Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Babies don’t just take over your life, they also tend to take over our hard drive space too! From conception onwards, it is amazing how many photos and videos you will take and create recording the precious moments. Although digital photos are easy to shoot and print, photos often tend to remain stored on our hard drives awaiting printing for weeks, months or sometimes years!

Don’t let your precious memories get lost in the multiple layers of your hard drive, instead take the time to organise and save your memories safely.

Firstly, ensure that your camera/ video camera has the correct date and time settings, so that when it is connected to your computer the file can be saved with the correct date for recording memories.

Secondly, setup a folder for each month according to age, for example, ‘Month 1’, ‘Month 2’ etc…

Thirdly, Store each month according to the year of your child’s life, for example ‘Year One’, ‘Year Two’, etc…

Fourthly, ensure that you keep a backup of your data on an external storage devise such as a pen drive, CD or external hard drive. Alternatively, you may wish to use Internet Storage Space such as Flickr or your personal webspace provided by your Internet Service Provider.

Finally, remember to get some of your memories printed, it is all very well having digital copies of your memories but there is nothing better than having a hard copy to treasure forever.

During the past few years there has been great debate over the effect that Television has upon youngsters. Numerous studies and research projects have been carried out which have found that television does indeed have some rather worrying effects upon our infants and children.

Parents need to be aware of the dangers that Television can pose:

• TV is a distraction from reality for babies, infants and children. Whilst the TV set it on children from birth upwards are less able to concentrate upon the voices and faces that are around them everyday.
• TV puts a stop of communication, ‘Talking’ is reduced dramatically when the Television is switched on. Not only are youngsters far more likely to become absorbed in watching the television but adults too. Be honest, even if a program which may be of little interest is on, do you find yourself watching it anyway? This is exactly the problem for parents, often enough they watch more of the children’s based programs than the children themselves!
• Television can damage eyes, especially when viewed from a young age.
• TV can become addictive. Introducing a Television set to your child can be a fatal mistake, you are providing your child with a consistent background noise and flicker which can become a comfort to children over time. This is yet another reason why children should NEVER have a Television in their room. It is far easier to say relax the rules later on in your child’s life than have to fight a Telly Addict.
• Youngsters who view violence upon the Television are far more likely to display aggressive behaviour later in life. This is ultimately the reason why children should NEVER have a television set in their room, parents are unable to ‘vet’ what their children are watching and have no control over what their child sees.
• A recent study was carried out into Television and how it affects academic achievement. Three groups were setup, The first being parents who offered children unlimited amounts of Television, The second group offered children moderate amounts of television viewing time (some of which were supervised by parents) and finally, the third group were offered no Television whatsoever. The highest scoring academic achievers were found to be those children who were simply not offered any Television.

Getting the Timing Right

It’s all very well promising ourselves that we will ‘ban’ the Television but in reality it is far more difficult to carry out. Worryingly, many adults are indeed ‘addicted to the box’ and may find cutting down Television viewing time and ‘switching off’ harder than expected. If this is the case, try using Music as background company. Why not use some classical Mozart or Nursery Rhyme’s to sing along to with your infant?

Here are some guidelines on viewing times for infants and children.

• Children of two year and over should only be allowed to view up to sixty minutes of Television per day, this should preferably be split into four sets of fifteen minute chunks.
• Children under the age of two should only view up to twenty minutes of Television per day. Some American Studies suggest that children under the age of two should not be offered the chance to view Television at all.

MBM’s Top Television Tips

• Never use the Television as a ‘Babysitter’
• Try to link the subject of the viewing to real life where possible.
• Encourage your child to talk about what they are viewing
• Join in with activities such as dancing and singing. Also try to use children’s viewing time as a stimulus for further activities such as drawing, taking part in puzzles, acting, trips out etc. Make viewing time engaging and interactive!
• Try to prevent the viewing of commercials when possible.
• Ensure that you give your child a ‘two minute transition’ warning before turning off the Television in order to prevent your child from becoming upset or being unaware of what is going to happen next.
• Try to select calm, quiet programs.
• Limit viewing time.

For those parents with IPhones, add an App to your phone which will entertain your little one when out and about. Perhaps you take a trip the Doctors Surgery, Hospital or Dentist and you need to kill a few minutes with your little one, simply pull out your IPhone and give your child the giggles!

‘Look Baby!’ is a FREE app which is downloadable from the IPhone App Store, ‘Look Baby’ features four interactive toys such as a Teddy Bear, Bubbles, Butterfly or Shapes.   Your little one can either touch or shake the IPhone to interact with the animated pictures which respond with sounds, Music or visual changes.

MBM recommends ‘Look Baby!’ to all parents on the go.