Our electricity monitoring device has opened our eyes to how we can save on our elecricity, since we have had this moniter it has made us look at the electricity we use and how we can reduce the amount of electricity we use as a family. Such as not leaving lights on and the computer or in Kieran's case Playstation 3. In the past we have been ignorant at the fact of cutting electricity and just moaned when the bill arrived by saying HOW Much!! But the moniter makes us aware of the electricty we use and it is good to see the cost of our electrcity bill coming down.

People can see our device, at http://dehems.com and by logging in using the user name Digital_Birmingham and the password skye15. They will be able to find what we are saving at the moment which is over £35 per month and only contributing 4.11 kg of carbon compared to a local average of 13.88 kg. So we are doing very well as a family. Its great for working out what devices in your home use electricity and how much they use. Just look at the dial...then switch it off...and see what the saving is.

We are cutting down on paper by having online billing which is is excellent. We have saved almost 20 sheets of paper a month and saved about £5 per month in my bills (Telecom, Virgin, Bank, British Gas, Business) by subscribing to online billing. I must admit though I do miss a full letterbox!!

BT has given us a Green Phone. The new handsets have power units designed specifically to consume around half the power of previous units, which the company says will not only reduce electricity costs for consumers but also contribute "significantly" to cutting Carbon Dioxide emissions. We have even persuaded my parents to use the Green Phone and that is progress.

We are coming to the end of our Digital Journey, with just a couple more projects to do

I would like to thank BT for the great stuff thet have sent us to try out which we are still having fun with.

The Birmingham Mail and Graham Young who is fantastic at his Job and certainly knows his stuff, Simon said it is just a shame that he supports the wrong football team.

Birmingham Digital for all the sorting out of each month of our Digital Journey and all their hard work behind the scences that has helped us enjoy tasks set.

Mike Farmer who works along side Digital Birmingham, he has become a good friend to Me, Simon, Sophie and Kieran and we will miss him after the twelve months is up. He has been with us every week and very patient with us, as I think we have been hard work sometimes. Mike you are a great person and we want to thank you for all what you have shown us, but I am afraid we have a little longer to go yet. Sophie especially enjoyed her time with Mike at Ackers on the dry ski slope.

We are on the last legs of our 12 months now with perhaps one or two months to go. By then we would have hoped to set up Simons advertising which Mike and Simon are doing at the moment. We will report on our final projects and how our life has changed since becoming the Digital Family of Birmingham 08/09

My mom was a little weary about using a computer, plus it was something that as never interested her. She said she was not very confident and computer using was something of the unknown and she had always backed away from learning the computer and surfing the net. It was not until we won the competition with the Birmingham Mail, BT and Birmingham Digital and my mom was asked to give the net a try. Since then she has found it has opened up a whole new experience for her.

My mom stopped at my Brother's for a while in London to look after her Daughter In Law after she was involved in a car accident. My mom and her Daughter In Law decided to look at my mom's family tree tracing my mom's father and mother's side of the family. They found out that my moms pre married name had been in the family for 100 years. My mom's mother's side was more interesting to trace because mom's mother had not known her mother and lived with her dad and step-mom, it was found that her real mom had died when she was only two years old. My mom and her Daughter in Law has since gone back to the 1870's.

My mom has found this very interesting especially finding out what kind of jobs people did all those years ago. Mom said the internet has given her a bigger insight into finding out information, and has been doing this in her own time and spending time with Sophie.

My mom is also interested in garden design and has even been on the web looking at how to design her own back garden, different types of plants and looking at prices of greenhouse's which she is considering buying.

Mom said this has been a whole new experience for her which she has enjoyed and has acquired a new confidence in herself which she thought she would never have with computers and digital technology. She said she thought she was too old to learn new tricks, but she now says you are never too old and feels she has opened a new chapter in her life.

Sophie has helped her Nan browse the net and is very patient with her, and explained everything well to help her Nan understand. Sophie to has become interested in tracing the family tree, so it has become a family affair through the generations.

Following a discussion about advertising on line, I must say after meeting Dave Hart from Digital Birmingham and discussing points on advertising on-line I am quite excited about setting myself up. I have taken photos of some of my jobs before and after shots to perhaps put on my advertising web page.

We also used 'Twitter' to ask peoples views on builders and what they thought about builders advertising on line, we had a good response and 'Twitter' is a great fast way to communicate and pass on comments.

Kieran is looking forward to a photoshoot tomorrow 6th May 09, with the Birmingham Mail for an article about ICT in Kieran's school Hollywood Primary School.

Since we started this journey as the Digital Family, Kieran was only interested in computer games that were play games rather than learning games. Kieran would lose interest if I told him I was putting in a learning disc into the PC. That was until we were told about a site called matheletics, this site is very competitive and Kieran enjoys the challenge of playing simple to hard questions on math's and competing with other children from around the world. As Kieran is very competitive this site is perfect it adds excitement to learning and what Kieran does not realise he is learning math's but having fun to and the more he plays the quicker he is getting at speed on answering math's questions.

For instance Kieran was playing with children from Australia and Canada the weekend competing for his bronze award. These websites are perfect and very clever for learning and keeping the enthusiasm going among children.

We were given a booklet on the Birmingham Grid for Learning www.bgfl.org this website is full of web links to Key stage 1,2, 3 & 4 plus many more. This website www.bgfl.org I think every parent should keep it in their favorites.

We were given a BT Freestyle 750 Digital Cordless Handset plus answering machine.

This was a great gift from BT but as we have a BT phone very similar we decided to give this phone to my parents.

This phone was so ideal for them the numbers to press are large enough for them to see without using their glasses to dial. They are so pleased with this telephone and said how easy it is to use.

This month we are going to be looking at ways Simon can advertise his business online.
We have never done anything like this before.

We generally do not advertise as Simon gets his work by word of mouth so there has never been any reason why we should advertise.

We are going to give it a go, we are unsure how this will work or if we would generate work from advertising online.

Simon's attitude is very negative about advertising, as he sees it as you get a lot of time waster's. He thinks people prefer to hear about you by word of mouth and on how relaible you have been. We will wait and see what response we do get if any.

We have just installed a current cost moniter to help us reduce our elctricity costs.

It is simple to install, you have a meter which plugs into an electric socket and it them wirelessly connects to a measuring device which fits onto the wall near the electricity meter. There is a bit if difficulty at one point where you have to get the two devices to 'talk' to each other.

The device shows you how much electricity we are using, 429 watts at the moment and as you switch off devices it goes down and down. It also gives you a simple block diagram on how much electrcity you used on the previous day.

Even better we plugged the box into our BT router and it then registered on the Dehams website to see our electricity consumption online. On the site you can see lots of graphs and find out lots more about your electricity usage.

For my birthday I want either a PS3 or X-Box which is the best one

My friends say PS3 other friends say X-box

Kieran Locke

More super pictures of skiing. I had mishap when I broke my ski in half, when I went down
a hill and crashed into a wall of snow!!!!!!

I had a great time but by the end of the week I felt as if I was sleep walking, with lack of sleep.