I have children who love gadgets. They try their best to combine my reading requirements and their desire for electronics by asking for kindles and nooks and telling me that they will want to read even MORE if they can read on an e-reader. That may be true. However, with the exception of one child, I don’t really have a problem with their level of reading; my kids already read LOTS of books.

By the way, I like the idea of interactive books that include photography, art, short videos, interviews with authors, and the like. Francis Chan attempted this interaction with Crazy Love and Forgotten God, but the physical book only had urls to youtube videos and articles he published in other places. Several of our reference books are “internet-linked” to articles, videos, and learning games as well. I am looking forward to a more seamless book and visual media experience.

Back to the point, Noah did not want to take his spelling test today. That is, until I suggested, “You could take your test on the iPad…”

“Let’s do spelling!” he replied, eagerly. Tapping a screen is a great motivator, I guess? Paper and pencil are so 2009.

Not once did he ask me if this is the last one. He happily spelled each word. Then, when he finished, I asked him to email it to me. He LOVED that part. I think that was his first email. I printed, graded, and returned it to him to add to his Language Arts notebook. But not before he slapped a “Great job!” sticker on it. Affirmation stickers never go out of style.