My sons are up to around twenty-five songs that they can play together now. After dinner each night, my wife and I go for a walk around the neighborhood while they practice together in an unused bedroom. The plaster is falling off the walls rather nicely in there.
The nine-year-old is entirely immune to praise. If you tell him,”You played that really great,” he might say,”Yes, we did,” in his best Chance the Gardener monotone, but he’s more likely to start rambling about something he’s building on Minecraft, which is apparently what he’s thinking of the entire time he’s playing the drums. My older son teaches him the songs. They have become self-contained now. I used to give the little one a lesson at lunch every day, but it became superfluous.
They use Spotify and YouTube to find out what they need to know. Our children do not attend the public schools. I was amused –if that’s the right word — to read that the local schools hand out laptops to all the children, but are reconsidering allowing the children to fully use them for school. They’re thinking of blocking certain sites because the kids waste too much time there. Only a few websites, one being YouTube, were mentioned as needing to be blocked.
After all, what could an intelligent and curious youngster find on YouTube that’s worth knowing?
6 Responses
Amazing. My grandson who, starting with Minecraft, has used youtube to teach himself java.
One day, not very long ago, I was the geek.
These kids. . .
Ha ha.
I'm visiting here from work (LAUSD), and this video is blocked.
However all manner of global warming/general hippie crap is not- the net effect is to teach the children what is "educational" or not…
Ha ha.
I'm visiting here from work (LAUSD), and this video is blocked.
However all manner of global warming/general hippie crap is not- the net effect is to teach the children what is "educational" or not…
Hi Anon- Thanks for reading and commenting.
The video is a charming how-to performance of the four-part harmony in the Beatles song Hey Jude, performed (in English) by four fellows from Bologna, Italy. My older son is learning to sing harmony by watching their videos. They're terrific.
Minecraft is a favorite of my son, and he has spent hours….on youtube because of it. He also plays online games via skype with his cousin in Kyrgyzstan and several others. I hear him tutoring them with things he has learned via youtube. Self learning is big in our school.
Hi Leslie- The appeal of Minecraft is entirely obscure to me. But little boys love it, don't they?
Skype is the defacto phone company now. All cellphones with screens are just Gameboys, and a machine for notifying you someone's Skyping you.