TechSavvy Parenting: Think Big & Go Small!

In our family, everyone is some level of techno-geek, even the baby! Through my job at the local cable company, we were able to purchase a brand new Dell that has us all drooling. It's fantastic, wide, flat screen, lovely tower, wireless mouse and keyboard, HUGE hard drive, media capabilities...we love it. It's for my partner Diva, but we all love it.

We have MP3 players, cable, PS2 and PS3. Our elder daughter has a laptop and her brothers only await desk space and peripherals to have access to their own systems.

Needless to say, we are indeed a highly technologically entrenched family.

Now our smallest child, Luna, is getting the best of all worlds. She's growing up gaming with me & her dad and sibs. She even has her own system, lucky duck. She has her own movies that are really the only thing that gets play in our DVD player. She has an MP3 Player and Diva has toyed with options to create a teddy-speaker for it.

She also has her own web sites she goes to on Mommy's computer.

Diva had a nice set of headphones so little miss could play in peace while she caught up on her DVR. Problem: like most general, mass market technology & accessories, they're built for an adult head, so they keep falling off.

Resourceful as ever, Diva found a child-sized pair of headphones at eBay. They are orange and look like a tiger's head. She nabbed them, and they fit perfectly!

While awaiting their arrival, she got to thinking. Luna has to use the mouse to play a lot of her games. Even the back up wired mouse is adult-size, three button Dell issue. As you can imagine, Luna's tiny fingers always hit the wrong button and interrupted her moment of online bliss.

So Diva dug around and found -lo and behold! - a matching mouse! The tiger's ears are the right and left click buttons.

It's cute as can be and fits that little hand perfectly. The important part, of course, is that it trains Luna's hand to use a mouse without interfering with her internet activities.

So now, listening to her tunes, or cruising through sesamestreet.com. Luna has her mouse, her headphones, and all is right in her world.

Along with the headphones, Diva got an extension cord, so Luna can lay down on the bed to watch her movies or listen to tunes stored on the computer!

It's a perfect fit all the way around.