We have just discovered there is a big world out there as far as the internet is concerned.
We have been told to explore booking holidays online. 'WOW' this is a vast area

First as a family we sat down to actually decide where we would like to go on holiday, we normally go to Spain, but last year we had a week in Jersey which we fully enjoyed. Kieran does not like flying, so Spain and Jersey are ideal places for us to go.

We went on various websites and each of us had a go at looking at different web sites such as 'lastminute.com'. We had a game to see who could find the best deal. Sophie won as she can be quite competitive.

We found some great deals away for a family for a week, half board and good flight times. We like to take out a holiday package so the transfers run quite smoothly. After hours of exploring the net we came to the decision before we confused ourselves anymore further of prices and places to go, that we would like to go back to Jersey. We enjoyed the Hotel we stopped in last year the flight was very short and the airport procedure ran so smoothly and most of all Kieran enjoyed the flight and holiday.

We found out that we could email the Hotel direct and they could sort out a package deal for the family, we had a quote saving over £400 compared to last years price, which we were amazed at. So we may go ahead and book this holiday in the near distant future.

We have also been shown how to set up BT's Digital Vault this enables you to upload and store photos while we are away without taking up to much space on our PC hard drive - and would also allow our family to view them too to see what we are up to. This is a good facility as Sophie and Kieran are close to their nan and grandad and like to stay in touch. A plus side for us as we only go away once a year the standard facility for BT's Digital Vault is free, so thats even better for us and the step by step guide is easy to use, even for Sophie and KIeran's Nan and Grandad to use.

Sophie is getting a little jet-setter at the moment her next school trip is to Paris, and then a little closer to home Brean caravan park with her netball team. Maybe she will be adding Jersey to her list for the year, she is costing us a small fortune!!!

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.

I have received a BT TOGO ANYWHERE, this is fantastic.

This phone enables me to email and use the internet at home when I am in my bedroom or when I am out and about with my friends. There is unlimited downloads at broadband speed with WiFi inside and outside my home. I am also happy about the 10mb download allowance. I get 50 minutes calls,and 50 free texts any network any time which will be good when I am contacting home and my friends. I am also pleased that there is a built in mp3 player which I have always wanted.

I will be taking this BT TOGO ANYWHERE on holiday skiing in February so I can email home and send my family pictures of me skiing.

The good thing is I can sit in my bed on MSN on this phone instead of having to sit at a computer talking to my friends. For a small phone it offers so much I am really going to enjoy using it.

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We had a great morning in Birmingham City Centre today.

Myself Sophie and Kieran were out and about testing out Sophies mobile phone and Kierans Sony PSP. We logged onto the Birmingham Fiz which is a free internet information zone around Birmingham while we were actually out and about walking around Birmingham.

Kieran looked up whats on at the cinema and Sophie looked up shopping so we set off in the direction of the Bull Ring to do some shopping. We were lucky to be there while the German Market was in full swing and Sophie and Kieran ordered themselves chocolate doughnuts which were very sweet but nice.

Sophie looked up on the Birmingham Fiz site, information I needed to find out about the Birmingham Art Gallery, Sophie also used the web site to look to see if there would be snow for Christmas Day (sadly no snow).

When we won this competition to be part of Birmingham's Digital Family as a family we were unaware of what is actually on offer around Birmingham for free. We did not know that there were free internet zones such as the Birmingham Fiz available. The good thing about these free information zones you can use the sites while on the move without having to stay in one place.

Sophie would like a new pay as you go mobile for christmas and with the free internet zones available around Birmingham City Centre, Sophie does not have to worry about using up all her credit on internet use.

It was a fun morning and we had fun testing out the mobile and PSP while out and about around Birmingham and we will definitely use this free service that is available for internet users again.

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This week we are going to try on-line shopping

This is not something we are entirely happy about, we have never shopped this way before, and we are both very reluctant on giving our credit card details out over the net.

We have been told which sites are safe to use and what to look out for, but is this entirely data protection friendly???

We will just have to wait and see, it may be the start of things to come for us as a family.
A way of saving money, using it to pay our bills and more convenient and less stressful.
But will we miss our weekly shopping trip??

Kieran is now on MSN and has been set up with his own username.

This has caused us as parents some concerns on how children use MSN.

One incident Kieran told my parents who were looking after him, that he was going to his friends house over the road from where we live, but when me and Simon got home from work and checked up on Kieran he was not over the road at his friends but many streets away. He had spoken to his friends on MSN and arranged with them to meet up with him, but did not tell us the truth on where he was going. We spoke to Kieran about dangers of walking the streets and that he must tell us the truth on where he is going, we explained he must not arrange meetings on MSN without our knowledge.

Having spoken also to one of my friends, she has also being shocked by what goes on with her daughter on MSN. She could not believe the language and talk a nine year old boy was sending to her daughter, she has now blocked this boy out so her daughter cannot talk to him.

To me and Simon MSN is not child friendly, we feel when a child reaches a young adult then this may be the time to use MSN, but for young naive children it can cause a few problems unless you watch over them every time they use the computer.

With my daughter Sophie, her friends have fallen out using MSN and use MSN to talk about each other, they also use it to argue amongst one another, so still at the ages of 13 they are still not sensible.

What we have seen of MSN we are not impressed it may not be your child but the other children your child maybe talking to. Our other concerns are they do not always know who they are talking to, it could be anyone. There is an element of danger on MSN with children who are not using MSN as they should be, but what is the right age??

I have been having fun on my Sony PSP, it has some great points such as

My sister has recorded me play football with my team Rubery Juniors.
I have been taking pictures of me and Sophie with the PSP webcam
I took a trip into Birmingham where I logged on to the Birmingham fiz and looked up my favourite football team Birmiingham City to see if they were winning.
I have now got Fifa08 on PSP game,the graphics are great it shows when the ball hits the ground water splashes, if it is a wet day and the football players faces are very clear.

Best of all the PSP is so easy to use and you can use the PSP from the palm of my hand and is light enough to carry and take anywhere.I take my Sony PSP everywhere I go now.