He's 15 months, and loves, LOVES to bang on the keyboard and operate the mouse. But he has an uncanny ability to hit important control characters. We need some SIMPLE software that renders the computer safe for him to use. Best would be basic typing software -- press a key, see the letter on screen. Any pointers? Bryce
When my boys were about one, I introduced them to computers with the Disney ''Winnie the Pooh - Baby'' cd-rom. Your little one bangs on the keyboard and the characters react. For instance, pooh dips his hand in various honeypots to find surprises. Or Tigger hides then appears from behind something. Your child can hit any key or series of keys (i.e. banging on the keyboard). It wasn't ''real time'' (at least on my computer), but the boys enjoyed it and felt they were doing something. I think it helps that the characters praise your child when they hit the keys. Montclair Mama Not a software recommendation, but a website: http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/
My son has loved these games from the time he was a year until now (3 years old)... there are simpler ones, where any key tickles elmo, or makes elmo hop out from behind a dresser, or alphabet games in which your child presses a letter and an object that starts with that letter appears. And there are more advanced ones about counting, drawing, spanish, etc. Lots and lots of games! anon
If you have a Mac, you can download a program called ''Baby Banger'' for free. I think you could search for it online. It makes sounds and has fun, colorful shapes come on the screen when the keyboard is used. It's a Mac only program though. We also have a spare keyboard around that's not hooked up to anything, and my son loves playing around with it. Mom of a Baby Banger
Can anyone recommend a fun/educational computer game for one year olds? My son loves to type on the keyboard and I have seen ''software for ''babies'' in stores. It's hard to choose - and hard to figure out if it's worth it. If you know of any worthwhile specific titles thanks for the advice. anon
My son started with Reader Rabbit for Baby &amp; Toddler, by The Learning Company. He loved it and so did we. He actually still loves it and he is almost 4 and has other software, but keeps coming back to play the familiar games he loves. kjmanuel My son really likes the games and stories on Nickjr.com and they are free, yea. They teach mouse skills, creativity, colors, counting, music concepts and more. The quality and educational content is really quite good. There are no ads on the kids site but parents have to go through ads to get to the kids page. A friend of mine likes Noggin's site, too. Check these sites out. Maybe you won't need to spend any money. Kristin
I'd like my son to learn to navigate the computer, and have wondered if there are good quality, educational games or what- have-you that are good for a 2-3 year old. I'm leery to get into this, as I don't want to encourage him to be glued to the thing. But I don't want to have my head in the sand either. What have people liked/disliked for their same-age kids? (And how have you learned about such resources?) Jenny
Check out www.superkids.com for detailed ratings. Helena There are a lot of games on the children's programs websites that are educational and fun. My 28 month old loves to play and I think they have more benefit than TV because they are interactive. We go to sesameworkshop.com, thewiggles.com, nickjr.com, and noggin.com. They all have many, many games to play, especially Sesame Street. Most of the games have to do with spelling, numbers and color identification. My daughter is especially fond of the Blue's Clues scavenger hunt with Joe. We have DSL so that might be more helpful than a dial up connection. - Rachael I don't see any reason to introduce a 2 or 3 year old to computers. I think they learn much more from playing with real objects, fantasy and role-playing, and picture books. We enthusiastically introduced child #1 to computers at an early age (maybe at about 4) and were proud of how quickly he picked up things like matching skills on the computer. By age 9, however, he had a serious addiction problem to the computer that we have been struggling with ever since. He is so good at using programs that he can circumvent any ''educational'' program to quickly gather all the ''prizes'' without ever gaining the knowledge that is supposed to go along with it. Watching this evolve, we were much less eager to introduce the next two kids to computers. Now that they are in their teens, they like computers, at times more than most other activities, but neither one has the addictive focus of child #1. I recommend holding off on computer games or educational programs until at least 4 and I don't see any harm in waiting much longer. It's true that my kids only became skilled at keyboarding after they began playing games seriously (middle school age), but preschoolers and even early elementary school children don't need those skills. From spending little time on the computer in their younger years, I think my younger two children learned to develop and research their own interests (drama, writing, fishing,iceskating). In contrast, their older brother has neither the ''time'' nor energy for much other than the computer screen. anonymous Our daughter loves the Living Books put out by Broderbund (sp?). We have The Cat in the Hat, Grandma and Me, Green Eggs and Ham, and Dr Seuss' ABC's. As the series title suggests, these are basically animated versions of the print books. At each page, the text is read by one of the characters in the book, and the scene plays out. If you are in the ''Play'' mode, you can then click on objects within the scene, and fun things happen. The Green Eggs and Ham CD-ROM also has a couple of embedded games, one about color matching, and another about putting together small words to make sentences. Our daughter is two now, and has been doing the living books (with our help) for almost a year now. She requests specific ones, and loves doing them with us. At some point, she will have the motor control to do our track ball (I think she might handle a mouse better), and will be able to do the clicking on her own (but she likes the social aspect of doing things with mommy and daddy, too).
And for the record, we also own all of these books, and she enjoys ''regular'' reading of them, too. In fact, she became more interested in reading Green Eggs and Ham after doing the CD-ROM. There are other Living Books titles out there, but I'm not sure which ones are also good. Much would depend on the books on which they are based, I suppose. My parents bought the CD-ROMs for my daughter on Amazon.com.
Good Luck! Donna
Try using a web-site instead. PBSKIDS.ORG is a good one. There are lots of games to play and they are age appropriate. I have heard that Golden Books also has games on their web site, although I have not used it. Mary My kids have both enjoyed the Reader Rabbit series by The Learning Company. I originally bought Reader Rabbit Toddler for my now 3.5 year old when she was almost 2. She really enjoyed it, but has since moved on to LEGO Preschool and (CTW) Elmo's Art Workshop. Now my 21 month old loves using the Reader Rabbit program and her older sister likes teaching her how to use it. I learned about these programs from Child magazine, which has a section each month about age appropriate computer stuff. You can check them out online at http://www.child.com if interested.. Kelly Most of what I have read on this subject would indicate that it's probably best to delay introducing a toddler to computers. Their hands aren't ready to learn either the keyboard or the mouse (they can pick up some really bad habits that will be hard to break later, in their efforts to cope), staring at the screen isn't really good for their eyes (or for ours either!), and they are better off having their hands on ''real'' stuff. They will pick up everything they need to about computers if introduced later (e.g. Kindergarten). Karen Our two-year-old really enjoys the computer. Although he does want it too much when he has a new program, in general it is something that he is happy to do for about 15 minutes before he's on to something else. We started with Berchet's Baby Keyboard. You strap the keyboad on top of the regular one and it gives the child a few simple big, colorful buttons to push. It comes with three CDs that have progressively more difficult games. It is a clever system and he has really enjoyed it, plus I feel sure he learned colors because of the color-coded keys that correspond to simple characters on the screen. This they do without any mouse. Later we got Reader Rabbit Toddler, which is excellent, but mostly mouse-based. Once we slowed our mouse way down, he got this skill in about a week. Kim