Hello again, world. I have been blissfully disconnected during the holidays, but now I’m back. With vigor and verve! (I hope.) There’s much to catch up on in my electronic parenting world, but I’ll start with the invasion of the iPods.

In mid-December, Andy bought himself a nano with the Best Buy gift card he earned from selling wrapping paper for school. I thought, “How lovely that his world will be filled with music.” But within a day we lost him to his earbuds. When addressing…

Wow! My mom and I have just told my Dad about the new Amazon Kindle. It holds up to 200 books that download for $9.99 each. It holds its own dictionary. Are you the type of person like me who reads more than one book at a time? Because when you turn the Kindle off, it has saved anything that you have started. And this is just the start. Wow! 

Overheard while walking three fifth-graders to school: “Last year I didn’t get anything for Christmas — just toys.”

When I get my $100 gift card(from selling wrapping paper) I am sure that I am going to get the new nano. Movies, TV shows, and music. It is great, when kids are relaxing, people are creating new gadgets every day or so.

I just hope that it will be worth it.

If anyone should be reviewing technology products for kids, it should be kids. So, I think it’s very cool that a class of sixth graders in Nettletown, Arkansas has become a little army of product reviewers. They conduct methodical reviews of products and post them on their class Web site. Their teacher tells me he came up with this project because test scores showed the students needed more focus on non-fiction reading. And in his words, “With 6th graders it’s very difficult to get them…

Today the Wall Street Journal reviewed several computers designed expressly for kids. In the $400-plus range, they don’t make good sense for our household. We all share two computers, so one size fits all. I still cling desperately to the notion that I’m an adult with a brain, so I refuse to be relegated to a Princess Pink PC, when we can all enjoy a powerful (albeit black) Dell for $500. Apparently, a “stripped down” model for kids makes for Internet safety. The parent quoted in the article notes, ”On my husband’s PC, all kinds…