Does technology actually save you time?

Today marks the end of my first week back at work after nine amazing months of maternity leave. To say it’s been a tough week is most certainly the understatement of the year and I’m sure is unsurprising to most working mums. What I’m sure will also come as an unsurprise is that the one thing desperately lacking in my life right now is Time.

Which is what fascinates me when I’m watching things like Downton Abbey (after my swooning and outrage and gasping at the storyline, of course). For instance, how long does it take to clean that house without a vacuum and Mr Muscle? How can the baby sleep without a Grobag? How do you achieve skin like that without Clinique? Or look so coiffed without the GHD? To do any of these things the old-fashioned way would just take ages – did they not have things to do?

I’ll admit you have to be able to use it properly if you want technology to actually save you time. I am fascinated by the fact that my washing machine can be pre-set to come on at 4am, but I’ve never figured out how to do it successfully and always end up with a stagnant pile of linen that’s been sitting in the machine since midnight.

Syncing my email and phone address books sounds extremely useful but one always ends up overwriting the other and I have to send an embarrassed text asking ‘Sorry, who is this?’ back to people like my mum.

But then, on my very first day back in the office my other half texted me a photo of Little Bean (who was sent home from nursery with a tummy bug on her very first day – must be a record, right?) playing with a new toy bus he’d bought her. Instantly my day was a million times brighter. And that, quite simply, is why I love technology. 

Miffy About Children’s Book Apps?

Iconic children’s book character, Miffy, has an iPad app. The 84-year old Dutch creator Dick Bruna doesn’t sound quite as enthused as I suspect the publishers would like him to be. "I think babies and toddlers need to get used to books first, feeling the covers and turning the pages, this is part of their learning," he said. "I wouldn't want too much interactivity – something to do on every page for instance – as I think that would make it too complicated for a young child."

Although a large number of parents would agree with him on this and to a certain extent I do too, I also believe it's pointless burying our heads in the sand when it comes to new technology. According this recent survey, 19% of  kids between the ages of two and five can play with an app compared to only 9% that can tie his or her shoelaces. 

Kate Wilson, founder of the brilliant children's publisher, NosyCrow, maintains publishers have really had no choice but to engage with new technology. The alternative, according the Guardian, is irrelevance in a digital future. The demand is there and even Miffy's resigned herself to progress. 

I see Wilson's point but I do think it’s important that whatever platform you use for entertaining you kids, it’s important for the parent to play too. Show your child how to use the app. Play with them and discuss the characters and activities. For instance, in this trailer for NosyCrow's Three Little Pigs book, the kids are talking amongst themselves and commenting on their favourite bits of the book. 

Personally, I think my little girl is just too young for apps just yet. She seems quite happy with her cardboard books and the only interest she's show in my iPhone is to chew on it. This is not encouraged I might add as she's also got to the banging/flinging stage and I'm quite attached to my gadgets. I suppose chewable/unbreakable iPads are in the pipeline though?

Do you have an iPad or similar and use apps with your children?

What are your thoughts on children being tech savvy before learning other life skills?

Once Upon a Time...

It's spring and in the spirit of new beginnings and fresh starts I've decided now is the perfect time to unleash my blog on you. I have been threatening this for some time but having a newborn has muddled up most things in my life, most noticeably my vocabulary. Even now it's a bit iffy at best so if you notice an odd word in the middle of an elephant please skirt around it - I'm sure you'll still be able to determine what it is I'm trying to say.

Although at the moment my daughter is devouring books in a very literal sense, I hope that one day she will realise that there are words next to the pictures (and food is far more nutritious) and so will begin a long and healthy relationship with reading. At the same time, my career is in publishing and I am too well aware of the drastic changes in the industry and of the rise of technology, in particular with regards to ebooks.

 

A few months ago this YouTube video caused a stir worldwide and shudders down the spines of a large number of book-loving adults. In it a one-year-old little girl struggles to get to grips with a magazine as the ‘screen’ doesn’t respond to her touch in the same way her daddy’s ipad does. Without reading too much into it, it does raise the question: is this how our children will be reading in the future?

I’m not against innovation at all. In fact, with a personal and professional interest in new technology this blog is likely to be both bookish and geeky. My intention with it though is to provide a literature-based space to discuss, review and recommend all things bookish for the little ones: new books, old books, apps, author tours, exhibitions, film adaptations, shows – absolutely anything.

Welcome to Little Magic Beans!