This weekend I have had my 12 year old grand-daughter with me and she brought some homework with her again because the last time she came and I helped her, she got the highest marks in the class! Two weeks ago her homework was about digestion and because I specialised in gastro-enterology for a while when I was nursing, I was able to go into a lot of detail for her and explain it with the help of a diagram or two. She complimented me by saying that I made it much more interesting than her teacher and I had also told her some things the teacher didn't mention. With the information that I gave her she was able to write her short essay, then I 'proof' read it to make sure that she had everything in the right order.
This time she had two small projects to do. For the first, she had to design a poster for the NHS by selecting two subjects with advice for people to follow in order to prevent the spread of various infections or contagious diseases and the second was about batik. Yes, I did have a bash at this in the sixties along with the tie dyeing!
Again we discussed a lot of possibilities for the poster and she noted down everything I knew about the craft of batik. Then I agreed to let her use my computer so that she could do the work on that rather than doing it all by hand because it would be quicker. I left her to it for a half hour or so while I did a few things in the kitchen and when I returned, she had already got a fair way with both projects. I gave her some suggestions and she showed me how to use the internet to search for things and then how to copy and paste etc.
The end results for both her subjects were very impressive and quite different to what I would have done when I was her age because mine would have all been hand written and drawn but hers look far more professional being done on a computer.
We both get a lot out of these sessions but I don't think I'm learning from her as quickly as she learns from me. To her a computer is an extension of her school books and pens but to me it's still a complete mystery, but I'm determined to get it!
You are getting the hang of the computer, look at you blogging and emailing! I don't understand them sometimes, but if pressing buttons and clicking doesn't work, then I have to resort to taking it to "computer guy" who generally sorts it out!
ReplyDelete