Technology

We are racing to catch up on technology around here. School is STEM and revolves around technology. Davis does 100% of his homework and school work on his laptop. Samuel doesn't have his own laptop, but uses one at school. We have a very steep learning curve here.
Davis has three honors classes and has so much homework each night. Usually 2.5 hours is our average. Sometimes he'll do homework from 4-8PM. Part of this is actual work. Part of it is learning the technology. Learning to toggle between websites, cut and paste, download, save, file, use google, use microsoft office, check email. And he types sooooooooooo slooooooooooooooowly. He hunts and pecks. He hits his head and announces that his brain has stopped working. He cries. I cry. Michael goes down to his office to avoid crying.
Even band homework is done on the computer. He had download Sibelius and then download his pieces and then record himself practicing and then upload the practicing files to his computer and then email them to his teacher. For a grade.
I've emailed teachers and I have the boys doing typing lessons on days that their homework load isn't too great. I let Davis stay up late so he can go outside and at least play for a little while. We are making progress every day and I see that we are learning. There is hope. And Davis stays very positive. He is an amazingly resilient and determined child. He is not being defeated by all this technology. He still loves his school.
Samuel is the lucky one, starting so young. We have been giving him typing lessons and we bought him an iPod touch off of craigslist so he can start emailing and texting and learning a little tech. This is also helpful so he can text his brother to find him at the end of the day for the confusing melee of traffic circle pickup.
Of course, his first few days of having an iPod touch were filled with ridiculousness. We had several moments where we needed to stop and have discussions on iPod etiquette and rules. He had to be stopped from taking his iPod into the bathroom and the bedroom. He texted way too much and used way too many emojis. He even spent one night texting me that he would like to sleep with me instead of actually walking in and sleeping with me. Which he could have done and does do often. Sigh.

Love that boy.
Both the boys have emails now. Email me if you want them. Samuel also spends huge amounts of time facetiming his friends in Texas. Let me know if your child would like to FaceTime with him.
It's a new age.