Google tools for parents and breathing space

What's Google got to do with Spain you ask? Everything.

Keeping in touch and staying in the loop is about keeping your sanity when you're on the road and then it occurred to me that being a parent in the U.S. is a bit like being on the road. All the time.

One observation about coming home is just how BUSY life is here.  Ack! 

To be sure, we were in a quasi-vacation state during the trip but the pace of life here is palpably different, frenetic to sum it up in a word. 

It hasn't felt like this. . .yet. 

Photo by Richard C. Kelsey

I'd say it did before the trip which was one of the reasons we went.

"Unbearable!" is what Tony pronounced it. I met Tony in Seville when we rented her apartment. A Spaniard, she had two children in the U.S. before moving back to Spain with her jovial husband Mark.  She recalled the driving, the meetings, the activities, the isolation as if it were yesterday and the sense of misery that had gone with it. Do you feel that way?

Here are some tools I've been enjoying since we came home. Why? They help to find treasures.

 For the kids and for me. They make me feel like I'm harnessing the web instead of drowning in it.

1.  Google Images

I've been reading with Baby-O and using Google Images to enliven our read. 

Yesterday she pointed out a Python in a book. I told her they lived in trees (and not near here!) and then opened up the laptop.

credited here

We looked at probably 30 different images and spoke about how pythons came in different colors and sizes.

Photo by Trisha Shears, Creative Commons sharer super-star!

Then Baby-O pointed at a platypus in her book and asked 'What's that?'

Photo by TwoWings

Part duck, part otter, part beaver my love. Thanks Google images!

J's always had a fascination with cryptids. 

(a cryptid (from the Greek "κρύπτω" (krypto) meaning "hide") is a creature or plant whose existence has been suggested but that is unrecognized by a scientific consensus, and whose existence is moreover often regarded as highly unlikely.- Thanks Wikipedia for defining this 'fringe science' term)

J's had a love affair with the Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine for as long as I can remember. Last night we used Google Images and You Tube to bring it alive. He studied the jaw many times over.

This YouTube video of Ben, the world's last known Tasmanian Tiger, is well, everything you imagine it might be.

We talked about extinction and dingoes. He pulled out one of his favorite books and with great animation and fervor found the part where the author says perhaps the Tasmanian Tiger may still be alive. The last thing he said before he went to bed was, "Mom. I believe they are still alive."

2.  Google's Fast Flip/ UPDATE: now defunct. Hands down: Flipboard--- this is a fantastic creation.

Fast Flip was launched in 2009 and is still in the Google Labs. It's a news aggregator that is supposed to mirror the flipping of microfiche to discover and share news articles. What I like about it (and yes, there are many aggregators out now- (do tell if you have a favorite) is that Google shares the ad revenue with the news sources (NYTimes, BBC, Reuters, Christian Science Monitor, Fast Company to name a few). I use Fast Flip because it seems like one small way to support good journalism.

It led me to this.

A great blog post about vintage children's science books. That then led me to a blog called vintage kids' books my kid loves,   What a find! Visiting is almost as good as discovering a great find at. . .fill in the blank. 

3. Yesterday Google launched Think Quarterly. 

Read it. Let your older kids read it.

Google describes the quarterly online magazine as, "a breathing place in a busy world". The first issue is dedicated to the world of data and its impact on business, it'll remain to be seen if they can revolutionize magazine content the way they did searching- the jury is still out.

 Here is what I plan to share with the kids in the morning from the first issue.

We used to be calorie poor and now the problem is obesity. We used to be data poor, now the problem is data obesity.”

That's Hal Varian, Chief Economist for Google. He's the one who said in 2009 that "statistician will be the 'sexy' job in ten years". Gigi showed a lot of interest in different fields on the trip, as an ex-headhunter I love profiling different specialties. 

Here's the other quote from the magazine that I plan to share.

"We were brought up to believe more data was good, and that's no longer true"

- Guy Laurence, CEO Vodafone UK

How can we help our kids thrive in the world that awaits them? How do we create more breathing space for them. . .for their parents?

"But in a world of accelerating change, we all need time to reflect. Think Quarterly is a breathing space in a busy world. It's a place to take time out and consider what's happening and why it matters," -Matt Brittin, Managing Director UK & Ireland Operations, Google