As a happy parent of four, I am always worried about exposing my kids to excess amounts of anything. Fifty years of observation have taught me that too much of one thing, depending on what it is, is probably damaging to your health. I was against the idea of my kids having mobile devices, and I should have been. I see children (a lot that might even be in primary school) gawking at their cell phones for prolonged periods of time, unconscious to the real world. Children should be going out, witnessing God's beauty, playing catch, and just experiencing life. The quantities of technology our children are being constantly bombarded with every hour is kind of frightening.

With my own kids, I limit them to one hours every day on the TV, one hours every day on the Mac(with school work as an exemption) and one hours every day for Playstation. Many would agree these restrictions are definitely reasonable. My sons, though, don't. When they started high school, they began observing their peers with iPhones. Obviously, they soon were begging me to get them smart phones of their own. I was originally skeptical of the idea. New cells are like mini PCs, and I predicted they would spend all day goofing around with them.

My view began to adjust when my sons informed me about a lot of the positive features of phones and the internet. They told me how computers can be used for collaborative note taking, tutoring, electronic textbooks, and other things. When was time for my children to start their SAT prep, they revealed that there are plenty of iPad test prep apps. Who could have imagined an iPad could be a tool for test prep? I said to my kids that I would get them cells, and if they ranked above a twenty on their SATs, they would be able to still have them and I could pay for their service through college. They accepted, and purchased an program called Watermelon express. I would very much suggest it to all the students out there. I'm proud to report that my boys actually got way above their score limit, and I have one gigantic cell phone payment!