Laura Numeroff's "If you give..." series delights young children with adorable characters, unexpected consequences and lots of silliness. Whoever heard of giving a pig a pancake any way?
Have you ever heard of giving a 5 and 3 year old a digital camera? That is exactly what I did yesterday. The boys have taken pictures before but it has always been under my direction. Interestingly, when they were given free reign they directed themselves. Prior to this activity Danny (5) was practicing his letters using a laminated folder his preschool teachers gave him at the end of the year. He is obsessed with how to spell things and the letters with which words begin. So, he decided that they should take pictures of things that begin with different letters (No, prompting from me). He then proceeded to write "big" and "small" letters on sheets of paper while Drew (3) took off in search of things that Danny told him to find. I sensed that Danny was thrilled to be in charge and that Drew was happy to have a job.
After all the pictures were taken I helped the boys upload the pictures to BubbleShare (any program would have worked and I will outline other possibilities in future posts). We had to organize the photos, decide which ones to keep and which ones to delete. Then, Danny typed all the words into the bubbles. By this time Drew had lost interest but came back when we started recording the audio (which didn't work very well because my microphone is at work). You can view the resulting slideshow below. Those of you who are technology-savvy may not be too impressed but the learning that happened in this fun activity was amazing. We talked about how "C"" and "K" often make the same sound, why knife doesn't start with an "n", why wristband doesn't start with an "r", how the way you hold the camera influences how the picture will look and why the keyboard is so difficult to use.
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There are lots of things kids can do with digital cameras but, of course, there are some downfalls for Moms who choose to do activities like this. First, unless you are rolling in cash you have to supervise. Digital cameras are pretty durable but my 3-year could probably damage a steel wall. Second, it takes a lot of time. This activity probably took us about 2.5 hours. Third, if you give a kid a digital camera he'll probably want to use it again and again and again and again.
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4 comments:
How brave of you to give a 5 and 3 year old a digital camera. :)
However, I think it was a great idea. I enjoyed the picture slide show. It was great. Kids are so creative and smart.
Kara,
Love the idea. I'm going to give it a try -- once our digital camera is back from the shop!
Way to go on keeping those boys busy!
Jacki
My nine year old had been using a fun saver, which we still hadn't taken the time to get the pictures printed or a CD :(. Digital is automatic and instant. The pictures we took on our vacation are alreay uploaded. What digital camera did you use with your kids? I need to go shopping, I'm sure there are some that are not too expensive. Love you knew blog and the bubble share.
My nine year old had been using a fun saver, which we still hadn't taken the time to get the pictures printed or a CD :(. Digital is automatic and instant. The pictures we took on our vacation are already uploaded. What digital camera did you use with your kids? I need to go shopping, I'm sure there are some that are not too expensive. Love you knew blog and the bubble share.
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