I thought I’d give an update... it’s been a while! My son went back to in-person school, so I could get rid of the technology without causing kindergarten truancy. So, I did a huge purge. HUGE. We have one speaker left and my bare bones work setup.

After a couple weeks his brain went back to normal. He calmed down and started to play like a kid again. His teachers were amazing. Being with kids all day was exactly what he needed. He is so so much happier.

I bought a set of encyclopedias so we could learn together without pulling out screens. Old school!

He’s still a hacker but we’re channeling that into building hydraulic arms. Creating mazes. Cardboard structures. And lots and lots of reading. Now that he reads he can mostly do @kiwico_inc tinker crates by himself.

Oh and we designed a toy box with holes for the tiny toys and legos to fall through into drawers below so we could just dump all the toys in and it would sort itself. The test runs were fun.

Now he earns computer time in 5 minute increments for things like doing something the first time he’s asked. But he’s honestly more excited for the engineering projects that are physical. Or origami. Or playdoh. Kid stuff. Like it should be.

He still loves computers. He asked me to teach him Java. He also cried when I “wouldn’t” install Xcode on his pixelbook 😂 He’s just balanced it out with a love of a lot of other things too.

I’m so grateful to everyone for getting vaccinated. My baby really REALLY needed to go back to school.

Me: I’m so glad 7yo has given up hacking 7yo: I made it so if you say my teacher’s name to Siri on the school computer she turns off Bluetooth and sets the screen brightness to zero. Me: I’m so glad he’s given up hacking at home. 7yo: say “<name> is here!” to your Siri. Me: shit

These days he’s mostly channeling this energy for good. He’s reading a JS book @sarah_edo lent me and quizzes me on how JS vars work. 😂 He loves it when I make a mistake.