3:53 PM
Yes, it’s true that your child shouldn’t use gadgets and technology too much, but depriving your child of these completely isn’t the best idea either. You need to remember that it’s important to have a healthy balance, whatever you choose to do in life. Whatever activities and fun things your child does, ensure that you have a good balance between the times they do it and the times they don’t. Here are a few reasons why it’s good to encourage your child to use technology.
1. Gadgets can help with school work
Gadgets aren’t all bad and full of violent games to waste your child’s time. In fact, a lot of them can really help your child with homework and other aspects of education. For example, there are musical apps to help you child to read notes, learn musical terms and practise better. Mathematics apps will test your child’s arithmetic in a fun and colourful way, and e-readers and programs such as iBooks will encourage your child to read more and to become a faster reader.
2. It can teach your child responsibility
If you use the gadgets properly, they can be a good aid in teaching your child some responsibility. In order to do this, you need to tell your child that he can use them for fun if he behaves well all week. You could even take it a step further and have a reward chart. For every five stars he receives on the chart, he is allowed another half an hour of watching the television or playing on his iPad. Whatever you do, don’t freely give your child the gadgets all the time, since this will only teach him that it’s easy to get whatever he wants and he doesn’t have to do well in something in order to get what he wants. You could also encourage him to work harder at school with the promise of the latest tablet or smartphone at Christmas if he achieves the results he’s aiming for.
3. It can help their creativity
Watching television programs such as arts and crafts shows and other documentaries and presentations can encourage your child to be more creative. Apps for Apple products such as Kids Doodle and drawing applications allows your child, no matter how young, to choose different colours, pens and brushes in order to unleash their creative side and see what they can make. While some may argue that drawing on a piece of paper is just as effective, it’s not as clean and tidy for parents and it requires constant supervision to make sure nothing goes wrong. With a tablet or smartphone, there’s no cleaning up necessary and you don’t have to watch so intently to make sure your child doesn’t spill the paint!
4. They will learn new skills
Some may think that using gadgets and technology isn’t a very useful skill to have; however, it’s always a good idea to make sure that your child knows what he is doing when it comes to computers and other gadgets. At school, he will probably be given a laptop, tablet or computer to work from at certain times, so it’s important to make sure that he has some idea of what to do. Children will feel very left out and isolated if everybody else in the class room knows how to work the gadgets and they don’t!
5. The world is full of technology
Several years ago, the technology problem we have today wasn’t such a prominent one. Children and adults alike did not crave iPads and computers like we do today, and teenagers did much more than look at their smartphones and feeling the need to check for text messages every 5-10 minutes. However, in the modern day, technology is used for almost everything – within hospitals, schools, homes and the work place. Wherever you go, you can’t escape the use of technology. Because of this, some will consider it very important to allow their children to grow up in the age which they have been born, and knowing how to use the technology products which they will be using as they develop.
6. It will teach them discipline and balance
Depriving your child of gadgets completely will only leave them craving it and feeling like they’re missing out on something. Although they may be able to devote more time to other things, they will always look at other children with their gadgets and yearn to experience what they must be experiencing. This is the way most children think, and it’s important to teach your child that there must be discipline and balance in the world and in their lifestyles. Instead of banning gadgets completely in your home, allow your children to use them for a couple of hours each week. Tell them that if they stop using the computer when their time is up, they’ll get a small reward. This will teach them to be disciplined, and using it for a limited time will help to teach them about balancing fun and leisure with the more important things such as education.
7. It’s so much easier to learn things
Your child wants to draw? There’s a YouTube tutorial for that. Your child wants to learn how to tie knots? You can find many tutorials on that too. Whatever your child has an interest in, it can be found easily and quickly on the internet, and a quick search will bring up a huge variety of different tutorials and lessons. This is a great way of letting your child find out more about a certain activity before you start paying for lessons in it. With an iPad or tablet, a quick search will bring up everything you need to know.
Be careful that you are able to budget properly and carefully as you encourage your child to use gadgets. Top 10 reviews of debt management programs will help those in debt who are looking for better plans in order to pay off existing debts incurred through buying gadgets.
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