Sharing my Laptop with a Toddler – Part 2

UPDATE: I no longer recommend Kido'z. Evidently the "free" version was only for a limited time. I recently discovered that while they offer an updated version of the pay version, they did not update the free version. Furthermore, they no longer offer any support for the free version. I was matter-of-factly informed by the support team that many new additions to the menus (websites, games, videos, etc.) will not work as time goes on unless I install and subscribe to the premium service. Obviously, this made me angry. I quickly found a replacement: Kidzui. It isn't as simple as Kido'z, but is better in many ways. It is not walled in, so it is much easier to add favorite websites, games, etc. As my son grows, he will be able to add websites on his own, and the filters are excellent. It can be operated through a stand-alone browser or as a Firefox add-on. Honestly, Kido'z had some technical problems, and would occasionally glitch and freeze. Plus, it was so drastically different from normal browsers in design, that I think a transition to Firefox, etc. would prove difficult. Kidzui is much similar to your average browser, and doesn't have the social and email features we weren't using anyway. And, best of all, Kidzui is really free. There is a premium service offered, but it's for access to more security/parental settings and not a different browser. So forget about Kido'z, they're greedy bastards who don't care about internet safety nearly as much as fleecing worried parents.
END OF UPDATE

My husband telecommutes from home. My son is often told to be quiet because “Daddy’s working.” Mo looks over and watches my husband type away and click the mouse. Later on, he’ll climb up on my husband’s chair and announce “Mo working!” as he randomly types on my husband’s keyboard and pushes the mouse all over the desk.

In the last post I mentioned that I was setting up my laptop so that Mo could use it for his own “work.” I secured the laptop as much as XP would allow me, and added a toddler-friendly browser called Kido’z. The next step in this project was to pre-select some websites to add to the favorites category. The browser gives pre-screened suggestions for the age of the child, and I did add a few of those to Mo’s favorites.

I started poking around and looking for websites that Mo would find entertaining. I also tried to find some that had at least some educational value, and some that would give the little guy some practice operating the computer (i.e. using the mouse and keyboard). Turns out there are a lot of blogs on the subject. Such as . . .

Online Toddler Games (2008)

Mostly Mommies

Educational Freeware – Toddlers

Little Kids’ Games Online

. . . just to name a few.

Obviously the toddler games with recognizable characters have the most appeal, particularly the characters from the toddler’s favorite shows and movies. For my guy, that really does not limit the choices, as he watches Nick, Jr., Disney and PBS.

Nick, Jr.

Disney Playhouse

PBS Kids

The cool thing about these websites is that they are connected to children television networks that claim to be educational for toddlers. One of the tag lines for Nick, Jr. is that their programming is “like preschool on TV.” I don’t know how accurate a description that is, but the website does have a lot of material that can be used to supplement your child’s education. In addition to games, there are also activities, crafts and as well as printable activity sheets, coloring sheets, and workbooks. The content is updated on a regular basis and includes seasonal themes. The content on PBS Kids is not quite as impressive, but there is an incredible catalog of games that are educational. Each show has multiple games and activities. Disney Playhouse is perhaps the least educational of the three, but it has a lot of games, requiring varying degrees of computer skills. Some of the games can be played by simply pushing random keys on the keyboard. The games on Disney Playhouse are animated well enough to compete with the televised shows they are based on.

Being an inherent non-conformist, I want Mo to also have some non-licensed fun. The Disney websites especially have many links to merchandise and products. I feel that the games on both Disney and Nick, Jr. are, at least in a way, advertisements for all the related merchandise and products for sale at all major retailers. Here are a few non-licensed game sites that I came across.

Kneebouncers is really more for infants. Mo is actually too old for it now. All the child has to do to play is push random buttons on the keyboard to make the characters move, etc.

Peekuboo has fun games with some educational values and interactive stories with simple yet fun graphics. Many of the stories and games also impart lessons of social awareness. To move through a story, all one has to do is press the spacebar.

Fisher Price (I admit this one barely qualifies) has fun games that are not necessarily related to the products they sell, as well as games based on such product lines as “Snap ‘n Style”, “Power Wheels” and “Little People.” They are fun and also include games to teach numbers and letters. There are infant and preschool games as well as those for toddlers.

Minimops is beautifully simplistic and light-hearted. It features five games. In one game you connect the dots using your mouse. Another you piece together jigsaw puzzles to form dinosaurs. In a third game named “Flower,” you grow flowers by using your mouse to plant, water and clear the sky in the right order. In “Music Show,” the child can click on different characters to turn off and on their instruments as they play a song. The last game is called “Rainbow” and is a colorful way to make music with your mouse. I spent a great deal of time playing that last game myself. Mo, on the other hand, was not nearly as mesmerized as I had hoped.

I do not recommend Pocoyo World. It seems to be a social game much like Second Life, but with little games. I easily made an account and walked around. I could have chosen to pretend to be a child and interact with the other children with no problem. This made me uncomfortable. I would not feel safe letting Mo play such a game unsupervised. Also, there seems to be no way to cancel your account. I had to send an email to request that my account be canceled.

As you can see, there are many games available to entertain a toddler. The only thing I had to really search for were ways to teach Mo how to actually use the computer. Some of the games on these sites gave him practice, but I wanted to find games that could help me teach him to make the connection between mouse and cursor as well as the fine art of click and drag. These were a little harder to find.

The first site I came across was found on Mostly Mommies. This overly simplistic game is designed to teach your child the concept of moving the mouse and clicking. While this might be a good place to start, I doubt it will hold your child’s interest for long, as a small, purple ball on a slightly lighter shade of purple background is not really all that interesting. However, some of their other suggested games are much better.

For instance, there’s Aven’s Corner. This has various games organized into three categories of different skill level, the first of which teaches basic computer skills. The other two levels are educational games the toddler can play once they know how to use the mouse. Some of these games require Microsoft Silverlight, which is not supported by the Kido’z browser.

Another good site to teach computer skills is EL BUHO BOO. The games are divided between three categories: pressing keys, moving the mouse, and clicking and dragging. The graphics are just plain cute! So far, Mo likes the first category of games, a few of which are basically animals making sounds or popping out of places. Just the other night, he was playing one called “Shells,” which involves parts of an animal appearing from inside a shell with each key stroke. First comes a turtle, then a snail, followed by a hermit crab. The turtle’s head had already appeared and Mo was clicking to make the rest of him come out of the shell. My husband asked, “Mo, what is that?” I think he expected Mo to say “turtle.” Instead Mo replied matter-of-factly “legs.”

As I mentioned earlier, there were many activities on the Nick, Jr. website of educational value in addition to games.  These activities could prove useful when I want to get Mo off the computer and give him a little practice for preschool. I came across a few other treasure troves of such worthwhile “home schooling” material.

I already mentioned all the stuff on Nick, Jr., but here is a direct link to their catalog of printables.

PBS Teachers – makes up for the lack of material on PBS Kids.

The Education tab on PBS Parents is also full of helpful info for parents.

StoryPlace has various “libraries” divided by educational level which feature a variety of themes. Each theme includes a story, online activity, take home activity, and reading list.

Learn to read with phonics is a free online resource to help with reading skills. The child starts with the ABCs and progresses to more difficult exercises. I have only looked at the ABCs section, which seems sort of like animated flashcards.

Pre-K Smarties has a list of even more online learning tools for preschoolers. A number of these look promising, but I haven’t had a chance to check them out yet. The list appears to include printables and resources as well as games and online activities.

The last thing I want to mention is a new website PBS has launched called PBS Kids Island. After creating an account for your child, he can play various educational games featuring the various PBS characters. The games get progressively harder as your child progresses and earns rewards. There is also a feature to track your child’s progress. I do not think Mo is quite ready for this yet, as he would have to be able to play on his own for the progress report to be accurate. However, since it is free, I see this as a viable option in the near future.

I have shared a lot of links with you, but I feel as if I’ve barely scratched the surface. There are a lot of different ideas on how to best teach young children the basic learning blocks, which now includes computer skills. Just as there are a lot of self-proclaimed “experts,” there are many of us parents afraid of not doing enough to give our kids a head start in their education. I want Mo to be a happy, well-adjusted child. For me, this means letting him be a silly kid and have lots of play time. At 2 ½ years, I do not want to stifle him by sitting down for “school time” at the dining room table with workbooks and flash cards. However, I see nothing wrong with sneaking some learning into play time. That being said, I’d like to leave you with a fun and timely online activity with little educational value. Enjoy!

Crayola Fireworks!