4 year olds 

Hi everyone,
               

Times have changed.
        
Kate's brother, Mike, has adopted no less than three children and they live happily on the farm here in Iowa - Kaitlin is 4, Olivia 1 and a half and Kaleb 1.  They give a lot of joy to everyone but as you can imagine - heaps of work too.  But we all take turns and and share what needs to be done. We're just celebrating the New Year and I think the family has appreciated the extra help we gave over Christmas, especially with the baby sitting. 

Kate's sister Mary Ann and family live right next door and they are often over here so as to not miss any of the fun.  In their family the youngest two are Molly who is 7 and little Brian 10.  The last time I was here seven years ago they were tiny tots whom I used to carry around on my shoulders.  I brought a guitar down from the school in Crow Creek and we had Christmas carols and other songs in the living room most evenings.  They all like to dance and no one more so than Olivia.  It is fun to watch her put the actions to Twinkle, twinkle little star.  The farm is a very stimulating environment for kids as you can appreciate.  There are cows, cats, dogs, ducks, 2 peacocks, 2 emus, chooks, geese, 2 rabbits, horses etc.  Kate is particularly good with little kids and also has a way with firmness to get them to do what the rest of us would sooner not want to fight.  Kate's mum is very loving towards all the kids of course and I think this is what keeps her going so well, although it is very tiring at times.   But we get the kids out of the house  in the afternoon, since the weather is so good, and we take them on a walk down to the bridge and toss rocks into the icy creek down below. 
        
        I have to negotiate each day with Kaitlin the four year old to use this computer.  When I think back so long ago to my schooling when I was was using a slate and chalk in grade one and reading was done from one standard book - 'Fluff and Scotty'.  (In America the book was called 'See spot run'.)  The first page went something like - "Fluff can run, Scotty can run". Yet, Kate  said that her sister, Maureen, who is now a University Professor in Human Biology, could read the newspaper when she was four years old. Kaitlin begins her day by turning on the computer, double clicking the wireless mouse to Internet Explorer, finding favourites and double clicking "Barbie.com".  Of course she already knows the alphabet, so she types in her name on the keyboard and presses 'enter'.  More information is required but she just types "kkkkkk" - 'enter' and explains to me that this works just as well because you don't have to type the real words to enter this site.  OK -  so lets dress Barbie.  What colour skin?  We might go for brown today.  "Oh - that's a little too dark" -  so we grab a lighter colour from the palette and drag it across.  "I want the hair pulled up" - so we choose the right icon.  This whole site is fully interactive and there is constant verbal communication between computer and child.  "Now we put a crown on Barbie's head and decorate her dress with flowers - lets make them yellow".  "Oh - how about playing some music?"  We can listen to a pop song or we can play our own song.  Just click on the piano numbers displayed in the right order and we can knock out "Old McDonnell had a farm".  Hey - this child is being educated at a very high level, without an adult present, and 'its fun too'.
        
        The children of tomorrow will truly come from the computer age.
        
        Regards,
        
        Brian and Kate.