Big Updates for Wee Web

Wee Web is getting a major upgrade.

Over the last month, I have been upgrading Wee Web's infrastructure and adding automated testing at every level of the code base. My goal is to make Wee Web more robust, faster, more secure and easier to enhance with new features.

I apologize to anyone who has had problems with the site. I believe that we are past the worst of it now. However, if you have any problems at all or discover something out of place, please email help@wee-web.com to let me know.

Protecting Your Kids: Why Starting Early is Important

There is a lot of information online detailing many of the hazards kids and teens face online today. The breadth of the risk ranges from cyber bullying to solicitation and more. However, this realm of concern and precaution starts only when kids are online themselves (around 5 or so). What parents do beforehand matters because they not only run the risk of creating issue for their kids by their own behavior online, but they are also demonstrating to their children what proper online etiquette looks like. 

For more on this topic,  listen to  "Is Your Child Safe in the Digital Age: How to Share without Over Sharing," a Mom Talk Radio show on which I appeared as a guest!

-Cory Bronson

Mothering Methodologies

With all the conversation in reaction to Amy Chua's piece from the Wall Street Journal on why Chinese Mother are better than American Mothers, I find AnnMaria De Mars' outlook on parenting quite inspiring. Her general thesis: let a child find what they love, and their interest and passion will fuel their success. In her efforts to help her children find what ignites them, she realizes that there are stumbles along the way, and that is part of the course.

Chua's article, I found - as have many others - to be a rigid approach to parenting and teaching children. The true merit I found in it wasn't in any of her tactics, but the underlying premise of her parenting style - boundaries. While the boundaries she set up for her children were far too rigid for my liking (not allowing a 7-year-old to use the bathroom until she has mastered a piano piece), I think that staying true to boundaries one has set for their child is important, and is something that I find lacking in American culture, particularly with time management, family-time requirements, and limits to computer/games/texting etc. 

However, there is no Utopian approach to parenting, and most parents find new inspirations along the way. 

What have been your parenting inspirations?

-Cory Bronson

Why Children Need Unstructured Play

The New York Times published a fantastic article today, "Effort to Restore Children's Play Gains Momentum," about the importance of play on children, and the overwhelming lack of it in recent times.

I have always been a huge advocate for children's unstructured play time. What I found alarming was that unstructured play time is intentionally being removed from children's lives. The piece includes a story of a mother who petitioned to bring back recess to her son's elementary school but was turned down by both administration and parents because the "school officials were too worried about potential injuries, unruliness and valuable time lost from academic pursuits." Another mother remarked on the difference between her kindergarten classroom in 1985, and her son's classroom today, "[In 1985 my classroom] had a sandbox, blocks and toys. But [my son's] had a wall of computers and little desks. The article claims that children spend, on average, 7 hours and 38 minutes each day in front of a screen.

I just have to wonder, what is this doing to our kids? I remember building forts with pillows, catching frogs, dressing up in mismatched clothes from my grandparents' closets, making mud pies, and playing in make-believe worlds of my own creation. I know that that was vital to who I am today, how I see perceive or problem solve, and even on my ability to understand someone else's perspective and relate to them.

Newsweek published an article in July called "The Creativity Crisis," citing studies done on creativity levels and the frightening decline that researchers are seeing in kids, and later in adults. The article suggests that creativity has a huge correlation to lifetime accomplishments and that those with higher creativity quotients (CQ) grow up to be entrepreneurs, inventors, college presidents, authors, doctors, diplomats and software developers of society - i.e. the innovators. The article blames the diminished creativity on the number of hours in front of the TV or playing videogames as well as the lack of creativity development and nurture in the schools, "In effect, it's left to the luck of the draw who becomes creative: there's no concerted effort to nurture the creativity of all children."

The idea of raising a generation of children who aren't developing the skills to imagine, create, and "think outside the box" is a terrifying thought. The New York Times piece offered a number of suggestions for parents to help them engage, teach and nurture their children's imaginative play, and I encourage all parents to read it. Perhaps one of your New Years resolutions could be to go build a pillow fort!

Let us know how your kids play at @weeweb hashtag #pillowforts

-Cory Bronson

#Mamavation

I'm loving the Twitter trend I've been seeing now that it's 2011: #Mamavation (inspired by Mamavations, the site "changing families one mom at a time").  The hashtag #mamavation appears to be the public (i.e. Twitter) declaration of intended changes, resolutions, and motivations moms are putting forward for the new year.  

Of the many mom resolutions and New Year hopes I've seen, these were my favorite:

• Playing Nerf war w/the family today has burned calories ;) #mamavation @bookieboo 

• I took my new bike for a ride tonight. I got 1/2 a mile and then had to turn around. Baby steps, right? #mamavation @ninemoremonths 

• I just want a nap! #mamavation Zzzzzzzzzzz @pamelamkramer 

• Feeling lazy tonight. Greek yogurt for dinner. #mamavation @wildlifebio

• My goal: to look cute going INTO the gym and look a hot mes when I'm finished working out. #mamavation #missionaccomplished @2someonesmommy 

• Holy Batman my kids ate all their dinner and it was helathy for them ;) #mamavation @jamnsfld76 

• Okay, time to get up and move. I may have developed a combined case of skype and twitter butt. #mamavation @notimeMom 

• I just spanked that Wii into submission....#mamavation @MommaYoung 

• Okay, enough procrastinating. Must. Close. Laptop. Be back later! #Mamavation @notdiyheather

I'm a huge fan of resolutions, and offer my support to everyone who has goals and aspirations for the new year. May 2011 be a wonderful year for everyone! And my #mamavations? I suppose:

• Sleep more, eat more green foods, watch trash television only at the gym, keep dust bunnies at bay. #mamavation @corybronson

-Cory

IN THE NEWS: Jason Olim - Dad of the Month

 For the full story, visit Big City Moms

Our New Photo Uploader: Create Albums in a Single Click

We have launched a new photo uploader that lets you create an album with a single click. When you click on Add Photos, you immediately get access to the files on your computer. This uploader supports flash, gears and html5; if you don't have any of them, it will work in good old-fashioned html. Translation: it works on every computer. Enjoy it and please let us know if you have any problems.