An App for Everything (Adventures of L-Plate Gran)

They always say you can learn so much from being in the company of small children. To which I would add that most of what you learn is that you know very little. The world that Little G has been born into is so different from mine that I sometimes feel I am living on Pluto.

Take technology - in particular the ubiquitous mobile phone. I have a very basic Nokia phone that does practically nothing and does even that reluctantly. You must be mad has an iPhone and a Blackberry. Both are terror incognita as far as I am concerned.

Little G, however, has no fear of technology. Since I started minding her she has managed to set the alarm on my rubbish phone (twice), silently call some of my friends, and take various pictures of the carpet. OK, admittedly all this was accidental (I think) but the fact that she is happy to play around with a phone that worries me witless speaks volumes.

From a very early age, she also mastered how to push a button on the iPhone that activated a little app sequence of cartoon animals. I would sit staring in amazement as, with one tiny finger, she changed the picture and chuckled.

Actually You must be mad's iPhone has all sorts of apps on it. Games apps, picture apps, number apps, word recognition apps, story apps, and an app that sings nursery rhymes. In theory you could just give Little G an iPhone and let her get on with it. Luckily, nobody has yet invented a cuddles app. So I am still in business.

To be continued ...      ....