As the A2K kids learn to read...

Reading along with interest!

Setanta has warned me that if Mo ever finds this site that I'm a total goner.

Maybe I'll just need a new identity at that point.

You two are in big trouble . . .

(After she met me, did the Sozlet know who i was here?)

A2K should clearly be banned in every piece of monitoring software on the planet.

In fact, maybe no one should read it....

Soz--

I'd fall back on the A2K rules--no members under the age of 13 except with direct, hands-on parental supervision.

After all, you don't supervise every single moment when she's talking with and playing with her friends? Family members love each other, but they also deserve privacy from each other.

A2K is a lot of fun--but it is fun for grownups, not for beginning readers.

You have entered a new room in the Parenthood Headquarters. Do you see shelf after shelf after shelf, each shelf chock-a-block with cans of worms and kettles of fish.

Hold your dominion.

I didn't face this from an early reader standpoint because I wasn't active online until the girls were somewhat older. They are aware of A2K and K was aware of the support site I visited regularly when she was having her difficulties. M was looking over my shoulder once when I was reading one of Kicky's posts - that was the end of that. Also, the girls are at the age when they don't want me looking over their shoulders either.

As sozlet gets a little older she might be upset at seeing some of the things that are here. Not because there is anything wrong with any of them, but because kids become very private. That's a few years further out than what you are asking about now though.

I think Noddy's advice on how to approach the near future is right on. Sozlet will be in kindergarten in the fall, it might be a good time to implement some private A2K time for yourself.

Setanta, yep, she often waves to you (i.e. Cleo) when she sees you.

That's the hardest part of it, I agree, is the transition -- she has been so much a part of the visual A2K experience (avatars, photos, smilies, etc.) and I've also frequently read things aloud that were about her or addressed to her or even just something that made me laugh and she asked "what's so funny?" So going from that to "hey, don't look" will take some explaining. I think I can manage it though. (Good ideas from Noddy on how to do so.)

Plus, as J_B indicates, rework my A2K time a bit.

Same here.

My son doesn't use my computer, so he doesn't see my e-mail or know how to log onto A2K. Very occasionally there is something here that I want him to see, and I invite him to look over my shoulder.

He has his own computer and plays a couple of online games. I don't watch over his shoulder but he is getting to the age where I will soon start checking his internet cache. (Puberty, dontcha know.) He is a good kid, and he's never given us any reason not to trust him. But that was recommended to parents of all children who use the internet by police who conducted a seminar on internet safety at my son's school this past year. Better safe than sorry, I guess.

Each of us around here has his/her own computer, and we don't use each other's. It's just a matter of respecting each other. We don't read each other's mail, e-mail, or eavesdrop on phone conversations, either. And we knock and ask permission before we open closed doors. It's all the same thing.

The older sozlet gets, the more privacy she will want. She probably wants some privacy with her friends when they come over, right? It's not too early to start teaching her that respecting others' privacy works both ways. You respect hers, she respects yours.

Everyone having his/ her own computer would certainly make things easier. We only have one (at home anyway, E.G. has a work laptop that he brings home sometimes). Down the road, this one will probably become sozlet's and I'll get a laptop, but right now it's just this one.

We already have a fair amount of computer rules in place -- she can't use the computer unless I'm in the room (although I'll sometimes get her set up with something that's OK and then wander in and out doing this and that), there are some photos I won't let her see here on A2K, etc., etc.

One thing I just remembered is that this computer (most do these days I think) has the ability to have completely private set-ups for different users; so for example I can have my computer all set up, with A2K up on the favorites bar etc., and then sign out and sign in sozlet, who has a completely different set-up, different favorites, parental controls, etc.

Have been meaning to do that for a while, this is another reason to do so.

Seconding Noddy's tips...."This is for grownups. I'll let you know if they say anything about you, but these are Mommy's friends. Now, go run & play, sweetheart!"

When I was a little girl, my mother (of 5 kids) had a circle of girlfriends who also had bunches of kids. The moms would get together frequently for "coffee." They would gather around someone's kitchen table, drink coffee, and have their chat session. I remember lots of conversation and laughter going on . . . but we (the kids) weren't allowed to sit around the table with them. We were shooed outside to play. Accordingly, the content of their adult conversations were restricted from being heard by our little prying ears.

I think the moms of yore would be absolutely mortified if their coffee time conversations around the kitchen table had been recorded and that their children could review those recordings years later. But, in a discussion board such as this one, our conversations are indeed recorded. As little soz grows older, learns to read, and becomes super computer sophisticated like all other children these days----she will be able to access your entire A2K posting history and review everything you said in every thread you participated in.

Is that a good thing? Maybe yes; maybe no. Perhaps now is a good time for A2K to review its archives policy. LOL

Yes! Different set-ups for different users, definitely!

(Hint: I gave my son my old computer when he was in 4th grade. That's about when he started needing it regularly for homework.)

Scary thought, indeed...

I've always written on here with the thought in the back of my head that anyone I know could read it at any time -- it may shade into tmi on occasion, but overall I don't think there is anything that would be absolutely mortifying for me if she read it.

I've been printing out sozlet stories (with names changed back to the real ones) every year, so she'll definitely at least be reading those, and that's fine. (Right now she still loves to hear about herself, but I know that as J_B says there will be a time when she's more private. That's part of why I haven't posted any pictures, I think -- while she knows who she is here and I know, nobody else does, so it's not like her friends will be Googling for something and come across it and know it's her.)

Right, and I've told the girls to treat their Xanga or MySpace accounts the same way.

My daughter now reads very well - I typically do not use A2K when my children are around or up. Working full time, I use the computer on my lunch break at work (like now) or after night time.

We also have a software called Razzel something like that. This software allows you set up different icons when you log on - kids can pick out a picture for theirs - with their name - depending on their age once logged onto Razzel they can only access certain websites.

my biggest concern is my cubs going to A2K while they're stoned and then spilling their beer into my keyboard....

Okay. That settles it.

Mo will not be learning how to read.