Tim Atkinson's Blog, page 8
March 20, 2020
Kid's at home? You're not alone!
So, this is it! School's out... for who knows how long?
I've worked in schools and I've brought up young children at home. I know that the day can seem endless and the responsibility daunting. So what can you do?
Well, first - don't panic. And don't feel you've got to suddenly start ringing bells and moving the kids from one 'lesson' to another. Home isn't school; kids are learning all the time and they'll continue to learn and learn well with just a little encouragement from you.
And you're not on your own. I've been making some of my own resources available for free and I'm hoping that more will follow. For now, my sixth-form guide to Homer's Iliad is free to download. There'll be more to come. Watch this space.
For GCSE subjects you really can't beat BBC Bitesize. It covers everything, integrates audio-visual material and includes interactive assessments so that kids can measure their progress.
Use YouTube with care as there can be some unsuitable (and, frankly, barmy) material but if you run a search of some of the things you're kids are studying you'll soon be able to build a list of safe (and accurate) channels.
And lots of online learning sites are offering free access for a limited period to help out. Twinkl has both primary and secondary resources and a handy parent portal too, so you can keep tabs on what the kids are up to.
You can even use your (or your children's) phones as a learning tool. Apps like EdPlus (which I've personally reviewed here:https://www.bringingupcharlie.co.uk/2019/08/beat-summer-learning-loss-with-edplus.html ) aren't free but aren't expensive either. They make learning fun and again give parents vital feedback on their child's progress.
Finally, don't feel you've got to manage every minute. Let them run off some steam in the back garden - fresh air and exercise is just as important. Boredom is a great motivator, too, and with a little support children can become their own best teacher... just don't let them on the Xbox for too long!
I've worked in schools and I've brought up young children at home. I know that the day can seem endless and the responsibility daunting. So what can you do?
Well, first - don't panic. And don't feel you've got to suddenly start ringing bells and moving the kids from one 'lesson' to another. Home isn't school; kids are learning all the time and they'll continue to learn and learn well with just a little encouragement from you.
And you're not on your own. I've been making some of my own resources available for free and I'm hoping that more will follow. For now, my sixth-form guide to Homer's Iliad is free to download. There'll be more to come. Watch this space.
For GCSE subjects you really can't beat BBC Bitesize. It covers everything, integrates audio-visual material and includes interactive assessments so that kids can measure their progress.
Use YouTube with care as there can be some unsuitable (and, frankly, barmy) material but if you run a search of some of the things you're kids are studying you'll soon be able to build a list of safe (and accurate) channels.
And lots of online learning sites are offering free access for a limited period to help out. Twinkl has both primary and secondary resources and a handy parent portal too, so you can keep tabs on what the kids are up to.
You can even use your (or your children's) phones as a learning tool. Apps like EdPlus (which I've personally reviewed here:https://www.bringingupcharlie.co.uk/2019/08/beat-summer-learning-loss-with-edplus.html ) aren't free but aren't expensive either. They make learning fun and again give parents vital feedback on their child's progress.
Finally, don't feel you've got to manage every minute. Let them run off some steam in the back garden - fresh air and exercise is just as important. Boredom is a great motivator, too, and with a little support children can become their own best teacher... just don't let them on the Xbox for too long!
February 20, 2020
Exhausting...
Cars. Yes, cars. Couldn't be without 'em, I know. But God, could we do without a lungful of their exhaust gases!
The The Royal College of Physicians estimate that in the UK alone 40,000 deaths a year are directly linked to air pollution, with engine idling as a major contributing factor. The Head of the World Health Organisation has identified air pollution as one of the most pernicious threats facing the planet, a threat linked to the deaths of 600,000 children annually worldwide. More than 90% of our children breathe poor-quality air, apparently.
And if it doesn't choke you, it can choke off your brain power. Studies linking the negative effects of car exhaust fumes on the cognitive abilities of children are well known. And yet, outside schools up and down the county, this is happening.
These cars aren't parked. They're queuing for a place to park outside their children's school. But as they queue, their engines belch out toxic gas on those of us walking on the pavement. But worse! Once they get there, to the school, and park then this is what can happen:
A car, parked (badly) and unoccupied, with the engine left running.
It's enough to make you want to travel in the safety of your own car, except...
The detrimental effect this must have on air-quality around the school is obvious. There are statutory powers to stop this sort of thing although you've got to overcome the inertia of the local borough council (whose statutory duty it is under Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 to monitor and control air quality) in order to get anywhere.
Oh, and don't try writing to your local councillor(s) either. I did. Last April, to both the ward rep and the leader and I've yet to hear a dickie-bird back. Mind you, the poor dickie-birds are as badly off in all this as pedestrians and cyclists. I did mention the fact that I'd heard nothing to my local MP. And I heard nothing, until very recently when an apologetic email arrived saying my letter had got overlooked in the fight for votes.
And there are clearly no votes in getting motorists to cut their engines.
Thankfully someone IS doing something, although it'll cost your child's school £60 out of their ever-diminishing budget. The RAC has commissioned this banner as part of its campaign for cleaner air.
You can get one by clicking this link: https://www.ottimodigital.co.uk/rac-banner/rac-banner
Or you could just invest in a stock of face masks and underwater breathing apparatus...
The The Royal College of Physicians estimate that in the UK alone 40,000 deaths a year are directly linked to air pollution, with engine idling as a major contributing factor. The Head of the World Health Organisation has identified air pollution as one of the most pernicious threats facing the planet, a threat linked to the deaths of 600,000 children annually worldwide. More than 90% of our children breathe poor-quality air, apparently.
And if it doesn't choke you, it can choke off your brain power. Studies linking the negative effects of car exhaust fumes on the cognitive abilities of children are well known. And yet, outside schools up and down the county, this is happening.
These cars aren't parked. They're queuing for a place to park outside their children's school. But as they queue, their engines belch out toxic gas on those of us walking on the pavement. But worse! Once they get there, to the school, and park then this is what can happen:
A car, parked (badly) and unoccupied, with the engine left running.
It's enough to make you want to travel in the safety of your own car, except...
The detrimental effect this must have on air-quality around the school is obvious. There are statutory powers to stop this sort of thing although you've got to overcome the inertia of the local borough council (whose statutory duty it is under Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 to monitor and control air quality) in order to get anywhere.
Oh, and don't try writing to your local councillor(s) either. I did. Last April, to both the ward rep and the leader and I've yet to hear a dickie-bird back. Mind you, the poor dickie-birds are as badly off in all this as pedestrians and cyclists. I did mention the fact that I'd heard nothing to my local MP. And I heard nothing, until very recently when an apologetic email arrived saying my letter had got overlooked in the fight for votes.
And there are clearly no votes in getting motorists to cut their engines.
Thankfully someone IS doing something, although it'll cost your child's school £60 out of their ever-diminishing budget. The RAC has commissioned this banner as part of its campaign for cleaner air.
You can get one by clicking this link: https://www.ottimodigital.co.uk/rac-banner/rac-banner
Or you could just invest in a stock of face masks and underwater breathing apparatus...
February 7, 2020
Reading matter
As my New Year's Resolution has (again) involved reading more books I thought I'd share my thoughts about those (few) that I've so far completed.
First was a wonderful return visit to a truly wonderful book, Modern Nature, by Derek Jarman. I think what appealed to me most about this book when I first read it was that it was so unexpected. I knew Jarman as a somewhat iconoclastic film director and gay rights campaigner. I remember catching a glimpse of Prospect Cottage, the famous fisherman's hut he lived in, when we visited Dungeness a couple of year's ago. There's now a campaign to save it, preserve it, open it up to the public. British costume designer Sandy Powell even wore a plain white suit to the BAFTAs last weekend in order to collect autographs on her clothing which she hopes to auction in aid of the campaign. The book itself is wonderfully lyrical - part peaen to the beauty of otherwise unloved places and part memoir of a remarkable artistic life cut tragically short.
Prospect Cottage, July 2016
Another untimely death - that of Elizabeth Wurtzel in January this year - led me to my next book, another memoir though about as different from Jarman's as it's possible to imagine. In Prozac Nation Wurtzel describes the long, lonely struggle against depression and the isolation of suffering something so misunderstood in forensic detail. If occasionally bordering on self-pity, the writing usually crackles with electricity. Although the book is relentless in its misery it's not a miserable read, although occasionally a bit of judicious editing would have been useful.
Finally, I thought I'd go the whole drug-addled, self-obsessed hog by reading Self's book on himself, Will, by Will. Self. I like Self's fiction, really loved his Zack Busner trilogy and thought his creative power would make even the most sickening autobiographical anecdotes of addiction interesting. But like Wurtzel's pain, the whole thing is never so interesting to the reader as it is to the sufferer. Philip Larkin once wrote to a correspondent: 'Other people's illnesses aren't interesting. I mention mine only to excuse the probable dullness of what I shall write.' To illnesses, add addiction.
Three books down, 49 to go. My Goodreads challenge is to average one book per week. And I'm already behind. But, in related news, I've now signed up to PigeonHole and currently enjoying the daily 'staves' of A Curious History of Sex by Kate Lister. A daily, online serialisation might be just the thing I need. And a good book, of course, which this is!
To be continued...
First was a wonderful return visit to a truly wonderful book, Modern Nature, by Derek Jarman. I think what appealed to me most about this book when I first read it was that it was so unexpected. I knew Jarman as a somewhat iconoclastic film director and gay rights campaigner. I remember catching a glimpse of Prospect Cottage, the famous fisherman's hut he lived in, when we visited Dungeness a couple of year's ago. There's now a campaign to save it, preserve it, open it up to the public. British costume designer Sandy Powell even wore a plain white suit to the BAFTAs last weekend in order to collect autographs on her clothing which she hopes to auction in aid of the campaign. The book itself is wonderfully lyrical - part peaen to the beauty of otherwise unloved places and part memoir of a remarkable artistic life cut tragically short.
Prospect Cottage, July 2016
Another untimely death - that of Elizabeth Wurtzel in January this year - led me to my next book, another memoir though about as different from Jarman's as it's possible to imagine. In Prozac Nation Wurtzel describes the long, lonely struggle against depression and the isolation of suffering something so misunderstood in forensic detail. If occasionally bordering on self-pity, the writing usually crackles with electricity. Although the book is relentless in its misery it's not a miserable read, although occasionally a bit of judicious editing would have been useful.
Finally, I thought I'd go the whole drug-addled, self-obsessed hog by reading Self's book on himself, Will, by Will. Self. I like Self's fiction, really loved his Zack Busner trilogy and thought his creative power would make even the most sickening autobiographical anecdotes of addiction interesting. But like Wurtzel's pain, the whole thing is never so interesting to the reader as it is to the sufferer. Philip Larkin once wrote to a correspondent: 'Other people's illnesses aren't interesting. I mention mine only to excuse the probable dullness of what I shall write.' To illnesses, add addiction.
Three books down, 49 to go. My Goodreads challenge is to average one book per week. And I'm already behind. But, in related news, I've now signed up to PigeonHole and currently enjoying the daily 'staves' of A Curious History of Sex by Kate Lister. A daily, online serialisation might be just the thing I need. And a good book, of course, which this is!
To be continued...
December 17, 2019
On the brink
So, that's that.
For people like me who didn't really buy the 'will of the people' schtick when a mere 37% of eligible voters who voted in 2016 to leave the EU, when that small minority of the population was woefully ill-informed about how we should leave, when we should leave, and how much say MPs should have in deciding the answers to those questions, it was a final throw of the dice.
I voted remain in 2016 but I've no great love for the bloated, over-bureaucratic and self-satisfied and self-serving EU. It's just that our economy's roots are too deeply entangled after forty years to free ourselves without doing untold damage. To our tree.
So I'd have been quite happy for Labour's plan to have another go at it, now we know the facts. It would have been awful. But it would have been informed.
I was also quite hoping in my own sweet and politically naive way that we might just get a result that did something - anything - for the millions suffering real, daily poverty. For the NHS. For schools. For all those things we need to be the nation we are.
But, of course, it was not to be.
I’ve been thinking a lot since Thursday night about this. I live in an area that voted overwhelmingly for Brexit in 2016, and that last week returned a Tory with an even bigger majority (it was already huge).
Why do the Turkeys keep voting for Christmas? Putting aside the obvious and overwhelming antipathy to Corbyn nationally, my constituency has historically, consistently and - in my view rather foolishly - returned a Tory forever. They’d have voted Tory even if God himself or the Pope or Kelvin and Oti had been standing.
Then there’s Brexit.
As well as rural poverty, a local hospital about to break under its many burdens and with key departments threatened with closure, an almost complete lack of other public services, a shortage of housing, and a local (Tory) council (county and local) so cash-strapped and so crippled with inertia that they don't seem to be able even to acknowledge emails (sent by yours truly twice - the first time back in May!) there's the issue of getting GP appointments and accessing all the other services creaking under the crippling strain of a large migrant influx.
I can see why people voted to leave. What I can't understand, nearly four years on, is how they continue to believe that leaving the EU will solve anything.
Because the problems were there long before the migrants arrived: problems of underfunding, problems of micro-managing public sector workers to extinction, problems of a severe shortage of nurses, teachers, doctors and... money.
'Not my problem,' people seem to say. And they’re right. It isn’t. When you’re struggling to feed your own family how can you possibly put your mind to helping others? (Leave aside for a moment the fact that it’s precisely this kind of person who DOES most often help.) How can you do x and y and z for you and yours and make a difference to someone else's life?
Which is where the politician comes in: of course you can’t, this message, runs. Of course it’s not your problem. It's the system. It's the migrants. It's the homeless. It's the poor. It's the sick. It's the thick. It's the disabled and the needy and the hungry and the lonely.
Just don't ask us who created a society which leads to all this.
Just vote for us and we'll sweep it all under the carpet/sweep them all away back to their own country/sweep them off the waiting lists/sweep them to the food banks/sweep them to the grave...
I don't know what the solution is. All I know is that I haven't much confidence in Brexit or Boris to solve it. Maybe Corbyn couldn't have done it either.
But someone needs to do something.
Soon.
Before it's too late.
This poem comes from the collection 'Knick-Knack, Union Jack' by Nicholas Fitton, out now and available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2mpmqQl
For people like me who didn't really buy the 'will of the people' schtick when a mere 37% of eligible voters who voted in 2016 to leave the EU, when that small minority of the population was woefully ill-informed about how we should leave, when we should leave, and how much say MPs should have in deciding the answers to those questions, it was a final throw of the dice.
I voted remain in 2016 but I've no great love for the bloated, over-bureaucratic and self-satisfied and self-serving EU. It's just that our economy's roots are too deeply entangled after forty years to free ourselves without doing untold damage. To our tree.
So I'd have been quite happy for Labour's plan to have another go at it, now we know the facts. It would have been awful. But it would have been informed.
I was also quite hoping in my own sweet and politically naive way that we might just get a result that did something - anything - for the millions suffering real, daily poverty. For the NHS. For schools. For all those things we need to be the nation we are.
But, of course, it was not to be.
I’ve been thinking a lot since Thursday night about this. I live in an area that voted overwhelmingly for Brexit in 2016, and that last week returned a Tory with an even bigger majority (it was already huge).
Why do the Turkeys keep voting for Christmas? Putting aside the obvious and overwhelming antipathy to Corbyn nationally, my constituency has historically, consistently and - in my view rather foolishly - returned a Tory forever. They’d have voted Tory even if God himself or the Pope or Kelvin and Oti had been standing.
Then there’s Brexit.
As well as rural poverty, a local hospital about to break under its many burdens and with key departments threatened with closure, an almost complete lack of other public services, a shortage of housing, and a local (Tory) council (county and local) so cash-strapped and so crippled with inertia that they don't seem to be able even to acknowledge emails (sent by yours truly twice - the first time back in May!) there's the issue of getting GP appointments and accessing all the other services creaking under the crippling strain of a large migrant influx.
I can see why people voted to leave. What I can't understand, nearly four years on, is how they continue to believe that leaving the EU will solve anything.
Because the problems were there long before the migrants arrived: problems of underfunding, problems of micro-managing public sector workers to extinction, problems of a severe shortage of nurses, teachers, doctors and... money.
'Not my problem,' people seem to say. And they’re right. It isn’t. When you’re struggling to feed your own family how can you possibly put your mind to helping others? (Leave aside for a moment the fact that it’s precisely this kind of person who DOES most often help.) How can you do x and y and z for you and yours and make a difference to someone else's life?
Which is where the politician comes in: of course you can’t, this message, runs. Of course it’s not your problem. It's the system. It's the migrants. It's the homeless. It's the poor. It's the sick. It's the thick. It's the disabled and the needy and the hungry and the lonely.
Just don't ask us who created a society which leads to all this.
Just vote for us and we'll sweep it all under the carpet/sweep them all away back to their own country/sweep them off the waiting lists/sweep them to the food banks/sweep them to the grave...
I don't know what the solution is. All I know is that I haven't much confidence in Brexit or Boris to solve it. Maybe Corbyn couldn't have done it either.
But someone needs to do something.
Soon.
Before it's too late.
This poem comes from the collection 'Knick-Knack, Union Jack' by Nicholas Fitton, out now and available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2mpmqQl
November 20, 2019
Radio Active
How ironic that the BBC should phone to ask me to contribute to a slot on BBC Radio Five Live about children... just when I have to pick said children up from school.
I used to be asked to do this kind of thing a lot. Back in the days of that rare breed the stay-at-home dad and his online manifestation as that even rarer breed the dad blogger (I was the only one once, can you believe it?) I was often phoned and asked to contribute in some way or other to discussions, debates, analyses and other such media jollies. Heck, I even got asked to go on telly!
It was a lot easier when the kids were younger. Easier, though not without its hazards. Both Charlie and his little sister have accompanied me live to local radio studios (for want of childcare) and been extremely well behaved, by and large. Ironically, it was while doing a FaceTime interview on BBC News that it all so nearly went pear-shaped, when Charlie - watching me on telly in the other room - got up excitedly to find me and tell me I was... on the telly. You know that viral video of the little kid being hustled out of the room by the au pair while a be-suited American gives an interview down the line? That was so nearly me, a home-grown version.
Now they're older it should get easier. But it doesn't. For a start, they're busy and that usually means I'm running from one activity to another or getting them fed before band or scouts or something similar. That's another reason I've been out-of-the loop media-wise for a while. But as it happens, my eldest daughter was around today and so I could skip the school run to do the School Running slot with Nihal Arthanayake on BBC Radio 5Live this afternoon.
You can have a listen if you like on BBC Sounds. It starts at 2:27.30 and includes, among other things, Billy Connolly, bad grandparents, and fishing...
I used to be asked to do this kind of thing a lot. Back in the days of that rare breed the stay-at-home dad and his online manifestation as that even rarer breed the dad blogger (I was the only one once, can you believe it?) I was often phoned and asked to contribute in some way or other to discussions, debates, analyses and other such media jollies. Heck, I even got asked to go on telly!
It was a lot easier when the kids were younger. Easier, though not without its hazards. Both Charlie and his little sister have accompanied me live to local radio studios (for want of childcare) and been extremely well behaved, by and large. Ironically, it was while doing a FaceTime interview on BBC News that it all so nearly went pear-shaped, when Charlie - watching me on telly in the other room - got up excitedly to find me and tell me I was... on the telly. You know that viral video of the little kid being hustled out of the room by the au pair while a be-suited American gives an interview down the line? That was so nearly me, a home-grown version.
Now they're older it should get easier. But it doesn't. For a start, they're busy and that usually means I'm running from one activity to another or getting them fed before band or scouts or something similar. That's another reason I've been out-of-the loop media-wise for a while. But as it happens, my eldest daughter was around today and so I could skip the school run to do the School Running slot with Nihal Arthanayake on BBC Radio 5Live this afternoon.
You can have a listen if you like on BBC Sounds. It starts at 2:27.30 and includes, among other things, Billy Connolly, bad grandparents, and fishing...
November 7, 2019
Echo Hall, by Virginia Moffatt
Echo Hall by Virginia MoffattMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
War destroys families and drives friends apart. But it doesn’t take a war to wreck lives, drive a wedge between husbands and wives and bring a premature end to any hope of happiness. And sometimes it’s not your enemies who inflict most harm, but those closer to home.
Echo Hall echoes with unhappiness, and though world events in the form of three wars account for most of it, the ultimate tragedy arises not from man’s universal inhumanity to man but the domestic bitterness that bubbles and flares and destroys individuals.
I must confess having taken a while to get into this book. I must also admit to skimming some of the epistolary passages which seemed to contain just a little too much detail for my need to get on with the story. But it was worth the effort, if only to realise the haunting symmetry of lives and loves across the generations.
‘Empires rise and empires fall’ as Moffatt says towards the end of the book. And Echo Hall sets the personal cycle of individual birth, life and death against a century of history, where even the empires that survive are utterly transformed.
View all my reviews
October 13, 2019
Brexit means... what, exactly?
"They can't work it out... can you?"
That's the theory behind the Brexit card game, a kind of top trumps way of trying to make sense (or fun) of the ever-more-bizarre situation the UK seems to find itself in.
If you or your kids want to try and get to grips with the main players, compare status, deals, ideas, ideals then this game might be for you. Or even if you just want to have a bit of fun with something which, increasingly, is less and less amusing, then... again, this might be the card game for you.
Charlie's made a short film about it. Here you go...
That's the theory behind the Brexit card game, a kind of top trumps way of trying to make sense (or fun) of the ever-more-bizarre situation the UK seems to find itself in.
If you or your kids want to try and get to grips with the main players, compare status, deals, ideas, ideals then this game might be for you. Or even if you just want to have a bit of fun with something which, increasingly, is less and less amusing, then... again, this might be the card game for you.
Charlie's made a short film about it. Here you go...
October 8, 2019
Kiss it better...
Or rather, don't. Put a plaster on it. And not just any plaster - one of these.
That pic arrived in my inbox a few days ago. Then in the post came some samples. So the least I can do is share them. The blurb goes on to say...
Need help cheering the little ones up after a fall in the playground or during family weekend adventures? Enter - *NEW* Elastoplast PAW Patrol Plasters!
Yes, with the entire troop - Chase, Skye, Marshall, Rubble, Zuma, Rocky and Everest – coming to the rescue, scrapes and cuts will be forgotten in a flash.
What’s more, these colourful wound healers are:
Specially developed for children’s sensitive skin
Dirt and water-resistant
Skin-friendly and easy to remove
All we need now is for someone to fall over!
That pic arrived in my inbox a few days ago. Then in the post came some samples. So the least I can do is share them. The blurb goes on to say...
Need help cheering the little ones up after a fall in the playground or during family weekend adventures? Enter - *NEW* Elastoplast PAW Patrol Plasters!
Yes, with the entire troop - Chase, Skye, Marshall, Rubble, Zuma, Rocky and Everest – coming to the rescue, scrapes and cuts will be forgotten in a flash.
What’s more, these colourful wound healers are:
Specially developed for children’s sensitive skin
Dirt and water-resistant
Skin-friendly and easy to remove
All we need now is for someone to fall over!
October 2, 2019
My ding-a-ling...
Killing Commendatore by Haruki MurakamiMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
‘If my friends wish to pursue their reading enjoyment then I respectfully suggest my friends think very carefully before reading this book,’ said the Commendatore.
‘Think carefully?’ I said.
‘Affirmative,’ he replied.
‘But what kind of book are you?’ I said.
‘I, sir, am a long and extremely boring allegory.’
‘An allegory?’ I said.
‘An allegory,’ said Long Face.
‘Like Alice in Wonderland?’ I said.
‘Like Alice in Wonderland,’ he replied.
‘Or how about Orpheus in the Underworld?’ I added.
This is an odd book in many respects: full of unnecessary, incidental details that seem irrelevant (I heated up some coffee then I drank it. I made a sandwich and I ate it.) The principle seems to be: something happens, it is described in detail. Then someone is told and in almost the same amount of detail. Then the same or a similar thing happens and is described, though this time in slightly less detail and in a slightly different way.
Murakami also seems to take the Faye Weldon line that readers need reminding constantly of the story. We keep going back for a brief re-cap of earlier events, adding a little bit more information each time. All of which is described in often tedious and repetitive detail. Cars are never cars, for instance, even if they’re unimportant. The narrator's car is always a Toyota Corolla station wagon. I don’t know about you but I seldom refer to my own car by the make, type and model each time I talk about it. And by the time we’ve been back to the narrator's post-separation road-trip a few times and returned to his childhood and the death of his sister more than once I was starting to lose interest. And then a mini-me appears, tinkling a small Buddhist bell. Or rather the character in a painting the protagonist (also a painter) finds in the attic comes to life and rings the bell. The bell found on what seems to have been a grave in the garden, and a bell that had been ringing ( from beyond the grave) each evening.
After that it starts to get all Alice in Wonderland on us, with its own version of the rabbit hole which in this book appears in the corner of a room in a nursing home. In between odd flights of surreal fancy there is some sex (prosaically described as in, her vagina closed around my penis') some painting, and some food, specifically noodles, and crackers. In the fridge. Which he ate. Because he was hungry. And then he heard the bell.
The bell was ringing. Ding-a-ling.
View all my reviews
September 26, 2019
When I grow up I want to be...
Well, well. Word reaches Charlie Towers that LEGO has conducted a survey and found that children these days are three times more likely to want to be a YouTuber (29%) when they grow up than, say, an Astronaut (11%).
Influ-What?
The OED define 'influencer' as “a person or thing that influences another.” And it has a clarification as a marketing term: “A person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media.”
But kids see influencers as someone who is having fun and is showing that for others to see. Channels might differ: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, blogs or personal websites. But the idea remains the same: to do interesting activities and tell about them later.
The Harris Polls surveyed 3000 kids and asked them what they would like to be when they grow up. The results show that children are three times more likely to aspire to be a YouTuber (29%) than an Astronaut (11%).
As for an astronaut, kids understand that there’s a long road until they can hit the space. The unique part about being a YouTube creator is that you don’t really need to grow up for that. It is possible to kickstart a YouTubers career, with an idea and a smartphone only. When social media platforms are so accessible, parents often consider should they prevent, promote, or ignore kids' activity on it.
First Of All: Screens Are Not So Bad
Most parents control children's screen time. And it’s one of the first concerns towards influencers wannabes. Content (videos, pictures, blogs) are made, edited, and uploaded via screens. And all that process can add up to quite some time. But as the latest study shows, you shouldn’t worry about that.
Back in February Oxford University published a study about the associations between well-being and digital technology. And results show that screens have close to no effect on kids' psychological health. It is still a good idea to remain caring for screen time. But it shouldn’t be the reason to discourage your children from their online aspirations.
Influencers Gonna Influence
Kids often imagine that an influencer must be a vlogger. But as a parent, you can guide your children to different paths. Since online media is just a platform, there is no content rulebook for what could or couldn’t be done.
If you think that your kids shouldn’t put aside the science, you can encourage them to create science experiments’ content. Or if you know that your children have spectacular imagination, recommend them to write a Sci-Fi blog. If your kids want to be YouTubers, but you don’t like the idea of them being visible in the videos, you can suggest making stop-motion animation with LEGO or modeling clay. Opportunities are endless.
Fun And Games Can Bring Valuable Skills
It’s possible that this influencer thing is just a phase for your children. But if you turn your kids' energy the right way, it can help them to develop valuable skills. For example, when writing a blog, children work on their creativity, spelling, and punctuation. Or if you encourage your kids to create their own blogs’ website, they start to learn web development. Hosting for a website costs less than a dollar per month, but the lessons it can bring are priceless.
Arnas Stuopelis, Chairman of the Board of hosting provider Hostinger, says: “Creating a website can be both fun and enriching activity for a kid. Children are extremely receptive these days. They can take-up new skills easily. Creating a website seems like a game for them, but one day it might turn into a career path.”
Even if influencers' aspiration sounds strange to you, it can bring opportunities for your kids to learn and grow. You shouldn’t be afraid of something you don’t understand at first. Instead, talk to your kids about what kind of influencers they like. Get to know what exactly they would like to do online. And suggest a path that could help them play and improve at the same time.
And to think, when I was young I aspired to be a dustman!
Influ-What?
The OED define 'influencer' as “a person or thing that influences another.” And it has a clarification as a marketing term: “A person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media.”
But kids see influencers as someone who is having fun and is showing that for others to see. Channels might differ: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, blogs or personal websites. But the idea remains the same: to do interesting activities and tell about them later.
The Harris Polls surveyed 3000 kids and asked them what they would like to be when they grow up. The results show that children are three times more likely to aspire to be a YouTuber (29%) than an Astronaut (11%).
As for an astronaut, kids understand that there’s a long road until they can hit the space. The unique part about being a YouTube creator is that you don’t really need to grow up for that. It is possible to kickstart a YouTubers career, with an idea and a smartphone only. When social media platforms are so accessible, parents often consider should they prevent, promote, or ignore kids' activity on it.
First Of All: Screens Are Not So Bad
Most parents control children's screen time. And it’s one of the first concerns towards influencers wannabes. Content (videos, pictures, blogs) are made, edited, and uploaded via screens. And all that process can add up to quite some time. But as the latest study shows, you shouldn’t worry about that.
Back in February Oxford University published a study about the associations between well-being and digital technology. And results show that screens have close to no effect on kids' psychological health. It is still a good idea to remain caring for screen time. But it shouldn’t be the reason to discourage your children from their online aspirations.
Influencers Gonna Influence
Kids often imagine that an influencer must be a vlogger. But as a parent, you can guide your children to different paths. Since online media is just a platform, there is no content rulebook for what could or couldn’t be done.
If you think that your kids shouldn’t put aside the science, you can encourage them to create science experiments’ content. Or if you know that your children have spectacular imagination, recommend them to write a Sci-Fi blog. If your kids want to be YouTubers, but you don’t like the idea of them being visible in the videos, you can suggest making stop-motion animation with LEGO or modeling clay. Opportunities are endless.
Fun And Games Can Bring Valuable Skills
It’s possible that this influencer thing is just a phase for your children. But if you turn your kids' energy the right way, it can help them to develop valuable skills. For example, when writing a blog, children work on their creativity, spelling, and punctuation. Or if you encourage your kids to create their own blogs’ website, they start to learn web development. Hosting for a website costs less than a dollar per month, but the lessons it can bring are priceless.
Arnas Stuopelis, Chairman of the Board of hosting provider Hostinger, says: “Creating a website can be both fun and enriching activity for a kid. Children are extremely receptive these days. They can take-up new skills easily. Creating a website seems like a game for them, but one day it might turn into a career path.”
Even if influencers' aspiration sounds strange to you, it can bring opportunities for your kids to learn and grow. You shouldn’t be afraid of something you don’t understand at first. Instead, talk to your kids about what kind of influencers they like. Get to know what exactly they would like to do online. And suggest a path that could help them play and improve at the same time.
And to think, when I was young I aspired to be a dustman!
