Children's Entertainment: Now and Then

When I was home last weekend, I went to visit the kids that I have babysat for since I was in the eighth grade. As I walked into the kitchen, the little boy was sitting at the kitchen counter playing on an Ipad. I have never even played on an Ipad. There is absolutely nothing wrong with anything to do with the concept of these great, innovative new gadgets, but when they interfere with the intellectual enhancement of a child's experiences outside, and interacting with other kids their age, I begin to find problems with that. He was playing a virtual video game that he had downloaded on his dad's Ipad, When I was 7 years old, I would come home from school and spend hours on end playing outdoors with friends from the neighborhood, on my backyard swingset, and building forts out of sticks and rocks behind the house. Whenever I babysit, it is really hard for me to understand how a child isn't drawn to all that the outdoors has to offer, like i so much was when I was that age. All the new technology that comes out new each and every year is only depriving children of things that matter most. Yes, it is a good thing at many times that we have these new technologies- but when it deprives us of all the important things we need in life to grow and to have happiness, it makes no sense to me at all!! SEND YOUR KIDS OUTSIDE TO PLAY TODAY- DITCH THE TECHNOLOGIES!

ipad? Yes Please upadated. 50under50.com (photo of Apple Ipad) 2009.

justoutdoortoys.com.uk (photograph of child swinging on swingset) 2010.