All parents rest easier, knowing they’ve got their own in-house geek squad.
After 1st grade or so, kids know more about computers than their moms and dads can hope to learn in a lifetime.
These skills come in handy when navigating the three remotes it takes to make the TV work, or negotiating the keypad of the microwave.
Got a problem with your router? Just holler for your nearest offspring–who will roll his eyes with exasperation, poke a couple keys and voila! You’re back in business.
Given the high-tech nature of today’s playthings, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that companies now are marketing “kits” to make the no-tech object pictured here.
“Just follow these easy directions,” says the packaging for the Make it Yourself Rubber Band Ball ($5, thepencilgrip.com). “Continue to add bands until desired size is accomplished.”
This rubber band ball kit is marketed as an educational toy. “Stimulates both eye-hand coordination and visual sequencing in children. Fun to throw and catch . . . . “
It’s come to this: Today’s youth can download ringtones to their cell phone faster than you can say “Def Jam.” They’re watching movies on their laptops the same day they hit the theaters. But they need a kit and an instruction manual to make a ball out of rubber bands.
If the package instructions alone are not explicit enough, the kids can use their computer skills to locate a much more detailed online how-to (wikihow.com).
There, they’ll find five steps to making the ball, 23 additional “tips” (“Keep saving rubber bands wherever you find them”) and six “warnings” (“Be careful, as rubber bands can snap back and hit you”).
Once done with this process, then what? You can “throw” this spherical object and someone will “catch” it.
Sounds like fun, but how would a kid learn to do that? Well, he could type “how to play catch” into the search engine of his computer.
Or, he could just ask his parents.
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— Kids are embracing high tech at younger ages. One study says children begin playing with computers at 5, CDs and DVD players around 6 and music players around 8.
— The world’s largest rubber band ball weighs 4,594 pounds. This monster, by Steve Milton, of Eugene, Ore., broke the previous world record of 3,120 pounds in 2006.
Source: spokesmanreview.com/business/story; rechargermag.com
Read senior correspondent Ellen Warren’s shopping adviser column every Thursday in the Tribune’s At Play section and join the conversation at chicagotribune.com/ellen. shopellen@tribune.com
