Relaxing Summer? Yes!

I've had plans all laid out around the time of the time of Teenage Boy's graduation we "remodeled" the backyard, making way for this very quiet corner to read in or work on the computer.  I'm about two weeks into summer and I've only had the time to sit in that chair twice-yes, exactly twice.  A positive like myself might say "Well, at least you've had the opportunity to recline elegantly twice!"  Right.  But I want to do it every day!

I have tended my garden and spruced up other areas of our yard.   You can see three squash plants, lettuce,

three tomato plants, and five basil plants growing there.  

 We've attended a fabulously gorgeous wedding of a friend. The wedding and reception took place at a local bed and breakfast, which was a perfect setting for this down-to-earth young couple.  They planted a bonsai tree together during the ceremony.  Ahh, it was lovely.

I'm taking two classes for re-licensure this summer and one is an on-line course about Personal Learning Networks (PLN's).  We've learned about diigo, twitter, RSS Feeds, and Google Readers, all of which are to help us set up a community of "friends" we can learn together with.  I already had experience with each of these social networking tools but I'm sure to learn more  as we keep exploring.  Even as we set them up I can't help but wonder about the effects of reaching out to a cyber-community instead of real people in our schools, neighbors on our own blocks, and retailers in our own local stores.

  I discovered this article through another classmate about the Waldorf school sans any technology at all.  Hmmm. I have to admit I love the idea of waiting to give youngsters any technology at all until middle or high school and this article explains it perfectly.  My own daughter reaches for my school issued tablet like it's a drug and wishes to play with that more than anything. I think it saps her creativeity just having it in the house.  She spends all day playing with the idea that she'll later be able to get her hand on the tablet for a few tries at Temple Run to beat her "top" score.

What say you?  Should we leave technology for later or is an Apple iPad the perfect learning tool for young students?