February 2009 Archives

This is a photograph i took with my bt camera on my recent skiing trip to Italy. It was a great experience, it was crazy there was snow on the ground but it was brilliant sunshine. I did some great skiing it was almost as good as skiing at ackers!
More photos soon.

I am pleased to say that I am slowly but surely becoming more digital.

I have recently placed two orders off the internet, which I would never have done before as I was unsure of how safe the sites are. I now know what to look for to see if the site is protected. I have saved money ordering from the net especially on a Helly Hanson Jacket I ordered for Kieran, I saved £30 to the shop prices.

I look up football scores and write ups about Kieran's football team every week on the internet. I have used the internet for road directions and post codes which I had never done before.

Last weekend I took Kieran's PSP to watch Kieran's football team (Rubery Juniors) play and used the video to record Kieran playing football. It was great to use the sony PSP to video for a change rather than playing the games on it plus the PSP was so easy to use. I feel I am now beginning to bring myself up to date with these new gadgets and internet use. Even doing this blog is something I would never have done before.

Myself and Simon still have mixed views on internet safety with Sophie and Kieran. We are still not convinced with Face book and have concerns over MSN. We do not see everything that Sophie and Kieran say on MSN behind their closed bedroom doors. We have concerns also on the slang Sophie and Kieran use on MSN and how this effects their spelling, it is not only the use of sites like MSN but also texting on mobiles. We find that the kids would rather shortcut a word than write out in full.

Sophie is aware of the dangers of internet use and we have also explained why we have our concerns on chat sites. Sophie has over 300 contacts on MSN and we know for sure she does not have 300 friends. Sophie said if she is worried about someone who chats to her or if someone asks too many questions she will put a block on them, and her friends do the same. Sophie said she has over 300 contacts because her friends have introduced her to their friends.

Kieran opened an account on Face book without our consent, when we found out we told him we were not happy and why we were not happy. We explained he should not set up chat sites without our knowledge. Kieran did understand and as since cancelled his Facebook account. Kieran is aware of the dangers of internet use and he is sensible not to set up accounts on sites which ask for our address and telephone number.Kieran has used some great free kids websites to play games on such as www.clubpenguin.com. This is a great fun website and requests parental permission from parents e-mail before they can use the site, which is great because we have given our consent for Kieran to use the site and have looked into the website to see what it is about.

Recently we have set up an account on a chat site called Twitters, we are hoping to use this site when Sophie is skiing so we can communicate with her. You can also introduce friends to follow you and chat to you. We will be learning more about this site over the next few weeks. ,

I had a fantastic morning at Ackers in Small Heath on Sunday 1st February.

I went along with Mike from Digital Birmingham and my mom and had a private lesson with Manager Mark Scott on the Ackers dry ski slope. Mark was so nice he explained what I should do on the slope, on bending correctly and how to get myself back up when I fell.
Mark gave me good encouragement and I was very confident, within the half hour lesson I starting at the bottom and by the end of the lesson I came down from the top slope. Mom did actually find it funny when I fell over, but she was so pleased how well I had done.

This was a great experience Ackers is such a cool place with plenty to do. My skiing trip is less than two weeks away now and I feel much more confident after my lesson at Ackers.
I will miss home, but I will take plenty of pictures.