savvyness to my three boys.
I mean, where do you 'get' it from? I came from parents who couldn't program the VCR or microwave.
My three boys seem to pick it up intuitively and each have lots of tech toys, DSi, iPod touch, kindle fires, this ipad, the xbox, Sky+ Etc.
I will admit though, and I'm ashamed to admit this, I have found that their imaginative play is sadly lacking. They have lots of passive toys such as lego and matchbox cars and they always go for the gadgets despite us trying to dissuade them.
The summer is not so bad because they mostly play outdoors on bikes and whatnot, but when autumn hits, living in scotland as you can imagine, they hibernate into the playroom with the xbox.
Is this just a symptom of the modern age?
 
I often pondered that I would have to pass on 30 odd years worth of tech savvyness to my three boys.
I mean, where do you 'get' it from? I came from parents who couldn't program the VCR or microwave.
My three boys seem to pick it up intuitively and each have lots of tech toys, DSi, iPod touch, kindle fires, this ipad, the xbox, Sky+ Etc.
I will admit though, and I'm ashamed to admit this, I have found that their imaginative play is sadly lacking. They have lots of passive toys such as lego and matchbox cars and they always go for the gadgets despite us trying to dissuade them.
The summer is not so bad because they mostly play outdoors on bikes and whatnot, but when autumn hits, living in scotland as you can imagine, they hibernate into the playroom with the xbox.
Is this just a symptom of the modern age?
My kids are in their late teens so many gadgets didn't exist when they were young but even if they did exist I wouldn't have let them have a tablet or games console until they were older, say 11, even if all their friends had them. That excuse doesn't wash with me, they tried it when it came to phones. They weren't allowed to have one until they were 16, which in the case of my youngest was last year. Do they think they've missed out? Fallen behind? Have they been mentally scarred? has their education or development suffered? Nope.

My nephew is 7 and my brother doesn't even let him touch the TV remote never mind let him near a tablet computer. He does a lot of arts and crafts, is getting very good at chess and chequers. For Christmas this year he's going to get his first bit of tech, a Hornby railway set.

Gadgets aren't a symptom of the modern age. It's down to parents to decide.
 
My kids are in their late teens so many gadgets didn't exist when they were young but even if they did exist I wouldn't have let them have a tablet or games console until they were older, say 11, even if all their friends had them. That excuse doesn't wash with me, they tried it when it came to phones. They weren't allowed to have one until they were 16, which in the case of my youngest was last year. Do they think they've missed out? Fallen behind? Have they been mentally scarred? has their education or development suffered? Nope.

My nephew is 7 and my brother doesn't even let him touch the TV remote never mind let him near a tablet computer. He does a lot of arts and crafts, is getting very good at chess and chequers. For Christmas this year he's going to get his first bit of tech, a Hornby railway set.

Gadgets aren't a symptom of the modern age. It's down to parents to decide.


My youngest daughter (12) has laptop, Ipad & Xbox and very rarely uses them, this weekend she had her friend round, and they have done a board game marathon, everything from scrabble to monopoly...and they never said they were bored once :smashin:
 
Of course it is for everyone to bring their children up how they see fit. We all want the best for them. But some gadgets are not so much for them as us. My daughter who is now sixteen has had a phone since secondary school. The uses it for her art and photography for quick pics all the time. I do believe it has helped her creativity. But mostly she has been able to keep in touch with her whereabouts. She would ask to go to a friends house or get together. There is certainly a great comfort in knowing where she is at pretty much all times. Even a simple text during the evening is good to get.
And she has a very active social life. It would drive me mad to keep answering the phone every time a friend wanted to talk to her!

She has used the computer and internet extensively during her secondary school career for art and photography. It wasn't optional really. Photography is firmly digital these days.

My lad who's fourteen spends all his time on the computer playing minecraft. I'm sure it teaches him something and he can two finger type at incredible speeds! But I wish he would do other things too (apart from the X-Box and ipad). I don't think its good, but he seems to do ok at school. We work from home, so its not easy to impose a ban.

Two very different kids. And very different uses for the technology. I'm sure they are all going to use it in different ways, for different reasons.
 
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I often pondered that I would have to pass on 30 odd years worth of tech savvyness to my three boys.
I mean, where do you 'get' it from? I came from parents who couldn't program the VCR or microwave.
My three boys seem to pick it up intuitively and each have lots of tech toys, DSi, iPod touch, kindle fires, this ipad, the xbox, Sky+ Etc.
I will admit though, and I'm ashamed to admit this, I have found that their imaginative play is sadly lacking. They have lots of passive toys such as lego and matchbox cars and they always go for the gadgets despite us trying to dissuade them.
The summer is not so bad because they mostly play outdoors on bikes and whatnot, but when autumn hits, living in scotland as you can imagine, they hibernate into the playroom with the xbox.
Is this just a symptom of the modern age?

Similar looking at my niece and nephew. They were into normal imaginative toys such as Lego, dolls etc... They did have Nintendo DS each which they got for Xmas when they were roughly 4 & 5 and last year they got Kindle Fires, I think because they were always wanting to play on their parents phones\iPads and it keeps them quiet which can only be a good thing :)
Now they are 6 & 7 and pretty much spend all their time when I see them on their Kindles which I don't think is great. They do use them for books but mainly for playing Minecraft which they are obsessed with. I always make sure I get the normal toys and not gadgets or games although I did get them their very first cameras last year but at least a camera means being slightly creative.

Funny thing is though I have an 11 week old and the wife and I agree that he shouldn't get gadgets too early and will try and push for more traditional toys. Whether we will stick to that who knows!
 
Stampy Longnose, a prolific Minecraft YouTube and games reviewer that my boys watch incessantly on YT befriended my boy on Xbox Live. Now why a, I suspect to be early 30s man, wants a 9 year old boy to be fiends online is beyond me. I'm not the only one, other friends have mentioned their kids having the same.
I've moderated my boys account and blocked him.
While we cannot protect kids from the Internet entirely, I think it's important to educate them about the nastiness that could be out there.

I feel that we need to bring back the "Charlie says..." Videos that we grew up with.

Stampy is probably as above board as they come on the internet these days. I suspect it will have been your son and his friend's who sent the XBL friend requests and Stampy then accepted to increase his follower base, as opposed to him seeking out young followers. Do some reading on the guy and you'll see he's very unlikely to be the modern day Jimmy Saville. I'm not a fan myself, but one of my daughters is so I've done my research and have no real issue with the guy.
 
In some respects it is our own ignorance that concerns us. It is easy to 'assume' we know better, but we all probably grew up with the guy in the park who took a bit too much interest in us.

I remember being in a department store with a mate and approached by a guy who wanted to know if we wanted to earn a little extra money. Being a bit green off we went and found ourselves in the gents. I had enough savvy to become vocal. He then asked us to follow someone and we duly did. But when we went back to report, he was gone. Funny thing that.

Still sticks with me all these years later. Often wonder how much we could have made :rotfl:
 
In some respects it is our own ignorance that concerns us. It is easy to 'assume' we know better, but we all probably grew up with the guy in the park who took a bit too much interest in us.

I remember being in a department store with a mate and approached by a guy who wanted to know if we wanted to earn a little extra money. Being a bit green off we went and found ourselves in the gents. I had enough savvy to become vocal. He then asked us to follow someone and we duly did. But when we went back to report, he was gone. Funny thing that.

Still sticks with me all these years later. Often wonder how much we could have made :rotfl:

:eek:

Some old bloke in the park offered me a sweet once - I was c. 12. I took one. My mate who was with me (same age in years but double the age in savvy) declined as he had a 'wobbly tooth'. Anyway long story short, nothing happened.
 

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