Dreambox

[SunshineMom]

My dd10 struggles with math, she is currently doing Saxon 3 which is the best fit for her. She needs the math repetition it provides. I recently bought her Dreambox. She absolutely loves it but I have some concerns with the addictive nature of it. It's great that she is doing math but it is still in my book, screen time. We have limited screen time with other devices. My children do not watch television or play video games but on weekends will watch a few Netflix movies. Documentaries are viewed but not on a regular basis. In short, how do we balance the needs of "generation digital" without giving it too much time? Even if that time is spent meeting educational goals i.e. math progress? I have always valued reading over watching the screen. My dd10 reads, likes to read even when she has picked difficult reads herself. She is working on the 5th Harry Potter book, its above her reading level but she is getting through it. She also listens to the HP audiotapes. She's awesome to challenge herself, so proud of that quality. I guess what I am getting at is how do we step into the visual world of screen time without losing book time? Maybe there is not a loss, they don't cross each other out? Maybe I am just getting old and wishing for a time that has past. Thoughts?

[DyslexicParent]

I agree that the studies show that screen time is bad for young kids. I can't believe how much screen time toddlers are being given by their parents with TV, video games, cell phones, iPods, tablets and computers.

 

However, I thought 10 years is old enough that the benefits of using the new technologies outweigh the disadvantages. I purposely avoided using computers and other screen time for DD when she was younger. Now that she is 11 years old, almost all of the interventions I am trying involve screen time:

- doing Superbrain Yoga daily while watching a video on a big screen TV

- Orton-Gillingham software

- vision therapy software

- working memory training software.

[happycc]

Dreambox was perfect to practice my 9 years old daughter's RightStart curriculum skills. She has in one year jumped from not knowing her days of the weeks, place value, shapes when I pulled her out of school (she just finished first grade) to now doing long multiplication and division. It was the right amount of exposure and review for her as I couldnt do Rightstart curriculum all day with her (got other ones to teach and a house to keep in some running order).

 

Screen time ---sometimes a necessary evil. Some kids just respond better to it. I am not sure why. I had one son who is now 18yrs old could/would not learn from my direct instruction to read (I tried Montessori methods, art, music, Spell to Write to read, Abeka). It wasn;t until Headsprout came along that he found learned how to read at the age of 10. I have another child just like that I think. He is 3.5 years old. Both of these boys ironically have been diagnosed with Pdd-nos.

Now with my other kids screen time would not have worked. They needed me to be next to them pointing things out interacting with them in some way--your basic direct instruction kids--WWE, FLL,Rightstart. Color this, underline this, circle that and tell me this/that. what is that? why is that?

Now one of my daughters required me to do all the direct instruction stuff plus she needed additional review that I could not always give due to time constraints. That is the one who needed Dreambox on top of Rightstart curriculum.

 

Hope this helps others feel better who use screen time.