Marketing Moms

Conscious Use Of Technology For Kids Over Holiday Break | MM#133

December 20, 2023 • Jessie Valle & Angela Reeder • Episode 133

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In this podcast episode, Angela and Jessie discuss strategies for keeping kids engaged during the holiday break in modern ways. They share the challenges of managing work-from-home responsibilities while kids are on break. Angela and Jessie highlight the difference in children's entertainment now compared to their own childhoods, emphasizing the heavy reliance on digital devices. They suggest creative ways to engage kids, like involving them in pretend or actual business activities, such as taking photos for social media, writing captions, and using hashtags. Additionally, they propose introducing kids to Canva for designing holiday cards and tags, encouraging reading through digital books, and exploring educational websites or virtual museum tours. They also suggest teaching kids skills like cooking, typing, and using technology for educational purposes. The conversation reflects on the importance of balancing screen time with productive and creative activities, adapting to modern tools while instilling valuable skills in children.

**ANNOUNCEMENT** After nearly 3 years, the Marketing Moms podcast is sunsetting. Thank you so much for the unwavering support, well-wishes, and memories. This has been the experience of a lifetime <3
It's coffee time!
Jessie & Angela



00:00.00
Angela
Hey everyone thank you so much for joining us today. We are going to be talking about how to keep your kids engaged over the holiday break in a modern way because things are definitely different now than they were even ten or fifteen years ago certainly from when I was a kid.

00:49.97
Angela
So the day this gets released my kids are like two days out from Christmas break. We've got two solid weeks of them being home which just always makes things really interesting trying to work from home. Whether you are running a business or you work from home for a company having your kids on break can be an interesting experience.

01:16.94
jessievalle
Yeah, and you know I find this even in the evenings right? when like last night we had to tell the kids you've had enough screen time today. Go color read a book write something just go play with your toys.

01:23.80
Angela
In here.

01:30.24
Angela
Um, yeah.

01:36.32
jessievalle
Go do something and there you just like cannot fathom the idea of something that's not digital. It's like how did I keep myself busy when I was hearing.

01:39.49
Angela
Yeah, yeah, that's really hard I know well my and my kids were that way over the summer where we had like a limit on their different devices. And like they were like they didn't know what to do with themselves when they didn't have the screens which was partly kind of irritating for me because I was like it's okay to be bored sometimes but also like I didn't have screens growing I mean I had Tv. But it was not the same kind of Tv that they they have now like after about nine o'clock in the morning there was nothing to watch on tv if you were a kid right? no.

02:12.77
jessievalle
Um, right? exactly I mean yeah and I thought it was funny how we had to teach my son about Commercials. Can you fast. Or through these No no, no, we're watching live Tv You cannot.

02:30.10
Angela
You can't fast forward through these? Yeah no I can't rewind it or pause it. It's just television. It just does what it does.

02:36.95
jessievalle
So Angela and I were talking and we're like you know as much as we wished the kids would just do what we did when we were kids. Let's be honest, they don't want to. They're not going to. They're going to complain so we thought hey why don't we talk to you all about different ways that.

02:47.33
Angela
Um, yeah.

02:54.97
jessievalle
You can utilize technology and the things that are available here in this day and age modern things in a way that is a little more enriching than just watching Youtube exactly.

03:08.20
Angela
Yeah, for 10 hours a day.

03:13.63
jessievalle
So the first thing we thought about was how you could actually get your kids involved in your business or a pretend business have them pretend. They have a business who cares and what they need to do is they need to go around and take pictures.

03:27.65
Angela
Um, or her.

03:31.68
jessievalle
Of things for social media then write captions and add Hashtags This will keep them busy for hours.

03:38.44
Angela
Yep Oh I guarantee it I guarantee it.

03:42.80
jessievalle
And I like that it allows them to be creative even if you never post it like hey go do this for my business and then you never use it. It's fine I think they would more enjoy doing it for their own like come up with a business idea your own pretend business and.

03:49.51
Angela
Um, right? Yeah, their own pretend business. Yeah.

04:02.10
jessievalle
And do that kind of stuff now if you have older kids you certainly could do it for real. But with the younger kids. Yeah.

04:07.37
Angela
Yeah, and who knows you may end up with some really cool pictures and captions that you want to share.

04:15.67
jessievalle
Um, yeah I Just thought that was kind of creative because it has not only the photography bit that uses um technology the camera but it also.

04:25.24
Angela
Um, yeah, and there yeah I was gonna say let's be honest, It's not like you're gonna have to sit down and explain captions and hashtags to them like.

04:31.78
jessievalle
Allows them to be creative to write the captions.

04:38.80
jessievalle
Probably not.

04:42.60
Angela
I know my kids are you know 10 eleven nine ten something like that and somewhere around there double digits I think um, but you know they they understand captions.

04:49.72
jessievalle
However, old those kids are somewhere in there.

04:57.25
jessievalle
Who.

04:59.26
Angela
For social media now they spend more time on Youtube than any other social media but like they watch Tiktok clips on Youtube and like Instagram reels on Youtube so they understand captions and hashtags I don't have to explain that to them I can just.

05:04.31
jessievalle
Ah.

05:15.95
Angela
Turn them loose be like take your camera go take some pictures make up some captions like so it's weird to think but you don't have to explain.

05:22.12
jessievalle
Um, and the other thing is it could I know and they don't necessarily even have to write the captions down physically you could have them type them which they might enjoy more.

05:35.23
Angela
Um, yeah, it does yeah because I have to do it all the time.

05:38.14
jessievalle
And that practices their typing skills. My daughter saw me typing the other day and she's like how do you do it So fast I was like I don't know practice but it's like I mean for us, it's like we're we're speaking with our fingers at this point. Um, but they're not there yet.

05:50.29
Angela
Yeah, yeah I think the funny thing for my kids is if they're doing it with their thumbs. No problem that you put your hands on a keyboard that slows them down.

06:01.61
jessievalle
Um, yeah, all right pull out the Mavis beacon over holiday season. That's all I'm saying ah I mean but seriously you could.

06:09.64
Angela
Yeah, there you go start practice typing. Ah yeah.

06:15.99
jessievalle
You could enrich the kids I mean but that's the thing is you have to find things that your children are interested in mine might put up a fight and say yeah this is boring. Yeah.

06:21.99
Angela
Yeah, otherwise they're just gonna be right back by your side in 5 minutes yeah I don't want to do this anymore? yeah.

06:33.43
jessievalle
So then we move on to the next thing on our list which let's see here. We talked about the kids especially the creative ones instead of we we would pull out paper crayons scissors glue all the things glitter. Oh don't forget the glitter.

06:40.91
Angela
Oh. Right? glitter? yes.

06:53.39
jessievalle
Stickers and we would make holiday cards or holiday tags things like that Nope these kids don't want anything to do with that. So let's introduce them to Canva and have them design their own holiday cards Holiday tags Um, just something creative even if it's.

07:02.19
Angela
Um, yes.

07:12.33
jessievalle
Maybe a Christmas tree decorations or something like that or just decorations in general if you don't celebrate Christmas.

07:13.26
Angela
Yeah, yeah.

07:21.57
Angela
Yeah, well and also the thing with Canva um, if you have the app on your phone you can download your stuff to your phone so you could you could send stuff to people like if they made Christmas cards for.

07:31.66
jessievalle
Ah.

07:35.49
jessievalle
Um, man.

07:38.54
Angela
Aunts and uncles that live in other states you could text that to them or email them and they could actually get you know, get to see what was made which I think is really cool.

07:45.86
jessievalle
Yeah, that's cool for sure. You could do that I have played with the canva app on my phone and it's pretty easy to use and and it's fun. Obviously the one on the computer is better.

07:57.49
Angela
The one on the computers better. But yeah.

08:01.92
jessievalle
But if we're talking about keeping kids entertained and busy I'm sure the one on the phone app is good enough or tablet you know, depending on what devices your kids have um but what another thing I like about canva is it's both web-based and app based so if you just have like a Chromebook.

08:05.99
Angela
Yeah, tablet. Yeah.

08:18.58
Angela
Um, right? yeah.

08:21.11
jessievalle
That's fine. Your kids could do it online and no big deal. Um I Just yeah, there's a lot of possibilities on what your kids could do with Canva if they're the creative type.

08:29.67
Angela
Yeah, yeah, and I'm sure they would have a blast but just like we did with paint Microsoft paint when we were not that young because I didn't have a computer with wert with windows on it when I sat young. But.

08:38.29
jessievalle
Oh gosh that was the best. Oh exactly? Yeah I know right? we were teenagers and we thought paint would so cool.

08:47.19
Angela
You know a little bit older when we were you know teenagers and had Microsoft paint. Yes.

08:58.22
jessievalle
Um, another thing is you could actually have your kids learn a skill now I think about it. My daughter even talks about how they use Chromebooks in school all the time.

09:03.11
Angela
Yeah.

09:11.75
Angela
Um, yeah.

09:13.56
jessievalle
Like they use technology at school all the time. So it's okay to have them learn and use technology here at home too. So we're talking like we said the typing programs having them maybe research topics. They're interested in learning a new language learning coding. Um there are lots of.

09:20.88
Angela
Um.

09:28.83
Angela
Yes.

09:33.28
jessievalle
Kid friendly websites out there that either teach skills or educate aren't there a lot that do like a virtual museum tours.

09:40.64
Angela
Yeah, yeah, my kid. Yes, there are several that do virtual museums a lot of the like museum websites will do virtual museum tours or if you Google like virtual field trips for schools. Um.

09:57.17
jessievalle
Um, a.

09:57.81
Angela
They have those two my kids went on a couple field trips when they were doing virtual school over Covid they went to like State parks and stuff and got to tour different places in the state parks and they're very interactive is very cool. My kids really dug it.

10:06.44
jessievalle
Um, oh that's cool.

10:10.39
jessievalle
Yeah, yeah, another thing I tried the other day with my kids actually is I wanted us to because I I was also I just wanted to sit down and Read. So I thought Okay, how do I get the kids to sit down and read because if I say hey it's reading time grab a book I'm going to get. Um, yeah, But what I decided to do was okay, kids grab your tablets and then we each found a digital book.

10:31.30
Angela
I Don't want to do it.

10:41.87
jessievalle
Because I have my kindle so they think that I'm using an electronic device when I'm reading and and so it's like okay well we found books for each of the kids on their tablets and they were able to read well.

10:42.19
Angela
Um, yeah.

10:44.96
Angela
Right.

10:59.30
jessievalle
My son who's only for it's quotations read but he was able to use his finger flip through the pages and imagine the story himself and although I know there are audiobooks and things like that. But we just did he just did the pictures and then my daughter actually found like.

11:01.28
Angela
Right? yeah.

11:13.35
Angela
Um, yeah.

11:17.80
jessievalle
Ah, graphic novel. Ah it was minecraft themed I mean come on everything's minecraft these days but she was able to read this story on her tablet and guess what it wasn't a Youtube video it wasn't like.

11:19.74
Angela
Yeah, there's so much cool stuff. Yes.

11:32.31
Angela
Oh.

11:34.91
jessievalle
It was still reading. She had to read but it was still a topic that she enjoyed which honestly having digital books helps kids find topics and books they're more interested in faster. Do you remember back in the day we had to go to the library. We had to use you know the dewey decimal system.

11:49.89
Angela
Ah, yeah, the card catalog.

11:54.34
jessievalle
And yeah card catalog to try and hopefully find something we enjoy so much easier these days.

11:57.35
Angela
Yeah, yeah, and things weren't organized by topic then either I mean the nonfiction was but if you didn't know what the number was for the topic you were just kind of on your own.

12:03.37
jessievalle
A.

12:11.17
jessievalle
Um, yeah, so you know there are advantages to reading books you know to Italy these days. So.

12:17.87
Angela
Um, yeah, yeah, and some of the apps, especially for smaller kids like you said they will read to them but they also have little interactive pages some of them.

12:32.34
jessievalle
Um, ah yeah.

12:35.20
Angela
Which can be really cool or if you going back to the learning of skill real quick. There are things my kids have a thing called Adventure Academy where they can go to different like a great big building complex where they can go to different classrooms and.

12:37.87
jessievalle
Yeah.

12:55.20
Angela
Do stuff and go on little quests and they really dig that and then they accidentally learn stuff along the way.

12:58.26
jessievalle
Oh that's cool. Yeah I was oh heaven forbid. Ah I was also thinking about if your kid is old enough to try to cook. There are so many.

13:13.13
Angela
Yes.

13:16.10
jessievalle
So many apps or websites or even if your kid hops on Youtube to watch an educational video. It's you know they could. You could say something like you know what guys you're in charge for lunch today make me lunch and they have to watch a video follow the steps figure it out.

13:20.71
Angela
Um, my ah.

13:31.43
Angela
Yeah.

13:33.15
jessievalle
I Mean these are things that are not only teaching life skills but keeping them busy while you work over holiday break.

13:36.38
Angela
Yeah, a couple years ago when my oldest was probably ten or eleven she spent a whole summer cooking. She made new things every she made cloud bread and she learned how to make pancakes and grilled different kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches. And all kinds of stuff and she still enjoys cooking but like that was her thing every day she found a new recipe and she tried it out. Um, or if we didn't have the ingredients. She'd like put them on the grocery list for the next grocery shop and I'd bring them home and she'd try it out like.

13:54.66
jessievalle
Who.

14:05.43
jessievalle
Oh I Love that.

14:10.10
Angela
Yeah, and holidays a lot of us do cooking over the holidays. Kids can help out with that like they love to help out with that mashed potatoes mix batter crack eggs like.

14:16.10
jessievalle
Um, yeah, yeah I was making chili the other day and my four year old I would like. Get the ingredients on the measuring spoon and hand it to him and he'd dump it in the bowl like even something as simple as chilly like it's I measure he dumps and he's perfectly happy, but.

14:31.78
Angela
Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can help out. Yeah.

14:43.11
jessievalle
Let's be honest, it's holiday season. So I'm sure there's lots of cookies going around. Well yeah, let them decorate cookies. Um, but anyway so I'm sure there are a lot more things that you could use technology.

14:45.32
Angela
Yes, lots case, let them decorate cookies.

15:02.40
jessievalle
To help enrich your kids and keep them busy over the holiday break. So I don't want to completely get rid of it and say no, you cannot do electronics I think there are ways that we can also integrate electronics in a productive way.

15:04.37
Angela
Ah, her.

15:06.22
Angela
Yeah.

15:14.94
Angela
Yeah.

15:22.42
jessievalle
Now Of course I'm going to give my kids plenty of time to do whatever they want to do watch the ridiculous minecraft videos or um, whatever in play their video games or as my daughter likes to do sit there and watch minecraft on her tablet while playing minecraft on her device.

15:22.69
Angela
Um, yeah, um, oh yeah.

15:37.23
Angela
Yes, while playing minecraft while having something on the Youtube. Yes, yeah yeah I the other day I had i.

15:41.10
jessievalle
I'm I'm I'm exactly putting a stop to that I'm like pick one either. You're watching or you're playing I don't like this doing both. Ah.

15:54.50
Angela
My kids had like cartoons on the Tv but then they had their Chromebooks. They had Youtube on and then they were playing minecraft on their phones and I was like no no like two devices max.

16:08.41
jessievalle
Ah, we haven't gotten to the 3 devices yet. That's pretty extreme actually impressive.

16:13.41
Angela
It really was I was like do you even are you and paying attention to any like how do you? Ah I have a hard time with 2 screens on my computer when I'm doing 1 thing let alone having 3 devices.

16:19.00
jessievalle
Um, ah yeah, although I will say that sometimes if you have like a video playing. It's almost like a podcast right? like you're listening to it. But then you're playing I guess I can get behind that. But.

16:31.67
Angela
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

16:36.68
jessievalle
Anyway, so if you have any ideas or something productive that you have your kids do over the holiday break. Please let us know on Instagram is where we are hanging out at marketing mom's podcast. Come let us know we're very interested.

16:49.70
Angela
Hanging out.

16:54.62
jessievalle
In in what you do because we are all about taking ideas from other people realistically what you are actually doing so hit us up over there and let us know what's going on so and to tease a little bit next week we're heading into.

16:58.70
Angela
Yes, learning from each other. Um.

17:11.70
Angela
Um, yes.

17:13.89
jessievalle
Ah, very big topic heading into the new year there might be a few shifts coming to the podcast. So be sure to tune in next week when we will tell you more about it until then.