We will never be able to afford the ink!
July 24, 2006
Over the past month Nicola and I have been teaching Bella some basic computer skills through the use of some semi-educational computer games. The B has really taken to it with gusto and she now uses both a mouse and a trackball as if it was an extension of her arm (its amazing to watch actually). She is also picking up on her keyboard skills but her alphabet (which she can recite) skills are really the limiting factor there.
Anyway – this week Nicola installed a Sesame Street program onto her computer which allows Bella to draw pictures using different brushes and stamps. However, on consequence of teaching a child how to use a computer is that they actually learn how to use a computer, and in this case, Bella taught herself how to navigate a few of the menus to find the printing feature.
We will never be able to afford the ink!
July 25, 2006 at 12:58 am
I remember the first drawing program dad introduced, and ofcourse, the starwriter dotmatrix colour printer. The starwriter had that neat 3 colour typewriter ribbon in it…ahh those were the days.
July 25, 2006 at 1:46 am
Have a look at http://starfall.com. My son, Jack, enjoys the site extensively (he’s actually using as I write this), and it has a lot of animations, sounds and things to interact with.
July 25, 2006 at 11:58 am
wow! how old is Bella? Kai is 3.5 yrs, and he’s used stylus and drawing package on the tablet to draw things, and typing things on word, but we’ve not looked into an educational kiddie software yet… is he sstill too young for it? we;re kinda sticking to books mostly at this stage. when did Bella start on the computer?
July 25, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Hi David,
Thanks for the link. I gave it to Nicola and had a look myself – looks pretty good!
July 25, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Hi Anna,
Bella is just about to turn 4 yrs. She has been using the computer for a while but in the past month we have seen a massive improvement in her ability to control it. Kids software is really important because it reduces the interface to the things that you are interested in helping them learn.
July 26, 2006 at 11:48 am
Next time you r at the shops check out the LeapPads. Only just recently got one for my 6 year old and wish I had done it years ago. The kids have always had computers but as soon as they non learning games were more fun all they wanted was a better graphics card
July 26, 2006 at 11:48 am
Next time you r at the shops check out the LeapPads. Only just recently got one for my 6 year old and wish I had done it years ago. The kids have always had computers but as soon as they discover non learning games are more fun all they want is a better graphics card