Ingenuity or Hannah is Creative

When I took this picture Hannah asked me, with a roll of the eyes, if I was going to put it on the blog. I told her that I would, only if it were OK with her. She smiled, raised her eyebrows and said, "Only if you call it Hannah is Creative." I agreed. My agreement wasn't wrangled out of me: she is creative. For example, she would absolutely love an iPod; however, her parents don't feel the same way; so, she made her own out of beads and wire. And now she has moved on to video games. I found her seated in front of her dresser a little before bedtime with her homemade video game. I thought that it was brilliant.
p.s. Doesn't her side-profile look a wee bit like mine?

Now, as a sort of sidebar: our banning of iPods, video games and the like from our children isn't because we are Luddites or believe that technology is evil. I am blogging, am I not? And, Dave has an iPod that he uses quite frequently, especially when he exercises. Plus, I think that Dave is one of the best and most effective users of technology in the classroom. We are plugged in; but, we still choose to keep our own children fairly unplugged.

Childhood is fleeting. Our main beef with video games, iPods and excessive television is that, aside from being socially isolating and somewhat mindless, they tend to waste a childhood.

We both grew up under parents who were very judicious about their use of technology with us. Of course, at that point technology was mostly limited to the TV. I grew up encouraged by academic parents who read books and taught us to do the same. Lively discussions at the dinner table about great ideas, faith and the moral life are good memories of mine. Dave was raised on a farm and fairly ate, slept and drank hard work and exercise. He recalls watching a show called SkiBoy which inspired him to ski around and around and around his house until he was exhausted. Together, our parenting philosophy has become read books, go to mass, pray with children, talk about and live faith, and wear them out physically so that they have no time to get in trouble and so that they sleep. Sleep is very important. Pretty simple, actually. We'll see if it works.

But, back to the wasting of childhood. I want to see my kids running outdoors, playing in sandboxes, wading in pools, jumping off of picnic tables (yes, they do) and bonding with one another in the great cathedral of the outdoors. I don't want to plunk them down in front of screens to simply keep them busy and out of my hair.
Nevertheless, technology certainly comes in handy around here: I like to teach Ben to read using books; however, starfall.com has definitely filled in some holes and taught him how to use a computer mouse. The kids love movies and I made my way through Jacob's years of eye-patching using the TV.

So, are we out of step with the times? Yes, I have no problem admitting that. We are, I suppose, old-fashioned. But, I kind of like the way old-fashioned kids grow up into really interesting, morally-grounded adults. At least I think they do. Plus, if Hannah can build a video game out of lego and her brothers' trucks, then I can only imagine what she might do with some better materials.
She eventually allowed her brother a chance to play.
And then there's him. He is currently training for some sort of special-ops team. Jumping off of picnic tables is suitable preparation.