Guide for Getting Kids On-Line
When helping kids learn to use online education tools, it is important to offer content that is fun for the user, at their current level of ability. It is also important to plan ahead – I would check out sites ahead of time and open a couple in different tabs, so when she got bored of one site, we could just sort of turn the page to get to the next site, rather than have baby lose interest while I searched and set up.
I really recommend you check these sites out ahead of time yourself and that you try some of the games yourself first, too, so that you can “choreograph” your child’s computer adventure. It is frustrating for mom and baby when nobody knows what to do – and once the child is in your lap, they want to DO and don’t want to wait for you to figure it out.
I would also personally recommend using the 1/2 hour before lunch to do this kind of thing and end with something to drink or suggest food or something to avoid the “I don’t want to go” tears. While your child might be different than mine, I found it was easy to distract a hungry baby away from this great big new toy with food.
Remember, that baby is watching you and will emulate what you do. If you space bar through the instructions without reading them, you will have a hard time convincing your child to wait while you try to read some instructions in the future (we learned that the hard way…lol). Demonstrate using the x in the upper right hand corner to close pop up windows, too, instead of clicking a button, to avoid virus downloads in the future.
I have these steps listed by age group and by ability. If your child is older, but only just starting to use the computer I would start with keyboard users and progress through to full user. They will likely go through the early games quickly, but the cause and effect knowledge gained from the early games is very helpful later on.
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**WARNING** Remember, the web is a wide and wonderful world. For your child’s (and your computer’s) protection you will want to set your security settings so that your child gets only the kid friendly content that you intend and doesn’t install adware from a pop up. If you think you have downloaded a virus, first unplug the computer to close without saving it – sometimes this is all you need. You might want to get comfortable with System Restore as it is the best way to fix a virus infected PC. |
If you prefer computer games that do not require an internet connection, see some of my children’s favorite software recommendations. I should also mention that these work well on our PC – we do not have Apple computers and can’t vouch for how these games will work on that platform.
Revised May 2023