What To Load On a 4-Year-Old's Netbook? 742
nostrodecus writes "I have a nephew who is very young, but who has the techie gene — he found the Gruffalo on YouTube before anyone knew he could spell. Now he's almost 4, and I was thinking of giving him my netbook (Acer running XP), which I hardly use any more. So, of course, I will be deleting all the porn, but what should I load up on it? Are there tools/apps that I can load up on it to protect it and him from things he shouldn't see until college? Also, what apps or games could I load on it that a 4-year-old will get some use out of?"
World of Warcraft (Score:3, Interesting)
Load up what he sees you play with, whether word processors, or games, or the Internet. Give him some shortcuts to get to the things you think will interest him. And let him go. He'll tell you when he wants something different and if he's having trouble with something. Oh, and for age appropriate things, he also likes Fisher-Price's Cool School.
Personally (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Interesting)
In response to the OP, and at the risk of starting a flame war, the first thing that I would do is wipe the thing and put some flavor of Linux on it. Expose them at a very young age to the fact that there is more to the world of technology than Microsoft and Apple. My kids are 8 and 10 and share a laptop with Kubuntu on it, and they love it. I like showing them all of the stuff that they can do it on and the fact that I can load it with software that does everything that they want to do without having to pay for any of it or violate (admittedly dumb) copyright laws.
Re:Hmm (Score:2, Interesting)
He might be, but I'm not. Yea. We've had an incident or two where other parents, teachers, and consolers have been upset with me. These things should not be hidden until an "appropriate age". It isn't my fault that everybody else's parents shield there kids from the world. I won't shield mine. And there isn't a law that says I have to. If they don't want to have them around my kid. Fine. There is nothing wrong with my kid. He is well adjusted and generally understands what is and is not appropriate in different contexts. Now. Other peoples kids are in my opinion completely and utterly ignorant about the world. OK that isn't entirely true either. Most kids are more aware of the world than people think. Parents just won't admit it. Reality is you can't shield your kid from anything today. I'm not bringing up the "facts of life" nor hiding them. It is what it is. And parents should let kids learn and discover the world as it comes, ask questions, and not feel ashamed of it. Watch the movies you want, give your kid access to the internet, and let them live. It doesn't bite. The streets are more dangerous than information. I guess the way we live today though most parents won't even let kids do that though either (play outside).
Re:LOLWHAT?!?! You posted your add. and #?!? (Score:1, Interesting)
Did you really just post your address and phone number information??
He did if he lives at the United States Naval Observatory.
Re:Regardless (Score:2, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Huh? (Score:1, Interesting)
I gave my 4-year-old a printing calculator. He also "played" on a computer with Reader Rabbit and virtual jigsaw puzzles. Later in life he won awards and earned degrees in Math, Physics, and Computer Science, and now works as a Software Engineer II. I believe these "playthings" were very beneficial in preparing him for for the technical world we live in today.
My experience with kids and comps/games (Score:4, Interesting)
Disclosure: I have 3 kids: a 7, 4 and 1-year-old. The first is a confirmed geek, second one is pending. The 1yo will, 10 times out of 10, find an IT device in a pile of non-devices and chew it.
Boobs don't mean squat to a 4YO (other than vague memories of food). More serious stuff does. Top things I am incredibly concerned with re early age kids and computer:
1. Teaching them to control and ward off gaming addiction. Yes, there is such a thing as gaming addiction, and it is completely not trivial to (teach them to) keep it at bay while having a life.
This is not a no-brainer when you're a gamer dad - they see me dump 300 game hours into a large-scale RPG, despite it being after their bedtime etc.
I need to minimize their exposure to ultra-violent games (Fallout, Borderlands), while focusing on games that have SOME developmental value. Spore and Civ are awesome from the moment they can read (they figure it out way faster than you'd think). Before that... I'll let other people answer.
I'm not against "non-realistic" 3D shooters and getting their competitive shooter skills up to scratch, even from 4yo, despite what my wife says, so long as it doesn't emphasize the violence too much (Unreal Tournament is marginally ok in my books, as is "Prince of Persia") (sidenote: they both do Karate and Parkour classes, so anything Parkour-related is generally liked).
The real problem comes in the form of MMOs, which, in year/grade 2 in school, everyone plays. It's lame dumb-ass web-based MMOs (Penguins and Mushy Monsters) with a multitude of flash games, but all their friends hang there, and the BIG problem is that the games are built around them NEEDING to be there to maintain their avatars more often than not, which undermines (read: DESTROYS) my ability to teach them to have a life alongside a game. So I passionately despise them and do my best to entice the kids with real games or non-gaming activities.
2. YOUTUBE. When they find the badger song, you're DONE. You can seek a good asylum at that point, and plan to come back when they're 35.
(ask me how I know).
3. Internet - I'm a believer in monitoring their usage rather than filtering it. Yes, there's a lot of nasty shit out there, and they're growing into a world where it's part of the backdrop they need to be able to contend with. From 4yo? You make that call with your own kids. I say might as well. If not at your place, they'll do it at their best mate's on a sleepover. It's not hard to find an unrestricted device nowadays. Any stuff I forbid will pull attention to itself, entice and pull them. If I don't, it'll just be "Yes, it's there, not a big deal, now where's the interesting stuff". .
Another thing that I found incredibly helpful (this was for the 7yo tho) - he got his computer in parts. He also got a paper with an OS matrix (with WinXP, Win7 and Linux), against their RAM requirements and gaming capabilities. And the CD/DVD for each. And I let them choose. Next project is to cut his wifi access on his PC, give him and old box and, if he wants networking, build his own linux wifi router.
As I share time on the first two kids with my ex-wife, they only live with me some of the time. I routinely pull bits (and break stuff) on my older son's computer, to train up his troubleshooting skills.
My 2 cents.
Re:For God's sake, don't give a kid a computer (Score:2, Interesting)
(as a teenager form today and seeing how much worst even my little brother has it) the outside world for my age 40% drugs, sex, ect and 50% a cleaned up version of 4chan and 10% outcasts with all sorts of different issues and i sure it will get even worst. teaching a child about an outside world were some people dont suck, you can have a different opinion other then the 2 extremes on either end as soon as possible
DoudouLinux (Score:2, Interesting)
Try this: http://www.doudoulinux.org/web/english/ [doudoulinux.org]
Should be OK for a 4-years-old. Two things:
Yes, that's actual real-life experience ;-)
Ah, the wonders of rich societies. (Score:4, Interesting)
I was left uncountable times alone with my siblings (me being the oldest) from the age of 10.
Who were my evil parents?
A couple that had to break their backs working in order to see us through school and provide for us by means of their lowly paid jobs, one of them made a Masters degree on evening and weekend school, with the only purpose of getting a better paid job because it happened we were studying music, we were applying ourselves to it, and it was a bit expensive (my sister is now a professional musician, music kept my brother out of trouble, I can play one or two tunes and know more about Opera, the music genre, not the browser, that most of you will ever care to know).
We certainly had often an uncle caring for us, but it wasn't always possible, and neighbours around us had enough problems of their own so it was unlikely that they would agree to take care of us, as for paid childcare, go on , tell me that poor people can afford it so I can laugh in your face.
And why would they risk it? Simple: they knew us well and made a careful assessment of the risks and rewards.
Did anything happen to us? Yeah, one day we were watching a Japanese TV program, and it scared the shit out of us (Ultraman, old version, for some reason one of the monsters really sacred the heck out of us :-) ).
It is a real shame that nowadays people in rich countries consider evil to allow parents to decide how they raise their children, and how people jump in the the "child abuse" bandwagon with such abandon, like in the case that generated this thread, in which there is not the slightest bit of evidence that the original poster is leaving children alone, bar for the panicky reading of one of the many "do gooders" that limit their dogooding to enraged typing after a biased interpretation of a post.
Re:Hmm (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Hmm (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Hmm (Score:3, Interesting)
People will flat out accuse you of abusing your child if your child is too smart, and you don't try to stifle them. Just look at many of the comments in this thread.
Re:Hmm (Score:2, Interesting)
Not if you live in Nebraska. [usatoday.com]
Re:Hmm (Score:3, Interesting)
I was better off for it. Locking our children up and wrapping them in cotton wool is exactly whats causing them harm, they are actually missing out on life lessons. No wonder so many kids are immature brats these days.