Category: Parent Talk
Hi all.
Today October 17th 2006 is my brother's birthday. He is 9 years old.
I can't believe how fast the time goes. It seams as it was yesterday when he was borne.
As i said in another board i was looking after him when he was litle so i am so attached to him.
I remember that he used to like it when i used to pick him up and walk arround the room to get him to sleep. He couldn't sleep otherwise. Maybe i spoiled him. lol.
Also he used to sit on my lap when i was in front of the computer and he used to like it when i was playing music from the computer or playing videos with animals etc.
Now he still likes my computer but he want to play games lol.
Now he goes to school, he is in the 4th grade and this year he started learning English.
He started learning the alphabet, some easy words such as book, pensil, cat, dog etc.
So i wanted to ask the parents or even people with younger brothers or systers.
Do you find it difficult to realise that they are not little any more and do you still behave to them as they were younger?
I think i find it a bit difficult to realise that they are growing up. I can't believe how fast 9 years went.
I also have got a 6 year old syster and her birthday will be on the 10th of January.
Also another thing i wanted to ask is your oppinion of when children should get mobile phones.
My brother already has got one becauce my dad bought it for him which in a way is good because i can text him and see how he is but my oppinion is that children shouldn't get mobile phones that early. If i had my own children probaply they would get their first mobile when they are 12 or something. 8 years old just sounds to early.
I think if they start texting that early they won't develop their comunication skills because text message use a lot of abriviations and also their speaking comunication won't develop either.
So it would be good to get oppinions on this matter.
I miss my brother and my syster. I won't see them untill christmass and i didn't see them since July.
Anyway thanks for reading my thoughts and i look forward to read yours.
Hronia polla Foto which means Happy Birthday Foto. Fotos is the name of My brother.
Nikos
Greetings Nikos, Sending a bit o' Cheer along for your li'l Birthday Brother. Hope this "Home-Made Greeting Card" works out as planned.. Connie ~ Grace
H appy Birthday Foto!
R ed, orange, yellow,green, blue, indigo and violet *Rainbow colors
O ne, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ...next year you will be Ten!
N ikos is your loving Brother *smile
I have heard of you Foto, through your Bro. nikos who speaks so admiringly of you.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y and Z (The Alphabet)
P assing the moments ~ we grow a little older every day ~ Hopefully a little wiser too.
O nly 91 more years till you are 100 years "young!"
L arks and
L oons are both a kind of bird. *Loons really like living near the water...kinda like ducks.
A nd for you a song: http://www.superlaugh.com/1/bdaybaby.htm (Note, will need to click twice in middle of page)
Thanks Connie. Made me smile.
I will also visit this website you said. When i go to Cyprus for Christmas i will play to him the song.
That sounds really nice Nikos.
Hey, with regards to the mobile phone question.... I think it's good for kids to have mobiles in today's society where, for the parents, it may help to know that you can get in contact with them, however, in terms of crime rates, I think that there is an agrivating factor there. I didn't get my first mobile until I was fifteen. I'd wanted one for years before that, but looking back, it's probably best that I didn't get one until then. y phone bills for the last three years were pretty appauling, lol.
I think it all depends on the child, their maturity level and their peer groups and setting, school, church, a job, being on a sports team or in a band that travels, etc. I would probably say around thirteen or forteen for a good age at which to recieve a first cell phone, but again it would be on a very individual basis.
Hi, 2 really interesting questions here. First the one about little kids having mobile phones, I don't really agree with it, partly for reasons that Nikos said, and also a lot of people seem to treat their mobile as a fashion eccessery, it's bad enough that some kids these days worry about what they're wearing, let alone whether their phone is the coolest make or not. Secondly, in regards to kids and letting them grow-up, or not wanting to realise or acknowledge or even realising that they're growing up, I myself am the youngest of 4. and as the youngest I can say that it is extremely annoying not to be recognised as an adult at times. For example, my brother, who is the closest in age to me treats me more like an adult than the others, in fact he treats me normally, which is why I'm the closest to him out of my other brother and sister, my sister is somewhere in between the 2, but my other brother is like, well I dunno, too protective. Even, the younger brother and his wife commented on it a bit, so it must be true! .
I am the youngest of a bunch, but I can say that my husband's sister who is 5 years older than him still seems to think he's 9 years old or something. It is quite nerve racking and of course she's always right and whatever it should be done her way and her way only. Know what I mean? As for my family I don't get the feeling of being treated like a child though I cannot say that was the case when I was in my early 20's.
Interesting replies. Keep posting.
hello there. one phone thing I go my cell for in 11th grade and I was going away to school and the other thing is I can't say than thing because I am the baby of my family.
Hello.
Thanks for bringing this topick back up again.
Just to let you know that i am back home since the 11th of December and it was good to see my brother and my sister again. I will be in Cyprus untill the 28th of this month so i have less than a week.
Anyway to go back in the previous post what age is grade 11 in your country?
And i agree parents are a bit over protected with the youngest children.
In the USA the grades go in asending order, although I know in some countries that they go in descending order. When kids are one to two years old they are in daycare, then they enter preschool at either two or three. They have prekay which stands for prekindergardin at the age of four and kindergardin it's self at five years of age. At age six they enter grade one so seven corrasponds to second grade, eight to third, nine to fourth, ten to fifth, eleven to sixth, twelve to seventh, thirteen to eighth, forteen to ninth, fifteen to tenth, sixteen to eleventh and seventeen to twelfth. Some kids are a little behind that if they get left back or are a little ahead if they skip a grade, although those practices are less popular now. Also the month in which a child's birthday falls will effect the age at which they complete each grade. I believe that in my study of French we learned about the culture that in that country there is a system of descending numerical grades. I would be very interested to hear from others from different countries regarding how their systems work.
Thanks for bringing back this topick and for explaining the grades in the USA.
I will explane in a later post the grade system in Cyprus when i find some information in English about it or ask my friends who can speak better English lol.
I'm the eldest Granddaughter, also the eldest and only daughter and the spoilt brat in my family, lollol. I got my mobile/cell phone when I was in year/grade 12.
Jen.
Oh, something else to consider. Having a blind versus a sighted child might make the issue of when to give them a cell phone an animal of a completely different sort. I think for example that I might be more inclined to give my hypathetical blind child a cell much earlier than I would give my hypathetical sighted child the same. For one thing a blind child might have a greater difficulty finding a help desk, a custummer service desk, a policeman or a pay phone. They might also need to call an automated system for paratransit, city bus, subway or train times when a sighted child could just read the posted schedules.
I agree with that. Blind children might find a mobile phone more usefull than a sighted child. But mu brother and my sister are not blind so that's why i think my dad gave them mobile phones too early. Fortunately they didn't spend any terrible ammound of money with them so far. They mainly use them for music sharing with their friends or to play games.
I think one good thing about most europeen countries is that we have pay as you go. We buy credit to addto our account and we need to buy more if it runs out. So this way parents can control how much their children spend. In the USA i don't know how popular is this method.
Some cell carriers in the US have plans like that where you buy minutes as you need them, but most people don't use it for whatever reason, opting instead for complete phone plans, family plans or work plans.
But then how parents can control how much money their children are spending? Unless they can set a limit per month like 20 dollars and then the children will have to wait for the new month to make any more calls if they used the 20 dollars they are allowed.
Well, a lot of cell carriers now have plans where you get free, unlimited calls from your cell phone to anyone else in the us who has a phone that has their service. My mother, my fiance, my father, my father's employer, my friend Candice, my fiance's mother, father, sister and brother and many many other people I know all have verizon, my carier. I can call them on week days or weekends, at night or during the day, on holidays, anytime and I can talk for hours if I want and it is absolutely free. I know a lot of children who make sure that their family's plan is the same of that of their friends and the networking continues. Not saying I agree with it in very young children, but just explaining our system over here.