So, these days I mostly hang out in Boxed Set, but I have a question for the hivemind...
...my 10-year-old wants an email account (technically she has one which we set up when we gave her her first Kindle, but she doesn't have the password) and access to sites she's technically too young for. E.g. she wants a Wattpad account so she can post fanfic and comment on what she's already reading. Tonight's commute home was all, "Lots of kids my age post," and "I just want a VOICE" (very dramatically).
On the one hand, she's bright and net-savvy for her age, and I like the idea of letting her post fanfic because it will encourage her to write. (Writing is her academic weakness, relatively speaking.) But 10 is SO very young, and she's nowhere near as precocious socially and emotionally as she is intellectually.
So...5th graders online. Pros? Cons? Is everyone else actually doing it and I'm the fuddy-duddy mom?
My 13 year old does not have email.
I was online when I was 11, but "online" was different then, and I don't think my parents really knew or understood everything I was doing.
Question for the cat-knowledgeable: Finn and new kitty are still getting along, hanging out, playing, and generally being buds, but Finn is still barely eating. Is that normal, given the disruption in his routine?
Yeah, we're leaning away from letting her for another few years yet. If I could find a good forum with just upper elementary and middle school kids it might be another matter.
Anne, I might call the vet just to be sure, but if he's distracted by the new playmate in a good way, as long as he's actually eating something, I'd just keep an eye on it and maybe bring out the kitty crack food for just him in a closed off room with just you & him. If he likes human attention while eating. I feed Loki and Pumpkin out of the same dish and I swear she must live on air thanks to the Hoover that is Loki, but what they need vs what they eat is...variable.
Thank you, sara. I can't help worrying about the guy. He's eating maybe about a fourth of what he normally eats, but he's not hiding, and he wants to be around the other cat.
Pet him lots, you'll notice any weightloss. Heck buy a cheap digital scale and dig up a cardboard box and you can reassure yourself.(box on scale makes it..almost cat motivated)
He probably is a bit stressed, but given his interest, more like the stress you have on an adventurous vacation.
I'm too busy to eat!
Casper (11, 6th grade) has an email account which she does not use and to which I have the password. Some of her friends have their own phones and text; at least one uses Instagram and uploads videos to Youtube and has since 4th grade. I'm holding off for now. She searches for Lunar Chronicles fanart (and has already indignantly told me that Someone Is Wrong On The Internet).
I think we'll take another step forward next year (=middle school) and she'll have use of a flip phone. Probably without texting or a camera. I'm in no hurry. I agree, it would be nice to have a kid-safe fannish forum. I do know some parents who have set their elementary-age kids up with blogs, to give them a voice, but they don't allow comments and do review what is posted. (The ones I know of are about 1) cupcakes and 2) soccer.) You might start there?
she'll have use of a flip phone.
We just joined the smartphone world on Sunday, so I have an old flip phone that is (no lie) held together with hot glue because I dropped it and broke it so many times. It is CLASSY as hell.
...naw, I can't give it up. I like to just look at it, and marvel: [link]
