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am I a modern mom?

my farmers' market partner

Does your library have these newfangled "playaway" devices? These digital audiobook recordings that you can check out? Well, our library has recently introduced them–a hand held ipod-looking device that has a book already loaded on to it. You just plug in your earbuds and listen.

My children have been hounding me about them since the posters started going up in the library and I've really been dragging my feet. I rarely allow the girls to listen to my iPod, though they beg all the time. They have to be really sick, or really pathetic-looking in order for me to give in. Just the sight of them walking around tuned out to the world, plugged in to something else kind of gets to me. It's similar to the whole zone-out in front of the TV thing.

But last night after a homeschooling meeting at the library, I was browsing for some things to bring home to the girls, and there in front of me was the "playaway" for A Cricket in Times Square, the book Emma and I just finished reading, and another easier-read that Mary would be able to enjoy.

And I folded. I stuck those little devices in my bag and checked out.

You can imagine the squealing and excitement that "mom brought iPods home from the library!" when I arrived home last night before bed. Batteries were checked and replaced, earbuds were untangled, buttons were explained, and "ipods" were set out carefully on bedside tables for morning.

This morning, two girls emerged at my bedside, talking extremely loud with wires trailing from their earlobes. Ugh! Am I a modern mom? I don't think I'm there yet.

I'm reminded of this fantastic post by Stefani. Now I just have to think of my "hook" to bring them back to my "little house on the prairie"-fantasy world that I want to live in.

On a more serious and important note, I hope you will take a moment to check out the important NieNie Auction going on at design mom. Amy asked me to share it with all of you. She thinks highly of you all, my dear readers, and hopes you can take a moment to help out. I was unfamiliar with Stephanie's story until this week. She tugs at my heart and demands my continual prayers. Please take a look.

Wishing you a wonderful, long weekend. xo.

 

Does your library have these newfangled “playaway” devices? 

my farmers' market partner

These digital audiobook recordings that you can check out? Well, the library of All You Can Books
has recently introduced them–a hand held ipod-looking device that has a book already loaded on to it. You just plug in your earbuds and listen.

My children have been hounding me about them since the posters started going up in the library and I’ve really been dragging my feet. I rarely allow the girls to listen to my iPod, though they beg all the time. They have to be really sick, or really pathetic-looking in order for me to give in. Just the sight of them walking around tuned out to the world, plugged in to something else kind of gets to me. It’s similar to the whole zone-out in front of the TV thing.

But last night after a homeschooling meeting at the library, I was browsing for some things to bring home to the girls, and there in front of me was the “playaway” for A Cricket in Times Square, the book Emma and I just finished reading, and another easier-read that Mary would be able to enjoy.

And I folded. I stuck those little devices in my bag and checked out.

You can imagine the squealing and excitement that “mom brought iPods home from the library!” when I arrived home last night before bed. Batteries were checked and replaced, earbuds were untangled, buttons were explained, and “ipods” were set out carefully on bedside tables for morning.

This morning, two girls emerged at my bedside, talking extremely loud with wires trailing from their earlobes. Ugh! Am I a modern mom? I don’t think I’m there yet.

I’m reminded of this fantastic post by Stefani. Now I just have to think of my “hook” to bring them back to my “little house on the prairie”-fantasy world that I want to live in.

On a more serious and important note, I hope you will take a moment to check out the important NieNie Auction going on at design mom. Amy asked me to share it with all of you. She thinks highly of you all, my dear readers, and hopes you can take a moment to help out. I was unfamiliar with Stephanie’s story until this week. She tugs at my heart and demands my continual prayers. Please take a look.

Wishing you a wonderful, long weekend. xo.

13 comments on “am I a modern mom?”

  1. I don’t have children but I know that when I do I’m going to struggle with the exact same thing. I remember dreaming of having cooler clothes and better toys but I think not having all the “stuff” made me a better person. Great post.

  2. Playaways are FANTASTIC! We have them at my library and I love them. Don’t feel bad, listening to literature is just as enriching as reading it!

  3. I’m not sure being a modern mom is really all that great. Not that a real little house existence is great either. I think we’re just challenged to figure out the happy medium.

  4. I’m such a luddite. I love my ipod, but I plug it into speakers while I’m in the studio. I hate the idea of my little man sucked into the technology beast. We started playing “educational” computer games this week when he was home sick. UGH.

  5. In the future, that will be my struggle as well. Oh if only I could recreate “little house” or something similar and live on it far away from texting and such. I do love listening to books on tape/cd though, they make the drive to work (which gets really long in the winter time) much more pleasant!

  6. i think i would struggle with that audiobook ipod thing too. now a good audiobook on cd that we can all listen to together…now you’re talking.

  7. They sound perfect for long trips in car. My parents were forced to listen to children’s tapes over and over, and then we would sing them over and over when the songs got stuck in our heads.

  8. That’s a bit advanced ipods, our library has only really just got into stories on CD with the book that you read along with. I got one of those for my 5 year old and wasn’t sure about that – I thought shouldn’t it be me reading it not a CD?? so you are way ahead of me.

  9. Oh, I seriously can’t believe I missed you by a hair again! We were away on vacation for that meeting. I’m going to have to check out those “ipods.” That must be why I got so many books on tape (mostly Madeline) for so cheap.

  10. I haven’t seen these, but I have to say, that my 4 kids were raised on audio books. It’s something I feel very positive about as all of them have had/have above average reading ages and vocabularies. They would (and still do, even the 14 year old) listen to books over and over and over again when they went to bed at night. From nursery rhymes to Harry Potter, to Winne the Pooh etc. My personal tape library is huge. What I found is that the constant repetition helped them to build language skills. They then tackled difficult books to read that were familiar to them because they had heard them. I know that reading aloud to your children shouldn’t be replaced by plugging something in, but I also knew that I was human and I was never going to read to 4 kids every night and read the same thing over and over. Try getting out some tapes/cds from the library and putting them in a player…with out ear buds (I don’t like those- I always worry they’ll damage their hearing). It also teaches them really good listening skills-they have to learn to be quiet or they’ll miss the story, and they have to imagine the pictures in their heads. Sorry for going on, but it’s the one piece of advice I will happily ram down the throat of any parent;)

  11. Thank you for your mention of Playaway. We love that they have helped kids (and adults!) get even more excited about a good book!

    I also wanted to mention that you can plug Playaways into a portable speaker or play them in your car if you are concerned about the earbuds at all.

    Thanks for the mention – and happy listening!

    -The Team @ Playaway

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